But who had that kind of money? Seriously, who had more money than I did and also wanted to keep this information a secret?
Only the Future Lawmakers had money, and they didn’t have the kind of money I had. If they’d offered my PIs something more, I could easily top their offer tenfold.
Then an icicle scraped along my skin.
One thing trumped money.
Life.
I’d seen that in action when my father threatened Dr. Pelletier.
Someone had threatened my PIs.
What else could have happened?
Time to make a phone call to my lead PI. I dialed.
“Morey here.”
Jason Morey. Aged forty-three. My father’s go-to investigator. He supervised a team of ten who were currently working on our cases. We’d paid them millions over the years. Fucking millions.
“Brad Steel,” I said.
“Hey, Steel. What can I do for you?”
“You can tell me who’s been threatening you.”
A pause. Then, “What the hell are you talking about?”
I cleared my throat. “You and I both know you and your men are the best in the business. It’s been nearly a year since my best man was killed at my wedding. Months since my wife’s friend was brutally murdered. Since my son was threatened. Yet you’ve given me nothing.”
“We’ve been through this. Whoever is responsible covered their tracks. Like you said, it’s been a year. The trail’s gone cold, man.”
“You’ll never convince me you’re that incompetent, Morey.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“It means exactly what it means. You’re the best. My father’s top guys. He’s told me stories about how you’ve uncovered needles in haystacks in the past. But this stuff is eluding you? Doesn’t make sense.”
“Look, I—”
“Save it. We’ve paid you millions. So either someone out there has paid you more not to tell us what’s going on, which I doubt, or your lives have been threatened.”
Silence on the other end of the line.
Yup. Bingo.
“Spill it, Morey.”
“I can’t.”
“Sure you can.”
“Your phone might be tapped.”
“I have the best security team in the business. Nothing is tapped in my home.”
“What if someone got to your security team?”
My blood ran cold. If someone could get to my PIs, someone could get to my security team.
My father’s MO was starting to make sense to me.
And that was fucked up.
What the hell was happening? I was one of the good guys. I had integrity, good faith, good ethics.
I worked hard every day, to the point where I sacrificed time with my wife and son.
And in the end, that wasn’t enough.
No. In the end, I was being forced into shoes I didn’t want to wear. I was becoming my father.
Fuck it all to hell. Jason Morey was making me question everyone around me. Was this how my father had lived his whole life?
“Meet me, then,” I said.
“Tonight? It’s already ten.”
“It’ll be worth your while. There’s a pub in the city. It’s a dive, but it’s safe.”
“How do you know?”
“My father told me about it.”
An hour later, Morey and I sat at a dark table in the pub. A couple of guys sat at the bar, but otherwise the place was empty. We ordered two bourbons.
This was it.
This was a turning point for me. If I couldn’t get Morey to level with me, I had to do something drastic.
“Spill it,” I said.
“I can’t.”
“You can. Who’s responsible for the murders? For the threats against my son?”
“I don’t know.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit, Steel. I actually don’t know.”
“So you suck as a PI? Is that the shit you’re slinging?”
He took a sip of his drink and shook his head. “No. I don’t suck. I could have solved this case a year ago.”
“I figured as much. Tell me what’s going on.”
“Someone came to me. Masked. Put a gun inside my mouth and told me if I investigated your case, he’d rape my pregnant wife and make me watch as he cut out the child.” He shuddered. “You don’t recover from that kind of shit.”
Chills ran through me, but I held my face in check.
Whoever we were dealing with was a psycho. A fucking psycho.
“Your wife and kid are okay?”
He nodded. “So far. But these lunatics visit me a couple times a month to reiterate what they’re capable of.”
“Where do they visit you?”
“Sometimes at my office. Sometimes at home.”
“When Lora’s home?”
“Yeah. Sometimes.”
“How do you keep it from her?”
“They…” Morey shakes his head. “I can’t fucking believe this.”
“What? What does he do?”
“They inject her with something. She stays out for a couple of hours and then doesn’t remember anything.”
“Fuck.”
“It’s terrifying. The first time they did it, she was still pregnant. I was so scared something would happen to the baby. But she’s all right, thank God.”
“Why didn’t you just call me and say you can’t do the work? You’re still taking my money, Jason.”
“That was part of the deal. I take your money. Tell you I’m working on it. That whoever did it has covered their tracks like a pro.”