21. Jimmy
“You win. Name your price. Tell me what it is you’re after. I’ll come back. I’ll do whatever you want.”
He knew what Glenn wanted.
Revenge.
And here, right now, Jimmy was making a down-payment in humiliation.
The two stood in the entrance lobby to Thom Sullivan’s farmhouse.
Jimmy knew this place well. Remembered it from parties the two of them had attended when they were teenagers, wild gatherings held by Terry Slater’s daughter, who both Glenn and Jimmy had a thing for at one time. Briefly, she’d chosen Jimmy, even though he was the younger brother.
So it had always been.
Had Glenn chosen this place for the memories, some kind of symbol for the life he was avenging? Or was that coincidence, this simply being a convenient holding ground where he could keep the girls out of sight for a time?
Because if Glenn was here, Jimmy was sure Mel and Harriet could not be far away.
“Seriously?” said Glenn. “Now you want a part of it, after all this time?”
He seemed to have forgotten he’d virtually begged Jimmy to come back only the day before. For him, that had never been the prize, though – the prize was forcing his brother to make that mental shift, to give in.
“I can be useful,” Jimmy said, breaking away from Glenn’s searching eyes.
“And why would you do this now?”
“Let them go. Harriet. Mel. Me for them. There are things I know that could be valuable. Details of investigations. Information about your rivals. Information about the people you think are your friends. Harriet and Mel are nothing set against all that.”
“Why would I ever trust a word you said?”
“Because by then I’d have lost everything. Leave me in position and you’d be right not to trust me: I could feed you all kinds of bullshit, and that’s exactly what I’d do. But blacken my name and make me a fugitive, and all I’d have to bargain with would be the things in my head.”
“What if I can’t pay your price?” said Glenn. “What if I don’t have them? Would you come back to the family anyway? Share your secrets, be part of it all again. Come back because it’s the right thing to do, not because you think you can extract a price from me. There’s a place for you, Jimbo. Just say the word.”
He was playing mind games. Jimmy knew that.
Testing him.
Teasing him.
Pushing him to the edge.
“Where are they?”
“You’re too late, Jimbo. Late to the game, like you always were.”
“What do you mean?” He wouldn’t allow himself to react, or to speculate. He clamped down on everything, focusing on his brother’s face.
“You’re right, I’ll admit it. They were here. But not any longer. I sold them. Highest bidder. A job lot: two sisters, the sweet innocent one and the one with fight. You’re too late, kid. They’ll be on their way out of the country by now.”
Jimmy didn’t respond. He didn’t allow his expression to change.
Mind games.
He knew never to believe a thing his brother told him, and never to be drawn into a response.
“Who? Where?”
Glenn laughed. “They’re gone,” he said. “Leave it at that.”
“Why should I believe you?” It was like a dance, the two brothers circling each other. There was no trust. There never had been, never would be – and they both knew it.
Glenn spread his hands. “You want to look around? Be my guest.”
It was impossible to tell if it was bluff or not. Glenn was the best liar Jimmy had ever encountered, at least partly because at any one moment he seemed to believe just about any words that came out of his own mouth.
Jimmy turned away, his mind racing through odds, statistics, probabilities.
He walked to the door. Let Glenn think he had won. That didn’t matter now.
They had names. They knew who Glenn was dealing with. They were closing in.
They just had to get there before it was too late. Before Mel and Harriet had been smuggled out of the country to whatever fate awaited.