Elegy in Scarlet
Page 27
Drayco rubbed his eyes. “How am I supposed to live with that?”
There was a long pause on the other end. “Some day, Scott, you and I will sit down and have a chat. It’s difficult to feel whole when the tapestry of your life is riddled with rips and tears. You deserve a complete picture.”
“Why the call now?”
“I wanted you to know I’m setting up a music scholarship at your alma mater, the University of Maryland. It’s in honor of you and your mother, but it will be in your name. Hers can’t be attached to it, for obvious reasons.”
“I’m touched, Brisbane, truly. But I have an even better idea. You reimburse Imogen Layford and all the other victims of Maura’s lottery fraud.”
After several moments of silence, the other man replied, “That can be arranged.” Then he added, “Oh, and don’t be surprised if UMD gives you a call to play a recital there as a thank you. I’ll be watching.”
He hung up and Nelia, who’d overheard part of the conversation, asked, “Watching you play or watching you in general?”
“Probably both. I doubt I’ve heard the last from Uncle Alistair, one way or the other.”
Nelia chewed on her lip. “I’ve been thinking. Which brother would you say was harming the most people? Jerold scamming elderly women out of money or Edwin watering down their meds?”
“If you go by intent—money—they’re even. If you go by results, that will be for the police, the government, and the courts to shake out.”
“What about Iago? Won’t Brisbane be afraid he gives away sensitive information about his operations?”
“Iago is even more loyal than Greyfriars Bobby, that terrier who spent fourteen years guarding the grave of his dead owner. Iago won’t breathe a word about Brisbane.”
“But why spirit Maura away, alive or dead?”
“He’d been her bodyguard for so long, it must have been hard to stop. That, and the fact he loved her.”
It was Nelia’s cellphone that rang next. She looked at the number and thrust the phone back in her pocket. “It’s just Tim. He can wait. This is more important.”
They watched the figure of a man striding toward the cemetery and through the gate. Nelia reached for Drayco’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’ll be here,” she said.
Drayco walked to the man’s side, and they both gazed down at the gleaming new tombstone sitting beside a much older marker. A new tombstone for an empty grave. Brock laid some pink roses he’d brought on both grave sites.
Drayco asked, “You know she might still be alive, don’t you?”
“Not to me, she isn’t. Besides, if and when she is no longer living, we may never know. I think it’s important to have this marker here. Casey should be reunited with her mother at last.”
“We lost her, found her, then lost her again.”
Brock squinted up at the sun. “She was never ours to lose.” He looked over at Drayco briefly. “I’m actually sorry I didn’t try to see Maura. When she was in jail.”
“I thought you hated her.”
“Maybe I was still angry. But how could I hate her when she gave me you?”
Drayco pulled two necklaces out of his pocket, the ones with the half-hearts that said Miz and Pah. Brock looked at them in shock. “Where did you get those?”
“I saved one you threw in the trash years ago. The other I found among Maura’s things in her apartment.”
“I bought them for us when we got married. I can’t believe she kept hers.”
Drayco held them up in the air. “You know, Sarg calls me junior and Benny calls me boy-o, but you call me Scott.”
“Of course. You’re my son.”
A strong breeze made the two necklaces dangling in Drayco’s hand jingle. He handed them to Brock, who slipped them into his pocket.
Drayco took the lilies tucked under his arm and placed some on the new tombstone, but stopped in front of his sister’s grave. “You brought Casey pink roses, right?”
Brock nodded. Drayco laid the remaining lilies on Casey’s grave—next to a bouquet of yellow callas already there. Who’d put those there if it wasn’t him or his father? Out of the corner of his eye, Drayco caught sight of a dark limousine as the window rolled up and the limo drove slowly away.
He watched it until it disappeared down the road, surprised that he didn’t feel an urge to run after it, then turned to his father. “You play any one-on-one hoops lately, Dad?”
The corners of Brock’s lips turned up in a rare smile. “Don’t think for a minute I’ll go easy on you. A foul’s a foul, and I call them as I see them.”
Brock draped his arm around Drayco’s shoulders as they walked away from the graves. This time, there was no little paper message scrawled in a child’s hand, no heartfelt cry of loss and abandonment. And maybe if and when he played that concert in Maryland, his father would be front and center, watching.
Thank You for Reading!
I hope you enjoyed Elegy in Scarlet, the fourth book in the Scott Drayco series. There will be more adventures ahead in the upcoming fifth installment, where Drayco has to try and solve one of his most puzzling and bizarre cases yet in Suicide Sonata.
Now that you have finished this book, won’t you please consider writing a review on your favorite book retailer website? I’d also love to hear your feedback via my website at bvlawson.com. And if you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll receive a FREE Scott Drayco novella!
Check out all the novels in the Scott Drayco mystery series (in order):
Played to Death
Requiem for Innocence
Dies Irae
Elegy in Scarlet
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to the lovely folks on the Eastern Shore of Virginia who helped inspire some of the sights and scenes in this book and in the entire Scott Drayco series. Both Cape Unity and Prince of Wales County are purely fictional and an amalgam of various towns and counties on the Delmarva Peninsula.
Special thanks to C.E., Sylvia, and Ben for their amazing editing expertise and assistance.
Most of all, I give my undying gratitude—to infinity plus ten—to my amazing family for their encouragement, especially my astoundingly patient husband Charles, who is, as always, my Supporter-in-Chief.
About BV Lawson
Author, poet, and journalist BV Lawson’s award-winning stories, poems and articles have appeared in dozens of national and regional publications and anthologies. A four-time Derringer Award finalist and 2012 winner for her short fiction, BV’s Scott Drayco series has been honored by the American Independent Writers, Maryland Writers Association, named Best Mystery in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and been a finalist for the Shamus and Silver Falchion Awards. BV currently lives in Virginia with her husband and enjoys flying above the Chesapeake Bay in a little Cessna. Visit her website at bvlawson.com. No ticket required. Sign up for her newsletter and receive a FREE Scott Drayco novelette!
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