Chapter 37 #2
“It was a few nights after you helped me,” she said to the detective. “I heard a noise in the middle of the night. Sat up all night with a baseball bat and the next morning, I found graffiti on my garage door. I can’t know for sure that it was from him. But it said ‘Frigid Bitch.’”
“Asshole,” Brody muttered.
“Yeah, he is,” she agreed.
“What did dad say when you told him about Vince trying to stick his hand up your skirt?” Marlin asked. “That he wouldn’t take no for an answer?”
“Oh, Vince told him that I was lying. That it had been the other way around. That I’d come onto Vince and took it badly when he said no.
Kathryn has had years of making me appear like I’m a liar.
So of course he believed Vince. The golden boy.
Dad actually told me that he was disgusted by me and the lies I was trying to spread about Vince.
God, you should have seen Vince’s face when he said that to me. He looked so happy.”
“I’m gonna kill the bastard,” Matthieu muttered.
“I’m going to pretend I never heard that,” Detective Reeves said.
“You do that,” Matthieu replied.
“I just don’t know why Vince would try to kill me now. That’s what he was trying to do, right?” she asked, rubbing her stomach with the hand that wasn’t petting Tank.
The painkillers were wearing off. She tried to pull more of the numb around her but it was disappearing too.
Crap.
That wasn’t good.
She had to be alone when it completely faded. She didn’t want to fall apart in front of anyone else.
Numb. You are numb. You feel nothing.
“I don’t know,” her brother said. “Where were you tonight? Was there any way he’d have known you weren’t home?”
She shook her head. “No, it wasn’t anything scheduled.”
“It was very last minute,” Matthieu added. “There’s no way he could have known unless he was keeping an eye on the place somehow. And why do it then? We are gone during the day, he could have done it then.”
“Does he know you have animals?” Detective Reeves asked.
“Yes,” she said in a strangled voice. “I’ve been scared he’d try to hurt them to get to me. I should have done more to protect them.”
It was her fault they’d nearly been harmed.
“They’re safe, Spitfire,” Matthieu said in a low voice. “You did all you could to protect them.”
“I should have moved. I should have left Billings.” She stared down into Tank’s hazel-colored eyes. She should have trusted in him more.
In herself more.
“I need to get out of Billings,” she said.
“I have an idea of where you can go,” Ink told her. “I’m just waiting to hear back from someone.”
She nodded. Okay. Good.
“Wouldn’t Vince have known about the cameras?” Ink asked. “He was in that initial meeting when we talked about getting a security system put in.”
“He might not realize that we had some aimed at the street and he kept his balaclava on until he got back to his car. He probably also doesn’t know that we’ve worked out that he’s been using his aunt’s car.
I wanted a camera recording the street traffic because of Ryan Straun, Maya’s stalker,” Matthieu said to her brother and Detective Reeves.
“Her what?” her brother asked.
“Her ex-boss?” Detective Reeves asked. Hmm, he was way more clued in on her life that she ever could have guessed. “He was stalking you?”
“Um, yeah, as it turns out he was,” she said.
“What happened?” her brother snapped.
“Perhaps we can get into that another time,” Ink suggested. “Ryan has been taken care of, Vince is still out there.”
“And unfortunately the person I sent to his place hasn’t seen him,” Detective Reeves said.
“I’ve got people looking for him too,” Ink told them.
He did?
“So you don’t know why Vince would escalate?” Detective Reeves asked her.
“I really don’t,” she replied.
“You know that Dad can’t bury this, right?” her brother asked. “He’ll have to take hard evidence seriously. And this is arson and attempted murder. He cannot make excuses for Vince.”
Maya swallowed heavily. She couldn’t help but feel like he’d try, though.
“We don’t have enough evidence yet against everyone who is corrupt in the force,” Detective Reeves said.
“But Vince could be what we need. He’s obviously played a big role and he likely knows who the key players are.
If we can find him, we could turn him. But we need to do that before he’s taken out. ”
She stared at him in shock. “You think that someone might kill him because of what he knows?”
“If I was a corrupt cop and I wanted to keep that secret and there was a loose cannon out there who knew . . . that’s what I’d do,” Detective Reeves said.
“You’re talking about our dad,” she said, her gaze flicking to her brother. “You think that Dad would have Vince . . . killed?”
“I don’t want to think this about our own father. But I’ve seen the evidence myself. And there have been some witnesses that have gone missing in the past couple of years. So . . . I guess if he saw him as a threat, he might,” her brother replied.
“You don’t think that Dad . . . that he told Vince to . . . to get rid of me?” she asked, that thought just occurring to her now.
She was going to be ill. She felt Tank press close to her on one side and Matthieu shifted closer to her on the other side. She took strength and comfort from them both. Big Berry snorted and shuffled in next to Tank.
She really was the best pig.
“No.” Her brother shook his head. “I don’t think that.
Seems our dad has a huge amount of faults, but I don’t think he’d have one of his own kids killed.
There would be no reason for it. Especially not when he hired someone to protect you.
Although that did surprise me. I think that for some reason, Vince decided to do this on his own.
Now he’s in the wind and we need to find him.
Once we do, we may get the answers we need. ”
“You haven’t gotten anywhere in the investigation of who is threatening the Chief?” Brody asked.
“No.” Her brother frowned. “And it’s frustrating. The threats are sporadic and we’ve no idea who is sending them. There are too many suspects at this point.”
“So you’re going to tell Dad? About Vince and what he did?” she asked.
Her brother nodded. “We’ll go there after this.
He already knows someone set your place on fire.
But he doesn’t know about Vince. We did think about hiding the video footage until after we had Vince in custody but we have to be careful to do this aboveboard and to not tip anyone that we’re onto them. ”
“We’ll keep working on tracking Vince too,” Ink told them.
