Page 76 of Before This Ends (Before)

“Remember how I told you any calls that comes through regarding Pastor Green or the World Church are transferred to Stedman or one of his men?”

“Yeah.” I put the bottle to my lips and tip it back.

“I did some digging and found a woman named Tiffany, who works at dispatch. She’s young, barely twenty-one, and she attended the World Church until a month ago, when she found out she was pregnant.”

“Shit.”

“You wanna guess who the baby daddy is?”

“Don’t tell me. Steven.”

“Patrick.” My scalp begins to prickle. “Apparently, they’ve been seeing each other since she was eighteen, and for the last four years, he’s been promising her that he’s going to leave his wife.”

“How the fuck did this come up?”

“I just happened to call her and ask what the protocol was when their office gets a phone call about the church or anyone with the last name Green… on the same day he told her she needed to have an abortion.”

Oh, fuck. “Who did you say you were?”

“I told her I work for the state and that we’ve had some complaints. She was happy to spill half her life story, then agreed to meet up and continue the conversation, since she was getting ready to go to work.”

“She could just be pissed about the relationship coming to an end and not getting what she was promised.”

“She could be, but if she’s not, if she has some kind of proof they’re having calls regarding the church or the Greens rerouted to only a certain group of officers, this could be the break we’ve been looking for.”

“What time is the meeting with her in the morning?”

“I told her nine and that we would meet for breakfast. I don’t want to scare her, and we can’t afford to bring her into the station, where she might be recognized. Stedman is already watching us.”

He’s not wrong. Stedman’s had it out for us since the day we interrupted Patrick Green’s service and arrested his nephew in front of his entire congregation. And he considers Patrick a friend, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew he was having an affair with this girl. If he were to see her speaking to us, I have no doubt he would tell Patrick or find a way to intervene before we could get anything useful from her.

“We need to be careful with this. I’m not saying I think Stedman or Patrick are capable of harming anyone, but if they’re willing to cover shit up, they might be.”

“You’re not wrong.”

“Did you talk to Axel?”

Our boss at the FBI. He’s been anxious for us to find something on Stedman that he can use to guarantee the deputy chief won’t be able to slither away.

“I spoke with him earlier. I told him I’d call after we meet up with Tiffany.” He glances at my bedroom door. “Have you told her yet?”

“What?”

“That you work for the FBI?”

“You don’t think Miranda mentioned it to her?”

“I doubt it.”

“Right.” I scrub my fingers through my hair. “Then no, but I will.”

He stands, passing me his empty beer bottle. “Do it sooner rather than later. Miranda was cool about it when I told her, but it’s still a secret where there shouldn’t be any.”

“I’ll tell her.”

He jerks up his chin and starts for the door but stops and turns to look at me. “Did you find any lead on that case you and Martinez are working?”

“Maybe. It will be a couple of days until we know if the information we got today will lead us somewhere.”

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