Chapter 1
“Your family’s winning streak ends tonight.”
Patrick set his trophy on the terrace floor.
Very carefully.
Like it frightened him.
That caught my attention more than Warren bleeding beside the collapsed display table or Lenore sitting barefoot on the padded bench with one heel beside Simon’s broken mast.
I held the sailboat in both hands.
Simon and I had spent six Saturdays building it.
He sanded the hull badly.
I pretended not to notice.
He painted one side twice because he forgot where he started.
I kept it that way.
Now the mast hung by a thread of glue and the keel had split.
Simon stood behind my bodyguard staring at it.
Patrick stared at the trophy.
I looked at him.
“Patrick.”
Lenore immediately snapped:
“Don’t question my son.”
Interesting.
I crouched several feet from the boy.
“Did you know Simon’s boat was broken before the race?”
Patrick looked at his mother.
Wrong person.
Then at Warren.
Worse.
Finally, he nodded.
Simon made a small sound behind me.
Not anger.
Understanding.
Patrick whispered:
“Uncle Warren said I had to win.”
Lenore stood.
“Enough.”
I looked at her.
She sat again.
Patrick continued.
“He said everybody already picked me.”
“Picked you for what?”
His eyes dropped toward the trophy.
“I don’t know.”
The trophy base rattled when he nudged it with his shoe.
Warren’s face changed.
There.
I picked it up.
He moved.
My guard stopped him.
The wooden base had been poorly resealed.
I twisted it once.
The bottom panel came loose.
Inside was a brass yacht-club token wrapped around a folded card.
I opened it.
NORTH PIER — HAYES
PATRICK WINS
LANGLEY ACKNOWLEDGES TRANSFER
I read it twice.
Then looked at Lenore.
My fiancée.
The woman planning to marry me in six weeks.
May you like
She had not sabotaged a five-year-old’s toy because her son wanted a trophy.
She had sabotaged my son because someone had attached adult property and family authority to which child crossed a model pool first.
