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I didn’t expect my uncle to answer, so I was pleasantly—or unpleasantly—surprised when he came to the door.
“Detective,” he said.
“I need to talk to you.”
He opened the screen door. “What the hell? Come on in.”
I entered and followed him into the living room.
“Have a seat,” he said.
I sat down on the couch.
“So what do you want?” he asked, sitting in a chair across from me.
“My friend Melanie told me you dropped the lawsuit against her.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad you did, but I want to know why.”
He stood and paced nervously before sitting down again. “Do I really have to tell you? You of all people should know what kind of a man your father is.”
“You’ve always known that, so I don’t buy it. Why did you drop the lawsuit? Do you have new information on Gina’s death?”
“Wouldn’t the cops get that before I do?”
“As far as the cops are concerned, it was a suicide. No one’s probing.”
“You are.”
“Yeah. I’m trying. But you know as well as I do that my father never leaves a trail. He’s been getting a little more nervous lately, though, now that Wade and Simpson are out of the picture.”
Rodney sighed heavily. “I never would have hurt my little girl in a million years.”
“Then why did you let my father hurt her?”
“I didn’t.”
“Bullshit. You always knew what kind of man he was. How could you leave her alone with him? How?” I grasped the seat cushion to keep from standing and drawing my gun.
“You don’t understand.”
“What don’t I understand? That my father’s a maniac? Believe me, I get that. He would have raped me if I hadn’t gotten away. I’d probably be a slave to some drug lord right now if I hadn’t taken control of my own life when I was fifteen.”
“So you know, then.”
“That my father deals in human beings? Yeah. Your friend Wendy Madigan filled me in, though I had kind of figured it out on my own.”
“None of us ever meant it to go this far.” He rubbed at his forehead. “I never meant for Erica or Gina to be involved in any of this. It’s been hell on them both.”
“Since Erica is crazy and Gina’s dead, yeah, I agree. That’s hell for sure, especially when you could have prevented it.”
“No one regrets that more than I do.”
“You let this happen under your nose, Rodney. You don’t get the privilege of having regrets.”
He didn’t respond.
