Palm Beach Betrayers (Charlie Crawford Palm Beach Mysteries Book 13) by Tom Turner

Author:Tom Turner [Turner, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tribeca Press
Published: 2023-07-09T23:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-SIX

Crawford was having a tough time falling asleep with the jumble of case-related thoughts dancing around in his head. He got up at one point to go to his bathroom and take an Ambien but then remembered the last time he took one. He had woken up groggy and lethargic, and it had stayed with him even after two Dunkin’ Donuts coffees.

As he was on the verge of drifting off, he heard keys rattling around in his door. Cam. Then he heard his footsteps on the hard wood floor, then a sudden loud crash, like something had fallen or been tipped over. “Shit,” he heard his brother cry out. He jumped out of bed and opened the door to his living room. There was Cam, putting a broken lamp back where it had been on a side table.

Cam looked up and saw his brother. “Sorry, man. Had a little accident. I owe you a new lamp.”

Crawford flashed back to how the week before Cam had walked in and found him drunk. This was the same thing, different time, different brother.

“Christ, Cam. How many more drinks did you have?”

“Just a few,” Cam said sheepishly.

“A few dozen is more like it,” Crawford said. “I should have called you an Uber.”

“I had another little accident,” Cam said, dropping his head.

“What do you mean?” Crawford said, sitting down next to his brother.

“With your car. Nothing serious.”

“What happened?”

“Well, I was on a narrow street and looked down to put a CD in and clipped something.”

Crawford put up his hand. “Wait, wait, wait. ‘Clipped something?’ What the hell does that mean?”

“I think it was a garbage can or something, then I got right back on the road. Pulled over a couple blocks up and saw a dent. Sorry, Charlie, I’ll get it fixed. Better than new.”

“I don’t give a damn about a dent. But the idea of you driving around drunk scares the hell out of me. You could have gotten killed, for Chrissakes. I was crazy to let you take the car.”

“Hey, I was very careful after that. Drove straight here…very carefully.”

Crawford nodded. “All right. Well, go to bed. For the rest of your time here, you’re gonna be in the back seat of a Uber. And, by the way, you can’t get back to Clairmont fast enough.”

“Yeah, yeah, just as soon as things slow down.”

Crawford shook his head. “No, Cam, you got a big issue to deal with. Your fund will be just fine. Christ, you can run it remotely for a while. All you need is a cell phone. Your precious clients don’t need to know you’re up at Clairmont drying out.”

Cam tried to push himself out of the couch, but fell back into it.

“Jesus, you’re a mess,” Crawford said.

“Like you should talk,” Cam said. “Seems to me you were in the same condition a week ago. Maybe you should go to Clairmont with me.”

“That was a one-off. I’m fine.”

Cam’s head drooped. “That’s what they all say.”

*****

Crawford went to his bathroom medicine cabinet

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.