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I stared at Peter across the table. He had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout the whole memorial. I broke down and cried with him. Not knowing what else to say to ease the pain, I just held him while he grieved.
Anais had passed the night I went to see her. Peter thought she was just waiting for me. I ignored the emotions inside me since I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I wasn’t confused about her death or her life.
Liam, Jax, Peter, Gray, and I sat around a table at O’Kelly’s Pub. Peter had closed down the restaurant the day following his mother’s death until further notice. The after-funeral meal had ended, leaving the five of us in the restaurant. We had ushered everyone else out; we needed the time to ourselves.
The sun still shone, but I found the mood of the restaurant very dark. Like the sunlight couldn’t penetrate the gloom in here. Funerals were hard. I always found them to be rude to the living. The poor family members were mentally and emotionally exhausted, but yet, forced to stand in front of a coffin holding their loved one for hours, talking to people they might not even know. I thought it was emotional cruelty.
“Regan. What happened that night at Mother’s?” Peter asked. I’d never told him my side of the story.
“Are you sure you want to hear everything? Especially now?” I asked.
“Maybe this should wait,” Jax said. She reached out to him and rubbed his back.
“No, now. Funerals are about closure, and I want my closure with Mother. Tell me what happened so I can grieve it too, please.”
I understood his logic. I would’ve rather had to face everything all at once too, so I told him. I told him everything. How I snuck into his computer, and broke into Ben’s apartment. I chanced a look at Liam when I mentioned the break-in, but he didn’t say anything. I told Peter about Seth finding me here and shocking me with the stun gun, Anais feeding me peanuts and having me spit out the tainted food. I wanted him to know this, that, in the end, she couldn’t do it, she couldn’t actually kill me. I wanted him to know that she tried to stop the reaction but couldn’t. I told him what happened to Anya. I especially told him about Seth embezzling from the clients. If I ever saw that little weasel again, I was going to knock his lights out.
“She admitted everything in her interview with us,” Liam said, confirming my story to Peter.
“I only have one more question. I never did figure out how Seth knew what I was up to. I thought I had covered my tracks well.”
“I can answer that one. I asked Seth the same thing in his interrogation. He was more than willing to share everything, hoping to make a deal. Of course, he didn’t know Anais was also talking.” Liam covered his mouth to cough before he continued. “He heard talk about it. He said whenever you were in the office, he would go into the private room and listen through the vent. He heard you explaining what you found on the phone.” Liam nodded his head to us. “To Gray, I think.”
He used my own trick against me.
“But how did she get the clients?” Jax asked, switching the subject.
“Looking to give up painting, Jax?” I joked.
“Maybe. Did you see the clothes those girls wear?”
“Mother had always been involved with political fundraisers. She had a personal relationship with the mayor, and he spread the word,” Peter explained. “I don’t know what Mother was thinking when she hired his daughter. She had to know it would end poorly.”
“What’s going to happen to the mayor?” Gray asked.
“Nothing. Any mention of him or anyone else is gone. Even the follow-up interviews have been wiped clean of any mention of him. I have your say that Seth and Anya tried to blackmail him, but no proof. Of anything. The computers here have been wiped. Even Peter’s personal computer. We don’t have any proof of anything. We only have Anais’s confession of her murdering Anya. Case closed from that perspective,” Liam said.
Gray and I locked eyes. I knew exactly where the proof had gone, and so did Gray.
Ben.
“What about Anya’s murder and the escort service?” I asked.
“Anya’s case is closed. When I say the interviews and evidence are gone, I mean all of it. Officially, it’s over. Nothing else left to prosecute,” Liam said. Ben must have been very thorough in his house cleaning.
“What happened to Ben?” I asked. I avoided meeting Gray’s eyes. I had a feeling Ben would be a sore subject for a while to come.
“He’s gone. No one has seen or heard from him since you saw him at City Hall,” Liam said.
I knew where he had been. In my hospital room. At some point, anyway. I found a note. The words “I will see you again” written across the page with a phone number. It hadn’t been signed, but I knew who had left it. It was folded up and hidden in my wallet. I kept forgetting to throw it away where Gray wouldn’t find it.
I didn’t share the note with anyone else. It was my secret and what was the point? Gray would only get angry, and there was nothing he could do about it. I was positive Ben was gone, for now anyway.
Liam and Jax left. Gray and I were soon to follow, but I wanted a moment alone with Peter. I followed him to the office. That place, the hub of everything. Anya’s ghost would forever haunt this room.
“Peter?”
“Oh, hi, Regan. I thought you were leaving,” he asked. He leaned back in the chair and turned to face me. The events hadn’t been kind to him either. His hair seemed to have turned gray overnight.
“We are leaving, but . . .” I trailed off.
“So, you want to do this now?”
“It’s true, then?”
“Maybe. What do you think the truth is?” Peter asked.
“I think Anais gave me ninety-nine percent of the truth. She gave up everything . . . everything, but you.”
I’d been mulling over it for the last few days, the picture never quite clearing until I brought Peter into it. I could easily see Anya and Anais running the business and the girls under Peter’s nose. He didn’t pay attention to the numbers. He didn’t like paperwork. He barely glimpsed at it each period. I could even ignore the spreadsheet on his home computer. After all, it was nothing more than the dates and times of each girl who was supposed to be working an event.
What I couldn’t see was Anya and Anais “closing” the girls to bring them on board. Closers knew how to finesse a situation. How to make the prospective client laugh one minute, but focus on business the next. Closers got the clients to the light at the end of the tunnel.
Anya and Anais were many things, but subtle was not one of them. I’d seen Peter, though, talk almost anybody into doing anything. One year, a group of us went skydiving. One of the waitresses was terrified of heights and was only there to watch. By the time Peter was done with her, she was wearing her parachute with glee. He was a “closer.” He could close any deal, including how to talk a wholesome, down-on-her-luck, good girl into becoming an escort. He would’ve made it sound fun and exciting, making her forget her values. Anya was the one who talked Sarah into becoming a working girl, but I knew Peter had done his fair share, too.
I let Anais go, but I held anger toward Peter. My thoughts and emotions warred inside of me. For once, I chose to leave and run away because it was what was best for me and not out of fear.
“What are you going to do?” Peter asked.
“Nothing. I’m leaving, and there is no proof, according to Liam. I’d say it’s your lucky day.”
“Thank you. Do you think Liam knows?” Peter asked.
“Yes. He’s not a dumb guy. I’d suggest cleaning up your business. You’d be pressing your luck to continue now.” I smiled.
“Cute. Where are you off to?” Peter asked.
“Las Vegas.”
“Will I see you again?” Peter rested his head in the palm of his hands and rubbed his temples with his fingertips.
“Not for a long while.”
“I didn’t think so. Good luck, Regan. I will miss you.” When he spoke, he looked up at me. I saw true sorrow in his eyes. I didn’t know if it was over the loss of his mother, our friendship, or the business. Maybe all three.
I didn’t say anything to him. I left the office and that part of my life behind. I didn’t know if Peter and I would ever rekindle our friendship. It’d taken a beating lately, but who knew what the future held?
Gray waited for me in the hallway. Without saying a word, he held out his hand toward me. I looked at it and then moved my eyes up to his face. Was I ready for this? To take the next step and have a forever commitment? I smiled at him as I put my hand in his.
The End
