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“Has the report come in from the guys who searched St. Andrew’s? That’s my best bet for where it continued.”
“Mine too. That building is old and no doubt has crevices no one even knows about.”
“Definitely. And even if it doesn’t, Dad could have built a new playground.”
Rock shook his head. “Could he have? People are in and out of that church every day. I doubt he could have built anything. But it’s likely a place could already be there.”
“Maybe. When do you expect to hear from them?”
“Any time now.”
I cleared my throat. “Zee went to St. Andrew’s today.”
Rock’s eyebrows rose. “Why the hell would she do that?”
“I’m not quite clear on that one. Jim did her first communion, but then she said she used to talk to a pastor when she was a teen. Why go to St. Andrew’s when she knows what Father Jim did to her?”
Rock didn’t reply.
Fuck. Now or never. I pulled out my wallet and removed Lacey’s business card. I handed it to him.
Rock regarded it. “Lacey’s old card.”
“Yeah.”
“Why are you giving me this?”
“Zee found it,” I said. “In the rose garden behind St. Andrew’s.”
Rock’s face went pale. “Could mean nothing.”
“I know that. In fact, no one even needs to know I found it.”
“I’ll ask Lace about it. Care if I keep this?”
“Speak of the devil…” I said.
Lacey turned the corner and came toward us. “Good, there you are,” she said to Rock. “I need your signature on a few things. Charlie couldn’t find you and Jarrod and Carla didn’t know where you went off to. I figured you’d be down here keeping an eye on the detective.”
“We need to go to my office,” Rock said. “Now.”
“Sure, what’s up?” Lacey asked.
“Not here,” Rock said. “Reid, you come too.”
I followed my brother and his wife through the twists of the hallway to his corner office—the one that had been my father’s.
“You ever have this place checked for wires? Cameras?” Rock asked me.
“This was Dad’s office, so no, I didn’t.”
“Fuck. We’re going downstairs, then. Outside.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but Rock whisked past me, taking Lacey’s hand and dragging her along with him. I had no choice but to follow.
Ten minutes later, after a silent elevator ride and a brisk walk about a block away to an outdoor café where we got a table far away from any prying ears, I finally had the chance to speak.
“Dad wouldn’t be surveilling himself,” I said.
“Doesn’t mean he didn’t have equipment installed. I wouldn’t put it past the fucker to have it all ready and an order to turn it on if anything happened to him.”
I couldn’t fault my big brother’s logic. For someone who hadn’t been around for the last two decades, Rock seemed to know our father as well as or better than any of the rest of us.
“What’s going on, Rock?” Lacey asked, her lips trembling slightly.
“Lace, have you ever been in the rose garden in back of St. Andrew’s?”
“No, I haven’t,” she said. “I’d never even been to St. Andrew’s until the funeral.”
“Fuck.” Rock shoved the weather-beaten business card across the table to his wife. “Zee found this in the rose garden. Today.”
Lace picked up the card. “I didn’t put it there. Looks like it’s been there a while, though. This has been stepped on and rained on.”
“Which means it could have been there before Dad’s death,” Rock said.
“Circumstantial,” Lacey said. “Just because it’s my business card doesn’t mean I put it there. Also, as far as anyone else knows, the church and Father Jim have nothing to do with the murder.”
Rock raked his fingers through his hair. “I still don’t like it.”
“Neither do I.” Lacey let go of the card as if it were burning her.
I picked it up and stuck it in my wallet. “No reason anyone needs to know about this.”
“Give it back to me,” Rock demanded.
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to fucking destroy it.”
I looked to Lacey. She was an attorney, and she knew destroying potential evidence was not a good idea.
Still, she nodded at me slightly.
Good enough. My sister-in-law had not killed my father, and if this card could tie her to the murder, I was fine with getting rid of it. I took it out of my wallet and handed it back to my brother. He tore it in two. Then four.
“I need to get back,” I said. “They’re questioning Zee and I don’t want to be too far away in case she needs me.”
Rock nodded. “Go ahead. Lace and I have got this.”
I stood and walked back to the building. Though the day was clear, a cloud hovered over me, invisible but dense. Something was brewing.
Something bad.
37
Zee
I really wanted to throw up.
Detective Morgan creeped me out with his bad blond comb over and polyester tie, but he was nice, sort of. He didn’t ask a lot of questions at first, and he let me go at my own pace. In a voice that didn’t seem quite like my own, I told the story.
