Page 165 of Always Us

“Yes, and I have the rest of the day off so I thought we could go do something. But let’s go have some cookies first.” He sets her down.

She smiles. “Okay!”

My dad’s so much better with her than he used to be. Thank God that he is, because it sounds like he’s going to be the only parent she has left.

As we’re walking to the kitchen, my phone rings. “Go ahead,” I tell Jade. “I’ll be right there.”

I go in the living room to answer it. I don’t recognize the number. “Hello?”

“Garret?”

“Yeah. Who is this?”

“It’s Justin. Let’s just go with Carson since that’s how you know me.”

“How did you get this number?”

“It’s not that hard to get a phone number. I have resources, remember? Hanniford. The FBI.”

“What do you want?”

“I followed you this morning.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m here in Connecticut and I saw you and Jade leaving this morning with Pearce. I tried following you, but I lost track of the car when I got stopped at a light.”

“You have nothing better to do than follow us around?”

“You were going to a meeting, weren’t you? A meeting for the secret society.”

“I’m done listening to your fucked-up conspiracy theories, Carson. I’m hanging up.”

“We’ve been following your father for months now. We know he’s part of this. And he’s going to lead us to the others.”

“There are no others. There’s no secret group. You need to stop obsessing over this.”

“My sister’s dead, Garret. They killed her. You really think I’m going to just give up?”

“Why are you calling me?”

“I want you to convince your father to talk to Hanniford. Just talk. He’s not asking for names or to make any kind of deal. He just wants to talk to him.”

“Then he can call him himself.”

“He knows your father won’t answer the call. Besides, it’s impossible to get through to Pearce. His assistant won’t let anyone talk to him.”

I smile. “You couldn’t find his cell number?”

“No. Even the FBI guy we’re working with couldn’t get it.”

“That should tell you he wants to be left alone. Tell Hanniford my dad’s not going to meet with him. That guy needs to get over the fact that he didn’t win the election and stop making up stories to explain why he lost. He’s just as crazy as you are.”

“Garret, please. Just listen to me. You have a sister. I know she’s a half sister, but I’m sure you still care about her. If she were murdered simply for knowing something she shouldn’t, wouldn’t you want to find the people who did that to her? Take them down before they did that to someone else?”

He’s right. I’d want to do exactly that, but I can’t help him. Besides, the man who murdered his sister is dead. Carson couldn’t get his revenge even if I told him who did it.

“What are you saying, Carson? You want to find her killer and then kill that person? Doesn’t that make you just as bad as her killer?”

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