Page 37 of Carver
Fury picked up on his mood right away. “You’ve got to keep calm, Prez. There’s more.”
“Fury is right. The issue isn’t just the healed bones. His bloodwork shows he’s deficient in damn near every vitamin possible. He’s going to need an I.V. for a while to get a rotation of things in his system quickly. His immune system has got to be shit with how little he takes in. The healing process is going to be long for the physical side of things.”
Doc sighed, then wiped his brow. He gave Carver a cautious look. Maybe he worried the anger prevalent in Carver’s energywould be directed at him. The man should have known better. Carver only ever tussled with those who agreed to it.
“As for the mental side, this only adds to the struggles John Doe will face,” Fury said.
“Not John Doe.” Trix stormed into the room with Slash and Hex on his heels. They closed the door behind them, then marched over to where the other three men stood.
Six Angels in one space. All of them focused on findings answers.
What a dangerous energy they created together.
“Tell us what you know.”
At Carver’s demand, Trix dropped the papers in his hand on the table. They spread out, revealing a series of news articles, missing child posters, and a few familiar faces in some candid photos.
“Someone tell me how that fuckwit Varr is involved.”
Trix snorted. “Boss, he’s not the one you need to worry about. It’s the guy beside him.”
Carver frowned. “Senator Straube?”
“Yes, him. That’s our John Doe’s father. Or rather, he was. The man hiding in your room is the long-lost son of the U.S. Senator who just announced he’s going to run for office during the next election.”
“Tell me what I’m missing here,” Slash said. “Because this seems fucked up. Isn’t Varr into the kiddie porn shit? Wasn’t he on our radar once?”
“He was. We turned our focus to Mordecai because she was the supplier of kids for him. Plus, with Memphis on the case to track everyone involved in the TGO, I knew Jackie Varr would wind up in their crosshairs.” Trix smirked at the update.
Carver hummed as he shifted the pages around. “Give me the rundown. How is this all connected?”
Trix clapped his hands together. “I’d love to, Boss. As you see here based on the birth certificate, Senator Straube fathered a child years ago when he was running for mayor of his small town. The scandal of him cheating on his wife and getting another woman pregnant was swept under the rug. His team paid the woman to have an abortion, then ignored the issue like all was fine.”
“Except she didn’t get one,” Slash interrupted.
“Nope. Stephanie Gratz decided she wanted to keep her baby. All was fine up until people around her started digging into Straube’s history. You see, he was running for office again and the vultures were ready to uncover the truth.”
Carver grumbled, already unhappy with where this was all going. “How did it connect with Mordecai?”
“Well, since the whole small world of evil folks in this area are freakily connected, Straube asked his buddy Varr for help getting rid of the kid. He wanted no one to know he was connected, despite the birth certificate listing him as the father. Varr was all too happy to take the boy. Though he promised Straube he wouldn’t touch him, he decided to bring the boy to his friend and fellow TGO member, Mordecai, to keep his prize away long enough for Straube to forget about the kid.”
“Then what’s with the missing posters.” Hex held one up, the image showing a younger version of the boy upstairs.
Trix clicked his tongue. “Stephanie Gratz may have slid into the shadows when it came to the affair, but the woman was fierce about her child. She filed a missing person’s report after he was snatched from a playground. The police drug their feet, so Stephanie went to the local news. Not once did she say who the father was, but those vultures put two and two together.”
Carver’s heart sunk. He already knew where this was going. Men like Varr and Straube didn’t keep people like Stephanie around to continue to cause problems for them.”
“Do we know where she wound up?” he asked the silent room.
“Not really. I can tell they decided to sell her in the trafficking ring. From what I could follow, she ended up overseas. After that, it’s murky at best. I can dig deeper if you want me to see if she’s still alive. It’s been twenty-some-odd years. I doubt it, but I can hunt.”
“Do it. We need to know.”
Trix nodded at the reply. “I’ll get to work on that. As for the rest of the story, Mordecai took a liking to our John Doe. Rather than letting Varr have him, she hid the boy from him and told Varr he’d been sold. Since Mordecai held more power, he couldn’t really question her.”
“And when we busted Mordecai, we wound up finding him in the mix,” Hex finished.
“What’s his name?”