Chapter 30
Austin
After carefully repacking Nina’s blanket and teddy bear, I placed them in the bin.
“Let’s return these to Nina,” I said, grabbing the bin as Ryan put the equipment we’d borrowed away. “You’re driving. I want to call John.”
“So we’re going to Weatherford?”
“You have somewhere else you’re supposed to be on a gorgeous Friday morning?”
He didn’t.
“Do you think your uncle will help us without trying to take over?”
I laughed. “I fully expect him to be a royal pain in our asses.”
“Noted. Can I put him in his place?”
“No. Let me handle him.” Then, just for good measure, I added, “All of them. I don’t need you facing off against my cousins.”
“Are your non-cousins fair game?” he grinned.
“No, G, they are not.”
Everyone at SSI was considered family.
And their family tree was a jumbled mess. Doug was engaged to Beth; John and Mary were godparents to her son, Chase. AJ was Jack’s best man, and Mary had unofficially adopted him. Cate married Jay. Nathan married Ashley, who was best friends with Meg and Emily. And Matt had just proposed to Madi.
Everyone at SSI had legit family ties to the Sheppards, and the Sheppards protected their own.
“Fuck with one of them—”
“Fuck with all of them,” G finished for me. “I can respect that.”
Brotherhood was a concept he understood. A concept he lived by and would probably die by.
In the car, I dialed the SSI office line.
“Sheppard and Sons Investigations, how can I help you?” Meg’s cheery voice answered.
“Hi Meg, it’s Austin. Is John available?”
“Hi Austin, give me a second to check.”
Soft country music filled the silence.
“I’ll put you through.”
“Thank you.” I hit the speaker button so G could listen.
After a series of clicks, John answered on the first ring.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” John asked.
“Morning John, Gibson’s with me.”
After they greeted each other, I said, “We found something.”
“What?”
“We’re on our way to Weatherford now, any chance we can meet after we return Nina’s belongings?”
I trusted John to read between the lines, and he didn’t disappoint.
“Should she be here for this?”
G shook his head. I agreed.
“No, not yet.”
“Copy that. Is this a private meeting, or should I call in the team?”
“Just you and the boys.”
“The J-Squad it is,” John said with a chuckle. “ETA?”
I glanced at the directions displayed on Gibson’s phone. “Give us ninety.”
As I waited for my uncle and cousins to sit, I swallowed the bitter pill that was my pride. “We found a key in Nina’s teddy bear, and we’d like your help figuring out where it goes.”
Three identical grins appeared on three very different faces as three sets of eyes turned to John.
His lip twitched as he fought back the grin his sons had inherited. “So I guess this is no longer above my, our, pay grade?”
“It is. By several orders of magnitude, but that’s why you’re perfect for the job.”
And I could trust them.
“Are you in?”
“Boys?” John asked.
“I’m in,” Jamie answered first, followed by Jack.
“Oh, I’m in alright,” Jay said. “It’s been a hot minute since I’ve played with the alphabet soup.”
God, I hate working with spec ops guys. They were egotistical and loved being pains in my ass. Present company included.
“This is way off the record. How secure is your system?”
“Doug will be insulted you asked,” Jack said.
“Don’t expect me to apologize.”
I set down the rules: no discussing the case over the phone, and only use laptops connected to the secure network. “And remember, you can’t tell anyone what we discuss.”
“What happens in the conference room stays in the conference room,” Jay joked.
John shot him a corrective look before saying, “Mary knows something’s up.”
“What did you tell her?” My harsh question sparked his irritation.
“Nothing you didn’t give me permission to tell her.” He stood, his irritation obvious in the set of his jaw. “We know the rules, so quit wasting our time. We have a business to run.”
Right. I was asking them for a favor, and they were disrupting their business to help me. I owed them more than formality and disrespect.
“You’re right. I’ll pay you for your time.”
John sucked in a deep breath, held it for two seconds, and released it. “Austin, your family and—”
“We take care of our own,” Jay finished.
“This isn’t about me.”
“Not directly, but you’re helping Nina, and Mary and Beth adore her.”
I nodded, knowing I wouldn’t win.
“Now, tell us what you found.” John said after he sat down.
“The Singer’s hid a note and key inside the teddy bear.”
How they’d survived this long was a miracle. The plastic protecting the note inside the bear had all but disintegrated; one more wash might have destroyed it completely.
I placed two plastic bags on the table. One protected the key, the other protected the faded note—a riddle, from what we could read.
