“Stone Black doesn’t exist.” Zephyr tossed a sheet of paper in my direction.
I picked it up and stared at a bunch of words that meant nothing to me. “What the hell do you mean?”
“I thoughtStone Blacksounded like a shady, shifty name. The kind someone would make up in one of those old, black-and-white detective movies.” Zephyr laughed like he’d told a joke, but I didn’t find it funny in the least. “And, sure enough, I was right. Stone’s real name is Castro Neal.”
“Does that mean he’s not from the Wylde pack?” I handed the sheet of paper back to Zephyr and he set it on a pile.
He held his hands up, then rooted through his pile for another page. “Give me a second and I’ll explain it all.” When he found the page, he scanned it, then looked up at me. “His parents were Lillian and Foster Neal. They, too, originated from Denmark. Their families had a shit load of stocks in oil companies that left them loaded beyond comprehension.”
Why wasn’t I surprised that we were still dealing with rich motherfuckers? I could only imagine where the rest of their money had come from, considering the history of the Wylde pack. Of course, I couldn’t throw stones. My wealth had come far more nefariously than I wanted anyone to know.
Zephyr continued. “Lillian and Foster’s parents had been friends with Josef’s parents.”
“Remind me who Josef is again?” I couldn’t keep up with my own pack members’ names, not to mention the names of an annihilated pack.
“Josef was the alpha of the Wylde pack.”
“Ah, yes.” I slapped my forehead. The drugs-and-arms dealer that got our family into this mess. Zephyr didn’t need to know that… but he probably did. “Okay. I’m with you now.”
“All right, so when Josef’s parents decided to immigrate to the States, Lillian and Foster Neal’s families followed suit.” Zephyr sat back in his chair, tossed the paper on the desk, and rested his hands behind his head. “Foster had been Josef’s right-hand man. On the business documents I managed to find, it seemed that Josef had a hand in a lot of business dealings outside of his supposed illegal activities.”
The cameras alerted us of a customer bursting into the store, eyes wide with panic. “My laptop crashed again! I need help.”
Zephyr and I exchanged a knowing look—it was one of those days. His computer store gave him a great coverup for thereal work he did behind the scenes, but there were still actual customers that needed to be dealt with, and it had happened more than once that a customer showed up at the worst time. I needed to finish this business.
He quickly got up from his chair and exited the hidden workstation, greeting the woman with a warm smile. He ushered her over to his repair table and had her fill out a request form, leaving me to mull over what he’d told me.
So, there was even more money that hadn’t been accounted for from the Wylde pack. Where could it be? Dad had worked hard to bury everything about Heather Falls and the Wylde pack. Apparently, he hadn’t buried it deep enough since Zephyr had managed to dig it up.
Zephyr returned a few minutes later. “Sorry about that. There’s nothing more urgent than a housewife with a laptop issue. Now, where was I?”
“I have no damn clue, but why don’t we circle back to Stone?” I suggested.
He nodded. “Castro’s birth wasn’t documented anywhere. It’s like the pack wanted to keep the births of the children a secret… but I did manage to find the names of all the registered members of the Heather Falls residents. I hit firewall after firewall trying to crack the code for the information. Neither Castro nor Liza were registered.”
“Then, how did you find Stone’s real name?”
Zephyr’s detective work never ceased to amaze me, but this particular case blew my mind.
“I only managed to find Castro’s information because when he turned eighteen, he returned to Denmark where he received a trust his family left for him under his birth name.” That was why I trusted him. He was haggard. A dog with a bone. Didn’t give up. Those were exactly the kind of traits one wanted in a PI.
“Money. Of course.” I scoffed. “Always follow the fucking money, right?”
“Exactly.” Zephyr picked up a new stack of paperwork and laid each piece out on his desk in front of me. “This is the paper trail Castro left behind. He spent an ass load of money on these reports.”
I examined the documents. It seemed Castro had been hiring private investigators every year up until about two years ago. All these documents were invoices.
I tapped the last document with my finger. “What happened after this?”
“At that point, Castro disappeared, but that’s also when a man named Stone Black started using new accounts.” Zephyr chuckled. “These sons of bitches think they’re so clever, but they always leave a fingerprint or a piece of paper along the way. No one is ever truly untraceable.”
“Interesting. What kind of activity did Stone get up to?”
He tapped his keyboard, then turned the monitor toward me. “This is a property deed purchased by Stone Black. It’s a massive amount of acreage. Do you recognize the location?”
I leaned in and squinted at the new tab Zephyr had opened. It was an aerial view of flat, wooded land. “Is that fucking Heather Falls?”
“Ding, ding, ding. Give this man a prize. We have a winner. Stone purchased the land exactly where Heather Falls had once hosted the Wylde pack. It seems he also spent a great deal of money to purchase it.”
