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Francine didn’t shrink under these harsh words. She simply nodded. “You’re right. Everything you just said is true. I’m a pathetic loser. You hate me and you should hate me.” She opened the van door. “I will take care of this. I’ll get Trask off your case. I’ll find the treasure and that will be that. So you’ll be good to go.”
“You can’t guarantee any of that.”
“Nothing in life is guaranteed. But I’ll do my best.”
Gibson’s tone softened. “Look, I know you’ve had a shitty life. And I’m sorry for that. If that had happened to me, I’d probably be in an institution.”
“Ihavebeen in an institution, and I wouldn’t recommend it,” said Francine bluntly.
Gibson stiffened at this. “What about your mother?”
“Once I have the treasure, I can buy her freedom.”
“And Earl Beckett?”
“What about him?”
“Does he just get away with this?”
“I can’t do anything about the people he’s already hurt, but I’m going to do my best to stop him from hurting anybody else.”
“So if you didn’t kill your father, and Rochelle didn’t kill him? Doug?”
“No, Doug wouldn’t do that, not without Rochelle knowing.”
“Did Beckett know about the phrase, ‘Do as I say…’?”
“Sure. He used to lord that over us, too.”
“Beckett said your father got away cleanly, as though he had help.”
“I suppose so, yes.”
“Could his help have beenBeckett?”
Francine shot her a glance. “Why would he do that?”
“For a piece of the treasure?”
Francine closed the van door, fully reengaged. “You think?”
“And then your father did what he always did. He screwed the guy. But Beckett strikes me as one tenacious bastard. He kept looking. And he found the man. And he killed the man.”
“If we could only prove that.”
Gibson sat back and looked thoughtful. “The only thing I can’t figure is that phrase was written by two different people. Which means if Beckett killed him, he might not be working alone.”
“What about Wilson Sullivan?”
Gibson nodded. “It could be. I could find nothing on the guy past twenty years ago.”
“That’s interesting,” said Francine.
“And it was Sullivan who brought Beckett into this thing. Maybe that was by design if they both killed him. And now they want the treasure. And you found Sullivan looking for it at Stormfield. We also have Nathan Trask out there. He expects the two of us to find it. Or else.”
“Like I said, I’ll take care of Trask.”
“But you can just walk away from that. Claim you never found it.”
