Page 74 of The Inquirer

This was turning into one of the longest days I could remember.

After Nyx and I confirmed that some of the copies of the files that had been left in our cabins had been destroyed, we knew for certain that we’d been the reason for the ranch being vandalized. Whoever had done it had been sneaky about it too. They hadn’t stolen anything, but they’d torn up enough that there would’ve been no way for anyone but Nyx and I to know exactly what had been destroyed. And none of it could be recovered.

If Nyx and I hadn’t decided to put the originals of everything in safety deposit boxes before we’d gone to New York, we would’ve lost everything. I’d only been worried about my family finding out I’d taken the box from Ashley’s house. Someone doing this hadn’t occurred to me at all.

I think that was what bothered me the most, that I hadn’t seen it coming. Nyx hadn’t either, and it wasn’t like she was naïve about the way the world worked, but this was my city. I’d been raised in Savannah and knew just how deep the roots of racism ran in the South.

Like how the daughter of one of my dad’s friends had a kid with a biracial guy we’d gone to school with. After they’d broken up, he’d gone to see his daughter, and she’d called the cops, telling them that her abusive ex was trying to take her kid. The guy’d gotten arrested and ended up on probation. I’d heard, after the fact, that he’d spent two hours being asked what race to put on the report.

Fucking racists.

And I still hadn’t thought that Nyx investigating claims against one of Savannah’s proudest white families on behalf of people of color would come back to bite her on the ass.

I should’ve known something like this would happen.

I was still beating myself up over it when Nyx and I arrived at Zunzi’s to meet Maury Nieto, a cop I knew I could trust. The fact that he’d called me when he’d found my card in Nyx’s purse after she’d been arrested meant she knew the two of us were friends. I wasn’t sure about how much she’d trust him, though.

We’d met when I’d been a junior in college, and he’d been a rookie sent to break up a party on campus. I’d been the idiot trying to make an exposé film about underage drinking in college. An idiot who’d used duct tape to strap a burner phone on the inside of my thigh like I was some hotshot undercover cop in an action movie.

We hadn’t become friends because he’d done something like let me go with a warning because I’d been doing something wrong. No, we’d become friends because he’d taken my recording to his superior…and he hadn’t laughed when I’d screamed while ripping the tape off. Well, not until I’d started laughing, anyway.

The memory of our meeting flashed through my mind as Nyx and I made our way to the table where Maury was waiting. He was off duty and in civilian clothes, but there was still something about him, that thing that some police officers have where it doesn’t matter how they’re dressed, they look like cops.

“You two look like shit.” He leaned back in his seat, his dark eyes quickly assessing both of us even before we sat down.

“Thanks,” I said dryly as I took the seat across from him. “You try gettin’ up at the ass crack of dawn, flying for a few hours, then getting home to find your place trashed and vandalized. See how good you look then.”

“I heard about that.” Maury’s expression grew serious. “No one was hurt, right?”

“Not physically, at least,” Nyx said. “Scared the Huxleys pretty good, though.”

“I heard that too,” Maury said. “They’re good people.”

“I hope that means you’re going to help us find the bastards who did it.” After a moment, I added the part I hadn’t told Maury yet. “And help us prove why they did it.”

“Why they vandalized and trashed the ranch? I figured it was the usual racist shit.” Maury leaned forward. “What aren’t you telling me, Bradyn?”

I looked at Nyx, and she nodded. It was time to bring someone else into the know. It was a risk, especially for Nyx, since she had to rely mostly on my judgment, but a line had been crossed. I didn’t know if whoever had trashed our cabins would have hurt anyone if someone had been there, but it wasn’t something I was willing to risk if they tried again.

Starting with my part of things seemed the easiest. “I’ve been working on a documentary about some of Savannah’s most prominent families but focusing on the truth of their pasts.”

“Yours?”

“That’s one of them, yes.”

Maury let out a low whistle. “You’ve got some serious balls on you.” As soon as he said it, he glanced at Nyx and blushed. “Sorry, miss.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She made a dismissive gesture. “And it’s Nyx. Not miss.”

“Sorry, mi-Nyx.” He turned back to me. “You don’t think your parents had the place trashed as a warning about the film.”

Another reason I liked and respected Maury was that he was smart. He could’ve been a detective or start working his way up the other ranks, but he’d only ever wanted to be a training officer. I was glad to know that someone like him was influencing future police officers.

“It’s not just the film,” I said. “You saw Nyx’s PI license, right?”

“From New York. I remember.”

Not a surprise. He didn’t miss much. “There’s some confidentiality about her case,” I continued. “But what you need to know is that she found out my ancestors did some seriously shady shit. Even more than owning slaves, I mean.”

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