“Can I see it?” Jack asked, reaching for the note.
Jack read it aloud, “Where the sun and moon align, the treasure resides.” Then he handed the note to Jamie.
“The key’s engraved,” John said. Squinting, he read the letters, “Love?”
“That’s less than helpful,” Jack said with a chuckle.
“On a phone they represent 2, 6, 8, and 3,” Jay said.
Jack wrote the riddle on his legal pad, and the letters and numbers below it.
“The key looks like a safe deposit box or locker key, so we want to start there first,” Gibson said.
“Any chance you can narrow down the location?” Jamie asked. “The world is a pretty big place.”
“We snuck a peek at Nina’s adoption file—”
Jay cut G off, “Hacked.”
Gibson shot a glare Jay’s way before continuing. “The Singers didn’t have any local ties to the area.”
“Then how’d Nina end up here?” Jamie asked.
“We’re not sure; we still haven’t found the connection between the Singers and the Fosters.”
It was possible the Singers placed the Fosters in WitSec—God knows their name is a little on the nose—but we still hadn’t found any evidence. If we dug deep enough, we might find their real identities, but even I didn’t have that kind of clearance.
“Any chance she was abducted?” Jay asked.
“There’s no evidence to suggest it. I stand by our assumption that the Fosters were protecting Nina.”
“That’s one hell of an assumption,” John argued.
“You know what they say about those who assume?” Jay added.
“Everything we’ve found so far indicates the Singers wanted to protect Nina. If the daughter of two CIA officers went missing, there’d be evidence they looked for her.” Gibson leaned his elbows on the table and answered calmer than I would’ve expected.
“Dallas is the nearest big city to the Fosters, so it makes sense to start the search there.”
Jack finally lifted his head. “The sun and moon could be a business name, or represent two neighboring businesses. I’ll search for business names with those words and variations, and see what I find.”
“You can narrow the search to those near banks and buildings with public lockers in them, like train or bus stations.”
“It’s been twenty years; what are the chances the business is still operating?” John asked.
“Or the building still standing?” Jamie added.
“We know it’s a long shot, but we have to try.” Going on a wild goose chase was better than sitting on our asses waiting for our unsubs to make their next move.
“Jack, can you ask Meg to order lunch?”
“I’d like to talk to Nina,” I said. “We don’t mind waiting until her shift is over.”
“You didn’t talk to her when you dropped off her stuff?” John sounded shocked.
“No. You made it clear we couldn’t talk to her without you present.” I chose not to be offended that he thought I’d circumvent his rules. “And I wanted to talk to you before telling her what we found.”
“So she doesn’t know about this?” Jamie indicated the key and note.
“No, and I’m not looking forward to telling her we had to cut open her bear to retrieve them.”
“I don’t envy you that job,” Jamie said.
“You don’t think she noticed?” Jay asked with a laugh.
“I sewed him back up.”
I could handle her wrath; it was her tears I dreaded. Ignoring my cousin’s good natured ribbing, I reassured John, “I don’t want to cause her any more stress than necessary, so I don’t plan on dumping everything in her lap.”
“What will you tell her?”
“The truth. We found a key and a note. And I’ll ask if there’s anything about them that feels familiar or sparks a memory.”
“Dude, she was three when she was adopted. I doubt she remembers anything,” Jay said. He wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t appreciate his attitude.
Even those of us with stable, happy childhoods would struggle to remember our infancy, and Nina’s early years were anything but happy or stable.
“I know, but I’ve learned we can’t rule anything out. Nina may know more than she realizes, and the right item could spark her memory.”
I looked at the key and note in their plastic bags, hoping they could perform a miracle while knowing deep down they couldn’t.
“I’ll get to work on my search. Are you working here until Nina gets off work?”
“Is that an offer?”
“Yes,” John answered. “I’ll have Doug set you up in here.”
“Thank you.”
“I never would’ve predicted I’d be working a case with you, but I’m glad we can help.”
I shook John’s proffered hand.
“The team is at your disposal when they aren’t working their current assignments.”
“Thank you, they all know to keep this quiet and only use secure servers, right?”
“If you keep insulting them, they’ll be a hell of a lot less friendly when they help you,” John answered.
“Right. Sorry. I usually work with highly trained officers or untrained civilians; I’m not used to working with highly trained civilians.”
“Get used to it.”
“Yes, sir.” I saluted.
“Don’t call me sir,” he said with a grin.