Chapter Fifteen
They dropped Winnie off for her shift at the coffee shop but didn’t go in. They had other plans. Plans that included JJ letting Price into her home.
“It’s pretty standard,” she said after coming into the house from the garage. They had already shut his truck inside, hoping to keep his being there on the down-low. It wasn’t in the middle of the night and not even early morning anymore, but still, JJ wanted to err on the side of discretion.
“The house, I mean,” she tacked on. “It was already furnished when I bought it. I think most of this comes from a show house, to be honest. It’s a very furniture storeroom floor kind of vibe. But it works.”
JJ felt a flash of nerves at having the deputy in her personal space. Then again, she had just insisted that she sleep on his couch the night before. It didn’t seem right to shoo him away from her house, especially since it wasn’t exactly special.
There was only one room that held any kind of sentiment for her, and she still needed to hype herself up for that.
“I don’t think it’s standard,” Price replied, politely. He motioned around the living room. “It’s neat. Unlike my vibe of an explosion at a yard sale. You’ve seen how many little things I have collecting dust.”
JJ remembered all the family and friends in pictures that he had framed and displayed.
She had only a handful and, of those, they had all been carefully curated to uphold her backstory if anyone ever visited. As for little knickknacks and collectibles, she had none. JJ had spent the better part of her life building skills, not hobbies. Fun memories? Those were few and far between.
It hadn’t bothered her before. Yet now she couldn’t help but feel self-conscious about it. Like they had just left a warm room filled with music and stepped into a cold expanse of silence.
Just to cut through it, she fumbled with the TV remote and turned the flat-screen TV on.
“Make yourself at home while I run and take a quick shower.” She tossed him the remote. “I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
JJ hurried to her bedroom, threw together a fresh change of clothes and was in the shower before the water could even heat the rest of the way up.
Price Collins was in her home and not just for a visit. He was there to talk about her brother, Lawson Cole and how to deal with both. It made her feel jittery, but not necessarily in an uncomfortable way.
If JJ was being honest with herself, she was excited.
Not just to have someone to help, but to have Price’s help.
He had surprised her, more than once, since meeting him. He seemed like a good, charming guy who was quick with a joke, easy for a smile. He was a great father, evident in how close he and Winnie were. A good friend too, based on the fact that even Corrie couldn’t disparage the man.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
JJ had seen it while she was in the elevator. She’d seen it fighting with the man in the hood at Jamie Bell’s. She’d seen it while fighting him herself at Josiah’s.
Price had an edge to him.
A sharpness that could split.
It was the same sharpness she had seen when he had pulled her aside after breakfast.
“I’m in.”
Two words.
Simple, but even as she showered, they made her stomach flutter.
“Pull yourself together,” she told herself in between the shower’s streams of water.
Lawson and his group weren’t just a what-if anymore.
They were real and they were already here.
JJ didn’t dillydally after that. She dressed in a pair of jeans and a simple tee, braided her wet hair and only applied light makeup.
She had grown used to not putting perfume on, afraid that she would make herself too memorable while trying to stay beneath the radar, though she paused next to her jewelry box.
There were simple things in it. A few necklaces, rings and earrings that also weren’t all that memorable. JJ picked up the only thing inside with color.
It was blue, square and had an almost-worn-away flower painted on its surface. Two smaller circle beads sat on top and beneath the square. It was a hanging earring, dangling the beads on a silver wire, clumsily knotted and glued at its end.
There was only one.
JJ was feeling nostalgic. She slipped it in her right ear and smiled.
Then she was down to business.
She wasn’t the only one.
Price had his hands on his hips and was staring down at the dining room table when she found him.
He wasn’t in a suit, but his profile screamed that he was definitely a man who took a few trips to the gym.
She remembered landing a hit against those same muscles at Josiah’s.
She wondered what he would feel like in a more ideal position.
A butterfly dislodged in her stomach.
That butterfly went back and grabbed a friend.
Price turned to her, brows drawn together and oblivious to the encroaching blush pushing up her neck.
“I’m guessing you’re not the kind of person to write down important information you want to keep secret, huh?”
JJ tucked her chin a little and went around to stand opposite him. He had a piece of paper and pen on the table. It had three names on it: Josiah Teller, Jamie Bell and Marty Goldman.
She tapped her temple.
“I don’t like leaving a trail, no,” she said. “Riker used to joke that I would make a good super villain if I ever felt so inclined. I tend to do everything as analog or off-the-books as possible. Ironic, considering I’m going after a group who employs some of the same values.”
Price waved a hand dismissively through the air between them.
“But you’re using your powers for good, not evil, so I’ll say it evens out.” He pointed to the list of names. “Me? I need to see some ink to think. And, yes, I know that rhymed.”
JJ held in a smile. Price’s expression had gone sharp again.
He wasn’t trying to be charming.
He was trying to work.
“Okay, so you found these guys through adoption records you may or may not have used your computer powers to get,” he kept on.
“You said there’s two more names you found that fit the bill?
The same age, adopted, and living in Seven Roads?
I’m honestly surprised there’s more than one with that description, let alone five. ”
JJ took the paper and pen and spun both around.
“Well, apparently, Marty Goldman didn’t count,” she reminded him.
“As you were smart enough to throw out to Lawson—even though you had no idea what was going on, by the way—Marty’s adoption was a lie.
One his parents came up with after realizing his mother had an affair and then ended up working it out and staying together.
His record of adoption was less a record and more a collection of posts I found mentioning it.
