The Stranger by Mark Ayre (ebook reader wifi .txt) 📕

If he knew the code, someone had given it him. There was no chance that someone had been Francis. Who else would have known the code?

Francis' wife, perhaps?

The same woman whose bag Travis had stolen on Francis' orders. Why? Because Francis was looking for clues to confirm his suspicions about his missing hundred grand, perhaps?

Abbie filed all this away for consideration. Said to Jess, "So he stole the money. When was this?"

"Couple of weeks ago."

"And Eddie found out?"

"That's right. A week ago, Eddie visited Danny and saw the money. He flipped out. Demanded Danny return it at once. Eddie's always been protective of his idiotic little brother."

Realising this wording might be seen as rather harsh when directed at one so recently deceased, Jess' eyes flashed to Eddie. He seemed not to have noticed. Abbie pressed on.

"What did Danny say?"

"He said, okay. The liar," said Eddie. A rare foray into the conversation. His voice was low and hard. Abbie realised he was not only grieving for his brother. He was also furious at Danny.

"But he didn't?" said Abbie.

"He planned to do it that night but chickened out," said Jess. "To gain confidence, he went drinking and ended up passing out at the bar. When he woke, head no doubt pounding, he returned home. When he arrived, the money was gone."

"Stupid little—"

Jess laid a hand on Eddie's arm, stilling his furious tongue.

"Soon as he finds out, he comes running over here in a state, horrified. I wish I could say we were surprised." Jess sighed. "Danny's always liked a drink, and when he drinks, he brags. To a drunk man, what can seem more worthy of a gloat than having ripped off the most powerful crook in town? The question isn't who he told, but who he didn't."

Jess was trying not to let her disgust show. She wanted to respect the dead. Talk of the events that had led to Danny's demise seemed to have warped Eddie's grief for his brother into something ugly, hateful. Abbie wished they could move off the topic, but not yet.

"He wanted your help?" she asked the couple.

"Yep," said Jess. "Only reason I knew about it. Eddie was trying to protect me but in Danny rolled, ranting and raving. He wanted us to help find the money, but how could we do that when he had no idea who he'd told? And he'd lost his house keys. Or so he thought. More likely, someone stole them while he was passed out at the bar or, knowing Danny, he gave them away. Anyway, by that point, it didn't matter. The money was gone, and Francis was going to find out. We had no choice. Danny had to run."

Jess looked away, trying to hide her bitter resentment. Tears had gathered in Eddie's eyes again. While Jess's frustration grew, sorrow once more overtook Eddie's rage.

"This wouldn't have happened," he said, "if Danny could have just stayed away."

"But he came back yesterday?" said Abbie. "Why?"

"I'm all he's got," said Eddie, reminding Abbie of the comment Eddie had made to Danny about his lack of friends. That had stung. Now Danny was dead, and Eddie couldn't apologise. How often had he thought of those words in the last few hours?

"It's not only that," Jess was saying. "I think he was in love."

Eddie was about to respond, but Abbie got there first. "Yes. I heard him say that to you. Do you know who this lover was?"

"No," said Eddie. One could never be sure, but Abbie believed he was lying. It was the way his eyes darted away from her, the way his free hand clenched at his side.

How much had Eddie and Danny's argument covered when Eddie had discovered Danny with a hundred grand of a dangerous man's money? Surely Eddie would have demanded to know how Danny had got into Francis' safe? Probably, Danny had lied. Had Eddie pushed? Had he pushed and pushed until Danny was forced to admit he had fallen in love and that this lover had given him the code?

Because this lover was Francis' wife.

It was only a theory, but it filled in a pleasing number of blanks. For one, it explained how Danny had stolen such a large sum of money from Francis' home. Second, why Francis might want to steal his wife's phone. He could be looking for evidence of his wife's complicity in the robbery, or of her affair, or both. Third, Danny's murder. To Abbie, it had made no sense that Francis would have Danny killed with the money still in play. But if Francis had discovered Danny had bedded his wife, fury might have trumped reason at this most grievous and potentially heartbreaking insult. There was every chance he had thought, Damn the money, and had prioritised Danny's murder. There was even a chance Francis had himself plunged the knife into Danny's stomach and stabbed him to death. Repeated stabbing, the kind of which Danny had suffered, was more likely to indicate a crime of passion than it was the work of an assassin.

It certainly gave Abbie plenty to go on, but what should she do next?

She had to remember this was about how much danger Eddie was in. Everything had to flow from there.

To him and Jess, Abbie said, "Did Francis visit you himself? And what did he say?"

"Not Francis," said Jess. "Leona."

"She's one of his people?"

Eddie said, "She's his wife."

Okay. Interesting. Abbie tried not to give anything away via facial expressions. Was Eddie trying to do the same? How much did he know about Danny's love interest?

Former love interest.

"And what did she say?" Abbie asked, thinking a question she would not verbalise, Do you think Francis sent her or was she acting without her husband's knowledge?

"She said the Dean family owed her and her husband a hundred grand," said Jess. "She said she was sorry for our loss, but Danny's debt did not die with