Page 20 of Den of Iniquity

“Nothing at all.”

I opened the wallet and thumbed through it. Among the contents were a driver’s license, a bank debit card, a Costco card, a Safeway loyalty card, and a single photograph of a smiling young woman.

Holding it up, I asked, “Gina?”

Matilda nodded. “Yes, that’s Gina.”

In the back of the wallet, concealed under an interior flap, I found two crisp one-hundred-dollar bills. “Did you know these were here?”

“No, and I have no idea where they would have come from. His paychecks from Jojo’s were on direct deposit. As far as I knew, he never in his life had two hundred-dollar bills to rub together at the same time, unless...”

As her unfinished sentence faded away into nothing, a worriedexpression passed over Matilda’s face. For the first time in the course of our conversation, she seemed uncertain. It didn’t take long for me to figure out why. Just because Darius wasn’t using drugs didn’t mean he wasn’t selling them.

“Do you mind if I take this?” I asked, returning everything to the envelope.

“Take whatever you need, but bring it back when you’re done with it. Except for the money. Knowing where it might have come from, I don’t care if I ever see it again.”

After that, Matilda gave me contact information for Darius’s boss at Jojo’s along with the names for several of the guys who had been part of Mount Zion’s Thanksgiving Day volunteer crew, all of which gave me some leads to follow. However, when I left her residence, it seemed as though my visit had done the exact opposite of what I had intended. Rather than improving Matilda Jackson’s frame of mind, I feared I had left her feeling infinitely worse.

I wasn’t happy about that—not in the least.

Chapter 8

Bellingham, Washington

Thursday, February 20, 2020

As I left Renton and headed home through traffic, it was late enough in the day that southbound 405 was already bumper-to-bumper for miles. I was northbound, and traffic there wasn’t nearly as bad. I was approaching Everett when my phone rang. I was surprised to see Kelly’s name showing in caller ID. It was coming up on a week since our big blowup over Kyle. Other than the tense series of calls regarding school records on Monday, I hadn’t heard a word from her.

This is going to be fun, I thought. “Hey there,” I said aloud, doing my best to sound jovial. “How’s my favorite daughter?”

Once upon a time, back when, as far as I knew, I’d had only one daughter, that had been a running joke between us. Now with Naomi in the picture, I realized that I’d just stepped in it. I wasbusy wondering how I’d go about fixing that blunder, when Kelly stunned me with her opening line.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” she said. “Sorry about everything. How’s Kyle doing? Did you get him enrolled?”

“This is only his third day,” I told her. “I’ve been working a case in Seattle, so I won’t find out how things went today until I get back to Bellingham, but all things considered, he seems to be okay. And there’s no need for you to apologize. It sounds as though the whole family has been through hell.”

I heard her draw a deep breath. “You know, this isn’t the first time Jeremy has cheated on me,” she said finally.

Of course, that was something I’d already learned from Kyle, but I was glad to hear it from Kelly.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “Mel and I had no idea anything was amiss.”

“I know,” Kelly replied. “When it comes to being an enabler, I’m at the head of the class. I’ve covered for him for years.”

That was heartbreaking to hear. “I always thought you and Jeremy were happy.”

“I was at first,” she said, “and I thought he was, too. You never said it aloud, but I knew at the time how much you disapproved of our getting married. But once I caught him cheating, I didn’t want to admit it to anyone—most especially to you—and have to tell you that you were right and I was wrong. I was afraid of disappointing you.”

“I’m disappointed as hell in Jeremy,” I said, “but I’ve never been disappointed in you. Even with small kids at home, you picked yourself up, went back to school. You got your GED, and earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s. First you started your own company and then, after selling that, you’ve gone on to hold demanding jobs. Getting people to cough up charitable contributions isn’t easy.”

“It’s easier than getting a divorce,” she put in.

“Yes,” I agreed. “I suppose it is.”

“Anyway,” she continued, “when I decided to move out, I really did give Kyle a chance to decide what he wanted to do—whether he would move in with Kayla and me in Eugene or stay on in Ashland with his dad. Considering it’s his senior year, when he chose to stay, I thought that was a reasonable decision. I don’t understand why he changed his mind all of a sudden or why he decided to go running to you, either. Why didn’t he come straight to Eugene?”

I couldn’t answer that question without betraying Kyle’s confidence. I may have been his grandfather, but in asking me to look into his family situation, I was functioning as a private investigator. That meant that whatever passed between us was confidential information. Rather than answering her question, I deflected it instead. “Sometimes, teenage boys are as much of a mystery to themselves as they are to their mothers.”

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