“You still think your father had something to do with Juliet and Lisa?”
She nodded. “Why else would he have called me and told me not to talk to Shayna? His involvement might be ancillary, but he’s in it somehow. And now that Wendy pretty much validated that they were in human trafficking, it makes even more sense.”
I guffawed.
“What?” she asked.
“Just the fact that you used the phrase ‘makes sense.’ As if any of this could actually make sense.”
She took a sip of her wine and smiled. “True enough. You deal with something for so long, and it begins to seem normal. I see it all the time in my work. Cops have to fight against that.”
I finished my wine and poured a glass. “We have to find your father, Ruby. And we have to find my father too.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Ruby
“Well, we both know where to start,” I said.
Ryan nodded, sipping his wine. “Yeah. My mother.”
“Or…” My mind whizzed rapidly. “Since your mother hasn’t been forthcoming, and we never know whether she’s telling the truth…”
“But you said yourself that she always knows what she’s saying, whether it’s the truth or a lie.”
“True, but that doesn’t really help us because we don’t always know the reasons behind why she says what she says. We can try Larry Wade again, but honestly, I’m not sure he’s been privy to some of the stuff that my father, Simpson, and Wendy have cooked up.”
“I’ve gotten that same feeling,” Ryan said, “and Talon always maintained that Larry was more of a follower of the other two. Oh my God!”
“What?” I asked.
“I can’t believe I forgot about this. Remember the last time we saw Larry, and you came back in, saying you wanted to talk to me?”
“Yeah.”
“I had been asking Larry about the symbol on Simpson’s ring. On all of their rings. Of course, he refused to talk about it, but then he said something interesting. He said, ‘I understand why you would want to know. The devil is in the details. Just ask your mother.’”
I dropped my mouth open. “So maybe Bryce’s uncle was right. Maybe it was a symbol for evil.”
“Melanie always said that Larry talks in riddles. It seems weird that he would use that cliché while we were talking about the ring unless he meant something.”
I sighed. “I wish I could say any of this was surprising, but I’ve known for a long time just how evil my father is.”
“But my father,” Ryan said. “My father also wore that ring.”
“We don’t know for sure that he even understood what the symbol meant.”
He lowered his brows. “My father would have known. Or he would’ve asked.”
“You don’t know that, Ryan. And even if he did ask, they might have lied to him.”
“A couple of months ago, baby, I might’ve bought that. But no longer. My father was clearly into this, maybe not as deeply as the others, but he was. Hell, he gave them money.”
“Did you have any success uncovering his will?” I asked.
“No. We haven’t found it yet. Joe is going to contact the attorney who read it to us. But if my father has paid him off, it may not do any good.”
I took his hand across the table. “We will figure this out. We’ve come this far. I promise you I won’t quit until my father is behind bars where he deserves to be.”