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T esla hadn’t meant the news to be quite so stupefying. Yet the men all just stared at her in shock. She shrugged. “It’s just the way genetics works,” she murmured. “So, Richard’s not the father to them, but that’s a presumed result when he was married to their mother. So we need to verify it with a DNA comparison of all three,” she suggested, “but there is no doubt. I did look up Steve’s medical records, and it is possible he could be a blood relative. DNA would be required to tell us for sure.”

Mason frowned. “So, the old man’s wife stepped out on him and passes off her two daughters as if they were his? He may not have been capable of giving her a child, so she steps out and makes it happen, but they still don’t get the son he wants. After birthing two girls, the wife’s no longer capable of having children, and—”

“So, what then? Richard finds somebody to have a child with?” Markus asked.

“I think so, yes,” Tesla said, with a nod.

“Who is it?”

She pointed at her screen. “Cristal.” Evan stepped up behind her, looked over her shoulder, and nodded, now writing down her name and address.

“I don’t know who she is other than I have a name,” Tesla began. “Give me more time, and I can run a full background on her, in terms of whether she’s got a criminal record or anything like that. I haven’t gotten that far.”

“No, but you also got a whole lot further than I expected, and I was just about to embark on that pathway,” Markus stated, eyeing her with respect.

She smiled. “Remember? This is the stuff I do.”

“I do remember.” Markus turned to Mason. “I think he forgot.”

“I didn’t forget,” Mason stated, with an eye roll, “but I was trying to keep her out of it.”

“Yeah, well, too bad. We’ve been pulling on her this whole time.”

Evan called Jasper, then quickly relayed the information Tesla had.

“Right,” Jasper confirmed, now on Speakerphone. “I’ll go visit with this woman.”

Evan stated, “I’m coming with you.”

“You’re sure?” Jasper asked.

“Hell yes,” he declared. “I’m not certain what is going on here, but, if we can bring this to a close or at least get some answers, I’m there every time.”

“Okay,” Jasper replied. “Do you want to meet at the address?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” As they ended the call, Evan turned to Tesla and asked, “You’re staying here, right?”

“Yes, I’m staying here,” she said, with a smile.

Evan looked over at Markus. “You’re good if I head out?”

“I’m good.” Markus nodded. “Keep in touch. We all want to know where this goes.”

And, with that, Evan quickly stepped away.

Markus looked over at the two of them. “I’ll be outside.” He stepped out himself.

Mason asked Tesla, “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Of course I’m doing okay.” She smiled. “I had a shower, did some laundry, and life is good. Best of all, there’s a good chance you’re coming home soon.” She gave a deep sigh and added, “Life is even better than good.”

“I’m right there with you on that one,” he muttered, as he worked through the massive plate of food.

“The fact that you’re eating is pretty amazing,” she noted, leaving it at that and staring at him.

“I know, and it means I’m on the mend,” he stated, sending a bright grin in her direction. “I just need to ensure the healing continues. So after another day or two in the hospital, we’ll be home.”

He spoke it with such surety that she believed him. “That is the one thing about you that I’ve never really understood but have always appreciated,” she muttered.

“What?”

“That complete and utter belief in what you are doing.”

“Always, because anything less than that, and you’re not getting the full value of who you are or the full results of what it is you’re here to do.” He took another bite, then finally continued. “I know what I’m here to do in life,” he declared, with a wry smile. “I’m just blessed that I get to spend it with you.”

*

As Evan quickly stepped out of the room, Markus was on his tail.

Markus asked, “Are you good?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” He waved a hand about. “Still, I think Janelle and Tesla are right. I don’t think this is totally over. You keep an eye on them, will you?”

“Damn right,” he declared. “Don’t you worry about them. You go see what you can find out, and I’ll make sure that nothing happens here.”

And, with that assurance, since no killer was better than Markus, Evan headed out to the parking lot. He looked up the GPS directions he had for Cristal’s address and drove away. As he pulled up at the nearby address, he found Jasper pulling up right behind him. He smiled as he greeted him. “Amazing that we’ve come this far, yet we’re still not sure.”

“It’s the not sure part that gets me,” Jasper confirmed. “I’m sure, but I’m not sure—if you know what I mean.”

“I know exactly what you mean, and that’s the part that worries me. When the hell do we know for sure?”

“When we run out of bad guys,” Jasper stated, with a laugh, “which is already taking way more time to sort through than we thought.”

“You’ve got that right.” Evan gave him a begrudging smile. They turned together to look at the house. “It doesn’t speak of money. It’s got an innocuous look to it really. It’s just a house.”

It was a typical older plantation style, with a big veranda around the front, but it was showing some age, revealing a lack of care and maintenance. The paint was peeling. The railings needed to be replaced in spots, and Evan wouldn’t doubt that the floorboards were likely in equally poor shape.

