Read Online Bloodlines by Jan Burke - Free Book Online Page A

Maureen that evening and wrote, "Jack Corrigan told me this will help me learn how to be a newspaper reporter. I hope he is right. P.S.: He gave me a boxing lesson, too." A week later, Maureen presented him with a gift, a small cloth-bound diary with gilt-edged pages and a lock and key. She had earned the money doing mending for the lady their mother worked for, and O'Connor knew it must have taken the whole of her earnings to buy it. When he wanted to pay her back with his lucky silver dollar, she said, "Oh no--never give away your luck. Besides, this is an investment on my part. I want to be able to brag that my brother is the famous newspaper reporter Conn O'Connor, whose name is on the front page of the Express. So you do what Mr. Corrigan tells you and fill up this diary."
    Several months later, another visitor had stopped near his corner.
    Mitch Yeager stood eyeing him for long, nerve-wracking moments before he approached O'Connor. O'Connor knew that Yeager had managed to weasel his way out of the jury-tampering charges, a subject Jack had discussed bitterly and at length with his protege. Yeager had power and powerful friends. He even had influence over Old Mr. Wrigley, according to Jack, because Old Mr. Wrigley--under pressure from advertisers who were Mitch Yeager's business partners--had forbidden Jack to write any more stories about Yeager. That made O'Connor angry, but it also made him believe that Mitch Yeager was someone to fear.
    Not much older than Dermot, O'Connor thought, watching him come closer. But Yeager's youth didn't soften anything about the man.
    He stood staring at the boy. Conn swallowed hard and said, "Paper, mister?"
    He heard laughter behind him and saw Yeager look up with a scowl. He turned to see Jack Corrigan.
    "Picking on schoolkids now, Mitch?" Jack said. "You start bullying Wrigley's paperboys, he might be willing to let the ink flow again."
    "The kid would have been better off going to school instead of hanging out in a courtroom," Yeager said. He looked back at O'Connor. "A kid can get in trouble playing hooky."
    Jack put a hand on O'Connor's shoulder. Conn was ashamed to feel himself shaking beneath that hand.
    "He's a smart kid," Jack said. "Why don't you be smart, too, Mitch?"
    Yeager gave a small nod. "Sure. A smart man can wait for what he wants. Someday you'll find out just how smart I can be, Jack Corrigan."
    He turned and walked away.
    "Who told him?" Conn asked, his mouth dry.
    "I don't know, Conn," Jack said. "Could have been someone on the paper, or a cop, or someone in the D.A.'s office..." He frowned, then sighed. "No, it's probably my fault."
    "Your fault? No!" he said fiercely. "You never would have peached on me to the likes of Mitch Yeager!"
    Jack smiled ruefully. "Appreciate the faith, kid, but my guess would be that Lillian told Mitch just to spite me. She's a little irritated at me."
    "What does she care? She's married now. To that rich Linworth fellow."
    Jack didn't say anything.
    "She wanted to marry you," O'Connor said, deciding to get something that had been troubling him out in the open, "but she doesn't like me. I made her mad at you."
    "No, kid. No, that's not true. As far as Lily was concerned, I was just fun and games. Hobnobbing with the hoi polloi, that's all. She flirted with men like me and Mitch because it was exciting to her, but she was always going to marry money. When you're older, you'll understand."
    "Does it make you sad?"
    "Hell, no," Jack said.
    After a moment, O'Connor ventured to say, "I'm glad you didn't marry her."
    Jack laughed. "So am I. She's got one hell of temper, and she's probably mad at both of us. At Mitch, too. Probably told him that a kid caught him at his game--kind of thing she'd do, just to piss him off."
    The memories of those early days with Corrigan were bittersweet to O'Connor. The years had brought many changes in his life, some good, some bad. Jack Corrigan's friendship had remained a constant.
    "Through the best of times,