Thankless in Death

high-pitched yelp. “You think we’re buds?”
    He lashed again, hardening at Joe’s scream of pain. “Were we buds when you dared me to steal that candy from Schumaker’s? You made me do it, you fuck.”
    “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! We were kids!”
    “How about when you gave me the wrong answers on that history test so I flunked it? Or when you screwed April Gardner when you knew I was going to ask her out?”
    He kept lashing as he raged, kept lashing as Joe screamed. As he cried, blubbered out pleas and apologies.
    He stopped to catch his breath while Joe’s heaved and hitched, while tears ran down Joe’s face. He’d already wet his pants, and that was its own satisfaction.
    “Please, please, please.”
    “Fuck you. Fuck you, Joe. You made fun of me that whole summer I had to take Comp Science over, rubbed my face in it every day. Just like you rubbed my face in it in Vegas, and over Lori when she kicked me out.”
    “I didn’t mean it!” He sobbed it out, all but choking on his own tears. “I was just fooling around.”
    “Hey, me, too,” Reinhold claimed and slashed the hose against Joe’s crotch.
    The sound Joe made was like music.
    Reinhold tossed the hose aside, went to get a beer. And a sap.
    His face a pale, sickly green, his lip bleeding where he’d bitten it inpain, Joe wheeled glazed eyes toward the sap. His harsh breathing jerked his chest.
    “Don’t. Please, please. I’ve been sticking up for you, Jerry. The cops, the cops are all over you, and I’m the only one taking your side. Mal and Dave, they’re blabbing to that cop bitch, and hunkered down with their mothers. But I’ve been on your side. You can ask anybody. Please.”
    “Is that so?” Reinhold slapped the sap against his open palm.
    “I swear to God. Look, look, you can check my ’link. She’s been trying to tag me—that cop, that Dallas. I don’t even talk to her. Because I’m on your side.”
    As if interested, Reinhold took Joe’s ’link from the counter where he’d put it, scrolled through. “You’ve been busy. Talking to Mal, to Dave, getting tagged by the cops, and who’s this one—Marjorie Mansfield? A new whore?”
    “No, a reporter. She’s looking to do a story on you, on what’s … what’s been happening. She tracked me down.”
    “Is that right?” Reinhold smiled broadly. “What did you tell her?”
    “Nothing! I wouldn’t rat you, man. Never.” His chest trembled in pain and fear as he struggled to speak. “I told her you were innocent, you’d never have killed anybody. You were framed, that’s what I said. Somebody—”
    Reinhold swung the sap, and delight spilled through him at the snap and crunch of teeth and bone. “Wrong answer,” he said, and swung again.
    I n a direct about-face from her usual position on it, Eve blessed the time difference that had most of the Irish contingent heading off to bed at a reasonable, if not early, hour. Babies and kids were hauled offfirst, many of them limp in sleep as a parent tossed them over a shoulder or scooped them into arms.
    Others followed, bit by bit—though she suspected some of the older kids—age or attitude—were all but camped out in the game room.
    But the minute it seemed reasonable, she snuck off and up to her office.
    Not that she hadn’t enjoyed the long, noisy dinner, and the people. Roarke’s family was so damn likable, so funny, and so full of the bullshit they liked to call blarney it just wasn’t possible to resent the time.
    Very much.
    She went straight to her comp to check on any further incomings and reports. She found plenty of both, but not much in them to add any real weight or introduce new angles.
    Still, she studied Peabody’s refinement of the map, and found some good work there.
    She looked up from it when Roarke stepped in.
    “I owe you a very big solid for the evening,” he began.
    “No, you don’t. Not only because visiting relatives are in the Marriage Rules, but because I just like them. And maybe it gave me some rest-the-brain-cells time. We’ll see.”
    “I’ll thank you anyway.” He walked over to kiss the top of her head. “I’ll be putting some time in the lab yet tonight, see if something shakes loose.”
    “Even if it’s a crumb, tell me.”
    “I’ll do that very thing. And give it as much time as I can possibly spare tomorrow. Meanwhile”—as he turned to go, he stopped to study the map on screen—“you’ve made some changes.”

    “Peabody. I need to go