Reckoning (Wolfes of Manhattan 5)

No windows, of course, but the lighting made it seem a little less like a dungeon.

At the end of one hallway was a doorway. Amos opened it. “Fair warning,” he said. “There’s no electric lighting beyond this point.” He picked up a flashlight out of a basket and then handed another to me and one to Reid. “Let’s go.”

We went down another staircase to another lower level, which was built out.

“This can’t be it,” Reid said.

“It’s not,” Amos replied.

Another staircase, and then another, until we came to a wooden door with a broken lock.

“This is how Leif got in,” Amos said. He opened the door and shined his light to guide us.

Anger surged into me. This was where Leif had found Lacey’s scarf. Lacey’s business card. This was where…

This was where runaway slaves had hidden while their papers were being forged.

Should be an uplifting thought, and it was.

Except this place had more recently been used for sinister purposes. To frame my wife.

And also to…

“Zee,” Reid murmured.

“She wasn’t here, bro. She was at the other hunting ground.”

“Still… Others were here,” he said. “Others who didn’t make it out.”

“No human remains have been found down here.” Amos pointed his flashlight. “We’ve gone through it all.”

Only then did I let myself inhale through my nose. “Blech!” Rotten eggs. Sulfur. Nasty-ass meat. And even…burning rubber? With a touch of putrid sweetness? Altogether it was nauseating. I swallowed against the bile in my throat. “I feel like the vultures could descend any minute.”

“The bodies aren’t here,” Amos said again. “Just the stench, and though there’s airflow down here from somewhere—there has to be or no one could have lived down here for more than a couple of days—it’s not enough to whisk away the odor.”

Reid swallowed. “God, it’s disgusting.”

“Corpses eventually stop smelling, depending on how quickly they’re able to decompose. Whatever was down here hadn’t finished decomposing when it was removed.”

“Is it possible it was some kind of remains other than human?” Reid asked.

“I asked Leif and Buck the same thing, but they swear it’s human. They’ve seen and smelled the worst overseas during service. They should know.” Amos held a handkerchief over his nose.

“No flies or anything,” Reid mused.

“No bodies,” Amos said. “Just the smell.”

“The smell ought to attract them.”

“How would they get down here?” Amos asked.

“Good point,” I said. “Show me where my wife’s articles were found.”

Amos led us to an opening. “In here.”

The place was empty now. All the evidence linking the crime to Lacey had been removed.

“Is this where you found our father’s certificate of marriage to Irene?” Reid asked.

“I didn’t find it. Buck did. But yeah.”

“Interesting. Why would it be down here?” I asked.

Reid rubbed his jawline. “If they were married here at St. Andrew’s, it would be here. Churches keep copies of stuff like that. But Buck found the original.”

“Which meant Jim had to get it from somewhere,” I said.

“Exactly. But it’s gone in all the databases.”

“Except Dad married Irene before everything was in the databases. A hard copy existed somewhere, and Jim found it.”

“Or he had it all along.”

“You want to let me in on what’s going on?” Amos said.

“Sorry. It’s a story with so many plot points, and we’re not yet sure how they all fit together. Jim married our father to a woman a couple years before he married our mother. Our mother didn’t know about the first marriage, and there’s no record anywhere of it being dissolved or annulled. Apparently our mother had some dirty money in a trust fund. Nearly a billion dollars. Dad wanted it, so he married her. Long story short.”

“Damn,” Amos said.

I couldn’t help a chuckle at the priest’s language again.

Although none of this was a laughing matter.

“We can go through all the tunnels if you want,” Amos said, “but Buck’s been through it all and says they’re basically clean. Other than the stuff belonging to your wife and the marriage certificate, whatever was down here has been cleared out.”

“Which makes me think the other things were planted after Dad’s death,” Reid said.

“Or before. If Jim got wind of Dad’s plan to fake his own death…”

“What?” my brother asked.

“I’m just thinking out loud. Same as all of us. There’s got to be a connection we’re not seeing.”

“Jim,” Reid said. “We’ve got to talk to Jim.”

“All right.” Amos adjusted his collar. “Let’s go find him.”

14

Lacey

Riley’s face turned paler even than it had been. “I’ve already told you all I know.”

“Do you remember flying there?” I asked.

“Sometimes.”

“What do you mean by that, baby?” Matt asked.

She bit her lower lip. “It’s like…sometimes I remember being on the jet. But sometimes, it seemed like I went to sleep somewhere else and then woke up there. I think…”

“What?” Matt asked gently.

“He probably drugged me. There were times when things were fuzzy. And there were times when hours seemed to pass in minutes.”