Ambush (Michael Bennett 11) - Page 52
Finally he said, “Not just yet. Maybe we can both learn something on this case.”
Chapter 66
I sat on my couch, staring out the wide windows at the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I had a hard time believing that a squabble between Julio and his cousin resulted in both of their deaths.
Willie Perez was a terrible person. All the records I could find on him indicated that he was involved in several murders, even though he’d never been charged. Julio Laza wasn’t much better. His records were for narcotics trafficking, but I had no illusions about what he’d do if he had to.
It didn’t matter now, because they were both gone. I hated to be selfish, but that mainly meant they couldn’t help me with my case anymore.
I was at a loss.
Then Trent strolled into the room and plopped down on the couch next to me. If there was such a thing as a ray of sunshine, it was Trent. He was the youngest of my boys, with bright brown eyes and the darkest complexion of any of the kids. When we adopted him, there was very little information about his family or circumstances. He was only three weeks old at the time.
From the first days, Maeve and I just fell in love with him.
He had a real sense of humor, too. More than once I found him lining up his brothers, then standing between them and singing the Sesame Street song: “One of these things is not like the others.”
Trent said, “Whatcha doing, Dad?”
“Nothing, bud. Just enjoying the view.”
“Is something wrong?”
I smiled at the boy and rubbed his head. ?
?No. Just thinking about work.”
“You always tell us that family is more important than work.”
I said, “It is.”
“Well, we’re doing great as a family.” He smiled and held up an algebra test. It looked like a foreign language to me, but I understood the teacher’s comment at the top. Sister Agnes wrote, “Very impressive, Mr. Bennett. We need to find something more challenging for you.”
The nuns could be formal, but they never gave false praise.
“That’s great, Trent. You never fail to amaze me. I love that you have your own way of doing things. It’s very logical. You’d be a good philosopher.”
“But I like math.”
“You could be a philosopher like Pythagoras. He was also a mathematician.”
“You mean the Pythagorean theorem?”
“Yes, exactly. I have no idea what the theorem is, but I’ve heard of it a couple of times.”
Trent said, “It has to do with a triangle. The square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.”
I just stared at him. Eddie was so brilliant that sometimes I forgot how smart some of the other kids were as well.
“Now, there’s good news and bad news, my boy.”
“What’s the good news?”
“I’m gonna buy you that new baseball glove you’ve been looking at and take us out for a nice dinner. All of us.”
“Super Tacos?”
“I guess, if that’s where you want to go. We live in New York City. There are a thousand great restaurants, and you want to go to a taco place.”
Source: readsnovelonline.net