Of Blood and Sorrow Read Online Free PDF

Treyman Barnes was no great shakes in the character department, but I’d bet the child would be better off with her father and grandmother than her crazy mama, especially since Lilah had tried to sell her, which told me how desperate she was for cash. A desperate Lilah Love was a dangerous Lilah Love. No baby deserved to suffer through that.
    Thelma Lee had the baby, and I had Thelma Lee. Had her address anyway. Baby sister was smart enough to know Lilah was
not
mothering material. All I had to do was go to said sister, tell her what was going on, report my findings back to Treyman Barnes, and broker the exchange between them—probably with cash—or ask his lawyer to do it. They’d end up fighting it out in court anyway.
    “Your fee for this service?” He brought me back to the moment.
    “Depends on the difficulty,” I said, looking him in the eye.
    He scribbled out a check and pushed it across the desk. “This should cover your immediate expenses and any lingering doubts you have about the…delicacy of this situation,” he added with a smirk that told me he
thought
he knew me better than I wanted him to. I glanced down at the one followed by three neat zeros and had to admit he did.
    “Thank you.” I quickly folded the check and stuffed it into my wallet.
Out of sight, out of mind until I put it in the bank.
“I’ll send you a receipt when I return to my office. It shouldn’t be hard to get some leads, sir, and I’ll begin my search right away.”
Starting with my wastebasket.
    “I’ll wait to hear from you, then.” Suddenly the gentleman, he stood this time and smiled so sweetly I wondered if I was wrong about him.
    “I’ll call you as soon as I have any information.”
    As I turned to leave, a large woman and youngish man stepped into the office, and Treyman Barnes’s smile faded. The man picked up the square glass ashtray that sat on the desk and hurled it hard against the opposite wall. I jumped back as shards of shiny glass sprayed across the room.
    “I told you to leave me the fuck alone, you lying old bastard!” His voice shattered in the room as loudly as the glass.
    “Have you lost your fucking mind coming in here and throwing shit around? But that’s what happens these days, isn’t it, you crazy son of a bitch!” Treyman Barnes screamed back.
    The woman, who I assumed was mother and wife to these two, was a stout woman with a plain, pockmarked face and eyes with no sparkle. Her white linen suit was stylish and expensive, and I recognized her turquoise silk blouse as one I’d seen recently in a Nordstrom catalog. From head to toe, she looked the part of the rich suburban matron—diamond studs sparkling tastefully beneath short, graying hair, feet casually clad in chic tan sandals. But that secure suburban matron disappeared when she fanned a plump bejeweled hand across her mouth and stifled a cry.
Time for me to go!
I nodded at Barnes and made my way to the door.
    “Ms. Hayle, I’d like you to meet my son, Troy, and Nellie, my wife,” said Treyman Barnes, blocking my exit.
    Troy Barnes was built like his mother but had a long, homely face that didn’t fit the rest of him and that I couldn’t imagine smiling. He was a sloppy dresser, and his ill-fitting suit made him look like he didn’t give a damn or had gained fifty pounds quicker than he should have. I was struck by his eyes, though. They were filled with more sadness than I’d seen in a while. I wondered if Lilah Love had put it there, then realized that Lilah was incapable of inflicting soul-wrecking pain on anybody. A man might miss her in bed for a week or two, then realize he was better off without her. His sorrow was haunting; it hurt me just to look at him.
    “You okay?” he asked his mother, his voice strikingly tender. She nodded, then glanced at me, embarrassed.
    “You’ll have to excuse my son,” said Treyman Barnes, but his eyes and voice indicated I shouldn’t.
    “No problem.” I managed a half-assed grin,