Walking casually, knowing that likely a neighbor or somebody was keeping tabs on the place, they walked up to the front door and knocked. Evan turned to look around. “No vehicles anywhere around here,” he noted. “The place looks deserted, may have been deserted for quite a while.”

“Yeah, it looks that way, but looks can be deceiving,” Jasper pointed out. “We can’t take that chance.”

“No, I get it. It’s just frustrating if this is a dead-end lead.” Evan waited, and, when he got no answer, he tried again, and again nothing. As they stood here, someone across the street called out to them. Evan turned to see an older woman standing there, a curious look on her face.

She told them, “Nobody’s lived there for quite a while.”

Evan walked down the front steps to talk to her. “Do you know when the last person was here?”

“Months ago maybe,” she said, with a frown. “Or who knows? At least a few weeks.”

Knowing there was a big difference between a few weeks and a few months, Evan just waited for her to fill in the information.

Then she sighed and added, “Honestly, I’m not very good with time, but it’s been a while.”

“Do you know who used to live here?”

“Sure, that woman,” she said. She snapped her fingers several times, as if to pull out the woman’s name.

Evan asked, with a smile, “Cristal Mark?”

She nodded. “Yes, yes, but then of course you know that, since you’re here knocking on the door.”

“We were hoping to find her.”

“Not sure you will find her here. She was normally around. Then a couple weeks ago she told me how she had to leave. Things were getting dicey.”

“Any idea what she meant by dicey?”

“Oh no, I don’t think she even knew what she meant. She was quite worried and packed up several bags, then put them in her vehicle,” the neighbor lady explained, turning to look at the road.

“Do you know what kind of vehicle she has?”

The woman turned and looked at them suspiciously. “You’re not here to hurt her, are you?”

“No, not at all.” Evan looked at Jasper and then back at her. “We’re also not sure if she’s aware that her son’s been picked up and is down at the MP station.”

She stared at them. “Why would he be picked up? He’s an investigator,” she stated, then gave them a once-over. “If anything, he should be picking up the bad guys.”

“I hear you on that,… and nobody was more surprised than us.”

“Is that what you’re here for, to pick her up?”

“No, we were here to let her know and to see if she wanted to come down and see him.”

“That would be nice,” the neighbor lady said, with a look of worry.

Clearly she was hiding information on some drama right under the surface. Evan added, “I’m sure this trouble has been more of a shock to her than anything. So did all this happen a few weeks ago or was it more recent than that?”

The lady shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t remember.… It was a couple Saturdays ago, I think.” Then she looked around and frowned. “She used to be friendlier. At some point she was less so, more standoffish.”

“Any idea why?”

“I don’t know.” She settled one hand on her hip to try and stand straight. “Something about hoping to come into some big money, but she wasn’t sure if it would work out that way.”

Evan stiffened slightly at that. “Did she say where from?”

“Something about child support she never got.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” he muttered, with a nod, “because she never got child support for her son.”

The other woman nodded. “Yeah, something like that. I know she was bitter about it, but then I don’t know whether she was ever in contact with the father or not. However, she started to change a little bit ago.”

“Do you think her son knew about it?”

“Oh, yeah, I think he was part of it—or at least knew something about it.” The lady shrugged. “But I don’t have details about it, as nobody talked to me about it.”

And yet somehow the woman appeared to be a fount of information. “Has she been good friends with anybody in this area?” Evan asked.

“No, not for a while. She worked at an old folks’ home for a long time, but she just changed jobs here recently.”

Evan stared at her, an indication of what was to come in the back of his mind. He asked her, “Is she at the hospital now, by any chance?”

“Yeah, exactly. How did you know?” She looked at the house behind him and added, “I guess it makes sense that you’re here because of her, but I can’t see her ever doing anything wrong.”

“Why is that?”

“She’s just not that kind of person. If she wanted the child support, she probably could have gone after the father of her child a long time ago, but she didn’t really want to. I think she was a little afraid, you know? Having a child out of wedlock was hard on her, and she made up all kinds of stories way back when. Yet I’ve known her for a long time, and, at one point, she told me how her boy was conceived in,… well, not the best circumstances,” she whispered. She looked like she was having the conversation of her life. “I took that to mean maybe she was raped or something along that line, but who knows?”

“She mentioned it?”

“ Nah , she never came out and used that word for it. She just told me that she didn’t have a choice.” The two men stared at her steadily, and she frowned. “She’s had a rough life, so anything she’s got coming to her in a good way, I’m all for,” she declared, with sympathy in her tone. “Cristal’s a good person. So I hope you guys don’t mess up anything for her.”

“We didn’t come to mess up anything,” Evan stated, “but her son’s down at the station.”

“I just can’t see that. Something’s got to be wrong. All she ever talked about was how good her son was, about all the things that he did, and about how proud of him she was.”

“Do you think anything would change her mind about him?”

