Boystown 7: Bloodlines Read Online Free PDF Page A

he died she’d actually save money.” She thought about what she’d just said and added, “I mean, if he’d died in a normal way. Anyway, it was weird that he wanted it so bad.”
    “Why didn’t that come up at the trial?” I asked, putting a shrimp on Terry’s plate and earning myself a nasty look.
    “It did come up. The agent said that he’d talked to Wes mostly but when he tried to say it was Wes’s idea to buy the insurance there were all these objections. Wes was dead so who could say whether it was his idea or not, you know?” I was chewing on a delicious shrimp so I wasn’t too fast with the next question. “Is that it?” she asked. “I have other tables, you know.”
    With my mouth half full I asked, “Why is your last name Oddy?” It was just idle curiosity, but she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.
    “I was married long time ago. Before Maddy even. Guy was a jerk. Same kind of jerk as Wes.”
    “But you kept his name?”
    “I liked the way it sounded.”
    Before we left Crawdaddy’s I gave Melody a fifty percent tip and got her to look at the remaining names on my list. She filled in few holes for me. The remaining people testifying for Madeline were her hygienist and one of her patients. Refusing to testify were her dental partner, a Dr. Caspian; the office manager, Cynthia Furlong; and two odd names. One was a woman named Emily Fante, who Melody was unfamiliar with, and the other was one of Madeline’s high school teachers, Roland Bowen. Melody seemed unhappy that there were things about her sister she didn’t know and, despite the generous tip, we left her in a bad mood.
    When we got home, I insisted we watch TV instead of allowing Terry to play his game, while I slouched on the settee waiting for him to go to bed. Coal Miner’s Daughter was the Monday Night Movie, and I would have changed the channel but we were already past the part where a fourteen-year-old girl marries a grown man and nobody blinks an eye. I had the feeling that wasn’t the kind of thing I should be showing Terry and was glad I didn’t have to.
    Toward the end of the movie, I fell asleep and woke up when Brian came through the door. He seemed surprised to see us in his living room, though it wasn’t quite ten o’clock. Behind him was a young man of about twenty-five with strong facial features he hadn’t yet grown into. He was nearly as tall as I was, and so thin I wondered if he’d fall over in the wind.
    “This is Franklin,” Brian said. “Franklin Eggers.”
    There wasn’t a reason in the world Terry and I needed to know this guy’s last name if he was just a trick, so he wasn’t. He was more than that. Franklin smiled in an insincere way and Brian made an awkward stab at explaining who Terry and I were. “Terry’s parents threw him out and Nick’s staying here for a while.”
    I decided it might be a good idea to start looking for an apartment in the morning.  

Chapter Three

    That next day, I was up and out before anyone else woke up. On the corner of Brian’s block there’s a fancy coffee place where I would have loved to pick up a cup, but they didn’t open until seven so I swung down to the White Hen on Belmont. It was a long walk, so I had plenty of time to think. I decided to split the day in half. I’d spend the morning on Madeline’s case and the afternoon on Jimmy’s. I went over my conversation with Melody. I wasn’t sure I learned anything of value other than that she believed there was a mistress. She had no idea who that mistress might be. Would anyone else know?
    When I got to my office, the coffee was cold and the bear claw stale, though in its defense the pastry was stale when I bought it. While I chewed, I pulled out the Chicago Greater Metropolitan Phonebook and looked up Emily Fante. There were about twelve Fante’s. None of them Emily. I called them all and asked those who’d answer the phone if they knew an Emily. None of them did. I was looking for a woman named Emily