The Black Coats(63)
Drew leaned back, surprised. “I— What?”
“What does your dad do, Drew? I’m asking you a very simple question. My father is a civil engineer for the city of Austin. What does your father do, exactly?”
A shadow passed over his face. “My dad is a public defender. I told you that.”
“So, he’s a lawyer?”
Drew fidgeted. “It’s more complicated than that. He works in the public sector, defending those who can’t—” Thea pulled out the file folder from its spot beside the bench. Drew sat back. “What is that?”
Thea let the file slap her hand. “This is a file about your dad. See where it has ‘Porter, Adam A.’ right here? If I open this file, what am I going to find? I’m giving you a chance to come clean before I find out. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt because I care about you, even though you don’t believe it.”
Something changed in Drew’s face. The playful grin that always seemed on the edge of his mouth disappeared. In its place was a grimace on a boy who suddenly looked very much like a man. An angry man. “You’re giving me the benefit of the doubt? You? That’s laughable.” He stood and crossed the distance between them, close enough that she could see the intensity in his eyes and feel the heat of his breath. Drew paused. “Tell me, Thea, did you get that file from the Black Coats?”
Time seemed to slow around her, the grass arching slightly in the wind, the stars blurring above. Thea felt like she might faint, the words from his mouth falling around her like heavy stones. The Black Coats. He knew. Drew Porter knew about the Black Coats.
He walked toward her and snatched the file folder from her hands. Thea stood frozen. He snapped, “You want to know about my dad? Fine. You don’t need to read this to me; I’ll just tell you. My dad is—well, was—a detective. Five years ago, he began to see a pattern in Dallas. Men, especially those between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five with prior violent records of hurting women, were disappearing. Most of these men were people no one would miss, so it went unnoticed. But my dad, he helped rehabilitate these kinds of guys. No doubt, most of these men deserve to be in prison forever. But some of them—like our friend Harry and his museum—can change. They can turn their lives around.” He paused. “No matter how bizarre that life may turn out to be.”
Thea felt a quiet breath of relief escape from her lungs. Whatever Drew knew, whoever his dad was, there was still a piece of the Drew she adored in this person. He continued, oblivious to her shock. “My dad started investigating. It was a year before he ever heard a name. The Black Coats. It was given to him by Harry, a man who had been beaten many years ago so badly that it had damaged his brain. When my dad found Harry, he was in a mental ward, staring at a wall and talking about black butterflies. My dad was the only one who heard more than madness in his stories. He helped Harry slowly put his life back together, got him on the right medications.”
Thea paused, her mind whirling with the implications of what Drew was saying. “Did you ever think that maybe someone like Harry deserved it? So he would stop hurting others?” she asked defensively.
Drew snarled, “And you reserve the right to decide their punishment? You, Thea Soloman, judge and juror, student of criminal justice in that she beats on people sometimes?”
Thea looked down. “You don’t . . .”
Drew continued, the night seeming to curl ominously around him. “There have always been whispers of the Black Coats in Texas, but most people chalk it up to urban legends, rumors, or just wishful thinking. They’ve been called many things: the Black Belles, the Cloaks, the Lovely Reapers, but it’s always just abstract enough to make it unbelievable.” He stopped pacing and shoved a hand into his pocket. “My dad and I have always been really close, what with my mom leaving and all, and I’ve watched him hunt this group for most of my adolescent years. Sadly, all the most powerful organizations in Texas are filled with Black Coats alumni, including the police force. He couldn’t gain ground. Every time he found a lead, it would fall apart days, or even hours, later. My dad lost his job on the Dallas police force because of the Black Coats, because he wouldn’t let it go. We are living here on the last of his severance.”
Thea stared at him, unable to believe what she was hearing. Drew was pacing around her now, running his hands nervously through his hair. “After he left his job, Dad had a flash of brilliance: he had to go to the place where the Black Coats were rumored to have gone a little rogue, a little overzealous. Austin.”
Thea took a step backward. She didn’t like where this was going.
“But just like in Dallas, my dad had no luck here. He finally gave up and began doing some private-eye work on the side. Our lives settled down. I thought—for once—maybe we were going to be okay. We like it here. My dad was getting better, leaving his obsession behind and looking to the future for once.”
Thea’s voice was soft when she spoke. “But . . .”
Drew stopped walking and took a long look at her. “But then came you. I had sworn to myself that I wouldn’t date anyone this year. I didn’t want a girlfriend; I didn’t even want a relationship, but then I saw you climb out of that fountain looking like an absolute goddess, and I fell. I couldn’t stop thinking about you, this extraordinary girl with sad eyes but a fire that burned the air where she stood.” He gave a dry laugh. “I didn’t see you coming, that’s for sure.”