“Maybe. But why would someone plant an old feminism book at my place?”
“Because of what was inside.” He handed me a piece of pink paper.
“There is no worse evil than a bad woman. Great. A misogynist was in my house.”
“I’m not sure that’s true. Turn it over.”
I did…and gasped. “The symbol.”
“Yeah. And it starts out as the traditional female symbol, just like Bryce’s uncle predicted.”
“So the symbol must have both meanings then. The female, and evil. Hence the quote. A bad woman.”
“And who’s the worst woman you know?” Ryan’s eyes were sad.
I clasped my hand to my mouth. I didn’t want to say it.
He said it for me. “My mother.”
“Then we were right, and your mother wasn’t lying. She is the mastermind of this whole thing.”
“That’s what this clue seems to indicate. She is truly evil.”
“My father and Bryce’s aren’t any better, so don’t feel alone in this, Ryan.”
“I hate to say this to you, but I always assumed your father was the worst of the bunch.”
“To be honest, so did I.”
“And now, to know it’s my mother. The woman I grew inside of…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “How can I live with this?”
“First of all, remember that we’re still just speculating here. This so-called clue could have been planted to throw us off.”
“It’s not speculation. I feel it in my bones,” he said.
Truthfully, so did I. I cleared my throat. “As to living with it, do it the same way I have. Be the best person you can be, and don’t let the fact that you’re related to a psycho taint you. It’s not easy, but you can do it. Besides, there isn’t time to dwell on it anyhow. We need to figure out who planted this in my apartment and why.”
“I know,” he said.
“I’ll take the book and paper into work tomorrow and have fingerprints extracted. Hopefully that will yield some useful information. At least maybe we can find out who planted it.” But I knew we wouldn’t. Whoever planted it had most likely used gloves, and the only fingerprints we’d find would be mine and Ryan’s.
But I had to try.
“Then what?”
“We find your father. I guess we start by sending out some PIs to look at small islands around Jamaica.”
“What if your father was lying?”
“He’s hard to read,” I said, “but I didn’t get the feeling he was lying. In fact, I got a strong feeling that he was telling the truth, for once.”
“Why would he want to give my father up?”
“I’m not sure he does. I think he wants to lure you and your brothers out to this compound, wherever it is, and take care of all of you once and for all. That’s what makes sense to me. Look at it from his perspective. His two partners are out of the picture. Wendy is in psych lockup. His sister is completely nuts, and now my uncle Rodney is starting to talk. Added to that, I think he’s running out of f
unds. Why else would he have tried to have Jade’s mother killed for insurance money? He’s getting scared, and he’s starting to make mistakes. He’s called me several times, and he actually came to this hotel tonight, when usually he sticks to the shadows. He knows his time is running out.” I sighed. “He’s setting a trap. What we have to do is make him think we’re falling into it.”
Ryan nodded. “Shit. I’ll talk to Joe and Tal, see if they can get their foremen to take over for a few weeks. We’ll need to be on this full time.”