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“He wanted…”
“What?” I pushed the end of the gun into his forehead, leaving a mark on his skin.
“He wanted to know about Colin.”
“Why?”
“About Colin and…your father.”
“And what did you tell him? That you’d sold Colin to my father just like his father had done to him?”
“I didn’t—”
“Spare me,” Joe said. “Colin has proof.”
“Whatever Colin thinks he has isn’t true.”
“Sell that somewhere else,” I said. “Right now, we need to know about Booker.”
“He was weird,” Ted said. “Sort of…obsessed. He wanted to know about Colin, how Tom got hold of him.”
“Because you pimped him out,” Joe said. “Go on.”
“That’s not true!”
“Don’t say that again,” I said through clenched teeth. “Now keep talking.”
“I told him Colin had been held prisoner by your father, but he already knew that. He also knew that you”—he nodded toward Joe—“rescued him.”
“Does he know you tried to extort money from me by telling him to name me as the perp?” Joe said.
Easy, Joe. While I understood Joe’s anger—especially now that he’d found out about his father—we didn’t have time to rehash old news. I had to keep both Joe and Morse on track.
“Keep going,” I said. “What else did he tell you?”
“He told me his story, that his real name is Justin Valente, that he’d been abducted by your father on a camping trip that you two invited him to go on. That your father let him move around on his own for the last ten years but kept him on a pretty short leash.”
“And…?” I said.
“You sure you want me to go further?” He eyed Joe.
“Go,” Joe said.
“Really? You want your friend here to know—”
“He already knows. Now you tell us what you know.”
“He’s been watching both of you for years, but while your father was alive, he kept it under wraps. He befriended you at the club.”
“And…?” I said again.
“He blames you two for what happened.”
“We were nine,” I said. “Neither of us knew who my father was.”
“He thinks you lured him into a trap. I told him that wasn’t true.”
“So you’re on our side now?” Joe asked sardonically.
