My Brother's Keeper Read Online Free PDF

fathers. I knew them when they were in diapers. They were good cops, not perfect, but decent.”
    “What do you think happened?”
    “I don’t know. All I can say is they were good men until they started hanging around Lenny.”
    “Did you try and talk to them?”
    George huffed a laugh. “They’re grown men, Jon. You don’t tell grown men who they can and can’t associate with. And what they do on their time off is their business.”
    “Is that what they told you?”
    “Pretty much.” He put his hat back on.
    The white farmhouse, with its dark red shutters, stood silently behind them. It was Ellis’s sanctuary, and had become Jon’s in a very short time. Now Ellis was in there, scared. Not for himself, but for his brother and Jon. And no man should ever be afraid in his own home.
    “What are you thinking, son?”
    “Huh?”
    “That look on your face. You look like you just ran over someone’s dog.”
    Jon rubbed his chin. “Do you think any of this is my fault?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I stirred the hornet’s nest.”
    “Jon, this town is full of folks who would have loved to get their hands around Lenny’s neck. They were just too afraid of him.” He patted Jon on the shoulder. “If anything you probably saved Ellis’s life by taking Lenny’s focus off him and putting it on yourself. Lenny’s not used to people standing up to him. You kicked his feet out from under him and he got sloppy. Now he’s in jail and with any luck he’ll stay there.”
    “You say that like he might not be.”
    George dropped his gaze.
    “You don’t seriously think the judge will give him bail, do you?”
    “Like I said, Judge Hammond has never turned over a remand.”
    “Try a little harder to convince me you believe that.”
    The smile George gave Jon wasn’t a happy one. “He won’t let Lenny out.”
    “Should we worry about any of his family coming after Ellis for revenge?”
    “Nah, there was only the sons and the father when they moved here a few years back. Now it’s only Lenny and his old man.”
    “What happened to the brothers?”
    “One of them was killed in a car crash about three months after they got here. He must have fallen asleep at the wheel. He hit a tanker truck head on.”
    “What about the other one?”
    “He was arrested one night, in the next town over, when he got into a fight at a bar and beat one of the waitresses so bad, she had to have reconstructive surgery or eat through a straw the rest of her life.”
    “So he’s in jail.”
    “Never made it. Found him dead in his cell the next morning.”
    “Suicide?”
    George shrugged. “They said there was no sign.”
    “Did they do an autopsy?”
    “Waste of tax payers’ dollars.”
    “What if someone killed him?”
    “Then they did society a favor.”
    Jon crossed his arms.
    “Don’t look at me like that, son. I know damn well there have been times you wished you could just put a bullet between the eyes of some monster, because no amount of jail time would suffice.”
    “At least in jail they suffer a while.”
    “I can’t argue. But dead means they don’t ever hurt anyone again.”
    Jon wanted to argue. He wanted to say no such thing had ever crossed his mind. But it had. Far more often than he ever wanted to admit. “So it’s just Lenny and his dad now?”
    “Aside from the turn style of women he keeps on the side. Yeah.”
    “Well,” Jon exhaled a sigh. “I guess it could be worse.”
    “How so?”
    “He could have a twin.”
    Neither one of them laughed.
    “He doesn’t, does he?” Jon said.
    “No, thank God.”
    “So what do we do now?”
    “We wait. New bail hearing is next Thursday.”
    A week. They had a week to wait and find out if their world would be torn apart again. “And what happens if he does get out?” Jon held up a hand. “I know you said Judge Hammond hasn’t ever turned over a remand, but let’s say he does. Then what?”
    “Then Ellis needs to take Rudy and get out of town.