Page 18 of Forbidden Bond

“And then what? He said it, we have no proof.”

“We could get him on tape.”

Ironic that the suggestion put a bad taste in her mouth. “I want him to rot in hell for killing Henry and shooting Conn…”

“But…?”

“A trial? What else will be dragged up?”

“You mean about us?”

“I mean about him,” she said, lowering her volume. “Do we want the world to know he’s in league with Silvio Manzani?The don, Lach, how long has it been going on? What else might they have done?”

“Every prosecution he’s ever been a part of will be scrutinized. Every exoneration too. They’ll reopen cases—”

“Maybe let worse people out in the world?”

“Would everyone believe we didn’t know or will they assume…? My investigations could be open to inspection too.”

“You do good work. And though our father is the lowest of the low, I’d like to think that at some point in his life, he put away people who deserved it.”

“I’ll support whatever you want me to support.”

That was… “You will?”

“He deserves to go to prison for what he’s done, but bringing a cloud over our family, over all the work we’ve done… and Henry’s memory too… I don’t know, is that right? And we’d have to testify.” Did either of them want to do that against their own father? And Conn, if he was alive… “They wouldn’t miss a chance to put Ire on the stand either.”

She held her breath for a second. Man, her brother really was good at his job.

“He’ll plead the fifth,” she said. “We’ll all plead the fifth.”

“Then we might as well join Ron in custody. You know what’s inferred from a Fifth defense.”

Shit, thanks, Dad, they were painted into a corner. It was inevitable they’d be dragged down with him if they tossed him to the authorities.

“I can’t believe this…”

That their father’s misdeeds brought them to that point. That untenable point.

“All the evidence we gathered.” Lachlan seemed bewildered. “The statements we took and footage, how did we not know he was at Henry’s that night? Why didn’t anyone mention him?”

“Lupe wasn’t there. Sneddon was the only one in the building.”

“And he’s the type of guy who wants the superintendent to owe him.”

“That and there’s the tunnel.”

“Tunnel?”

“See!” she exclaimed and socked his shoulder. “I didn’t know about it either!”

“What tunnel?”

“From prohibition days apparently. It’s how Dad brought me out of the house without Conn’s guys seeing. Must’ve been how he got in to visit Henry the night he killed him too. Lupe was the only one with a key. We thought Lupe was the only one with a key. I don’t know how or why dad got one.”

“We have to decide,” Lach said. “Are we taking him in?”

Without proof? “We could talk to Lupe again, Sneddon, see if they’ll be more honest now we know what happened.”

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