Omens (Cainsville 1)

I moved to the bedroom door to tell Gabriel to keep quiet if he was awake. He wasn't.

He was still on the sofa bed, sprawled on his stomach, head turned to the side. He'd taken off his shirt, but left his pants on, and the sheet was twisted around him as if he'd had a hard time getting comfortable. He was comfortable now, though, and deeply asleep. Also? Very nice to look at in that particular pose, muscular arms and back bare, wavy black hair tousled, long inky lashes against his cheek. Damned nice.

I closed the door. If I was eyeing Gabriel that way, I really should consider giving Ricky a call.

"I know you aren't fond of him--" I began.

"Fond?" A short laugh. "My feelings about Gabriel Walsh do not approach the realm of fond, Olivia. The man terrifies me. There, I've said it." An exhalation. "I know it sounds ridiculous. After all, whatever his reputation, he is still a man of law. An educated man. Presumably a civilized man. I've been trying to remember that, to give him the benefit of the doubt and merely suggest--strongly--that you not work with him. But..."

"What is it?"

"I told you I have reasons for distrusting him. I was given those reasons in confidence, which is why I've not done anything more than hint."

"Something about his mother." I lowered my voice. "She was a drug addict, wasn't she?"

"Yes." A pause. "Has he told you what happened to her?"

"We have a professional relationship. He doesn't share anything like that."

"Okay, then. Seanna Walsh was an addict, con artist, petty thief--pickpocket mostly. Never married. There's no father listed on Gabriel's birth certificate. It was just the two of them until Gabriel was fifteen and Seanna left."

"Left?"

"Presumably. Now, if such a thing were to happen under normal circumstances to a fifteen-year-old boy, he would take refuge with a relative, would he not?"

"I guess so."

"Instead he stayed where he was for almost a year, pretending his mother hadn't left. I don't know how he paid the rent, but I doubt it was through a part-time job. Otherwise, he continued living normally, even attending school. Eventually, his aunt Rose discovered Seanna was gone. As soon as Gabriel realized she knew, he ran. She seems to have pursued him for about six months, during which time police records list him as a missing teen. Then she told police he'd been found and the file was closed. She hadn't found him, though. She stopped looking so he would stop running. A few months later, 'Seanna Walsh' rented an apartment again. No one ever saw her, though. Just her teenage son."

And this story was supposed to turn me against Gabriel? How? Because he'd likely been involved in something illegal to support himself? The guy had been abandoned by his drug-addicted mother at fifteen, and he'd made it through law school. On his own.

The story explained a few things about Gabriel. Hell, it explained a lot. And it did change my opinion of him, but not in the way Will Evans seemed to expect.

"I don't understand," I said.

"Think about it, Olivia. Do Gabriel's actions make any logical sense? He had an aunt he was apparently close to, who could have easily and happily supported him, yet he refused. He told no one his mother had disappeared. He ran away when his aunt discovered it. Those are not the actions of an abandoned child, and I believe I know why."

"So tell me."

"Seanna was last seen in late September that year. In mid-October, the body of a woman was discovered in an abandoned building several blocks away. The coroner believed she'd died of a drug overdose. The police found evidence to suggest she hadn't died there--she'd been moved to that location. The woman had no identification on her, but her description matches that of Seanna Walsh."

"So the police believed the body was Gabriel's mother and told him--"

"The police never connected the events. The woman was buried as a Jane Doe because Gabriel hadn't reported his mother missing. When his aunt reported Gabriel missing, police did not connect the dots back to the Jane Doe. My investigator did."

"You think Gabriel knew his mother was dead?"

"Think about his behavior, Olivia." His voice snapped with impatience now. "Those aren't the actions of an abandoned child. They're the actions of a guilty conscience. Gabriel Walsh gave his mother that overdose, then he hid her body in that building and pretended she was still alive."

"That ... No, he--"

"--wouldn't do that? She was an addict, Olivia. I'm sure she made his life hell. Gabriel Walsh is an amoral man with clear sociopathic tendencies. Perhaps his mother is to blame, but whatever the reason, he saw her as an obstacle. He rid himself of that obstacle. I have evidence to prove it, and that's why he's trying to frame me for my son's death."

"W-what?"

When Evans started to explain, I was sure either he was crazy or I was still sleeping. Neither possibility completely disappeared as he went on.

When Gabriel first tried to interview him, Evans said he'd looked him up. What he found made him even more curious.