What Have You Done(75)

Don turned another corner and drove slowly down another dark street. “I thought you said I’d be home by midnight.”

“Yeah, this is taking longer than I figured it would. Sorry.”

“We shouldn’t be out here. This isn’t our jurisdiction.”

“We’re not here as cops. We’re here as family. There is no jurisdiction for family.”

Don placed his coffee in the cupholder and flipped through the radio, looking for a sports talk show. He wasn’t sure how much time Liam would need to search Sean’s house and wanted to get himself out of this situation as quickly as possible. They’d agreed that Liam would text him when he was out so Don could take Sean back home. He felt vulnerable here. Exposed. “Where do you think he could be?” he asked.

“Not sure.”

“Maybe we should try again tomorrow when it’s light out.”

“He’ll be hiding in the day. That’s when the rest of the force is looking for him. If we have any chance at spotting him, it’ll be at night.”

Don found a talk show and sat back in his seat. “You try calling him?”

“All day, every day. He hasn’t turned his phone back on. Rolls straight to voice mail. Left him a bunch of messages. Nothing.” He turned to his partner. “Look, I know how crazy this is, thinking we can find him by just driving around. I get it. But this is more about me keeping busy than anything else. I need to do something, you know? I can’t sit around and wait for them to call me to tell me they caught him. I’m his brother. I won’t stand down, regardless of what Phillips says.”

Don nodded and kept driving. He checked the clock on the dashboard. Liam had to have made it to Sean’s house by now. It was just a matter of how long it would take him to find the evidence he was looking for, if it was there at all. So far no text had come through.

“I appreciate you doing this,” Sean said.

“No worries. I understand.”

“Let’s do one more circle around Nineteenth Street, and then we’ll head into Farnham Park. We can split after that. I’ve had you out too late as it is. Joyce is gonna be pissed.”

“You got it.”

The DJs on the radio were arguing about the upcoming draft and who they thought the Eagles would pick. Don listened to the chatter until the arguing grew to be too much, and he leaned forward to cut it off. “Can’t take all that yelling.”

Sean pointed. “Pull up here, and then take a right.”

Don drove up 19th Street and noticed that most of the streetlights were out. This was heavy gang territory, and the gangs were known to knock out the lights to keep their activities as hidden as possible. On these streets, survival was the number-one priority. Kill or be killed. There was no other way. He thought about that as he drove in the dark next to a serial killer. Liam had to be done soon. Where was his text?

“In here.”

Don pulled the sedan into Farnham Park. With the trees hovering overhead and blocking out the moon, it was even darker than it had been in the neighborhoods. He followed the twisting road as they drove up a hill into the main field area next to the Cooper River. What had once been jogging paths and picnic areas were now cracked blacktop with tree roots protruding and dilapidated barbeque pits used more for drug transactions than family fun. This had been a beautiful place once, and the beauty was still there, just below the surface. Don had come to this park many times growing up. It was a way for his parents to escape Philadelphia without having to go too far. Perhaps one day that beauty would return. Right now, all he could see was the blight.

“Stop!” Sean suddenly cried. “There!”

Don pulled over and craned his neck to see. “What?”

“No… nothing. Forget it.”

“Was it him?”

“No.”

Sean turned from the window and faced his partner. He was pale, the expression on his face blank. The only indication that he was even breathing came in the form of his bottom lip quivering ever so slightly. “Look,” he said. “We need to talk.”

“About what?” Don asked.

“I know.”

“Okay. What do you know?”

“More than you think, and I want to get you out of it, but you need to trust me, and you need to do what I say.”

Don instinctively pushed himself against the driver’s side door. “Sean, what the hell are you talking about?” He tried to make his voice firm but thought he heard weakness in it.

“I know you dropped Liam off at Father Brennan’s mission after you guys met. Father Brennan called me. I thought Liam might try and hide there when he first started to run, so I’d stopped by and asked him to keep a lookout.”

“Well, I—”

“I also know about the extra copy you made of Kerri’s files. The copies you made of Jane’s file with the other girls. You got your hands on so many secrets, and I didn’t want you involved in all that. I just wanted you to go to Kerri’s house, take the evidence that linked her to Liam, and go on with the rest of your life. Why did you have to go snooping?”

Don could only stare at his partner, the man he’d known longer than anyone else. Longer than Vanessa. Longer than Phillips. Longer than Joyce. Sean had been like a son to him, but now, sitting in the darkness, staring at the man he’d known for so many years, there were no words.