“I’ll tell you while we book the flights,” Roland said, clapping his cousin’s shoulder.
“Flights?” Dylan hollered, whipping his head back to look at me.
“Trust me. It’s a long story,” I muttered, following them to Roland’s office.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
When we touched down in North Carolina, a sense of dread swirled within me. The questions were screaming in my mind and I had a feeling the answers were closer than ever before, but that they would come with deadly truths.
Roland booked a rental and we drove straight to Calvin’s house. He parked along the curb and then peered through the passenger window, studying the home. “This doesn’t look like a place Melanie would have run to.”
“Well, if she had nowhere else to go . . .” Dylan shrugged.
My phone rang in my bag and I dug it out. It was Kell.
I answered and put the phone on speaker. “Kell? What’d you find out?”
“So apparently this Calvin Thompson guy used to own a club. He filed for bankruptcy about two years before the whole rape scandal. Melanie’s mother worked at the club and they met there.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We found out through a former employee of his. She told us everything. He started losing money and hooked up with Melanie’s mother, Pauline, who had some money rolling in from her previous husband who died, and I don’t think he was those girls’ father. Then again, we aren’t sure because the birth certificates don’t have the father’s name. Anyway, Calvin moved in with her for about a year, won a lottery from a scratch ticket for fifteen grand, then got convicted a couple weeks later.”
“Wow. Calvin must’ve wanted to ditch them when he won the money. So where is her mom now?” I asked, glancing at Roland.
“Her mom died in 2012. Cancer.” In 2012? I gave the timeframe some thought. That was the same year Melanie met Roland.
“What else did you find?”
“Not much else, honestly. After he was convicted it’s radio silence for years. He eventually got out on parole, got a job, works second shift. Seems to me he kept his head down and avoided trouble when he got out. His parole only lasted a few months because it seems he was doing well for himself and creating a better life, and seeing as the sisters were no longer in Raleigh, I’m sure that made it much easier for his case too.”
I looked at the house through the window. “Yeah, that sounds like a great comeback story, but I don’t believe he’s suddenly become some law-abiding citizen.”
“There are some other things, not about him though. We found Melanie’s birth records and saw she shares a birthday with Miley.”
“Yeah, they’re twins,” I sighed. “Just found that out.” I side-eyed Roland and he pressed his lips apologetically.
“Okay, that’s good you know. The other thing is a drug rehabilitation record for Miley. It dates back to 2012, right around the time her mother passed. Apparently, she was checked in by a woman.”
My heart dropped. “How do you know this?”
“My guy can hack into bookings, electronically filed papers, police records, and call logs. All I do is ask the questions and he finds the answers, but a lot of it isn’t legal so I’d appreciate if you kept that between us. Anyway, there’s footage of Miley being checked in.”
“Send it to me.”
“Okay.” Kell hung up, and seconds later my phone pinged and there was a video attachment from him. I opened it and Roland leaned over the middle console to see while Dylan leaned forward.
The camera was at an angle, but it clearly showed two women entering a clinic. One of the women was helping the other stay on her feet, and then a security guard met them with a wheelchair.
“There.” I pointed at the screen, at the girl being forced into the chair. “That has to be Miley, right?”
I couldn’t make out the other woman. Her back was to the camera as she signed papers, spoke to a man behind the counter, then she turned and said something to Miley, pointing a stern finger.
Then she left the clinic, but not without looking back over her shoulder, and when she did, I saw her face as clear as day. It was Melanie. Her hair was straightened, and she wore a button-down blouse, a pencil skirt, and heels.
The video ended just as it framed her face.
She’d checked Miley in. “I think Miley was in and out of rehab around the time you two met. She ignored Miley for a while when you two got married. She never told you about any of this, right?” I asked Roland.
“No. Never.”
“Miley must’ve relapsed because of her mother’s death. But why would Melanie completely abandon her sister when she met you? She was ignoring her calls for days.”
Roland shrugged. “I don’t know, Samira.”
“Melanie was jealous of Miley.” I looked back and Dylan was peering through the windshield. “She, um . . . well, when we were messing around, she would always ask me who I thought was better—her, or Miley. I would always say she was. It’s what she wanted to hear, so I said it. I think it’s because of the whole Calvin situation. I think he made them compete against each other to prove their worth to him.”