Page 111 of Until He Confesses

“So, what is it?” she asked.

She sounded less lively than usual, but as I looked out at the dreary weather, I didn't have to assume why.

“Gloomy day,” I said. “I want to meet up.”

She went silent at the request, and then she sighed.

“Um… I, uh… I actually need to talk to you.”

I was immediately alarmed at her tone.

“You need to talk to me?”

“Yeah,” she replied, and in her tone, I knew that it was nothing good. I also knew that it had absolutely nothing to do with the weather. My suspicions from how she had responded to me in France came up until I had sighed. Definitely should have checked in on her back then.

“Can we meet later?” she asked. “After work?”

I considered this.

“Sure,” I replied. “I'll tell Dahlia to make a reservation.”

“No need,” she said. “We can just talk in your office or in the car. This won't take long.”

I was truly concerned as numerous scenarios for why she would sound this way came to mind.

“Does this have anything to do with Jennifer?” I asked. “Did she cross any line with you?”

“No,” she replied. “And I’m not that fragile.”

“You want to end our agreement?”

“Let’s just meet later,” she said. “We’ll be able to talk then.”

“Meet me at my office,” I told her. “The staff will bring you straight up.”

After the call, I only allowed a brief moment to wonder about what she wanted to talk about. There was no doubt in my mind that it was pretty serious for her to sound as somber as she did, and it worried me. Nevertheless, I tried to get back to work, but it was such a struggle keeping my mind off her.

I called my private investigator. We set a meeting time and he gave me as much detail as he had been able to gather thus far.

“As I told you, we were able to track him down, and not only has he confirmed that he did indeed have a sexual relationship with your brother when they were younger, but he also referred me to the two other boys he was also aware of. As I told you on the phone, I'm in the process of searching for them now. I've located the workplace of one, a David Lawson. He works as a sous chef in Houston, so it's been a bit difficult to get a hold of him, but we've scheduled a phone call for tomorrow night.”

“And the other guy?” I asked.

“Still can't find him. He seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, but I'm sure if you give us a bit more time, we'll be able to find him. We have some threads now to follow.”

“Yeah,” I said. “But I don't have time right now. I was hoping for more concrete answers.”

“Well, this is the information I currently have,” he said and passed over the envelope of information to me. I brought them all out, understanding his threads and connections.

“I'll wait on the rest.” I said after looking at his information.

The evidence was clear now and incontestable, but it was still not very convincing to me as it was all hearsay. There could always be the possibility in Callie's eye that I had paid the man to speak on my behalf, although she would believe me about having a twin brother. None of it felt solid, so I pulled my drawer open and tossed the envelope inside.

My words meant absolutely nothing to her because of some useless video she had seen years earlier. And all over again, it just served to make me frustrated.

Callie

“Are you really going to tell him?”

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