Her brother and Detective Reeves shared a look. “It would be better if you didn’t,” her brother warned.
“He tried to kill someone under our protection and one of my men,” Ink said. “We’re not as tied up in following the law and procedure as you are.”
“And if you find him first? You’ll hand him over?” Detective Reeves asked.
“Eventually.”
“We need to get that information legally,” her brother said. “We can’t use it if we don’t.”
Ink nodded. “Understood. I won’t compromise your investigation.”
Maya stared at her brother for a long moment. It was like she’d never met him. She couldn’t imagine how it would feel to investigate their father.
“Is there anything else we need to talk about?” Matthieu asked. “Maya is exhausted.”
“There’s one thing,” Detective Reeves said then he turned to Maya. “Do you want to be there when we show your father the video footage?”
She hadn’t expected him to say that. “I don’t . . . should I be there?”
“Dad’s been asking where you are,” her brother said. “Apparently, he’s been calling you.”
Right. She had seen those missed calls. She drew her phone out of her pocket where she’d put it before. “It’s dead.”
She should charge it. She needed to message Millie and tell her thank you for taking her girls. Maybe she should ask her to take on some more of her babies if they had to go to a safe house. But she couldn’t imagine being without them.
“There’s a spare charger in the safe room. I think it’s best you all stay there tonight,” Ink told her.
“It’s too late to drive anywhere,” Matthieu agreed.
“Okay.” She was too exhausted to argue, not that she really wanted to. She just wanted to be safe. For her babies to be safe. And to not have to think for a while.
Detective Reeves gave her a surprisingly soft look. “If I was you, I might take a bit of . . . pleasure in pointing out to your father how wrong he was about his golden cop.”
Unless her father did know what he’d done . . . if he’d asked him to do it. No, that didn’t make sense.
“Isn’t that a bit petty?” she asked, even as the idea took hold.
“I say be petty,” Brody told her. Then he flushed as everyone looked at him. “Also, you might be able to get some insight into your father by studying his reaction.”
That was true.
“All right. I want to do that.”
Detective Reeves nodded and stood.
“Can I have a moment with my sister alone?” her brother asked.
Matthieu stiffened beside her and she knew he was going to stay no. But she wanted to talk to her brother. She felt like he was a stranger to her now.
“Yes,” she said.
Matthieu leaned in closer. “Maya, I don’t want you out of my sight.”
“She’ll be safe with me,” her brother said, sounding offended.
“You might say that, but I’ve learned that there are very few people that I would trust Maya with, especially her family.”
“I know you’re looking out for me, but my brother won’t hurt me. And I’m safe here, right?” There was only one door in and out. And while she couldn’t say the same for all of her family, she was pretty sure that her brother would not harm her.
Although pretty sure wasn’t a hundred percent certain.
“Come on,” Ink said to Matthieu. “We need to talk and we can do it in the hallway.”
“I’m going to leave the door open slightly,” Matthieu warned her brother.
“I’m going to get some treats for your pets,” Brody told her. “Any dietary requirements?”
“Um, Gummy can’t eat anything too hard,” she told him. “And none of us eat pork or chicken. That’s really nice. Thank you.”
Finally, they were all gone and it was just her and Marlin.
He tapped his fingers on the table, looking awkward. What was going on? What more did he have to say?
“This isn’t easy. It wasn’t a simple decision for me,” he finally said. “Looking into Dad, that is.”
Ahh. That’s what he wanted to talk to her about.
“I’m not judging you or upset with you,” she told him. “I get that this wouldn’t be easy.”
“I wanted to be a cop to protect people. I never imagined that I’d end up working for IA.
They approached me when they received a number of complaints against Dad.
They figured I was the best person to take on the job.
At first, I agreed to do it because I didn’t believe them.
I thought I’d prove them wrong. Then I saw things with my own eyes that I couldn’t ignore.
Things are bad in the force and the people of Billings deserve better. You deserve better.”
“And no one else could do this?” she asked.
“No one who Dad wouldn’t have suspected. There are still plenty of good cops on the force. But more and more I’m thinking that the tendrils of evil penetrate deep into the folds of the police force. And I think that some of the good cops are being blackmailed or threatened into doing bad things.”
That didn’t sound good.
“How long has it been going on?”
“I don’t know. A couple of years maybe,” he said. “You know that saying, ‘The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for a few good men to do nothing’?”
“Yeah, Mom liked that saying,” she said.
“She did. She would want me to do this. No matter who I’m going up against. But it still doesn’t make it easy. I wanted you to know that.”
Maya nodded and then made a choice. Standing, she threw her arms around him.
“I know it’s not easy. I know it probably more than anyone else does.
Thank you for taking this on, though. Because as hard as it is for us, it has to be done.
What’s happening isn’t right. And I know that Mom would be proud of you for doing what’s right even when it’s so hard. ”
She felt the tension slump out of him.
“You think Maisy will understand?” he asked.
Leaning back, she looked up at him with a small smile. “She will. Maybe not straight away, but we were all raised with a sense of right and wrong and justice. I don’t know what happened to Dad along the way, but the three of us remember that.”
“Sorry I failed you, little sister.”
“I did my best to push everyone away. It seemed easier that way. Now, I realize I was incredibly alone.”
“I don’t want you to feel like that ever again. After this is over, I might have to leave. I don’t know what will happen. But you can come with me, if that’s what you want.”
She didn’t know what she wanted. But she had options. Which is more than she’d ever felt like she had. She hugged him again, then gathered up the leads for Tank and Big Berry who had decided to stay with her.
Maybe she’d lost her father in all of this . . . but it seemed she might have found her brother again. One couldn’t replace the other . . . but it could soften the blow.
And she’d lost her father a long time ago anyway.