” She tapped Josiah and Jamie’s names. “These are the only two I actually found official documents for, though I couldn’t find the specifics like when they were adopted.
That’s why I needed to get into their homes to see their official paperwork.
Or something that might convince me they were my brother. ”
She wrote down two more names.
“These last names are mostly based on hearsay and, I had been hoping, two names I wouldn’t have to check in person yet.”
Price leaned over.
She watched his eyes widen at one of them.
“Before you say it, I know,” she said. “Connor Clark. He’s going to be a problem.”
Price shook his head. He tapped the other name.
“No, Anthony Boyd is going to be the problem. He needs to be the last person we look at, and really hope we don’t have to. Connor Clark? He’s actually doable.”
“You know both?”
He shrugged.
“Connor is a high school teacher, or has been, for a few years now. He spoke at Winnie’s freshmen orientation before she started school. And I only remember who he is so clearly because every single mom in there was drooling. He’s a looker.”
In the most casual way possible, Price brought his gaze up to hers. Then it roamed across her before he nodded.
“I guess you’d have that in common if he really is your brother.”
Price’s attention went right back to the paper.
JJ was glad for the break because every inch of her face felt like it was on fire.
“I don’t know where he lives, but I do know it’s somewhere near the school,” he continued. “As for any family, adoptive or otherwise, I haven’t heard anything. How did you end up flagging him?”
JJ cleared her throat as discretely as possible before she answered.
“Uh, there’s an online fostering and adoption Facebook group for the state. He commented on a post where someone was asking advice on when they should tell their child that they had been adopted as a baby.”
“What did he say?”
“‘Being adopted isn’t something that is embarrassing or should be kept hidden. Normalizing it as part of the child’s story will only help them realize that it is normal.
’ Something to that effect at least. He also liked several comments that suggested they tell their child when they’re old enough to understand and to mention it often. ”
“Which might not be enough to put him on your list but I’m assuming he’s also the same age?”
JJ nodded.
“He also lived here when he was a kid before leaving for college.”
“And how did you get Boyd on here?” Price asked. He didn’t sound as enthused anymore.
“Anthony Boyd was adopted by his stepmother when he was a baby. I couldn’t find any pictures of his biological mother on any searches I ran.
I didn’t want to rule him out as a possibility until I could find out if his father had any pictures of his mother around or talk to him about her. The problem is with that—”
“That Anthony Boyd’s father passed when he was a teen, his stepmom remarried and moved, and currently he lives and works on my least favorite place in Seven Roads. The Becker Farm, run by the meanest and nosiest old man I ever met.”
JJ felt her eyebrow go up.
“Price Collins has someone he doesn’t like that much?” she had to ask.
Price grumbled.
“More like Becker doesn’t like me. You get caught once fooling around in his barn in high school and he holds a grudge like a hamster holds food in his cheeks.
” He sobered. “Have you asked Corrie about these guys? She’s a gossip magnet.
Even if she doesn’t know the backstory herself, she could probably get it for you. ”
JJ had already considered that avenue, but the fact of the matter was, she’d already used it three times.
“I learned a lot from her about the first three names on the list. I don’t want to push my luck. Or hers.” Now that Lawson was around, she didn’t need him hearing about a woman asking after two names he might or might not have already.
Price seemed to pick up on that thought.
“So what’s the plan, then?” he asked after a moment. “What do you want to do?”
She believed that Price had accepted her story, but JJ was on edge about her next steps.
Price was the law. Would he really help her break it if she needed to?
JJ cleared her throat. This time it wasn’t because he’d made her blush.
“We try to talk to them to see if we can figure out where they came from.”
Price must have picked up on her change in worries.
His bright eyes raised to hers.
“And if talking doesn’t work?” he asked.
JJ kept her voice just as strong.
“Then we improvise.”
* * *
Lawson slammed his fist on the tabletop. He was frustrated; he was energized.
“There’s one last name we could think of that might have a tie to the Ortiz child,” the man across from his said. “I have someone going out there to check on it. But—”
“But that deputy just went with that woman of his to the farm,” he finished, rehashing the information he had just been given himself.
The man nodded.
“I don’t know how much Deputy Collins knows about what we’re doing, but since he’s been at the last three scenes, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say he’s tangled up with us.”
Lawson hit the tabletop again. Now he was just frustrated.
“Dad said he made a deal with Ortiz’s partner all those years ago to keep it a secret.
Who’s to say they didn’t loop in any more law enforcement?
Or maybe the son himself could have if he realized who his dad was.
” He clenched his fist. “This. This is why my father was a fool. We have no idea what to expect with this supposed evidence floating around out there. That’s why we need to destroy it once and for all.
And anyone who’s even remotely related to it. ”
The man nodded.
Lawson grumbled.
“What about the deputy’s woman?” he asked after a moment. “Can we use her?”
“Normal. Southern polite, works at the coffee shop in town alongside the deputy’s daughter. I’m guessing that’s how they met.”
Lawson sat up straight.
“Wait. Did you say that Deputy Collins has a daughter?”
“Yep. Seventeen-year-old girl.”
Lawson’s mind starting spinning. He smiled after a moment.
“Does she go to the high school?”
The man nodded again.
Lawson’s smile turned into a smirk.
He was back to energized.
“Send someone to this farm and keep an eye on the deputy and his awful woman.”
The man tilted his head in question.
“What about our lead? The teacher?”
Lawson was nothing but smug now.
“I think we might have just found a way to kill a lot of birds with only one, very effective stone.”