An Offer You Can't Refuse by Sal Bianchi (best beach reads .txt) 📕

“I’m the queen of paintball!” She cackled as she finally ceased her onslaught.

“You’re a bully,” I grumbled as I pulled my helmet off. My hair was covered in dried paint, and it pulled and cracked as I slipped the helmet off.

“Oh, don’t be a baby,” she laughed as she sat down beside me and pulled her own helmet off. “That was really fun. I’m glad we came.”

“It’s more fun with more people,” I remarked. “With just the two of us, it’s basically just tag with paint.”

“It was still fun.” She grinned. “And it was nice to be able to blow off some steam after that fiasco with Ryan.”

“Yeah.” I frowned as I remembered the entire reason I’d escaped to the shooting range in the first place. “I don’t know what we’re going to do now. He was our best lead. Now he’s dead, which just adds more questions.”

“It’s strange how human nature can be,” Chloe remarked wistfully. “Our most base instinct is survival, and the propagation of our offspring, but we’re also one of the only living creatures on earth that kill its fellow species for reasons other than survival. It’s such a bizarre, yet fascinating dichotomy in that--”

“Wait,” I suddenly exclaimed. “Offspring. The kid!”

“Huh?” Chloe asked blankly.

“Sorry,” I muttered. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you. What you said about humans taking care of their offspring, though, reminded me of something Ryan said at the restaurant. It totally slipped my mind because we had to rush in right after, and then there was that whole panic, but Ryan said something about his son witnessing the murder.”

“The police said the son hadn’t said a word,” Chloe replied. “He wouldn’t have known that he’d witnessed the murder unless he was there, or the murderer told him.”

“We need to speak to the kid,” I declared as I ripped off my gloves and dug through my pocket for my phone. I was just about to call Flint when it went off.

“It’s Stein,” I noted out loud as I answered the call. “Hello?”

“Agent Park,” he answered. “This is Stein. Is Nick there with you?”

“No,” I replied before putting the phone on speaker. “Chloe is though, why?

“Oh, hi Agent Summers,” Stein replied. “Anyway, I guess we can just fill in Nick later. I’ve got some new information on the case. I was looking through Ryan Rothschild’s records, and it looks like he took out a life insurance policy on his wife a few months ago. A pretty hefty one, too. Apparently, he purchased it just a few weeks before news of their impending divorce went public.”

“He must have seen the writing on the wall,” I frowned. “He knew she was about to leave him and took out the life insurance policy while they were still together.”

“He’d been planning to kill her since then?” Chloe exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock. “Just because she was going to leave him?”

“Too bad he won’t be able to collect,” I scoffed, pleased that his plot to take her life just for money had ended in his own death.

“Actually,” Stein corrected me, “Ryan wasn’t the beneficiary. The two kids were. So they might get the payout.”

“The insurance company’s going to pay out on what was clearly a hit?” I asked skeptically.

“Well, it was a no-wait policy,” Stein replied. “I’m sure they’ll fight it, but unless they can prove in the near future that Ryan deliberately took out the life insurance policy intending to kill her, it might be too late.”

“I hope they get it then,” I muttered sadly. It couldn’t replace their parents, but it might at least help them to live now that they were on their own in the world.

“I do too,” Stein said with a sigh.

“Oh, that reminds me. I was actually just about to call the director about the kids. Ryan mentioned something earlier about how his son had apparently witnessed the murder. We wanted to know if we could talk to him about it.”

“I’ll talk to Markus and let you know what he says,” Stein replied.

“Thanks,” I said before ending the call.

“I hope he agrees,” Chloe remarked. “Although I can see why child services might be reluctant to let that happen. Depending on the age and psychological state of the kids, it might not be prudent.”

“It sucks when kids are involved in cases,” I muttered.

“Yeah.” Chloe nodded. “But hey, don’t get all down about it. We had a nice afternoon, right? I really appreciate you bringing me out here. Honestly, it really hurt my feelings when Bette made that comment.”

“Don’t mention it.” I smiled at her. “And you’re right, it was fun.”

We spent so much of our time dealing with such awful people that sometimes it could become overwhelming. It was important to take some time to chill and have fun, too, if only to keep from going crazy.

My phone went off, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“Hello?” I answered immediately, surprised by how fast Stein had called me back.

“The director said he’s working out the details now, but it will be okay by the time you get there,” Stein replied. “I’ll send you the address now. See if you can’t get in touch with Nick so you can both head over there before it gets too dark.”

“Got it,” I replied. “I’ll call him now.”

I said goodbye and ended the call.

“Awesome.” Chloe grinned. “We’re actually getting somewhere now.”

“You gave me the idea.” I smiled back at her as I called Nick.

“Oh, hey,” he answered right away. “I was just about to call you. I might have some new information about the case.”

“What a coincidence,” I replied. “So do I. Flint wants us to go talk to Ryan’s kids. Remember what he told the woman in the restaurant? The kid might have seen what happened.”

“That’s right,” Nick muttered. “All right, do you have the address already? I’ll meet you there.”

“I’ll send it to you now,” I replied before ending the call to send him the information.

I felt a renewed sense of vigor