Whatever Happened Next?: The Betsy Blake sequel novella (The Lenny Moon series Book 2) by David B. Lyons

Author:David B. Lyons [Lyons, David B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-02T16:00:00+00:00

9:20

LENNY

Lenny’s cell phone continues to glow and vibrate against the kitchen counter while he vacuums the remaining splinters of glass and ceramic from the tiles. Most of the mess had been binned while the twins were taking their first steps up the stairs to get washed under their father’s order. Lenny knew that by the time they got to the top of the stairs, they were likely to have forgotten why they had climbed them in the first place. Well, Jared certainly would. With Jacob, it depended on the day.

When Lenny releases his finger from the vacuum trigger, he hears, through the silence, a knowing creak, and smiles to himself, knowing the twins didn’t quite make it fully up the stairs by the time he had cleared the mess.

In the remaining silence, the phone glows, and buzzes against the kitchen counter again, causing Lenny to tilt his head backwards so he can swear into the bright-white ceiling.

‘Fuck me,’ he whispers, kissing the cuss from his bottom lip.

It’s not necessarily the incessant buzzing of the phone that is riling Lenny. It’s the swearing at his boys. He just can’t help himself. Sometimes it all gets too much, that swearing almost becomes a necessity. As if his blood triggers at a certain boiling point and a switch clicks, causing him to spit cusses at his innocent sons.

Even knowing that Jared and Jacob can’t access their memory banks readily, these episodes leave a scar on Lenny’s chest. This morning has been the ninth time in the past seven months he has lost his cool with his boys. All nine scars continue to burn him.

The Moons have tried alternative care since Celina headed back to Belgium, but nobody could quite get near the high bar she had set. They trialled two other full-time carers before opting to send Jacob and Jared to regular classes every day instead; classes that Lenny can work his investigative practice around. Jared and Jacob attend a stretching class at ten a.m., every morning. Then in the afternoons they spend two hours, five times a week, at an autism speciality teaching school at St Michael’s Community Centre. The class, however, is ill-fitting for Jared and Jacob, for it is attended, mostly, by four- and five-year-old children nowhere as far along the spectrum as they are. But the twins’ inclusion in this class gifts Lenny the time he needs to focus on work. He loves his job. It pains him not to be able to offer it more of his time. But it doesn’t pain him as much as leaving the twins with a carer they haven’t quite connected with.

Jacob and Jared wouldn’t be going to any classes today, however. Nor would Lenny be doing much work, save for instructing two separate contacts to check two separate houses his instinct is telling him Alan Dennings may be holed up in. Today would be a different day. A day Lenny had been dreading for quite some time.

He stabs a finger at the phone, ignoring the list of missed calls, and stares at the time.

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