Edge of Midnight (McClouds & Friends #4)(115)

Ivers’s sharp laugh sounded bitter. “Whoop-de-doo for you, honey. Got you a big macho man, huh? My wife wasn’t so lucky. She was gone in less than a month. With the kids. Bye bye to the ball-less wonder.”

“I’m sorry,” Liv said quietly.

“She married again,” he said dully. “The kids have her husband’s name. The only thing I can do for them is stay away. I haven’t seen my kids in ten years.” Ivers sagged, putting his face in his hands.

Sean waited for Ivers to get his boozy weeping under control, and pressed on. “Do you remember the name of the Flaxon rep?”

Ivers mopped his face, gulping snot. “Charles Parrish. But I don’t recommend calling. Unless you want a nighttime visit from Godzilla.”

Sean hesitated a couple of beats. “Bring him on,” he said.

Ivers stared at him. “Fuck you,” he said. “I hope you get those filthy bastards. But f*ck you anyhow.” He glanced at Liv. “No offense.”

“None taken,” she said.

Ivers got up, and yanked the door open. “It’s time for you to take your extra load of testosterone and get lost,” he said. “I’ll hold the dogs.”

Sean nodded, unoffended. The guy’s shame and anger made perfect sense to him. He and Liv got through the gate, but he stopped before getting into the car. “Hey,” he said. “If I get lucky and nail those guys, I’ll contact you. Give you the all clear. You can go find your kids.”

Ivers stared at him, his mouth turned down. “Too late,” he said. “I’m wasted now. I’m all f*cked up. They’re better off without me now.”

“It’s not too late.” He had no idea where the intensity in his voice came from. “Those bastards put it to you for fifteen years. Do not bend over and let them do it to you again. It’s not too goddamn late.”

He got into the car, started it up. Ivers stood like a statue in the yard, the dogs snapping and lunging on their chains. His big, hollow eyes followed them as the car pulled down the street.



Liv was startled to see Nick at the bar, along with Sean’s brother Davy, when they walked into Tam’s kitchen.

“What’s with him?” Sean asked Tam. “What, haven’t you gotten that thermal imager installed yet?”

Tam grunted sourly. “He knows where I live. The only remedy now is to put him through the woodchipper and feed him to the pigs.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “You don’t keep pigs. You don’t chip wood, either. And you need to do something about that irrational hostility.”

“Where’s Con?” Sean asked hastily, before the bristling Tam could gather herself for a cutting reply.

Davy made a disgusted sound. “Scouring the streets for Cindy. He bawled her out for jumping into this investigation. She got her feelings hurt. Pried the beacon out of her phone and skipped out.”

“Oh, man.” Sean winced. “She picked a tasty time for it.”

Davy shook his head. “Glad it’s not my job to run herd on that hellcat. Poor bastard. What the hell have you guys been doing all day?”

“That’s easy,” Tam broke in. “She left this morning with a blond wig, and unfortunate panty lines. I meant to tell you to go with the thong, but it slipped my mind.” She lifted up the mass of Liv’s tangled hair. “She comes back with smeared mascara, whisker burn, no wig, and no panty lines.” She winked. “You do the math, gentlemen.”

Sean made a growling sound, not unlike Ivers’s chained dogs. Liv blushed fiery hot, and Davy spat out some incomprehensible epithet.

“Sean, do you think you could possibly redirect some small percentage of your blood flow from your dick back to your brain?” he snarled. “I know sex is your number one coping mechanism, but—”

“Shut up, Davy,” Sean broke in. “Do you want to hear about the janitor and the reporter, or do you want to waste time giving me shit?”

Davy subsided, his face furrowed with concentration as Sean recounted the details of their two interviews. He passed the photocopy of the article to his brother. Tam and Nick read it over his shoulder.

“I checked those names in the missing persons database,” Nick said. “Just like Ivers said. All male, all between the ages of nineteen and twenty-three. None have ever been found. None had much family. Some reports were filed weeks later. No one noticed they were gone ’til the rent came due. There were no prints on that Beretta, other than hers and a couple of yours. Guy must have wiped it down.”

“He was wearing leather gloves,” Liv said.

There was a chilled silence. Sean took a deep breath and shook himself. “So,” he muttered. “What’s next?”

Davy steepled his hands together. “We squeeze Beck again. Cindy rattled him when she mentioned Kev, Con said. That makes me think we should go rattle him again. Harder. See what falls out.”

“Beck? You mean that chemistry professor that Kev—”

“Was teaching for, yeah. We talked to him fifteen years ago. You were still locked in the drunk tank,” Davy said. “He was worse than useless. A total zero. Makes you wonder how he became head of the chemistry department. You’d think a functioning brain would be a prerequisite.” He smiled thinly. “Let’s go ask him how he pulled it off.”