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“Yeah.” Then she comes to my ear and whispers. “You’ve already seen me break down once today. I don’t want you to see it again.”
“Oh, sweetheart…”
“Please,” she whispers.
“All right. I’ve got you if you need me.”
“I know.”
Donny gives Callie a kiss, and then the three head back.
“Now what?” I say.
“Now we wait. I guess.”
“Or…we could figure out why the hell Pat Lamone is here and who he’s visiting.”
“Brock, you do know that hospital records are confidential.”
“Yeah, I know that. I also know I’ve got a couple of Benjamin Franklins in my pocket.”
Donny laughs. “God… Are we truly becoming our fathers?”
“No. Well, maybe. But apparently our grandfather…”
“What?”
“I’ve been talking to my dad, Don. Evidently our grandfather wasn’t above holding a gun to a person’s head to get what he wanted.”
Donny’s jaw drops. But almost as quickly, he recovers and says, “Now why doesn’t that surprise me?”
“Yeah, why doesn’t it? It surprised the hell out of me.”
“Listen, Brock. I’ve been racking my brain for the past couple of weeks, trying to figure out how the hell all of this fits together.”
“Any conclusions?”
“Only one.”
“Care to share it?”
“Sure. What we have are a bunch of puzzle pieces, and none of them fit together, but they must all be related somehow, right?”
“Maybe. Hell if I know.”
“Anyway, whether they’re related or not, there’s one thing that doesn’t fit. How a fucking rancher in Colorado turned his business into a billion-dollar enterprise.”
“Investments,” I say. “Start-ups probably. I mean, tech was just beginning back then. He probably invested in Apple and Microsoft. Intel and HP.”
“Yeah. We could easily find out by talking to Uncle Bryce. If he’ll talk to us.”
I nod. “Yeah. If.”
“Then you see what I’m saying.”
“Yeah, I see what you’re saying. There’s also our great-grandfather—the one who spawned this half great-uncle from whom Pat Lamone is allegedly descended.”
“Honestly? I think maybe that’s where we start. Great-Grandpa Steel, and then Grandpa Steel. If we can find out where they went wrong, maybe we can figure out the rest from there.”
