Page 89 of Retribution
Shade rubs his face.
‘Maybe,’ he mutters. ‘Sauvage messaged me about five minutes ago. He said he had a lead on who blew upthe club. Said to come tomorrow. He didn’t mention you or the lab, though.’
‘He’s fucking with us,’ I say. ‘Could be a trap of some kind if he doesn’t think he needs us anymore.’
We get upstairs and find Blake at his computer. He doesn’t turn around when we go in.
‘How was the State Forest?’ Shade asks.
‘Messy,’ he mutters, tapping on his keyboard quickly. ‘The usual. Got rid of the phone out there though. That should keep ’em chasing their tails for a while.’
Shade and I share a look. Besides wrestling and class, Blake has barely left his room. He mostly speaks in one-word answers when it's anyone but us. We’re both getting worried. When he’s like this, he tends to start taking unnecessary risks. Sort of like how Daisy does, actually.
‘Here,’ he says, turning around and almost catching our silent conversation about him. ‘I found this the other day. I didn’t mention it because I wanted to be sure, but…’
He opens a yearbook from Birchmore Academy from about twenty-five years ago.
‘Here’s John, Mark, and Applegate,’ he says pointing to a picture of four kids under a tree together smiling for the camera.
‘Is that April?’ Shade asks, snatching up the book.
‘Check out the name.'
‘Evelyn Carmichael?’
‘I looked her up. She went to Birchmore with them. I thought maybe she was a cousin of April’s. Having family in Richmond would explain how she met John and the others when she was younger.’
I take in my friend’s face. ‘Looks like there’s a ‘but’ in there somewhere.’
Blake nods. ‘A big one. It’s not a cousin. That’s actually April.’
‘But the name,’ I mutter. ‘Why the change?’
‘April wasn’t from here,’ Shade says.
‘Well, she definitely went to school here. I can’t find any other Carmichaels in Richmond or the surrounding areas at all though.’
‘So, which was the fake name? April or Evelyn?’
Blake shrugs. ‘No clue. Can’t find anything else on either of the names right now. Maybe if we,’ he winces, ‘whenwe talk to Daisy, she can tell us something.’
‘What the fuck?’ Shade says, starting to pace again. ‘April never said anything. She acted like… I mean I knew my pop and her had known each other before, but I didn’t know they went that far back.’
‘It gets better.’
‘An ‘Evelyn’ was meant to marry John. When I searched for the name, I found the announcement in some old microfiche articles that have been digitized. Wasn’t Evelyn Carmichael, though.’
We both lean closer.
‘What was it?’ Shade asks.
He shakes his head. ‘You’re not gonna believe it.’
He pauses for dramatic effect and I punch him hard in the back of the shoulder.
‘Just fucking say it!’ I yell.
‘Ow! Fuck you!’ he snarls, whipping around and trying to get me back.
