Page 36 of Coup De Grâce
“But this week, I received my shipment a day early, and…” He paused for effect. “Only forty-nine bags!”
Silence greeted him as we all looked at each other, wondering what he thought this meant. When it was clear no one else was that interested, I took the liberty of playing into his ridiculous conspiracy.
“Okay, and what do you think this means?”
Scoffing, he rolled his eyes. “Well, obviously it means that Cash is signaling us for help!”
That gave me pause, and as I looked around the room, everyone else seemed pretty curious about his logic as well. “Um…how do you think Cash is signaling you?”
“Well, obviously, he’s in trouble and he needs our help.”
Lock cleared his throat uncomfortably, his eyes flicking to mine. “Buddy, Cash is dead. We went to his funeral.”
Fox laughed at that, wiping the tears from his eyes as he did so. “Man, you are so funny. Really, that’s great.”
“Fox, we were all there. We saw the body.”
A body that wasn’t Cash’s, but I wasn’t about to say that.
“Clearly, it was a fake. Just like when FNG faked his death. What? You think FNG can fake it but not Cash?”
Everyone was silent at that. Of course he could fake his death. It was so obvious to me that he had, but then again, I had intel on my side.
“Look, I understand this transition is hard for you?—”
Kavanaugh interrupted Cash. “No it’s not. He’s the one who fucking killed him!”
I swore Fox paled slightly as he looked around the room. “You…you actually believed that?” He waited for an answer, thenhe threw his head back and burst out laughing. “Why would I kill my own brother?”
“Fox, he’s not your brother,” Lock argued.
“I mean, we’re like this,” he said, crossing his fingers. “Not nearly as close as me and The Kamau, but there is no way I could actually kill someone that I’m linked to by blood. Then again, I’m pretty sure I could have killed my father if he had bothered to stick around, but that’s a theory to put to the test another time.”
“Fox,” I cut him off. “Why don’t you tell us why you think Cash sent this to you.”
“Well, first, because he’s not dead. I mean, he wasn’t actually in that vehicle when it blew up. He opened the hatch in the floor of the car and slipped down the manhole. It was classic Cash,” he grinned. “Everyone else blew up, and I had to have a body in the car to look like Cash.”
“What about the body in the casket?” Red asked.
“Well, obviously, it was a fake,” he scoffed. “I thought briefly about putting Rafe in there, but he was too decomposed. It would not have been pretty.”
“Alright,” Lock sighed. “Let’s say that you really didn’t blow up Cash.”
“I didn’t.”
“And let’s say that you placed a body in that casket.”
“I did.”
Lock clenched his jaw in irritation. “Then why would you put a perfectly good version of Cash in there, sans any burn marks? Wouldn’t it have been more believable if he was…” Again, he looked to me. “Charred?”
“Like I could ever mar Cash’s beautiful face with a charred body,” Fox laughed. “Come on! That was his big sendoff! I wanted it to be amazing. In fact, I nearly had music playing, but Anna convinced me it wasn’t the right time for show tunes. Ihappen to disagree. Cash loved going to the theater with me. In fact, we’ve seenOklahomathirty-three times together.”
“And that’s impressive,” I cut in. “But why do you assume Cash sent you the Funyuns?”
“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?”
When no one answered, he looked at all of us, shaking his head incredulously. “Seriously? No one else sees it?”
