Smith had started paying her son’s debt yet. I could not believe that Mom knew about it.She told me that the two of them had discussed it before han..., that Jimmy needed to be taught a lesson, and I needed a great big reward. Mom had told Mrs. Smith that I was a virgin and that sex was probably the best thing in the world for me. She was probably right.The next day in school Jimmy asked me what was up. I played dumb. He told me that his mother had set him up with an after school job with old Mr.. I checked with Mom and she said it was OK with her so I said yes and told him I'd be in that morning since it was a Saturday. I'd just turned sixteen so I was legally out from under the child labor laws.When I got to the store, Aaron introduced me to his sales clerk, an old guy who looked like he should have retired years ago. He may have looked ancient but he was sharp as a tack and really funny. He couldn't get through a sentence without cracking a joke or bombing you with a pun. Turns out he. "I'm sorry, boss. There's not very much to go on. Harvey Armstrong, the editor has no vices that I can find. He hardly ever drinks, he doesn't smoke, never gambles. Jake (our tame nerd) has been through his phone records and internet history. There's nothing there. We've looked at the wife as well. She's much younger than him, early thirties, and a right goody two-shoes with an unblemished past and present. The only thing that's unusual is that she goes across to Grayson every couple of months. She was nearly William’s height, putting her on the tall side for a woman. I would have guessed William to be nearly six feet tall at the time, like his father. That put his mother, which is who I assumed this was, at about five feet-ten-ish. William said something that made her glare at him and then add Eoin to her angry gaze.“Ah, I see you are awake,” Ambrose said from my doorway. He had apparently slept over or arrived very early, because I did not hear him drive up or come into the house..