Chapter 41
That Coleson woman just would not die. He had been waiting on word from his sources at the hospital for days now. Lt. Coleson was fighting the infection, but it was still touch and go now. Waiting was just prolonging everything.
There were far too many loose ends out there.
People who knew too much. He stayed where he was at his desk and looked at the notes in front of him.
Riely was in bed. The girl had been upset with him for something foolish.
They’d discussed it and he’d told her what the punishment would be.
She hadn’t argued after that, though she was starting to fight him on far too many things lately.
He blamed too much screen time. He knew she had been sneaking social media.
He did not want her online—especially now. She adored that ridiculous Garlic newspaper. And that damned worthless rag had been filled with gossip and stories he did not want her seeing right now. The girl had enough to be concerned about.
She was starting to accept that her father wasn’t going to wake.
That it wasn’t going to be an idyllic kind of world for her going forward.
She’d wanted a real relationship with her father so deeply through the last four years.
Unfortunately, her father hadn’t been as interested.
He’d barely paid her any attention, even in passing.
Riely hadn’t said so aloud but he suspected that had been crushing for her.
Had she been a boy, maybe, but…well. Riely had her grandfather now.
He knew the girl was vaguely aware that she had two younger half-sisters as well, though she didn’t know their names.
He suspected she was trying to find out.
She had been asking him questions about when she would get to meet them, and what they were like.
And why had she never met the girls’ mother.
He had simply told her that relationships were complicated. That the girls’ mother and father were not together now, and that the girls’ mother wanted nothing to do with the father’s family. That Riely would have to wait until she was older before he would answer any other questions she might have.
He didn’t think she’d bought it—Riely was a very intelligent child. He wouldn’t be able to evade her questions forever.
There were people out there that knew who he was, and what he had done in his life.
They knew about his son. What that young fool had done.
And that could make things complicated.
He had a young grandchild. She would one day inherit his legacy. What she would get from her father would be tainted forever now. That was something she would always have to compensate for. She would learn to deal.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t clean up what he could for her. And make sure that what he had once intended to provide for his son, he would give to his granddaughter to ensure she was taken care of for the rest of her life. Riely was all that was left of his legacy now.
He did not want to spend the rest of his life in prison. The fools in Major Crimes were getting much closer to him than he had thought that they would be able to. That was something he was going to have to consider.
There were ways of dealing with loose ends and screw ups.
And he had an entire network of assets ready and willing to do just that. He traded in cold hard cash or favors. Either came in so handy.
With just a simple phone call.
First, he had some clean up from the past to take care of.
Just a few more loose ends. He had to retrieve a few things from the evidence room at Finley Creek he had left there years ago.
He had not intended to be transferred out of Finley Creek when he had.
He had to leave a few things behind. He’d been working for a while to rectify that.
Now that Eastman and Grundenman’s little affairs had come to light, a major source of revenue for him had been cut off. He had to make sure nothing tied him to those fools.
And that meant…clean up. It was time to do some housekeeping.