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She closed her eyes as the panic rose in her.
What the hell have I done?
CHAPTER38
AFTER A MOSTLY SLEEPLESS NIGHT,Gibson woke early, got the kids up and fed, and then called her dad. She had decided that she could either assume the fetal position and wait for bad things to happen to her and her family, or she could use her skills and her brains and her work ethic to get ahead of the tidal wave she felt coming at her. And Silva had called the night before. She had taken ill and would not be coming over.
“Yeah, Dad, if you and Mom could watch the kids for a few hours, that would be great.”
“Sure we can, honey, but where are you going?”
“Just to run some errands.”
“You haven’t gotten any better at lying to me since you were fifteen and said someone snuck that gin into your water bottle and those joints into your backpack.”
“Okay, okay, I’m just running down a few leads.”
“Harry Langhorne leads?”
“What else.”
“My buddy Art any help?”
“Oh, yeah, he was. Thanks for setting that up.”
“He’s apparently doing okay.”
“Sounds like he’s doingveryokay. Hey, Dad, what do you know about a guy named Nathan Trask?”
He didn’t answer for such a long time she thought the connection had ended.
“Please, God, don’t tell me you’re getting mixed up withthatguy.”
“No, I’m not. I swear. But what can you tell me about him?”
“He’s scum. Richer than God, and twice as evil as the Devil. And smarter than Einstein because not even the Feds have ever managed to lay an indictment on him. He’s got this fortress down in Virginia Beach.”
“Oh really? Didn’t know that,” she lied, hopefully better this time.
“How does he figure in things?”
“I was told that Langhorne might have had dealings with him, but I think that was just bullshit.”
“Well, don’t you go poking around that guy, Mick. You will not be coming back.”
“Amazing how a scum like that gets to walk around free while some poor sap cracks the skull of his friend in a drunken argument and gets twenty years in prison.”
“This is America. Poor and stupid go to prison while money walks. We’ll be over around eleven thirty if that works. Your mother’s getting her hair de-grayed at nine.”
“‘De-grayed’? I hope to God you’ve never used that term in front of her.”
She could imagine her father’s shit-eating grin over the phone connection.
“I’m still alive and kicking, ain’t I?”
***
When her parents arrived, Gibson’s father went for Darby, swooping her around in the air and making silly noises, while her mother automatically brushed Tommy’s hair out of his eyes and straightened his shirt and wiped off his dirty chin with a Kleenex and sanitizer.
