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“That used to freak you out when you were a kid.”
“One of only many things.” I poured soap on my hands and started rubbing out the rigor mortis from the body. “I appreciate you trying to convince me that you’re sorry about what you and Mom did and the backlash it’s had on me, but I’m not buying it. You’ve always been a great actor. And I can deduce from our previous conversation that the only reason you’re still here is because you don’t have the boxes. If I’d left them here you would already be gone and we wouldn’t be having this nice father daughter chat.”
He smiled and jingled the change in his pockets.“Maybe. Did you go through the boxes?”
“You mean did I see all the evidence you compiled about my real parentsand how you kidnapped me and forged documents so it would look like I was your own? Yes, I saw all that. Hand me the pliers there.”
Anger simmered inside of me but my hands were steady as I stapled the mouth closed and stuffed the inside with cotton, giving Leeann a little fullness back in her face like she had before she’d gotten so sick.
“I don’t see why you’re so angry. You would have been an orphan abandoned in a foreign country if we hadn’t taken you. Do you know what happens to American infants that don’t have someone to claim them? They’re sold—either into slavery or to be prepped for the sex trade.”
“And I provided a good cover for whatever scheme you and Mom were caught in the middle of.”
His lips twitched. “That too. But never doubt that you were ours.”
I ignored him and went to work finding the carotid artery and tying it off in preparation for the embalming fluid. Her arteries were in bad shape because of all the chemo and it took me a while to find the jugular and cut it so the blood would flow out once I started the embalming process.
“You always had good hands,” my dad said. “You wanted to be a doctor from the time you were a little girl.”
“And look at me now.”
“We always thought you’d be a surgeon. You’ve got the hands for it, and you could gut and dress a fish faster than the pros when you were just a little thing.”
“I liked being an ER doctor.”
“If you’d liked it as much as you say you do, then nothing could have torn you away from it after our—accident.”
“Except for the enormous amounts of debt I had to pay off because of your—accident. And insurance doesn’t dole out money for double suicides.”
“We had an account set up for you, but those bastard FBI agents tracked it and closed it down. Why didn’t you just take the money that was in the bunker? It would have taken care of everything and given you a nice cushion too. Hey,” he said as if a lightbulb just went off. “You could use it to open a practice here in Bloody Mary. If you hate the funeral home so much, close it down. I always hated it too, but you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
“Jesus, are you for real? Unfuckingbelievable. You have no conscience.”
“Of course I do. There are many things I regret over the course of my lifetime. But I have a sense of justice and loyalty and right and wrong. It’s just thatyou don’t understand them. We didn’t raise you to be so closed minded. There are always variations of many truths.”
I straightened and looked straight at him. “You’re a liar. A criminal. And a traitor to the government you worked for.”
“I’ll admit to the first. The second is debatable. And the third—well, maybe you didn’t look closely at what was inside the boxes after all. The truth is seen differently through different eyes, Jericho. Which makes the truth nothing but lies.”
“Stop calling me that.” I rolled the kinks out of my shoulders and grabbed a myriad of pink chemicals from the shelf, mixing them together. The smell that always made Jack sick filled the room, and I was feeling a little sick myself at the moment.
“Why? It’s your name.And it follows the Graves legacy.”
I snorted out a laugh. “Yes, I’m sure using Biblical names for everyone in the family will be the same as greasing a few palms when you’re standing outside the golden gates looking to get in. Good luck with that.”
It somehow felt disrespectful to be having this conversation with my father over a woman as kind and loving as Leanne Mosely. I rolled the machine closer to the table and connected the arterial tube into the artery, and then I watched for a few seconds to make sure the blood was draining down the side trays on the table correctly.
“I need those boxes, Jaye. There are things I can’t tell you about. In fact, most things it’s better you never know about. I would never want to involve you in this life. But there are things at play here that are about more than just my life or your mother’s death.”
“Even if I wanted to give you the boxes, I couldn’t now. Jack’s seen them and looked inside of them. His sense of right and wrong doesn’t have nearly as many shades of gray as yours does.”
He sighed and jingled the change in his pockets again. “I know it. He’s a good man. Better than most, and I’m glad you’re happy together. Despite it all, I loved your mother a great deal. We had fun together. And we were friends. I miss her every day.”
I hardened my heart against the sadness I heard in his voice.It’s just a con. Just another one of his lies to get what he wants.I tied off the artery and inserted the tube in a different one so the left side of her body would plump up to match the right side. Embalming wasn’t a long process, but it seemed like I’d been down here for hours with no escape.
“You need to go, Dad. I can’t help you. And Jack is my priority at the moment. I’d just as soon not to have to bury anyone else.”
The change in his pockets stopped jinglingand I felt his disappointment in me. “It was worth a shot.” He made his way up the stairs and I kept my eyes focused on the body in front of me so I wouldn’t have to watch him leave again.
