Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 71226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“And a way to use this information that’ll mean we can use it in court,” Black ordered Apollo.
He saluted him. “I’m staying at my brother-in-law’s place tonight. Romeo, Mable, and I are going to go through everything. See what we can find. I’ll have something to you hopefully by mid-morning.”
“Can I help with that?” Sage asked.
Apollo looked at her. “Sure.”
She pulled away from me, leaving me feeling like an asshole.
“You have to be at work tomorrow,” I pointed out.
“I do, but I won’t be able to sleep anyway.” She looked at me. “Can I borrow your truck?”
“I’ll take you,” Apollo said. “Then drop you off at work in the morning.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll go get my things.”
She left out the back door heading to her trailer.
She’d yet to change out of her scrubs from work, and I hated that I hadn’t noticed before now.
I knew that she hated the feeling of dirty scrubs.
“Both women will be out on bail tomorrow,” Black said, confirming what I already knew. “I’ll have to let them know that their son is now a ward of the state until the investigation is finished.” He looked at me. “As of right now, you’re the newest foster care parent of Jesper County.”
I nodded.
“We’re going to try to keep you out of this as much as we can,” he said. “We don’t want you in anything that has to do with them. All you’re going to be doing is giving that kid a place to stay. You’re not on the investigation. You’re not anywhere in anything that has to do with them, got it?”
I nodded.
“What about school?” Sage asked as she came back in the back door with a bag of clothes.
“I already contacted the school district,” Apollo said helpfully. “Shared that he would be moving to Jesper County School District. They sent his transcripts over an hour ago. Forwarded that to your email, Gentry. You can enroll him tomorrow. Or when you think he’s ready.”
I nodded once.
That would be tomorrow’s problem.
Tonight…
“At some point,” Black said carefully. “We’re going to have to talk to Dean. He’s old enough that he can share what’s happened to him.”
That made my gut clench.
“He’s not…”
“He’s the best source of information that we have, and you know it,” Black pointed out. “I know that he’s your kid. And I know that you want to protect him, especially after no one has his entire life. But you have to think about putting these women behind bars. Because if they’re not, they have a right over him. You don’t.”
He didn’t have to say “because you’re supposed to be dead.”
I’d heard it loud and clear.
I had no way to fix this. No way to make it all right.
I could only do what I was doing.
And that didn’t seem good enough.
Twenty-Four
Rated B for bitch.
—Sage’s secret thoughts
Sage
“Look at this,” Romeo twisted his computer around.
We all looked at what he had pulled up on his screen, and I frowned. “What’s that?”
“Doctor’s visit in Bozeman,” he said. “What’s the medical jargon mean?”
I read over the ER visit notes and felt my gut clench.
“Broken ulna. Head contusion. Possible TBI,” I read. “The doctor called child protective services. Parents found out and fled. They used a false name, so they were never able to follow up.”
“How’d you find this?” Romeo asked his brother-in-law.
“Facial recognition software thanks to NSA. National Security Agency,” he answered my question before I could ask. “I searched through everything with Nadine’s and Brooke’s faces. Anything they’ve done over the last seven years should be here.”
Apollo had just admitted to hacking the NSA.
That was nuts to me.
I wiped at my tired eyes and went back to the medical records that I was reading.
“They used their close medical facilities at first,” I said to no one in particular. “Bumps. Bruises. Broken arms. Concussions. All of it blamed on sports. But they stopped going to their close facilities when one time Nadine Wood blamed a broken arm on soccer, and it wasn’t soccer season. The doctor got suspicious and confronted her. Never went back.”
“And none of these doctors followed up?” Mable asked.
“Not a one,” I answered.
“Jesus,” Mable muttered. “Mandatory reporters, my ass.”
“Kid’s arm has been broken four times. Two right, two left.” Apollo tapped away on his computer. “What else?”
We spoke for another thirty minutes before Mable said, “Let’s break for coffee. I’m about to crash.”
I was, too.
So I got the coffee and used that time to walk around and loosen my limbs.
I wondered if Gentry had gotten any sleep.
I looked at the clock and saw it was nearly three in the morning.
Was he awake?
If I texted, would I wake him?
“You okay?”
I looked over at Mable who was busy pouring coffees.
“I’m fine,” I lied.
She snorted. “I highly doubt it, my friend.”
“Okay, so I’m not fine,” I admitted. “I’m a lot of things, but fine isn’t one of them. But I’m not really sure what to say.”