AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay. Thanks. But, no, I couldn’t have walked into that kitchen looking quite as… freshly fucked as I did. I figured it was best to come and get cleaned up while you two had your time together. You should know… she’s going to appreciate yousomuchwhen she gets older. I mean, I’m sure she does now too, but… I think about what a difference having a father like you would’ve made when I was her age, and…”
When she didn’t finish that statement, I knew there was more heartache behind her words than what her voice gave away.
“When did he pass away?” I asked, and she shook her head.
“He’s still alive, as far as I know, I just never knew him. I had a stepfather, for a while. The closest thing to a real parent I ever had, andhedied when I was fifteen. I only knew him a few years, but he was good to me, so I always go put flowers on his grave on his birthday. Good thing for me, because this year, that was the day Kellen died. My commitment to taking him those flowers was my alibi.”
My eyebrows went up. “Shit. That’s some kinda luck.”
“Or… none at all. Depends on how you look at it.”
She dropped her gaze to the floor, looking so forlorn that it made my chest hurt. “Hey,” I said, getting her to look up again. “We could find your biological father. I’m usually pretty damn good at tracking people down.”
“No,” she said immediately, with a sardonic little laugh. “I misspoke. Iknowwho he is, we just never had a relationship… because of the way that I came about. I don’t even know if he knows about me, but… I know about him. There’s no need to track him down.”
“Oh. Shit, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she shook her head. “I’m okay.”
The look in her eyes told a different story, but again – I knew when to stop pushing.
“I’m going to let you get back to your morning,” I told her. “But, in a couple of hours, I want you to come down to the basement.”
She frowned. “You didn’t show me a basement. What’s down there?”
“It’s the door right behind the stairs. You can’t miss it. And to answer your question… you’ll find out when you get down there.”
“You’re really not going to tell me though?” she asked, surprised.
“What, and ruin the surprise?”
I winked at her before I turned away, heading to my office first to set a few queries in motion before I went to clean up – myself, and my bedroom.
I didn’t know what Monica was being weird about this morning, after what I’d thought was an incredible time last night, but I chose not to focus on it when I had a lot of other things to do. It was only a matter of time before Monica went stir-crazy, being confined to a house that wasn’t home to her. We needed to get this shit figured out, so that she could be back to her own space, like I knew she wanted.
As soon as I sat down at my computer, I went to the list I’d compiled of things to look into further.
Kim’s finances – what made her agree to work with Canvas, and does she have other accomplices?
Canvas – motive? Has to be deeper than just wanting Monica’s company.
Asher – psycho motherfucker. I can just feel it. What the fuck is he up to? Besides Monica, what did he have against Kellen?
Kellen – who killed him, and why? He had beef with Monica, so why not use him instead of getting rid of him?
Amanda – where did Asher bury the body?
What stood out to me most were the questions about Kellen, so I decided to focus my energy there. It only took a few minutes to get knee deep into the hole of personal debt he’d built around himself with bad investments in tech and crypto-cash ventures that never took off. Up until three years ago, when he… magically, I guess, paid it all off.
Only it wasn’t so magical.
A few minutes after I foundthat, I realized he’d been able to pay off that debt with a loan from a “banker”, Tommy Briggs who was well-known to be connected the criminal fringes of society. Looking through his financial records, I could see where he’d been cashing out investments and other assets to stay on top of bi-weekly payments toward the loan. He was still wrong as hell, but seeing this put the fact that he’d been living off of Monica in a different light. In addition to being trifling, the man was desperate, which had the potential to lead to an ugly situation.
In this case, more than just potential.
From the looks of things, Kellen had dug himself into a hole he couldn’t get out of, and the only ladder he had available was robbing Peter to pay Paul. And sure enough, earlier this year, around the same time those big payments had started for Kim, they’d started from Kellen too, originating from the same source.
Canvashad been using him too.
