Page 99 of The End of Summer

“Not like this,” he says.

Something dawns on me. “You’re doing it right now! Didn’t you just tell me that Brady bailed me out of jailhours ago?”

“Yes.”

“So why am I still here?” I ask.

“Because I wanted to talk to you.”

I fold my arms across my chest. “So you kept me injailfor longer than necessary so that you could talk to me? Does that not seem like an act of desperation?”

“Don’t, Gretchen. Donotuse that tone with me.”

I stand down, realizing that I am, in fact, still locked up in a jail cell at his hand. “Fine,” I mumble. “Can I ask you a question, though? Because this is the one part that doesn’t make sense to me.”

“Go ahead.”

“How did this all happen?”

“What do you mean?”

“All of it, Dad. How did you find out about Cosmo?”

“It wasn’t me, Gretchen.”

“Huh?”

“It was Keith.”

I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”

“Apparently, Keith’s fiancée had her bachelorette party at your establishment, and she said she could tell something was amiss. So he started digging around. Staked out the place a few times.”

“Keith is engaged?”

“Yeah. He’s getting married in a few weeks.”

“So the bachelorette party was recently?”

He nods. “Not long ago, yes. But anyway, he said that one night he was watching and several young girls came outside the warehouse throwing up. And he saw a big group of guys go inside. He assumed they were adult entertainment, and looked for licensed adult entertainment providers locally and came up empty handed. So he knew something illegal was going on. He tipped me off, and I got in touch with Wellingham. We planned the bust together.”

“That’s so weird,” I say, thinking. “I’ve never had an unhappy bride, except –”

Oh my God.

Miranda.

“Dad, what’s the bride’s name?”

“What?”

“Keith’s wife? Fiancée? Is her name Miranda?”

“In fact it is. I could never forget that name, you know. Because of Miranda rights.”

That fucking bitch.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

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