Page 59 of Our Lips Are Sealed
“He’s a doctor,” Samuel explained, holding Evie’s watery gaze. “Or at least Fairweather Holdings paid for him to go to medical school. That’s about all I know.”
Liam gave in and retrieved his phone, sending a quick text to his father.
Rebecca Miller’s son is our guy. Tobias Miller. Alert Hawkins. Will be in contact soon.
His father wouldn’t waste time gaining intel on Toby while Liam interrogated Judy and Nick. “Do you have a way of contacting him?”
“No, he usually calls or stops by whenever he can,” Nick said, glancing at his mother. “Most of the time, it’s around a holiday.”
Damn it, the man was already lying. There was no way Toby had been visiting them for as long as they claimed and not left a phone number or email address behind to keep in contact.
It was time to press a little harder.
“FBI agents visited you recently,” Liam stated. “They were asking about homicides in Missouri and Florida, yet you didn’t put two and two together?”
“How do you know that?” Nick demanded. “Are you a cop?”
Treading carefully, Liam kept his tone even. “I’m with the Bureau and assigned to the case. At each of the murders, we discovered a connection to your sister, and her daughters, so I would appreciate you telling me what you know.”
“You can see your way out.” Nick crossed his arms and jerked his chin at the door. “I’m not talking to you without my lawyer.”
“You mean the lawyer my family pays for?” Samuel shot back, still on the floor in front of Evie. “Start talking, Thibodaux. This bullshit will get us nowhere.”
Judy ran a hand down Evie’s hair. “Is she going to be alright?”
“She just doesn’t like surprises,” Samuel replied, continuing to glare at Nick. “Explain the situation, Cohen. Make them understand how serious this is and that they need to help.”
Liam gave them as much information as he could, omitting certain points that might cause Evie to spiral. While he talked, Jamison went into the kitchen and got her sister a glass of water, peeking down the narrow hall as if she expected to see the bogeyman waiting for her.
“The person who murdered those women is a monster,” Liam said. “True evil in its most basic form.”
Judy rubbed the center of her chest, looking as distraught as Evie. “I don’t see how Toby could have anything to do with these murders. He’s so sweet and kind.”
“Tobias has been good to us. He’s our family,” Nick agreed, shaking his head. “You probably just need to close the case, so you’re making this all up about him.”
“No, he isn’t,” Jamison said, brandishing a finger at her uncle. “And don’t go throwing your own personal hang ups into this. Talk to Liam. He’s only trying to help!”
Nick chuckled at her anger. “You best watch yourself around the Feds, missy. They’ll screw you over, one way or another.”
Samuel rose to his full height, all feigned friendliness wiped clean from his demeanor. He turned on Nick, who looked like a tiny ant in comparison. “Toby is my cousin, and we’ve had little to no contact with him since he and his sister left to live with their father shortly after Laura Jean’s death,” he said between clenched teeth. “So, might I suggest you get your head out of your ass before I do it for you.”
Red tinged Nick’s face and neck, filling out the fleshed colored blank spaces of his tribal tattoos. “It’s just hard to imagine him doing something like that,” he muttered. “Toby is a great guy. He’s well put together and always smiling. The ladies love him by the way he talks.”
Judy hugged herself, shivering in the hot trailer. “Yes, but you and I have both learned that the most horrible monsters can have the prettiest faces,” she whispered, giving Liam a nod. “What do you want to know?”
Chapter 16
ThethrobbinginEvie’shead drowned out the conversation at the kitchen table. Cold denial seeped through her veins, refusing to let her mind accept the information they were learning with each passing minute.
Toby.
Like Judy and Nick, she didn’t want to believe it. She wanted to hold on to the memory of the shy, misunderstood boy who had once been her best friend.
In her whole life, Evie would never understand why Ben did what he did. One of her mother’s final acts in life had been to make sure Toby was taken care of, getting him the help he needed to grow into the young man she believed he could be.
But leaving him and CeCe in the care of someone like Charlie would have been wholly against her wishes. They were innocent children and didn’t deserve such a fate.
In the years following her mother’s death, Evie’s memories were murky at best, but she could recall the day Toby and CeCe were sent away with precise clarity.
