Read Online Double The Risk by Samantha Cayto - Free Book Online

the old block as these things usually went, her trouble radar was likely excellent.
    “Is there a place where we can talk, ma’am?” Diego asked in the tone cops always used when delivering death notices to the next of kin.
    She sighed again, more heavily this time, and looked down at her hands. “We can talk here, and I can guess what you have to say.” She looked up at them. “Seamus is dead, isn’t he?”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Ronan confirmed. “How did you know?” As he asked the question, he gently herded the woman to sit at a nearby table.
    She didn’t put up a fight. “I suppose I’ve been waiting for this news for a long time. Seamus was always getting into trouble, and even with the way he was the last time I spoke with him, I still expected it.”
    Diego took a seat next to her. “What do you mean about the last time? We know your brother had cleaned up his act. No arrests for the past eight years or more.”
    Colleen snorted. “Cleaned up his act? Seamus never changed.”
    “He got smarter, at least,” Ronan injected.
    “Not even that,” Colleen replied with a roll of her eyes. “He just had less of a reason to get into trouble, that’s all.” When they both sat and stared at her, she explained. “A while back, eight or nine years maybe, he scored big, big enough for him to live off the grid. Paid cash for everything. He came around my place, showing off to me with rolls of dough, offering to buy me stuff. I told him to get lost. I didn’t like the smell of that money. He’d done something really bad to get it, had to have. I didn’t want nothing to do with it. You don’t get that much by doing something good, at least not where we come from.”
    Now that was interesting news. What could a small time criminal like O’Malley have done to acquire so much money? When he asked that question, Colleen didn’t have an answer.
    “I don’t know, and I didn’t want to know. Even as he’s trying to impress me with how generous he was being, he said we had to be quiet about it all. Said he wasn’t supposed to be in Boston still but didn’t feel like leaving. This was his home, and no one was going to push him out.” She shook her head. “Idiot, trying to act like Mr. Big while he’s peeking out my window blinds like he’s afraid he was followed, sweat leaking through his shirt. I told him to get lost and stay that way. I didn’t need the trouble.”
    “Was that the last you saw of him?” Ronan asked.
    She stared off in the distance. “Yeah, that was the last time I saw him, but a few years ago, he sent me a letter. No return address on the envelope. I almost threw it away thinking it was junk mail ‘til I realized it was his handwriting. He gave me his new address, but said I shouldn’t try to contact him or give it out to anybody, even the cops if they came asking. He just wanted me to know where his stuff was in case something happened to him.
    “He told me to memorize the address then burn the letter.” With a snort she added, “Like that didn’t make me nervous. Anyway, I did like he asked because I’m an idiot, too, I guess. He’s my brother. Was my brother. I guess you can’t get away from family that easily, no matter what.”
    “Did anyone, including cops, ever come around asking about him after that?” Diego asked a split second before Ronan had a chance to.
    Colleen’s gaze shifted around.
    “It’s important that we know,” Ronan stressed in a gentle voice. She seemed spooked all of a sudden.
    The woman blew out a breath. “Yeah, a couple of detectives did a few months after I got the letter, then again last year, although it wasn’t the same two as before. They, ah, kind of leaned on me.”
    “Did they hurt you?” Diego asked in an even more gentle tone.
    Collen rolled her eyes. “Nah, they just acted tough, tried to spook me about being charged with obstructing justice and other bullshit that don’t cut any ice in Southie. Seamus and me were raised to