127. Looking for the truth
127
LOOKING FOR THE TRUTH
Daire
“There you go little man.” Charlie had wanted to climb the stairs back to Neil’s apartment rather than me carrying him so it was a slow process. I loved the little guy and was longing for Nate’s and my “Wait and see how we feel” period to be over and we could start trying for a baby.
“There you are. I thought you’d gotten lost.” Neil was waiting with the door open and Charlie charged into his arms. Toby appeared behind Neil. He took his little brother from his dad and carried him inside.
“Thanks for looking after him. Martin had to cover a shift for a colleague who was sick and he couldn't go to daycare as he had a cold.”
“No problem. I adore Charlie and I am his guardian. Oh, and he’s been fed. Ate all his dinner.”
“Have you got a minute?” he asked and when I nodded, he closed the door and stepped into the hallway. “It’s about your cousin.”
I groaned and made a face. I was fed up with Brax and his antics.
“He barged into the office today while Anthony and I were working. Of course, Anthony already disliked him as they’re living opposite one another and they met the day he arrived.” He went on to say that Brax had peppered him with questions about how he knew me and what I was like at high school. “He was particularly interested in your parents' estate at the lake and the beach house.”
The more I heard about Brax, the less I wanted anything to do with him. I told Neil what he’d done when we were shooting the show at the motel. “My spidey senses are telling me there’s more to his story than he’s saying. ”
“I agree.” I’d thought of doing an online genealogy search but there were so many branches of our family tree on both my dads’ sides, it’d take weeks or years.
“Are you busy this evening?”
Nate was with Micah, going over some of the footage from yesterday but they didn’t need me. “Nope.”
“I’ll feed you if you want to sit with me and see what we can discover about cousin Brax.” He put the last two words in air quotes.
We sat at the kitchen table eating the Thai food Neil had ordered and in between mouthfuls he opened his laptop. “What’s his family name? Same as yours?”
Fuck I hadn’t asked but I doubted it as my dad had mentioned Uncle Ralph and his family name was Oliver. But Nate had found him on social media so Brax must have told him his name. “Oh wait. Nate did that reverse image search thing. That’s how he found him.” I sent my mate a text because I didn’t know how to do that but by the time he replied, Neil had already done it and found Brax’s social media account. Showed how interested I was in the guy when I had no clue what his family name was.
Nate was right. There wasn’t much there except BS, but he didn’t have the same name as my father’s Uncle Ralph. He was Brax Lukas. That wasn’t suspicious and was pretty normal.
“This confirms he’s an asshole but you can’t pick your relatives. Assuming he is who he says he is,” Neil observed.
“What?” It hadn’t occurred to me that Brax might be pretending to be related to me.
“Why don’t you contact your Uncle Ralph?”
He wasn’t my uncle but my father’s. I’d met him once at a family reunion. But a quick call to my parents saying I wanted to thank Ralph for sending Brax to stay with us while he job hunted, and I had the number.
Turned out Uncle Ralph was a little deaf and our conversation consisted of him shouting, “What? and “Who?” And me repeating myself. As I was about to give up, someone else took the phone who turned out to be Ralph’s daughter, Sandra.
After I explained who I was and why I was calling, she said, “There was a guy sniffing around months ago. One day I came to visit my dad and he was here. He said he was a distant cousin but was asking about your side of the family.”
“Was his name Brax Lukas?” She couldn’t remember but when I described Brax she said it sounded like him. I thanked her and ended the call. But a minute later she phoned back. “You should ask your father about Matthew Lukas. I can’t recall all the details but about fifteen years ago he did a project with your parents and it went belly up. There was a court case and it got nasty.”
I thanked her again and when I got off the phone Neil was looking at me as if to say, “Spill.” I filled him in and his mouth gaped. He thumped the table and said, “I knew it.” He drummed his fingers on the wooden surface. “We need to lay a trap.”
“Whoa, Neil. The guy may be a conman and an asshat but no way do I want him hurt.”
“You’re thinking like a shifter. Not a bear trap.” I reared back at the words, picturing a steel contraption with sharp teeth. “And not a honey trap. We’re not spies.” Ewww thank goodness for that. “We need to think and come up with a plan.”
“Maybe we take him out to a bar and get him drunk.”
Neil made a face. “We could but I don’t like the sound of that. I prefer him to be stone cold sober so he realizes he’s been caught out. We’ll have to think about it.”
Martin
Working as a barista wasn’t easy, especially during the rush hours. But after being in middle management, I was enjoying the direct contact with customers. And I loved making them happy by providing the perfect cup of coffee.
I’d worked a late shift today so I’d taken Toby to school but Neil picked him up. And Daire looked after Charlie while Neil was busy at the office. I was glad to be home but when I got out of the car, Ivor waylaid me. Even under the yellow street light I could see he’d been crying. Ryder was undergoing chemo and the stress wasn’t confined to him. The whole family suffered and I understood some of what Ivor was going through.
I gave him a hug and he wiped away the tears. “Martin, I need a favor and if you can’t do it, it’s fine.”
“Try me.”
“You turned me down once which was right for you at the time.”
Was he talking about the app business? But Archer was running that and from what I’d seen, he was doing well. “Ivor, I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. If Archer?—”
He cut me off. “No sorry. I didn’t explain properly. It’s Ryder’s own company. The one he started years ago. I’m heading it up. But I’m not doing a very good job right now.”
“Oh.”
“I can’t offer you a permanent place. And it’s only part time as I need work to distract me from what’s going on in our lives. Sorry again. It’d be for three months.”
“I’d need to discuss it with Neil and hopefully I can fit it around my schedule at the coffee shop.”
He needed an answer in the next twenty-four hours otherwise he’d have to look elsewhere. I gave him another hug and he hung on tight .
Daire was coming down the stairs as I walked up and when I got into our apartment, Neil was putting his laptop away. Co-parenting and sharing an apartment was going okay. I wanted more but Neil said he needed to go slowly. And he’d been right about so many things. Therapy being one of them.
“I have some news.”
“Good news, I hope.”
I hated that I was responsible for him thinking that whenever I made an announcement, it was bad. “Yeah.” I motioned for him to sit and told him about Ivor’s offer.
“On the one hand, I want to do everything to help my friend. But I don’t want to find us in the same position as before with you being so busy you don’t have time for me or the family.”
“This is way different. For starters, I clock in at the coffee shop and clock out. There’s nothing beyond that unless I have to cover for someone. And with Ryder’s business, there’s no travel, no late nights. And I can bring work home if I have to rather than staying in the office.”
We both agreed the extra money would be useful and once I’d squared it away with my boss at the coffee shop, we’d need to write up a detailed monthly schedule so we could both see who was picking up Toby from school and Charlie from daycare.
Neil wasn’t having any hardcopy schedule so he downloaded an app and I did too.
“So, we’ve agreed?” He nodded. “In that case, I’ll call Ivor.”