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“Hmm, thought as much. I don’t got a lot on her. Her records are sealed—”
“Sealed?”
“Yep.”
I attempt to rub away the persistent throb in my temples with my knuckles. “Why would that happen?”
“Any situation where a minor’s the victim of a crime would account for sealed records, but this seems to go deeper than that. I couldn’t access most of it.”
“You can usually get to that shit though, right?” I frown. I’ve never known Lionel to be unable to access information, even high-level stuff. It’s why I use him. “Why can’t you get this?”
“I figure it involves someone important.”
I run a hand through my hair. This is all I need. “So, what exactly do you know about her?”
“Name’s Michaela Mulcahy. She was born in 1989 to Mike and Janice. She has two older brothers, Bradley and Jake. Then there’s nothing of note on the entire family until she turns thirteen. Something happened that caused her to be removed from the home the same year her mom died. Apparent suicide.”
My chest tightens. Did Mia’s ex-husband learn everything he knows about beating women from dear old dad? “Apparent?”
“Yeah. I looked over the police reports and there was some controversy, but ultimately the coroner ruled suicide.”
“How did she die?”
“Hanged.”
“Fuck.”
“But that’s not the most disturbing fact about this case, Lorenzo.” The tone of his voice sends a chill down my spine. He continues. “Michaela’s aren’t the only records that are sealed. There was evidence of recent sexual activity after Janice was found hanging from the back of the bathroom door.”
“That doesn’t seem so unusual, especially if the husband did kill her.”
“It wasn’t the husband’s DNA they found inside her, Lorenzo. It was the son’s.”
Bile burns the back of my throat. “What the fuck? The son? Brad raped his own mother?”
“Well, this is where it gets patchy. These records are sealed tighter than a nun’s cunt,” He gives a dark laugh at his own wit but clears his throat when I remain silent. “Bradley would have been seventeen at the time, and the other son, Jake, he’d have been fifteen. Most of what I got is conjecture and witness testimony, but the official story is mom and Bradley were having sex, and when the father found out, mom killed herself to avoid the scandal and possible prosecution.”
I hiss out a breath. I thought my family was fucked up.
“However,” Lionel goes on, “Janice had a sister, Minerva, who refused to accept the coroner’s verdict. Convinced Janice was a victim and was murdered to cover up the whole disgusting affair. She continued to campaign for her sister’s death to be investigated for another two years, but then she died in a car accident.”
“Suspicious circumstances, right?”
“Yup. Quiet road late at night. The other car was never found.”
Dammit! “And the daughter? Michaela? What happened to her?” The sister could be the key to nailing that sick fuck once and for all.
“No fuckin’ clue. She disappeared without a trace.”
“So find her, Li. If the records are sealed, unseal them.” Rage courses through my veins and turns my voice into a growl.
“Spent the last few days trying, buddy. If I could, I would. This case has me more intrigued than anything I’ve worked on in the past ten years. This involved someone real high up to seal these records the way they did. They’re watertight. Way above my pay grade.”
“What about the father? Mike Mulcahy? Where is he now? Does he have that kind of pull?”
“He died four years back. Massive heart attack. He was a police chief, highly decorated and respected. But still, he definitely didn’t have that kind of sway.”
My hands clench into fists and sink into the huge leather chair behind my desk. “For fuck’s sake.”
