True Detectives

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Book: Read True Detectives for Free Online
Authors: Jonathan Kellerman
held him tight. Taking in that little-boy smell.
    School clothes grimy with dust, he still managed to look more put-together than any other four-year-old on the face of the planet.
    “Good to see you, Mommy! How was your day?”
    “Oh, you charmer.”
    Maddy hugged him harder. Aaron squirmed away. “I must have
Froot
Loops!
Please!”
    “Baby, it’s too—”
    “Pleeeeeze
. It’s
important
! Oh, my belly
needs
Froot Loops, needs it so
bad!

    Dancing around the kitchen, not even pretending to take himself seriously. Sometimes she thought he was forty, not four.
    He swayed, eyes as big as the universe. “I’m so
hungry
, Mommy!”
    Little con man; Maddy fought not to laugh.
    The preschool teacher had been more diplomatic.
    “Aaron is a charming boy, but sometimes he relies on social skills a little too much.”
    Blood ran thicker than …
    “Froot Loops! I will fall over tired, Mommy, on my face, without
Froot
Loops!”
    “Shh. Baby Moe’s sleeping.”
    “Baby Moe,” said Aaron, turning pensive. “He is my brother and I love him,” he stage-whispered. “He wants me to have Froot Loops, without Froot Loops everyone will be sad and Baby Moe will cry—”
    “Shh, Aaron. Please.”
    Aaron turned instantly silent. Stood at attention. Saluted.
    Maddy said, “Wash your hands, mister, then go sit at the table like a civilized person and I’ll fix you a nice snack.”
    “Froot Loops is a nice snack,” said Aaron. “With chocolate milk. Real dark.”
    “That’s way too much sugar, honey.”
    “Just a
little
dark.”
    “Even a little is too much sugar—”
    “Puhleeeeeeze?”
    “Shh.”
    “Mommy, I can’t be quiet unless my head is happy. What makes me happy on today is—”
    “Froot Loops,” said Maddy. “With regular milk.”
    “A
leeetle
chocolate?”
    “Fine.”
    “A leetle more than a leeetle?”
    “Don’t push your luck, Handsome Boy.”
    Aaron grinned. “Or it could be Smirnoff.”
    Maddy froze. “What do you know about Smirnoff.”
    “Jack likes it. There’s a bottle in your room.”
    Maddy placed her hands on his shoulders. The boy’s eyes didn’t waver. “Aaron Fox, have you been rummaging in other people’s personal belongings?”
    “I saw it when I came in to kiss you, Mommy. You weren’t there. You were with the washing machine, but I saw it.”
    “Where was this bottle?”
    Aaron didn’t answer.
    “I need to know, sweetheart.”
    “Jack did a bad?”
    Maddy sighed. “No, Jack didn’t do a bad. Tell me where—”
    “On the table next to the bed. On Jack’s side.”
    She said, “Sweetheart, Smirnoff’s for grown-ups.”
    Aaron smiled wider. Knowing he’d boxed her into a corner, the little devil.
    “Exactly, Mommy, and chocolate milk’s for kids. A
leeetle
more dark. Please?”
    “Two teaspoons of Nestlé’s and that’s it.”
    “Three.”
    “Two and that’s final.”
    Then it hit her. Aaron had come in by himself.
    Her heart began to pound. “Where
is
Jack?”
    “Sitting in the car,” said Aaron.
    “Why?”
    Shrug.
    “Is he okay?”
    Shrug.
    “He did pick you up from school?”
    “Uh-huh. Can I have my Froot—”
    Rushing to the front of the little house, Maddy flung the door open.
    The van was parked in the driveway. Jack sat behind the wheel.
    Staring at nothing.
    She went over to him and he let out one of his crooked smiles.
    This was her life. Staring at male teeth. “What are you doing, Jack?”
    His hair, beginning to gray, was windblown. His eyelids drooped. “Hey, gorgeous.”
    Reeking
of booze.
    “You
drank
before you picked him up?”
    “Hours ago, gorgeous—”
    “I can smell it on you, don’t
gorgeous
me!”
    Jack didn’t answer.
    “Are you out of your
mind
?”
    “Maddy,” said Jack, “you’re blowing this way up.”
    “I’m talking about my child—”
    “I love him like he’s—”
    “So you say—”
    “I love him
to pieces
, Maddy.” Tears filled Jack’s eyes. “Love him maybe not like you do, but he’s

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