A Whole New Crowd(92)

“No.” I had one more lead. “I know someone else who might know something about Jace.”

“Who?”

“Kevin. The guy he forced to adopt me.”

*

I knew no one was home, but I parked my car around the block and walked anyway. I was dressed from head to toe in black with a red bandana around my neck. There were better items to wear, a black bandana would’ve been better, but I wanted red. It stood for Brian’s death. I was being dramatic, but I didn’t care. I didn’t know what would happen or what lengths I would go to that night. I wanted information. Kevin was going to tell me everything and if I needed to look like a homicidal maniac to get it, so be it.

Letting myself into the house, I pocketed my key and kept the lights off. Mandy was with Shelly. The two left town for Austin’s tournament and Tray texted me that Kevin had driven past him further down the road. He was on his way home. So I sat and waited.

A few minutes later, the car’s headlights flashed through the house as it turned into the driveway. The garage door opened and he parked inside. The engine turned off. He was coming. Closing my eyes, I took out my knife. That, also, was intended to strike fear in my adoptive father. When he opened the door, the light switched on and I heard his gasp. Then he belted out an abrupt laugh. “Taryn, you scared the hell out of me.”

I was still in the shadows. The kitchen light didn’t extend all the way to the end of the table where I was sitting. When he closed the door and stepped closer, he saw what I was wearing. The laughter faded and his eyes dropped to the knife. “What’s that for?”

I picked it up and put the end on the table. Then I let it spin. As I held it in place with the palm of my hand, I watched him. He watched it spin. He wasn’t laughing anymore, and he moved back a step.

“Taryn?”

I continued to stare at him until I saw his hand slide inside of his pocket. He was reaching for his phone. I asked, “Who are you going to call?”

His hand fell out of his jacket pocket. “I suppose I can’t call the cops.” He looked down. His tie was twisted, but he let it be. “I had a business meeting. What are you doing in my house?”

I glanced to the hallway. There was a pile of boxes lined up by the front door. “Are you moving?”

“Taryn.” He grimaced. “Just tell me what you want to know and I’ll tell you. I won’t hold anything back. I’m tired of all the lies. I want it over.” He closed his eyes. Resting his elbow on the counter, his fingers rubbed at his temple. “What do you want to know, Taryn?”

I laid the knife down. “Everything. Start with what you did for Jace.”

He nodded. “Okay.” His shoulders lifted and fell. “I did anything Jace wanted. Mostly, I wrote prescriptions for whatever name they gave me. He sent people to me to treat. I was their physician on hand, their medical bitch.”

“What did you get out of it?”

“Money. I got a lot of money. Both Mandy and Austin have their futures set. They can go to any college they want, and I put enough in their trust funds so they should never hurt in life. Shelly wanted to adopt a child a long time ago and we started another trust fund for that person.” Regret and pain flared in his eyes for a moment. “We had someone picked out. She even stayed with us, but there was a problem with the paperwork and she went back to her real family.” He turned away. His hand dropped from his temple and his shoulders drooped. “She died three months later. Her father beat her to death.”

“You had another foster kid that you wanted to adopt?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Why didn’t Mandy or Austin say anything?”

“We never told them. They didn’t know who the girl was. We told them she was a daughter of a friend.” There was anguish in his voice. He dropped to a whisper. “Shelly cried every night for months, but the kids never knew. We didn’t want to get their hopes up.”

I frowned. “Let’s get back to your work with Galverson and Jace. How did everything start?”

A soft chuckle left him. He nodded. “Yeah, okay.” His hand went back to pinching the top of his nose. “Uh, Jace recruited me. He said he wanted a physician on hand to treat their people and to give them pills when they needed. It went on for years. Then things changed a few years ago—”

“How long ago?”

“Maybe five years? I think. I was stupid, Taryn. Jace recruited me when he was young. I took him as a real patient. He built a relationship with me. He came in with broken ribs, bruises all over him. It was obvious that he was getting beaten at home. I’m supposed to report that, but he asked me not to. He told me it wasn’t what I thought and that he was getting out. I think I was worried that if I reported anything, something would happen like—”