Page 205 of Buried Too Deep

“I feel better,” Phin said grumpily. “I’d feel even better if you guys didn’t talk so loud.”

Cora winced. “How much did you hear?”

“All of it.” He clumsily patted Cora’s hand. “It’s okay. I know waiting for me has been hard on Scar.”

Phin knew that his family had been informed that he’d been hurt and that he was okay. He didn’t know that Scarlett and Cora had spoken for a long time on the phone. Cora hoped Phin wouldn’t be too upset that Cora had contacted the Cincinnati detective, but she couldn’t stand to let the woman go another hour without knowing her brother was coming home.

“Tandy will come around,” Phin went on, then turned to Burke. “Did Patrick have any files like Jack kept?”

“Not that NOPD’s been able to find,” Burke said. “Antoine and I have been checking through the initials on your father’s client list, Cora, putting old property records with names. Not including the Caulfields and the two clients who were actually guilty men running from the law, all of Jack’s clients had filed restraining orders against their abusers and had filed multiple police reports citing the abuse. Jack mostly helped people who really needed it. It doesn’t appear that anyone except for Alice’s first husband died while the clients were being extracted and relocated. Payment for the new IDs seems to have come from family members. Not the mob.”

Cora felt the weight roll off her shoulders. “Thank you.”

Burke gave her a gentle smile. “You’re welcome. Some of those people had already returned to their old homes and identities after their abusers were out of the picture. Usually the abusers died of natural causes, nothing to do with Jack. About half of his clients are still living under the new names. We can’t find some of them, so they’re likely still in hiding. The ones we did find said that your father was kind and supportive and they credit him with saving them. It’s a good legacy to leave behind, I think.”

Cora thought so, too. “I got a call from that Swiss bank this morning. They’re releasing my father’s account to me.” She drew a breath. “It had nearly two hundred thousand dollars in it.”

“Wow,” Val said. “I didn’t expect that much.”

“It wasn’t at the beginning. There’s twenty-three years of interest in there, too.”

“What are you going to do with the money, Cora?” Burke asked.

Cora glanced at Phin. His mouth curved in a slow smile of approval that warmed her soul. “Well,” she said, “assuming the police let me keep it and if there’s any left after the back taxes and fines, I’m going to use it to start transitional housing for military vets. That money, plus the necklace Phin found, will fund the program for a few years at least. The necklace will be worth far more than the Swiss bank account. There are grants, too, so I’ll be working to secure those.”

Both Burke and Val looked stunned, and then their smiles mirrored Phin’s.

“That’s perfect,” Val said.

“I want to donate,” Burke said simply. “Tell me when and how much. I’ve got an inheritance I barely touch from a crazy old uncle who had more money than sense.”

“We’ll all want to help,” Val said. “We’ve all served and we all know a vet who could use a hand up.”

“At least one,” Burke said. “I can’t believe we didn’t think to do this already.”

“You did,” Phin said. “You helped me.”

That stopped Burke in his tracks. “I guess we did. Best decision ever, Phin.”

Phin’s cheeks pinked up. He didn’t say anything, but he looked pleased.

Val patted his hand. “They also found the white van that was parked outside Medford Hughes’s house the night he was killed. Clancy said that they were able to track it to a storage unit near Xavier University. The storage unit and van, along with another car, were registered in Jenny Beauchamp’s name.”

“Sonofabitch,” Phin snarled.

Cora had to agree.

“Um, excuse me?”

Cora spun in her chair at the familiar voice. “Tandy.”

Tandy stepped into Phin’s room, looking uncertain. “I hoped we could talk.”

Val and Burke started to stand, but Tandy waved them back to their chairs.

“You can stay. I won’t take long.”

Cora frowned when Tandy pulled up a chair. “You haven’t been sleeping, Tandy.” There were dark circles under Tandy’s eyes and her spirit was gone. She’d been bouncy and irrepressible, but now she looked gray.

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