Masters And Lovers 1-4 novel Chapter 33

Dawn is breaking, and my imagination is whirring, working overtime.

Jade…

“Talk to me,” says Klempner. “What are you thinking?”

“The blood on Charlotte's bag. I'm wondering how badly she’s hurt. She wouldn't go down without a fight. Ben’s a powerful man, physically speaking. He and Michael do a lot of work together on the house and in the grounds. If he got Charlotte by herself and out of sight, down in the parking lot… If he took her by surprise, he’d have been able to overpower her… But she’d have fought back. Unless he knocked her unconscious with a single blow, he’d have had a fight on his hands. There’s a good chance Charlotte would have done some damage herself before she went down.”

Hope she’s fucking castrated him…

“After that, Mitch and Kirstie would have been easy for him. Mitch is a lot older, and Kirstie, well, she has plenty of nerve but she’s not a physical fighter and judging by the way Michael was panicking about the blood, Ben didn’t care much about being careful.”

Klempner hmmms… “Jenny's pretty resilient.”

Do I tell him?

“She's also pregnant.”

He double-takes and the car weaves before he takes a hold on the steering again. But his voice remains flat. “Does Ben know?”

“Yes.”

“I'm guessing he wouldn't like it? Not being sure who fathered his sister-in-law's child?”

“He liked even less when Michael told him it was definitely me…” Klempner shoots me another look. “Christ… If it is Ben, this will crucify Michael.”

“They're close, the two of them?”

“They would be if Ben didn't keep fucking up.”

“What does he fuck up over?”

“Charlotte. Me.”

“Tell me about him. What’s he like?”

“Think of a narrow-minded, toned-down, very ordinary version of Michael. And he knows he's right. Nothing else penetrates.”

Klempner sucks his cheeks. “Right enough that the end justifies the means? He’d feel it was right to attack a pregnant woman and her friends?”

“You think you have the moral high ground?” I snap. “With some of the things…”

“I never tried to convince the world I was right,” he snarls. “Or myself. I just got on with what I was doing.”

The brief camaraderie shattered, I lapse into silence. So does he.

After a while, Klempner, in more moderate tones, says, “You say Ben’s ordinary? So the big brother has all the charm, the charisma and the women?”

“Younger brother. Michael is the younger one.”

Klempner inhales. “Even better… Who’s this third woman in the party? Kirstie was it? A friend of Jenny’s? Would Ben have any problem with her?”

“Oh, Christ…” I press fingers to my temple. My headache is returning. “She isn’t just a friend of Charlotte’s. She dated Ben, briefly.”

“Briefly? How briefly?”

“Brief enough that I suspect the problem was his… um… style…”

Klempner glances sidelong at me, humour flirting around his eyes. “Friday night? In the dark? On your back? Don’t move?”

“I suspect so, yes.”