Page 27 of From Hell

For extra cash, sometimes I work for Cash—doing surveillance or research. Or even going undercover. Women have an easier time getting access to people and areas they shouldn’t according to my cousin. I’m not supposed to be working for him anymore. Not since I promised my mother I would take the job Pierre had.

Lots of promises I keep breaking lately.

“Briefly,” I remind him. I read over everything. Dread settles in my gut at the amount of information. If the police have even half of what I have in my hands…

Thankfully, there’s nothing about his dating app profile or Buck’s.

Or me.

“And the best part? All expenses paid,” Cash serving up a hot plate of food just as my appetite flakes on me. “So?”

I give him a veiled look. “So?”

“Want to team up on this one? Be like old times?”

“I’ll have to think about it,” I say slowly, placing the folder on the table closed so Henry’s face isn’t staring up at me. There’s not a lot to think about, I could do with the money. But there’s something unethical about being paid to solve a murder you committed.

“Then think about it.” He disappears and returns with something in his hand. He slams it down on the counter. “Here. Thought these might come in handy, so I got a few made.”

I stare at the police badge on the marble. “What the hell is that?”

“Access all fucking areas, that’s what.”

“It’s illegal,” I hiss at him.

Cash grins. “Never stopped a Summers before.”

I shouldn’t take Cash’s fake police badge, but I tell myself I have no choice. I need to see what’s on those cameras.

The man behind the counter at the grocery store is young, probably a college student trying to keep himself in beers throughout his degree. Cash was right. It’s easier to flip the badge at him and get him to show me the footage from the night than to go about it the hard way.

The video is grainy and although you can’t see Buck’s or the parking lot, you get a full view of the main road. I watch until my car pulls out, and then I see another car following mine a few seconds later. Black and sleek. A Maybach. Not a car that stops at Buck’s often. I note down the license plate, delete the footage, and leave before the kid realizes what I’ve done, and then drive home wondering what else I can use the badge for and just how much trouble I’ll get into if Dad catches me impersonating a police officer.

When I get in, I send Nola’s expert hacker contact, Quinn, the details of the car in the video. It doesn’t take long for her to return the Maybach as registered to Berners House.

My gaze falls on the invitation still stuffed in my jacket pocket.

You Are Warmly Invited To

The Annual Foundation Dinner

7pm on Saturday 31st July

Main Hall at Berners House

It looks like I’m going to the ball with Jaxon after all: two birds, one stone, and all that.

12

LAINE

Fiona is ecstatic when I tell her I’ll attend the Foundation Ball even at short notice.

“Will you and Simmons be there?” I throw into the conversation casually over the phone. My mother likes to keep her private life private, ironically.

She pauses. “Abe has been busy with his fundraising lately. I haven’t asked him, but I would assume so. Why?”

“No reason.” I’ll have to avoid him like I have been doing since they started dating. I hang up with promises to meet her there, and before she can dig further, pawing through the clothes I grabbed from my house for something to wear. Cash was surprised when I told him I was bunking over for the night but didn’t protest and didn’t ask why.