Read Suspicion for Free Online Page B

after college.”
    “What’s wrong with spending the summer on the beach in Nantucket?” asked Jenna, indignant. “Why does he
have
to get a job?”
    “That’s right,” said Celina, “why?”
    Galvin grinned. “Now the girls are ganging up on me. Help me out here, Danny. Give me some cover.”
    Danny shook his head, unwilling to be lured into a family tiff. “Sorry, man, you’re on your own.”
    “Danny, you guys go to the Cape for the summer, right?” said Galvin. “How long have you had a house in Wellfleet?”
    “Wellfleet?” Danny didn’t remember telling Galvin that his parents lived in Wellfleet, that he’d grown up there. And he definitely hadn’t said anything about summers.
    “Your summer place. Abby told us all about it.”
    “Summer place in Wellfleet?” he said sardonically. “Yeah, I wish—”
    Then he caught a glimpse of Abby twisting uncomfortably and blushing.
    He realized she’d been trying to impress the Galvins by turning her grandparents’ modest tract house in Wellfleet into something it wasn’t, the place where she “summered” every year.
    And then he quickly finished the sentence: “—wish it didn’t take so long to get there.”
    “Cape traffic’s brutal on the weekends,” Galvin agreed.
    But Danny could see the amused detachment in his eyes and knew that Galvin had picked up on his slip.
    Galvin didn’t miss a thing.
     • • • 
    After dinner, Galvin excused himself to take another call in his study. There was no kitchen help in sight. Danny wondered whether this was the maid’s night off or something. Then Abby and Jenna tried to teach Brendan some kind of complicated dance as a song came blasting over speakers concealed throughout the kitchen, something about “party rock” being “in the house tonight.”
    Brendan and the two girls hopped up and down, running in place, pivoting from one side to another, dipping low and then high. They shuffled and slid and moonwalked. Brendan scooped up one of the dogs and tried to manipulate its paws around to simulate dancing, but it struggled and growled menacingly, and Abby and Jenna dissolved in a fit of laughter.
    She seemed genuinely happy here. Danny finally understood why she was so drawn to the Galvins. It wasn’t their wealth. It was the big and warm, chaotic and welcoming Galvin clan that she longed to be part of.
    She wanted to be a member of a family.
    Galvin returned to the kitchen after a few minutes. He stood next to Danny for a moment, watching the kids dance.
    “Cute, huh?”
    Danny nodded.
    “She’s such a good kid, your daughter. She brings out something in Jenna we haven’t seen before. In years, anyway.”
    “Hmm,” Danny said and nodded again. “They both seem happy.”
    “That’s what I mean. Hey, how about we step away? Feel like a single malt?”
    Danny hesitated for a moment—he’d already had a glass of bad red wine and had to drive home on the turnpike—but before he could reply, Galvin said, “I need to ask you a favor.”

11
    T om Galvin poured them each a few fingers of whiskey from a bottle whose label read THE MACALLAN 1939. He stood at a wet bar in his study. The walls were lined with leather-bound volumes that were probably purchased by the yard and had never been read. Everything smelled like cigar smoke.
    “Not everyone gets the good stuff, you know.”
    A quiet knock at the door. They both turned. It was Esteban, the driver. Danny realized he’d never heard him speak.
    “Eh, Mr. Galvin, will I be driving your guests home?” Esteban’s voice was soft, his speech halting. He was unusually tall and broad, but his black suit fitted him perfectly. He had a large head, pockmarks on his high cheeks, and Bambi eyes. A large mole on the right side of his neck in the shape of Australia. A strange-looking fellow, neither ugly nor attractive, but somehow gentle and kindly seeming.
    “Go to bed,
mi amigo
.”
    “Thank you, sir.” Esteban made a slight bow, more a nod of