Vindicate (Recovered Innocence #1)(35)

“Was it from a private investigator?”

“No, goddamn it. Someone from the DA’s office. I gotta go.”

“Wait. When did they call?”

“In the morning. I think. Woke me up.”

So pretty much sometime when the sun was up.

“Did you get a name or phone number?”

“Why do you always have to put your problems on me? I’ve got enough of my own. I really gotta go.” He hangs up.

The fat orange cat stares at me with the same accusation that was in my father’s voice. I take a deep breath and close my eyes, tilting my face toward the sun. My dad wasn’t always like this. He was a musician with the most beautiful voice. He could play guitar like no one I’d ever seen. Every once in a while when I’m digging in the used CD bins at Goodwill I’ll come across an album he played on as a session musician. Even if I didn’t see his name on the jacket I would recognize his playing anywhere.

As far as I know he hasn’t picked up a guitar in five and a half years.





Chapter 16


Leo


The minute Cora walks back into the office I know something’s wrong. My instinct is to go to her and hold her, but she’s got her don’t-f*ck-with-me face firmly in place. If I make a move to comfort her I’d likely lose an eye or get my nuts shoved up into my throat. She’s a tough one, my Bluebird, but not tough enough for the world she lives in.

She tosses her empty water bottle in the trash and drops into her chair behind her desk. “My dad got a call from someone in the DA’s office. No name. No number. And no, I’m not going to ask him to get the number from his phone. It’s a landline, so maybe we can pull his records. The call came in the morning/afternoon-ish, sometime on some day. That’s all I’ve got.”

“It’s likely we’ll run into the same issue that we ran into with the number your mom gave us, anyway, so having the number wouldn’t make a difference.” I say this partly because it will make her feel better and partly because it’s abso-f*cking-lutely true.

“Why is somebody calling my parents about my brother’s old case?”

“I wish I knew.”

“And why would they tell my mom they’re from a PI’s office and my dad they’re from the DA’s office? What are they trying to get from them?”

“Did either of them tell you what questions were asked?”

“Of course not. Again, that would be helpful. Why should they do anything remotely resembling helpful?”

I don’t know what to say to her to make things better. I understand few things about Cora’s life up until now. The things I do know about her are tragic and twisted. Every day she fascinates me more and more. How has she survived and thrived in this world that has done nothing but deal out one f*ck-you after another to her?

“And these are the first calls either one of them has received about the case?” I ask. The timing…

“The only calls they ever got were from reporters. Everything else went through Beau’s attorneys.”

“Have you told anyone that you’re working with us on the case?”

“Only my friend Jamie. My mom obviously knows I’m working here. I gave her and my dad my new work info for emergencies, but I didn’t tell them why I’m here.”

“Hmm.” My suspicious mind circles the possibilities.

“What does ‘hmm’ mean?”

I’m not sure I should tell her. The likelihood of those calls being unrelated to Cora’s sudden involvement with our agency is slim to none. Again, the timing…Why now and not a year or more ago? Could the real killer be monitoring her progress on the case? Could we have hit on something or be about to hit on something big?

“You think it might have something to do with me working here, don’t you?” She jackknifes upright. “It’s the killer, isn’t it? Oh, my God.” She’s up and pacing, her hands flapping out in front of her like they’re on fire. “He’s watching me. That’s—”

“We don’t know that. I’m just spinning possibilities here.” I place myself in front of her to get her to stop pacing. “Hey.” I take her chin in my hand to get her to look at me. “It’s all right. It could be a reporter, looking for a new angle. It could be anything. We don’t know for sure who is behind this or why.”

“But why now? No one gave two shits about Beau’s case except the media at the time of the trial. Why suddenly all this interest? You can’t tell me it’s not suspicious.”

She’s right. I can’t tell her that because it is so f*cking suspicious it has me worried for her. We’re talking about a rapist and murderer who managed to cover up his crimes for more than five years. He’s clever enough to use a burner phone to call Cora’s mom and bold enough to call both her parents.

“It’s suspicious. But…but it might not mean anything.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it. Nobody cared about Beau’s case all this time and now out of the blue two phone calls? I don’t buy it.”

Yeah, I didn’t think she’d really go for that bullshit. “What do you want to do?”

“I want to find out who that son of a bitch is.”