Page 66 of Mine to Save

“Kathy was our grandmother’s name,” Shawn said. “I’m not surprised she used it. When our grandma passed a couple of years ago, Rayna got worse.”

“What do you mean by worse?” Trinity leaned forward and folded her hands on the table.

“My sister, and we can call her Kathy since that’s how you know her, has had a lot of issues during her life. When she was younger, she saw a therapist who told us that she had a personality disorder. He put her on medication, which she never stays on. Never.” Shawn shook his head. “I don’t know what to do with her. I’ve tried cutting her off a couple of times, but she ended up in the psychiatric ward because she tried to hurt herself. Only I think she faked it to get my attention. But what an asshole I am for thinking that, right?” Shawn leaned back and blew out a puff of air. “I knew she was living in South Florida with some rich, older guy, but I haven’t seen her in a couple of years.”

“You must have known about the Adultery Killer and the connection to your father and to the man who killed him,” Emmett said. “Did you ever think your sister could have been involved?”

“Honestly, no. But I didn’t think my sister was up to any good either. She has issues, but she wasn’t violent. She acted out sexually, and she’s a pathological liar,” Shawn said.

“What made you believe my brother so quickly?” Emmett asked.

“Kathy called me a few weeks ago asking for money.” Shawn ran a hand across the top of his buzzed head. “I wasn’t surprised because, every couple of years, she runs out of whatever I’ve given her, or whatever whomever she’s been living off does after they smarten up. I told her no and hung up. Normally, she waits a week and comes back at me. But this time, she called me back in seconds. She told me she was in trouble. That her credit cards were maxed out, and she didn’t have a dime. That if I didn’t give her money, she would end up on the streets. I thought that was dramatic. I asked her to give me some banking information and said I’d wire her some money. The bank was in Pensacola.” Shawn held up his hand. “I still hadn’t thought anything of it. I also planned to make her wait a couple more days. So, when she didn’t get it in a timely manner, someone claiming to be her boyfriend paid me a visit.”

“That was two days ago.” Rhett pulled out the picture Trinity’s father had sketched of the man who’d been following him. Bugsy. Rhett tapped his finger on the picture. “Bugsy told Shawn that he and his family would end up in the Hudson River if he didn’t pay.”

“So, I paid. That guy was fucking scary,” Shawn said.

Trinity’s heart dropped to her gut. “Why didn’t you call the police?”

“I’ve been dealing with my sister and her brand of crazy for years. While I was frightened by that man, my sister has never tried to hurt me. I had no reason to believe that this was anything but her being her usual dramatic self,” Shawn said. “It wasn’t until Rhett showed up that I started to believe that my sister could be behind the murders.”

Emmett laced his fingers with Trinity’s. “We have the upper hand now. She doesn’t know we’ve talked to Shawn, and she doesn’t know we have the contents of the envelope.”

“Or that we have a sample of Bugsy’s handwriting,” Rhett said with a smile. “The note we got from Tony, and the signature from the bank needed for the wire transfer. We sent both to Lucy Ann’s father, and he’s already had it analyzed by an expert. It’s a match to the notes left by the Adultery Killer.”

“That’s our fucking smoking gun.” Emmett pounded the table. “Now we just have to find them.”

“They could be halfway to Mexico by now,” Trinity said as all the air in her lungs flew out. “They aren’t going to want to get caught and if they think that’s possible, I bet they have new identities and are long gone.”

“I told you that my sister got worse after our grandma died. Part of that was because our grandmother had dementia. In the end, she had become obsessed with how her son had been killed. Minutes before she passed, she begged my sister to make sure she took care of whoever had taken her boy from her. I never thought my sister would actually do it.” Shawn rubbed his chin as he let out a long breath.

Trinity could see the pain in his eyes. While her anguish was different, she could still relate. He’d lost his father when he’d been a baby. Then his mother.

And, eventually, his sister.

His life had been hard.

Perhaps harder than Trinity’s.

She reached out and touched his hand. “You’re not responsible for what she did.”

“Aren’t I, though?” A tear rolled down his cheek. “If I hadn’t been bankrolling her all these years, she wouldn’t have been able to hire someone to kill innocent men and frame your father for it.”

“We can’t dwell on these things,” Emmett said. “Right now, we need to draw Kathy and Bugsy out.”

“There’s only one way to do that,” Rhett said.

“How?” Trinity asked.

“Nope.” Emmett shook his head. “No fucking way.”

“What?” Trinity glanced between the two brothers. “If it will get them out in the open so you can arrest them, why aren’t we doing it?”

“Because it means using you as bait,” Emmett said. “I won’t allow it.”

Trinity swallowed the thick lump in her throat as she pulled her cell from her back pocket. “I’m not going to live in fear. And the longer she’s out there, the longer I have to look over my shoulder, and the longer my father’s name is trampled through the mud.” She caught Emmett’s gaze. “Tell me what to say and how to say it. Let’s end this now.”

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