Mystery Bride Part 18

Zack's eyes widened a little. "Really?"

Will nodded. "I was nine, though, so I was older than you are. I remember trying really hard not to cry."

Zack didn't say anything, but he inched closer.

"I wanted to cry but I thought I had to be tough, you know."

The boy nodded and came to stand at the edge of the overstuffed chair. "My daddy had to go away," Zack said solemnly.

Will looked at the boy, afraid to move or breathe or speak for fear Zack might not say any more. "I'm sorry about that." It was all he could think to say.

Tears pooled in Zack's eyes. "He said I had to be strong and brave."

Will thought his heart would break. "You are definitely a strong, brave kid, I can tell you that."

The boy looked up at him for confirmation.

Will nodded.

He could see Zack's lower lip trembling, the tears spilling- He glanced up at Samantha, but she motioned for him to keep going. He pulled the boy up on his lap and surrounded him with his arms. The rigid little body began to soften, then to jerk with gut-wrenching sobs that Will suspected the boy had been holding back for a long time.

Will just held him in his arms and rubbed the trembling back with the flat of his hand.

After a while, Zack straightened and rubbed at his swollen red eyes. "Are you you ever scared?" he asked in a little-boy voice. ever scared?" he asked in a little-boy voice.

"Are you kidding? I've been so scared sometimes my knees knock."

Zack stared at him, disbelieving.

"Sometimes I think I'm going to throw up. Or cry."

The boy looked skeptical.

"Everyone cries when they're hurt or sad. Even me. And everyone is afraid sometimes. Even Sam."

Zack really wasn't buying that. that. "My daddy's not coming back ever?" "My daddy's not coming back ever?"

"No, Zack, he's not. But I do know that he'd come back if he could, and I think you know that, too, right?"

Zack nodded.

"Don't worry, okay? Sam will take care of everything. She's an amazing woman. What guy wouldn't want a woman like Sam looking out for him?" He realized what he'd said and looked toward the door and Sam.

Her gaze locked with his, her eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights.

Only a guy who didn't have a lick of sense, he thought. Or a guy looking for a wife, a certain type of wife, one who didn't carry a gun or steal kids or put herself into danger all the time.

"So," he said to Zack, "everything's going to be all right." He doubted that as he glanced toward the doorway again. Sam was gone.

SAMANTHA STOOD OUTSIDE the door for several moments. What would would happen to Zack? She couldn't bear to think. When she heard them coming, she hurriedly tried to pull herself together. The last thing she wanted Will to see was the hurt in her eyes. Of course he didn't want her. He didn't even want to date her now that he knew she wasn't who he'd thought she was. happen to Zack? She couldn't bear to think. When she heard them coming, she hurriedly tried to pull herself together. The last thing she wanted Will to see was the hurt in her eyes. Of course he didn't want her. He didn't even want to date her now that he knew she wasn't who he'd thought she was.

You're not falling for the guy, are you?

Good heavens, no. What do you think I am, stupid?

"Is Zack all right?" Charley asked, peering down the hallway at her.

She straightened and put on her best face. "Will's talking to him. They've become pretty close." Tears threatened. She willed them away. "I'm scared for him. Whoever's determined to get that game will feel they need Zack now if they hope to force me to find the pieces for them."

Charley nodded. "Have you talked to Lucas's next of kin?"

She stared at him. "You mean his grandmother Gladdie?"

"No, his brother."

"Lucas has a brother?" Had she known anything anything about Lucas? Or had it all been a lie? He'd told her he had no one but his grandmother. about Lucas? Or had it all been a lie? He'd told her he had no one but his grandmother.

"He has a half-brother who lives here," Charley said as the hallway door opened behind her. "We stumbled across him when we began investigating the break-in at Whiz Kidz."

She turned to see Zack and Will.

"Can I go play with the kids now?" Zack asked.

"Sure, you can," she said, patting his shoulder as he pa.s.sed.

Her gaze lifted to Will's. He looked as sheepish and as embarra.s.sed as she felt.

"Lucas's half-brother identified the items found on the body as Lucas's," Charley said, after the kids had all raced back into the family room and slammed the door behind them.

Will expressed surprise. "I thought Gladdie was his only living relative."

"So did I. It seems there's a lot about Lucas I didn't know," she said, hearing the bitterness in her voice. "What is this brother's name, and how do I find him?"

ERIC ROSS LIVED in the University District just off Auburn Street in a run-down apartment house that smelled of cooked cabbage.

The man who answered the door bore little resemblance to Lucas, except for the eyes. They were that same pale green. Nothing like Zack's dark brown eyes.

He held a can of beer in his fist and looked as if it wasn't his first.

"Eric Ross?" Samantha enquired.

"Yeah?" He regarded them warily as if they might be bill collectors.

"Who is it?" asked a rather shrill female voice from the other room.

