Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
He didn’t need it, but that corroborated Lillian’s story.
“If you’re free, I need you in LA,” Harry stated. “Lillian says they lived there before they moved up here. She said the move was sudden, they upped stakes and left and bought their house with cash in Misted Pines. Real estate was a damn sight cheaper back then, but not that cheap. I want to know why they took off from LA and how they had the resources to set up here in MP.”
Jason looked surprised. “You think they did it?”
“As much as this guts me, for them, for Lillian, for anyone who cared about them, I think it’s their remains that were found in that hole, and I want every fucking i dotted and every t crossed when we find the fucks who took a loving couple away from their beloved daughter, their lives ending with multiple bullets in their bodies, before that happened they knew their love affair was at its tragic end and their daughter was going to be alone in this world. I want them exonerated even before anyone thinks to throw shit at them. Which means, once you’re done in LA, I want you in Idaho. Tell me when you’re heading there. I’ll let the locals know you’re on my team.”
“This deputized shit?” Jason asked.
“This is coming out of my pocket,” Harry answered.
Jason’s brows winged up. Jesse’s shot down.
“Harry, we ain’t cheap,” Jesse said quietly. “We’ll give you a discount, because you’re a brother, but you’re talking time, gas, maybe flights, maybe money to loosen tongues—”
Harry interrupted him. “At one thirty in the morning, Sonny would go to the gas station where Lillian worked just to keep her company and be sure she was safe.”
Jesse shut his mouth, and this time, Jason’s eyes got hard.
“If anyone has the barest fucking doubt that those two were involved in the Dietrich mess, I want it washed away,” Harry announced. “And I want answers for Lillian. She’s waited sixteen years to find out what happened to her parents. That’s long enough.”
The twins exchanged a look, and Harry would give his left ball to know what that kind of thing meant between them, considering at the same time they looked back to Harry, and it seemed in the interim, silently, they’d agreed Jason was the one who would be tasked with asking the next question.
It came quiet, curious…and hopeful.
“You got something going on with her, man?”
“No,” Harry answered.
“Dude,” Jesse said. “Seen her around. She’s smokin’.”
“That didn’t escape my attention,” Harry told him.
“So…” Jace prompted.
“So, she’s coming in tomorrow to give a DNA sample so we can see if those bodies are her parents. Been out of the game for a while, but still not sure that’s when to make a play,” Harry replied.
“But you want to make a play?” Jesse pushed.
Fuck him.
He had good friends. They cared. They worried.
And they could be pains in his ass.
“Let’s just figure this shit out for her, yeah?” Harry requested.
This was met with several beats of silence before Jason raised the file.
“Can we take this, or do we gotta read it here and leave it here?”
“I want it here, but we’ll make you copies,” Harry replied.
He got two identical nods that came in sync.
Then they all got up and headed to the copy machine.
SIX
You’re Welcome
Harry
Harry was about to drive by the parking spot, but since Polly, his assistant, was continuing to ignore his order to get rid of it, and the sign was still there, reserving it for him right at the front of the station, he swung into it.
He then scratched the takedown of that sign on top of his long list of shit to get done that morning.
He did this because he found it uncomfortable, having that privilege. And even though his office was situated at the front of the station, a short walk from the entry and reception bench, all his deputies and the staff parked in back.
Sure, this way he could go in and get to his office without having to traverse the back halls that included the locker rooms, an armory, equipment storage, the booking room, bathrooms, their interview room, interrogation rooms and dispatch.
However, parking in back was better than making such a public show of his position by sliding his cruiser in a reserved space out front.
Not to mention, he’d inherited that spot from Dern.
So that was enough to make Harry want it gone.
Considering his newly rearranged list of shit to do, he was pleased Polly did what Polly did every morning.
She met him at the front door.
As usual, she shoved an Aromacobana cup in his hand. He’d have no clue until he tasted it what was in it, though it was usually a latte, sometimes a chai. She mixed it up with flavorings because she said, “Someone has to put some excitement in your life, Harry. And until you figure it out, it’s gonna be me.” (It was safe to say the twins and Doc weren’t the only ones who wanted Harry to get his head out of his ass about the loss of his wife and return to the land of the living.)