Page 50 of After All The Wreckage

“What aren’t you telling me?” Bradshaw demanded.

I just stared at him. Lying wouldn’t help. He already knew we were holding back.

He let out a frustrated exhale. “Whatever you’re mixed up in, whatever brought trouble to your brother’s door, it isn’t going to go away. I can’t help unless I know the truth.”

“I don’t know why they wanted my brother, Detective. Isn’t it your job to figure it out?”

“You know what I find the most confusing about all of this?”

“I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

“Why Congressman Dunn? I mean, he’s not from Virginia. He doesn’t have an anti-gun platform, but he also doesn’t take money from the NRA. His stance on gun bills has been decidedly neutral. So… why him?”

My teeth slid against each other as my jaw flexed. I turned away from him, grabbing the handle on the door, ready to get my brother and get the hell out of there. But his next question hit me like an ice storm, freezing me to my bones.

“Where’s your mom these days?”

I shot him a look over my shoulder. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”

“I read the missing person reports you and your dad filed. Talked to a Detective Muloney out in Cherry Bay. He says yourmom runs away a lot. Makes me wonder, did she run here? To someone? Does she know Dunn?”

My insides flipped over as, for the second time that day, I was faced with the same question. “I have no idea, Detective. Demi never shared what she did while she was gone, and we haven’t seen her in nearly three years. My dad isn’t around for her to wheedle her way in anymore, so I don’t think she’ll be back. I won’t have the same empathy for her that he did. Not after she stole money from us when we needed it for food and electricity. If I never see her again, it will still be too soon.”

I didn’t wait for him to respond. I opened the door and motioned for Monte to come on out. The chair scraped back against the concrete floor, and he walked over to me, shoulders slumped, one arm cradling his bruised side.

“Do you have your backpack?”

Monte shook his head. “They never gave it back.”

I put my arm around him and led him toward the exit.

Bradshaw followed us, his words hitting me as the glass door opened. “We’ll keep you posted, but I’m not hopeful we’ll find anything with the limited information you’ve provided us.”

It pissed me off. I left Monte standing by the counter, swung the glass door shut so my brother wouldn’t hear me, and stepped close to the officer. He didn’t back away. I wouldn’t expect him to. After all, I was the one who would be fucked if anything went down between us.

“Trust me, Detective, I know how little you’ll do. We’ve lived it our entire lives. So just go ahead and wash your hands of the Palmer family. That’s what every officer before you has done.”

He had the grace to look the teeniest bit chagrined. Good. The Palmers may not have had a reason to hate the authorities like River and Audrey did, but we had enough reason to distrust them. To have no faith in them doing anything for us.

I left Bradshaw standing there to go back to Monte, guiding him into the elevator and out of the station toward the SUV. Monte went to get in the passenger seat, but I motioned for the back. “Lie down. It’ll be easier on your ribs. We’ll leave as soon as Rory gets here.”

“Rory? Like… Rory from when I was little, Rory?” he asked, climbing in the back and slouching along the seat.

“You might not remember, but her mom was a private investigator. Rory works with her now, so I asked her to help find you.”

Monte’s eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything.

I brushed a hand over my face, exhaustion filling me. I couldn’t even imagine how Monte felt… and Ivy through him. “What didn’t you tell the detective in there, Monte? Was it about Dunn? Rory saw some footage of you on the steps of the Capitol Building with him. He asked you something about Demi, didn’t he?”

Monte’s eyes closed. “It was so weird, Gage. I told him the truth. Told him it was going to sound crazy, but that I knew someone was going to shoot him. I’d seen it. Knew it was going to happen in a warehouse near the river. Knew it was going to happen soon. He and that West guy… they didn’t freak out or scoff. They just shook their heads and moved away, but then he looked back at me, he looked at my hair and my freckles, and he asked if Demi was my mom.”

“He knows her.” The words slipped out.

Monte nodded but kept his eyes closed. Pain was crawling over his face, and he shifted with a groan, grabbing his side.

“When they came down and recorded me, they wanted me to repeat everything I’d said to Dunn.”

“So, whoever took you at least knows him. Or at least overheard what you said.” Fuck. What did that mean? Wouldthey just leave it at that… a recording and letting him walk? Or would they be back, looking for more answers?