“No, not at all.” The lady laughed. “You’ve got to understand that a lot of mothers are like that. They’re blind right to the bitter end. So, even if her son did do something wrong, it would take a lot for Cristal to believe it.”

“What if a lot of money was involved that she thought was hers?”

“I’m not sure, but I would suspect that she would do a lot to get it. She’s not in the best of health and won’t continue working much longer. I know that was an issue.”

“Is she a nurse?”

“She’s one of those health care aides, not a nurse, but I don’t know what you call them.” She gave a wave of her hand, her expression vague. “She worked in some retirement home, looking after people.”

“Right,” Evan said, noting she was repeating herself. “Do you know about the father? Is there a chance that the father of her child might have been in the nursing home?”

She stopped, and then her face cleared of puzzlement. “I think she did say something about that, like she was surprised to find him there, but it was different now because he was old and broken down.”

“Right.” Evan nodded. “It’s hard to have the same hate for somebody who is clearly heading toward their final days.”

“I don’t know. I think she would have found the hate just fine.” The neighbor lady laughed. “He wasn’t a very nice man. She did mention one time that he was wealthy, so maybe that was the whole point. Maybe if he was nearing the end of his life and wealthy, now Cristal is thinking she could get a piece of that for herself.”

“That’s a possibility.”

“She wanted it for herself, but she also wanted it for her son,” she added. “He’d suffered a lot growing up because he didn’t have his dad.”

“Would she ever do anything illegal to get that money?”

“No, not at all—unless it was to help her son,” she stated suddenly.

Evan shared a knowing look with Jasper. Evan nodded. “Right, we’re back to that mother thing.”

“Unless you have kids of your own, I don’t expect you to understand,” the old woman said, staring at him.

“I don’t have kids yet,” he admitted, with a smile, “but I’m hoping.”

Her smile burst free at that. “That’s good. Nothing quite like being a parent. It changes you, so, in her case, I don’t know. There would have to be strong motivation, but she can’t keep working much longer. I know she needed some medical treatment.”

“Did she ever ask the father of her child for help?”

“If she did, he probably just would have laughed at her,” she replied. “He’s not a nice man.”

“You know who he is?”

She just waved around her hand at that. “I used to know his name at one time, or at least his first name, but I don’t remember it anymore.”

“Right.” Evan smiled at her. “Thank you for your help.”

She nodded. “I hope Cristal’s okay.” The lady turned to face the house. “As you can see, she hasn’t had any money for the upkeep and all.”

“Is it hers?”

“I think so, but I think her son had to help pay for it.” They all turned to study the house that seemed even more dilapidated by the minute.

Evan asked, “But, if her son was doing fine, and he was an investigator, how come he wasn’t helping her more with the house?”

The neighbor lady nodded. “I think that’s one of those questions parents frequently have to ask themselves. They did so much for their child but now? How come the child isn’t doing much for them?” She slowly turned and started to walk away, then stopped to pivot back to them. “If you see her, say hi for me, will you?”

“We will,” Evan assured her. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Becky. Becky Smith.” And, with that, she slowly meandered down the sidewalk.

Evan looked over at Jasper. “What do you think of that?”

“I think it’s interesting,” he muttered. “You do have to wonder why the house is in such rough shape.”

“Unless she wanted everybody to assume her financial condition was this way, even if it wasn’t necessarily, or if she now has hopes of changing it. Who knows? Maybe this house won’t get any love and attention even then.”

They turned and looked at the house with a more practiced eye, and Evan murmured, “It will take an awful lot of money to fix it up.”

“I was just thinking that,” Jasper agreed. “It might be better for them to just walk away.”

“They could sell it in as-is condition or put some money back into it to get a better sales price. However, they would need some spare money to do that.”

“He’s been off for the last few months,” Jasper noted, turning to look at Evan.

“Do we know why?” Evan asked.

“He’s on medical leave, but I don’t know exactly why. It’s not in the files.”

Evan contemplated that for a long moment. “I wonder how much time it took to set this up and whether he took off work just so he wouldn’t be part of the suspect pool.”

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” Jasper replied. “If you think about it, that’s not a bad way to get out of work and to still be accessible to our ongoing investigations. Medical leave does not require him to terminate his various access privileges.”

“Which is another thing that concerns me,” Evan shared. “We’re assuming Cristal’s more or less an innocent victim in all of this, but do we know that for sure?”

“No, we sure don’t,” Jasper confirmed cheerfully, “and now the problem is, we must track her down, and I highly doubt her son will give us that information.”

“He may also have moved her out so she didn’t have any idea about what was going on. Maybe he just told her that he would come get her when it was all over with.”

“Again, too many questions and no answers.”

“So, if she was calling her own shots, where would she go, and would she tell her son?”

“I don’t think it would matter if she told her son or not. Even if she told Steve, I don’t think he will tell us.”