Page 14 of Toy

“I… um…” Jolie looked down at her coffee cup, her hands nervously twisting on her lap as she faltered.

“You might see yourself as honorable vigilantes, but in the eyes of the law, it’s conspiracy to murder.” Beck tilted her chin to the side and rubbed her neck. “I really should report you both right now.”

“I’m sorry,” Jolie murmured.

Beck leaned forward and smiled thinly. “You’re just lucky I’m in.”

My brows furrowed. “What?”

“I’m sure it didn’t escape your memory that I’m married to a victim of the Path of the Covenant,” she said, jaw tightening. “You know I hate those bastards as much as you.”

“Yes, but I didn’t think you’d be willing to—”

She cut me off. “If they get caught with good old-fashioned police work, they won’t get the punishment they deserve.” She held up one palm. “In most cases, I’m all for the system. I do things by the book. But guys like that… they don’t deserve a fair trial or long prison sentences. They deserve to be destroyed.” She gritted her teeth. “Painfully.”

“So you actually want to help us?” I asked incredulously. “Even though you know we want to kill them?”

She nodded and turned her gaze to Jolie. “My wife is like you. Nightmares every night. Flashbacks every time she sees or hears anything even remotely related to the cult. She’s always thought they might still be out there, no matter how much I tried to comfort her and tell her they all died in that plane crash. Now it turns out she was right, and they’ve been out there all along. So yeah, I want to get them as much as you do. So much that I’m willing to throw out my own code, just this once. Just to get them and give them what they damn well deserve.”

I let out a deep breath and uttered a soft curse. “Thank fucking god. I thought we were toast.”

“No. Not yet.” Beck’s forehead creased. “There’s a problem, though. As willing as I am to share information with you on the down-low… there’s nothing to share.”

“What?”

She shrugged. “All we have is a positive ID on Tom Anderson. The DNA results came back a few days ago. It was definitely him. But that’s it. We have no idea where he was hiding all this time, or any of the others either.” She let out an irritated sigh. “I’m not even supposed to be part of the cult investigation, given who my wife is. Conflict and all.”

Jolie’s face fell. “You have nothing at all?”

“No. Sorry,” Beck replied in a rueful tone, shaking her head. I could tell she was being honest with us. “Tom didn’t have any sort of identification or materials on him that would help us figure out where he’s been living or what fake name he’s been using. Also, the car he was driving was stolen from an old lady in Metairie. So nothing useful there, either.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. We have literally nothing to go on. Just dead ends everywhere we turn.”

Jolie rested her chin on her hands, her lips glumly downturned. “Damn,” she murmured. “Mason and I really thought the police would have something by now, even if it was just something small.”

“I figured. I’m sorry. These cult bastards are like ghosts.” Beck tilted her head to the side and tapped her fingernails on the table again. “Wait… let’s back up to something you said earlier, Mason.”

“Yeah?” I finished the final sip of my coffee.

“You said Jolie was afraid there might be someone in the police department who could leak info to her father or other cult members. Was that just part of your ploy to get me out of the station, or do you two genuinely believe there could be a leak?” she asked. “Because if it’s the latter, figuring out who that leak is could be a start. It could eventually help us find the cult.”

Jolie nodded emphatically. “I’ve always thought my father had connections in law enforcement. But not cops. FBI.”

“Why?”

“Because someone leaked information to him about what we planned to do eight years ago,” she said. “He and the other men knew the FBI raid was coming before it even…” She suddenly stopped, brows pinching together.

“Jolie? What’s up?” I rubbed her shoulder.

“I just realized,” she said slowly. “It wasn’t an FBI leak. It couldn’t have been.”

“How do you know?” Beck asked.

“On the day of the raid, Mason left early to call the FBI and send them all the proof he’d gathered. That means the very earliest my father could’ve been made aware of the upcoming raid was around nine that morning, although it was probably even later. But they knew before that. Before Mason contacted the authorities.”

“Are you sure?”

---