Chapter 33
THIRTY-THREE
All the color drained from Devyn’s face as she stared down at the closed folder. Her brown eyes were cold, as if she was still staring at the image through the papers blocking her from it. I would’ve given anything to reverse time, to erase that picture from her mind. Devyn would never have wanted that, though. Because this was fucked in more ways than I ever thought possible.
I knew Laurel had a grudge against their stepfather, but she’d never told me about the connection with their father. When we first started, we were just looking for something that might show insider trading or other shady business dealings, something the authorities could handle. However, as we kept digging, we uncovered darker secrets, some that haunted me in the middle of the night. We didn’t know if David was responsible for all forty-eight deaths in that folder, but he was involved in some capacity. They kept me up at night, imagining who we’d have to add next. The worst nights were the ones when I imagined it was Devyn’s picture being added to the top, and there was nothing I could do to stop it .
“No,” Devyn said suddenly. “It’s not possible. That was years before he ever came into town, before he knew any of us.”
“That’s not true,” Laurel said. “I’ve found lawsuits filed by our father, blocking the sale of land in town to one of his subsidiaries. They named David as one of the defendants.”
“It was an accident,” Devyn insisted. “Bad weather. His car lost control?—“
Laurel motioned to the file. “That’s what we were told . But read the police report. There were signs of another car, like someone forced his car off the road. It reads the same as other cases in that folder.”
Devyn just kept shaking her head, as if she was trying to keep the words from landing. “No, Laurel, this is insane! You’re saying David is responsible for dozens of deaths? Including our father?” She ran her fingers over her face. “This is so much bigger than we thought.”
"Which is why I didn't want you involved," Laurel said softly, the words hanging in the air like a silent plea. “From the moment I connected the first death to him, I tried to hide this from you and Calla. I couldn’t risk him hurting you two.”
“But you could risk Gray?” she snapped. “You threw my husband into the line of fire!”
“He knew the risks.”
Devyn turned to me, tears filling her eyes. “You should have told me.”
“I didn’t know,” I sighed, pulling her over to the side. “I know about some of the connections Laurel made, but I never knew about your dad. I swear, Ace.”
She searched my eyes and then nodded slightly. I let out the biggest sigh of relief. “But now you know why I needed you away from this. I couldn’t risk you– ”
“You shouldn’t have taken that risk either, Gray,” Devyn snapped. “The moment this got too dangerous, you should have walked away. If anything had happened to you…” Her brown eyes searched mine. “You should have walked away.”
“Would you have walked away?”
She snapped her mouth closed, and I had the only answer I needed. Devyn shook her head and walked back over to the bed, almost in silent agreement. We were in this, and neither of us was leaving without the other.
Devyn sat down on the bedspread and ran her hand over her face. “I don’t have the mental capacity to even think about this, much less what you’re implying.” She looked up at Laurel. “You have the list of names, and I have all of David’s financial records. If we combine what we both know, maybe we can find some kind of payment history.”
“We can try,” Tomas said, pulling out his laptop. “I’ve one of my best hackers digging into some of these offshore accounts, but we haven’t gotten anywhere yet. Whoever is handling things behind the scenes, they’re good.”
“Or are they just better than you?” Laurel asked.
Tomas’ eyes narrowed. “You want to make comments about me, go ahead, but not my team. They are the best, and I won’t let anyone question that, especially not you.”
I glanced at Devyn, who was transfixed by the argument unfolding in front of us. Tomas’ tone had no hint of flirting—he was utterly still and solemn. Laurel stared at him, likely waiting for him to say something more, but he just continued to work, effectively turning his back on her.
“There has to be something,” Devyn mumbled as she stood, looking at all the boxes. Her voice was low, as if talking more to herself than the rest of us. “I refuse to believe he’s committed perfect crimes. ”
“Or he’s just very good at burying the skeletons in his closet.”
“Wait,” I said, grabbing the folder Devyn had pushed aside. “Maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve been trying to work backwards,” I said as I dug through the file, trying to sort the printouts by date. “We’ve been looking at his most recent crimes, thinking they would have the most evidence, more information we could pull from different servers. But we should be looking at his oldest crimes, trying to connect those dots.”
Laurel looked at me. “Why?”
“Because rookies make the most mistakes,” I answered under my breath. “Think about it. David’s business had to be built from the ground up. There’s a long history here. And if he made mistakes, it would have been back then, before he knew anyone was looking. Before he made connections that could help him cover up his crimes.”
Laurel shook her head. “I don’t know. Some of these people have been missing for twenty years. What are we going to be able to find that the investigators missed?”
“We’ll never know if we don’t check it out.” I shuffled through the papers, pulling out the one sticking in the back of my mind. “This man—William Garber. He disappeared in 2004 from a town only twenty minutes outside of Saint Stephen’s Lake. I say we start with him and see if we can find something the cops overlooked.”
Laurel’s eyes narrowed at me. “It seems like a long shot.”
“But it could be something,” Devyn added, meeting my eyes with a proud smile. “Even if it ends up being a dead-end, it’s a place to start. Better than spinning our wheels trying to dig through all these files again. ”
“Fine,” Laurel sighed, pushing an errant hair out of her face. “You two try to track down more about William Garber. But if we haven’t found something by the end of the week, we need to explore other avenues.”
“Deal,” I said. “It’s getting late. We should head out before it gets too dark.” I reached out to Devyn. “You ready, Ace?”
Devyn nodded and moved to my side. But before we could leave, she glanced at the files one more time. “We’re missing something, I can feel it. There’s some thread tying all this together, and we’re missing it.”
“I know, but we’ll find it,” I said as I leaned down and kissed her temple. We glanced over at Tomas and Laurel. “Are you staying in town?”
Tomas smirked. “You’re looking at my digs. Staying here as long as it takes.”
Devyn’s eyes narrowed in his direction, “Are you sure it's safe?”
“Definitely,” Tomas said, his tone taking a much more serious edge. I appreciated that he wanted to soothe my wife’s worries and that he knew how to take certain things seriously. “No one knows I’m here but my team, and I paid cash. Also gave them a fake name, just in case anyone comes sniffing around.”
“You come prepared,” I grumbled.
“Perks of the job,” he smirked. “Anonymity is part of the package. You learn quickly to keep yourself off anyone’s radar.”
I nodded over to Laurel. “What about you?”
She was so focused on Devyn, it took her a moment to process what I’d asked. “I’m staying at the Isadora with Mom. She needs some help redecorating David’s old office, and I thought it might be a good idea to see if there’s anything left behind that might be useful for us.”
“How long does Harry think you’ll be gone?” Devyn asked.
She gave her sister a sad smile. “Unlike your husband, mine actually prefers when I’m not home.”
“Smart man,” Tomas whispered under his breath.
But it wasn’t quite low enough, because Laurel glared at him with as much vitriol as she could muster. He wasn’t fazed, however, and just continued to stare at his computer screen.
Devyn looked up at me, suddenly looking exhausted under the weight of what we learned today. “I’d like to go help too,” she said, turning toward her sister. “Maybe we could even ask Mom where Dad’s old files ended up. Might be worth checking out to find a connection.”
Laurel nodded, dropping her gaze down to the floor. “I’d like that.”