Free My Brother’s Keeper by Donna Malane Page A

Anyway, Dad went off to the kitchen to talk to Justin, offer his condolences and all, and Norma went to find Sunny.’ The accent was back in full force. He turned the ice pack over. I caught a glimpse of red and purple before he pressed it back into the eye socket. ‘And the next minute Dad heard her screaming the house down.’
    ‘Who was screaming the house down?’
    ‘Sunny. She screamed and screamed. There was no stopping her. Justin told Norma she should go. Eventually, she turned around and left and Dad followed.’
    ‘Why?’ I was confused. ‘Why would Sunny do that?’
    He went back to the scrambled eggs. ‘Dad thought maybe it was because Norma reminded the child of her mother.’ He nodded in the direction of a framed photo of Norma and Karen on the shelf behind me. ‘They do look alike, don’t you think? Did look alike, I mean.’
    A chip of melting ice was dribbling down his neck. I resisted the urge to wipe it away. Despite the intimacy of our earlier contact, I reminded myself we weren’t that close. I cranedto look at the photo. He was right. Mother and daughter did look very alike. Sunny continued the family resemblance. I wondered if she knew that.
    ‘Dad said Norma was devastated. Far as I know, she never went back, never saw Sunny again. Personally,’ he said, carelessly wiping that dribble from his neck with the back of his eating hand, ‘I thought she should have gone back to see the child. She should have gone to the funeral. When all was said and done, it was a bloody selfish decision Norma made.’
    ‘Selfishness seems to run in the family.’ I clamped my mouth shut. It wasn’t like me to make personal remarks about my clients, especially not to their family. I blamed the 4 a.m. supper and shared ice packs. Annoyed with myself, I carried the plate to the sink, sluiced it under the tap and stacked it on the bench. I leaned my head against the cold fridge door behind Ned. All this time he hadn’t spoken or moved.
    ‘It was selfish what Karen did, killing that little boy. And what she did to Sunny.’ He swivelled on his stool to face me. ‘But I blame Justin as much as I blame her. He was always so in control, you know?’
    This was interesting but I kept my mouth shut. One indiscretion a night was enough, and if I included the freakin’ she-devil attack my indiscretion count was already on the rise. Ned kept the ice pack on his eye with one hand and opened the cleverly disguised dishwasher door with the other. I stacked the dishes into it.
    ‘And then Karen gets sent to prison, Justin cuts her out of his life, divorces her in a flash, turns his life around completely, marries a stupendous Polish blonde, sires a replacement sonand makes himself a cool fortune.’ He set the machine going. ‘Plus he got Sunny. Karen can’t have been happy that he got custody.’ He looked at me expectantly.
    ‘She’s my client, Ned. Even if I knew how she felt about it, I wouldn’t tell you. ‘
    ‘Oh sure, sure,’ he said, waving his hand in apology. His accent was back after a sustained absence. He dropped his ice pack in the sink with a loud clatter. His eye was the size of a purple golf ball. It was swollen shut so he probably didn’t see me flinch at the sight of it. ‘I was forgetting myself, us sitting here chatting and all.’
    I didn’t intend to go back to sleep and I thought my sore bits would make it impossible but my brain had other ideas. When I woke at nine Ned was already gone. The dishwasher had been unpacked, the bench wiped down. There was a note on it, held down by a wind-up monk wearing headphones: ‘Prego. Tonight. 8 p.m. I’ll be the guy wearing the eyepatch.’
    It wouldn’t hurt to have a meal with him. Okay, another meal with him. Call it research. But if the waiter gave me a funny look when I arrived I’d know the she-devil story had preceded me and I’d be out of there toot sweet.
    I figured that since I was on the clock I should spend the extra time I had in