Page 31 of Deadly Forever

James didn’t get a chance to finish because the man cut him off with a curt shake of his head.

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Mr. Sweetin, I understand your daughter has been through a trauma and I certainly don’t want to make it worse,” James said. “I don’t want to pressure her. I was simply looking for more information.”

“What kind of information?”

“I want to know what would possess those boys to go into that mall with guns,” James replied, not missing a beat. “My wife was in there. She was in danger. She talked to one of the boys before … I killed him.”

Sweetin seemed surprised by the admission. “You killed one of them? Please tell me it hurt.”

“It was fast,” James countered. “He raised a gun in my wife’s direction and I didn’t hesitate to handle the situation. In truth, I was feeling a little … I guess conflicted would be the right word … after it happened. When we looked into the boys’ history, though, and found the sealed file … well … I thought it might lead me to answers. Instead it led me to you.”

“I feel your pain,” Sweetin said. “I understand why you’re upset. You probably thought you were taking out hardened criminals but instead you took down a sweet-faced kid who looked like an angel.

“You can let yourself off the hook,” he continued. “They weren’t angels. They merely looked like them. They were devils in disguise.”

Mandy leaned forward and caught Sweetin’s gaze. “Did your daughter recant because she didn’t want to go to trial?”

“My daughter wants to put this behind her,” Sweetin said, his tone firm. “I won’t have you coming here and riling her up. I’m sorry you’re struggling, Mr. Hardy, but you did the world a favor when you took those boys out of this world.”

“I only interacted with one of them,” James clarified. “It was Nathan Graham. Can you at least tell me if he had a part in what happened to your daughter?”

“I can’t tell you anything,” Sweetin replied. “We’ve been threatened with lawsuits and even gotten some death threats. I won’t get involved in this. As far as I’m concerned, those boys got what they deserved. That doesn’t mean I’m going to dance on their graves in public. I’m sorry.”

James looked defeated, but Mandy wasn’t quite ready to let it go. “Your daughter might feel better if she talks about it,” she suggested. “I went through a traumatic situation months ago – granted, it wasn’t what your daughter went through, but it was still hard – and I found it helped to talk to someone.”

James flashed a tight-lipped smile for Mandy’s benefit. She didn’t often talk about her struggles after killing Lance Pritchard. She seemed to have put the ordeal behind her, but he was always on the lookout should she take a step back in her recovery.

“We’re handling my daughter’s psychological needs,” Sweetin said. “We can’t help you, though. I’m sorry.”

With those words he stormed back toward the house. Mandy watched him a moment, sympathy overwhelming her. Then she saw the dark-haired girl waiting for him in the shadows behind the Lincoln sedan in the garage. She looked terrified as her father approached. Whatever Sweetin told his daughter didn’t sit well with her, because she made a series of wild hand gestures as she conversed with him.

Finally, after what felt like forever, James moved to pull away from the house. Mandy locked gazes with the girl as they passed and she didn’t miss the sad fury on Darcy Sweetin’s face. She had no idea what to make of it, though.

“Let’s go back to the office,” James said. “I want to see if anyone else has come up with anything.”

Mandy tore her eyes from Darcy and focused on her husband. “Let’s get ice cream first. I’ll even let you have a lick of mine if you don’t want your own. You know how I like it when we lick things.”

She was going for levity and it worked because James snorted. “That sounds like a plan, wife.”

“WHAT’S THIS?”

James narrowed his eyes when he found Maverick sitting at his desk forty minutes later, the young computer guru seemingly focused on a task.

“There you are,” Grady said, making a face. “Where have you been? I’ve been calling you for hours.”

“We went to the courthouse to talk to Judge MacIntosh,” James said, licking his ice cream cone. “Then we went out to Macomb Township to talk to someone … but that didn’t really pan out. I forgot I turned off my phone so it wouldn’t be a distraction when we were with the judge.”

“What did MacIntosh give you?” Grady asked. “Oh, and is there a reason you didn’t bring me ice cream?”

“You weren’t with us and I knew it would melt by the time I got here,” James replied. “As for the rest … yeah, we got something from MacIntosh.” James launched into the sordid tale, and when he was done, Grady was flummoxed.

“I have trouble believing the two things aren’t connected and yet for the life of me I can’t figure out how they could be connected,” Grady admitted, rubbing his chin. “For the record, even though I know you’re disappointed, I don’t blame that girl’s father for shutting you down. I wouldn’t let a stranger near my kid after something like that either.”

“I didn’t expect him to let me talk to her,” James conceded. “I’m not even sure why we went there. I just … after MacIntosh told us what was in the file I didn’t know what else to do.”

“I don’t know how a mall theft plays into a gang rape statement that got recanted, but you have to think that things are somehow connected,” Grady said.