"I don't know yet," he called back, sounding irritated.

"I'm Samantha Murphy, a private investigator. I'm investigating your brother's death."

Eric opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. He appeared shaken and a little disoriented. Then he hurriedly brushed his hands on his jeans and offered her a hand. "Come in, please, come in."

She took his hand and shook it quickly, before he offered it to Will. "This is Will Sheridan. My...colleague."

Eric ushered them into a cramped little room full of hard-used furniture. "Sit down, please, sit down." He seemed embarra.s.sed by the room and the blonde in it.

The young woman looked like a girl, thin and boney, small-breasted and big-eyed. She wore only a large, oversize T-shirt. A pair of scrawny legs stuck out the bottom, ending in bare feet. She looked at Sam and Will, and frowned.

"Bebe, do you mind?" Eric snapped.

Bebe. Where had Sam heard that name? Where had Sam heard that name?

Bebe gave them a curious look, then turned and casually left the room, leaving the bedroom door partially open. No doubt so she could hear the conversation while she dressed.

"It isn't what you think," Eric said.

Sam wasn't sure what she thought as she sat down on the edge of the blanket-covered sofa, and Will took a chair with a view of the doorway. She wondered if he'd done that on purpose. He looked uncomfortable, as if he had reason to be wary.

Eric sat on a straight-back chair across from the couch. He looked nervous and kept glancing toward the bedroom where Bebe had disappeared.

"Do you have any idea why someone would want to kill Lucas?" Sam asked.

Eric looked surprised by the question. "The game, of course." He looked again toward the bedroom. "What other reason could there be?"

She wished she knew. "Which game is that?" she asked, wondering how much Lucas had told his half-brother.

Eric looked confused. "The one the cops said he was working on."

"He didn't talk about the game with you?" she asked.

Eric shrugged. "He mentioned he was working on something big. But he always said that."

"He didn't mention that he thought someone might want to kill him?"

"Not to me."

"Did you ever see the game?" she asked.

He shook his head. "He didn't let anyone see his games until they were on the market. Paranoid, you know."

"So you don't even know if this game, that was supposedly really big, even exists?" she asked.

He frowned. "It must exist. Why else is Lucas dead?"

It still sounded unbelievable that Lucas could have been killed over a computer game.

"I thought you said it was more more than a game?" Bebe said from the bedroom doorway. than a game?" Bebe said from the bedroom doorway.

Isn't that what the hype on the game boxes all said? "In what way?" Sam asked.

"Don't listen to her," Eric interrupted. "She doesn't know what she's talking about."

"But you said what Lucas did was the ultimate ultimate game," Bebe pouted. She'd pulled on a pair of too-large, holey jeans. "Mailing out pieces of it the way he did." game," Bebe pouted. She'd pulled on a pair of too-large, holey jeans. "Mailing out pieces of it the way he did."

Eric made a face at her that any fool could see meant shut up.

"So you got a piece of the game?" Sam said, looking to Eric.

"No," he said shaking his head adamantly. "Why would he send me a piece and involve me in this mess?"

"Because you're his half-brother," Sam pointed out. "If you didn't get a piece of the game, then how did you know that Lucas had mailed them out?"

Eric frowned. He looked to Bebe as if she had the answer. "The cops," he said finally. "The cops must have mentioned it when they questioned me about Lucas's death. Yeah, that's right, they said he mailed out five pieces of the game to friends or something."

Sam considered that for a moment. "I heard he gambled online and could have gotten involved with loan sharks," she said, fishing.

"Who told you that?" Eric demanded. "It wasn't true. Not Lucas." But he didn't sound very convincing.

"Then who do you think killed him for the game?" she asked.

"Someone as brilliant as Lucas was bound to have enemies," he said with a shrug.

Something in his tone caught Sam's attention. "Are you also in the game software business?"

"Yeah," Eric said avoiding her gaze. "Nothing like Lucas, mind you. I just kinda dabble in it."

"You'll sell a game someday," Bebe said, as she came in and perched on the arm of the couch. "Eric's got real talent."

He looked embarra.s.sed to have her suddenly fawning over him.

Bebe leaned toward them. "You know if Lucas had helped Eric even a little, Eric would be bigger in the business than Lucas ever thought about being."

"Bebe," Eric warned.

"It's true, come on," she said, waving him off with a hand. "Lucas was just so full of himself. He even said one time that he was going to come up with software that could break into any computer in the world and steal anything he wanted without anyone knowing who he was or even suspecting he'd been there until it was too late. Any computer in the world. Can you imagine that kind of arrogance?"

"Bebe, get me a beer," Eric snapped.

It was obvious Bebe didn't like being ordered around. Nor did she want to leave the room, but she did, although reluctantly.

"Don't pay her any mind," he said the moment she was gone. "She's just a game designer groupie. She believes anything you tell her." He didn't look happy about that. "Catastrophe is just a game."