Page 111 of Feared

“So.” Mary sat down at the glistening dining-room table. “You really want to know why I asked you Stretch’s real name?”

“Yes.” Flavia folded her hands in front of her. “Stretch works for Nicky. If Stretch did something wrong, Nicky should know about it and I wanna know about it.”

Mary paused. “But what if Stretch did something wrong because Nicky told him to, like when Stretch beat up Joey?”

Flavia glowered. “Believe me, I’m gonna talk to Nicky about that.”

“But do you still wanna know?”

“Yes.” Flavia straightened in the chair, lifting her chin. “I wasn’t born yesterday, Mary. I’ve been through a lot, more than you know. So tell me straight.”

Mary decided to level with her. “I think that Stretch might’ve murdered John Foxman, a lawyer at my firm. And I think Nick might have told him to.”

“Murdered?” Flavia gasped, her lined hand flying to her lips. “That can’t be. Nicky wouldn’t do that.”

“I think he would. And I think he did.”

“No, no, no.” Flavia shook her head, jittery, placing bothhands on her papery cheeks. “He’s done a lot of things, but not that. A beating is one thing, but a murder, no. Notthat, notmurder.”

“I know, it’s awful. But I have good reason to think so and I’ll tell you why, quickly. Nicky owns companies that make a lot of money, and to protect them, he filed the lawsuit against me and my partners—”

“The one he talked about on TV?” Flavia frowned deeply, trying to recover her composure. “I told him he shouldn’t of said that about you on TV. I told him that wasn’t nice. I knew it wasn’t true. You could tell he was lying when he said it. He doesn’t even believe that. I could tell.”

Mary thought Flavia was right, but didn’t say so, since the big picture was so much worse. “More importantly, I think Nick had Stretch kill John, to get rid of the lawsuit against his companies.”

“I can’t believe it.” Flavia shook her curly little head.

“I can.”

“Did you go to the police?”

“Yes, but they don’t think Nicky is behind it. They think somebody else is.”

“Thank you, sweet Jesus.” Flavia looked heavenward, clasping her hands together in prayer.

“But I don’t agree with them and neither do my partners.”

“Why?” Flavia frowned.

“All of the facts point to Nick and Stretch.”

“We’ll see about that.” Flavia leaned over, slipped an iPhone, from her pocket, and began to make a call.

“Wait, what are you doing?”

“I’m calling my Nicky.”

“Wait, what?” Mary hadn’t seen this coming. “You can’t just call and ask him if he had somebody murdered.”

“I know that. Shh, I don’t want him to know you’re here.”Flavia set the phone down and put it on speaker, and when the call connected, the screen changed to readBABY BOY.“Honey, how you doing?”

“Good, Ma,” Nick answered, his tone more affectionate than Mary had ever heard. “How’s my Baby Girl?”

“I’m fine, honey. Can you come over?”

“Sure, I’m in the neighborhood. Be there in five minutes. You need anything?”

“No, just come home. And don’t talk on the phone when you drive.”