Tempting Perfection

Kurt spoke up. “Go ahead.”

“Sawyer has a sister.”

I leaned forward. “Had. Adriane died during my first year at college. She committed suicide.”

Joe opened the first file and showed me our birth certificates. “When we did the initial checks, I found your parents had two children: you and your brother. I didn’t see any record for Adriane Wade. After being informed about Adriane, we found the original birth certificate buried. The reason we missed it is there were a lot of changes made to the record. The latest change shows a Matilda Locke.”

Matilda was Mattie’s real name. A shiver ran down my spine.

This made no sense. “Why?”

“Your parents went to a great expense to hide her. Adriane’s daughter, Mattie, was listed with the last name as Smith on the birth certificate.” Joe tugged at his tie again.

Smith? I had no idea. Was that the father?

Kurt leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. “What does Adriane have to do with this?”

Holding up a finger, Joe opened another folder. “I’ll get to that.” He turned to me. “When Adriane died, did you see a body? Not just a casket, but a body.”

I thought back to those horrible days. My parents had asked me to sit away from them. It hurt for them to look at me. So Cameron and I had sat in the last row of an otherwise empty funeral parlor. “No, it was a closed casket. She committed suicide while I was in college. By the time I got home, all the arrangements had been made. They kept it private—family only. No newspaper announcement. They were afraid it would bring shame on the family. Why do you ask?”

They were truly terrible people with the mind games they’d played, and that hurt to admit. It wasn’t until I was free from them that I understood. Fear crippled me, but love freed me.

“We haven’t been able to find a death certificate. Your sister is still alive and living under the name Matilda Locke.”

“Come again?” Kurt asked.

Dread trickled through my body. Adriane is alive? She hadn’t committed suicide.

Joe laid out another piece of paper and slid it across the table. “I’ve combed through everything, left no stone unturned. There is no record of Adriane Wade’s death. This is where I believe Adriane is: West Cedar, an inpatient treatment facility in Denver for severe bipolar disorder.”

I took the piece of paper in my shaking hands. “But we went to a funeral home. There was a casket. A service. Afterward, we spread her ashes. Mom and Dad said they wanted a casket for the service until cremation happened.”

“What about friends and family? Did anyone ask about Adriane?”

All these details seemed so obvious, yet it had made sense at the time. “Yes. Maybe. I don’t remember. After Mattie died, my parents forbade us to ever mention her. But honestly, we were never deeply involved in their lives. We never attended functions or met work associates. It all felt normal to me. I never knew any difference.” A numbness kept spreading inside. “Did you find Mattie’s death certificate?”

“Yes. But your sister wasn’t listed as the mother. An Addie and Greg White were listed. The father died in a car accident not long after Mattie did. Addie was, of course, Adriane but under an alias.”

All the lies. Deceit. My parents did this. “How do you make a daughter vanish?”

“I believe your father’s mob ties were more extensive than I’d initially guessed.”

This isn’t happening. I shook my head, not wanting to believe. “Initially guessed? What the fuck, Joe? Ties to the mob?”

Joe remained calm. “In our discovery, he met with a mob boss named Navarro several times.”

Navarro. I’d heard that name. It had been in all the papers, but I never remembered hearing it before that. I clarified, “The guy killed in the house fire last year?”

“Yes, him.”

I glanced at Kurt, whose mouth was drawn into a tight line. This entire situation was worse than I ever imagined. The mob? My parents? Yes, they were vindictive…but this? There had to be a mistake. “So, you’re saying my dad had ties to the mob?”

“Yes. Someone like Navarro could make Adriane disappear. He could also make fake birth certificates happen. He was a powerful man. Navarro targeted Mr. Shaw last year. That part is complicated, and I’m not at liberty to discuss the particulars. But I believe your parents had been more involved than we originally thought. Navarro was known to be cunning and an expert at deception. He always remained a step ahead of investigators. It wasn’t until Mr. Hendrix told us about your sister Adriane that we were able to find the key and unpeel the layers.”

I massaged my temples to keep the headache that loomed behind my eye sockets at bay. “So what does this mean?”

“Steve and I suggest setting up surveillance on Adriane’s facility as well as on the Wade’s home.”