Page 7

Tesla woke to her phone ringing. She answered it, still groggy. “Hello.”

“Hey,” Evan asked, “did I wake you?”

“That’s all right,” she murmured. “I’m always either asleep or on my way in or out of sleep these days. Besides, I would rather you woke me than him.”

“That’s what I will ask next. Is Mason awake?”

“He’s sleeping,” she announced, looking over at her husband. “What’s up?”

“The woman we went to see, Cristal Mark, left her house what looks like a few weeks ago, packed up her vehicle, and took off. According to her neighbor, Becky—the nosy type, who has a ton of information to share for someone who knows absolutely nothing—Cristal was in a bit of a hurry, and somewhere along the line had mentioned that she was hoping a lot of money was coming her way.” He quickly relayed the rest of the information.

Tesla replied, “That sounds like the mother of Steve then. That’s for sure. And, from what we know of Richard, he probably did rape Cristal. So we have Steve’s mother and father. Just confirm that she worked at the same nursing home as Richard was at before, and I think we’ve got this paternity issue solved.”

“Yeah, it is, but the question now is, where has Cristal gone, and why?” Evan asked.

“She’s not a nurse, but has some caregiver-type job.”

“Okay, so what is she specifically? Do you know?” At Tesla’s silence, Evan continued. “She supposedly has a job at the hospital, more or less a caretaker of some kind. She may be deemed an independent contractor or whatever. We’ve got calls in to the hospital right now to see if she’s on staff or maybe she’s taken a leave of absence, like her son did.”

“In other words, Cristal could be here,” Tesla muttered, stiffening as she looked around.

“It’s possible, but it’s also possible that she is not involved at all and that her son urged her to get out of town for a vacation or something. We don’t know what Steve may or may not have told her to get her out of the way.”

“Does he care about her, or is he just using her like apparently other people have used her?” Tesla asked.

“Again, good question.” Evan sighed. “What we don’t know is the motive behind all this. We will go talk to Steve, but I highly suspect he won’t say very much, since it’s his mother we’re talking about.”

“Exactly, yet he’s not getting out of jail, so he might do something in order to save his own ass or to make things a little easier. Still, since it’s his mother, I doubt he would throw her under the bus.”

“Have Mason call me back when he’s awake.”

“Will do.”

After the phone call, she sat up and made her way to the bathroom, wincing at the pain in her lower back just from the movement. She rubbed her belly and whispered to her baby, “This will be over soon, sweetie. Just hold on a little longer. We’ll get you there.”

When she made her way back out of the bathroom, she walked over to Mason, who was awake now, and smiled at him. “Evan called earlier, so I took it. Now you get to call him back.”

He held up his hand for the phone and punched the most recent call, putting it on speaker. “What did you hear?” he asked, and she watched as Evan apparently reiterated everything that they’d just found out. Mason rubbed his face with his free hand. “I think Cristal’s probably on the run.”

“So, what does that mean?” Evan asked.

“It means this just got dragged out again. She knows her son is in trouble, maybe knew ahead of time, and now we won’t find her.” He frowned, as he looked over at Tesla. “We can check bank accounts and everything else along those lines to see if there’s any money trail of her. Or maybe she’s still showing up for work, and that will keep her somewhere close by. Regardless I agree with you. If Richard raped Cristal, conceiving Steve, Cristal may hate Richard but would probably do anything he asked for a big payout that would help her and Steve.”

“Exactly. We’re on her trail right now,” Evan noted. “Jasper is checking into it. I will send you a picture of her, so if you see anybody like that, be on the lookout.”

“Sure,” he replied. “Send it to Markus too.”

“Already done,” Evan said cheerfully and disconnected.

Mason turned to Tesla as he handed the phone back. “It makes sense that Cristal would take off.”

“Only if she knows everything that’s going on,” Tesla pointed out. “However, if she’s clueless, then this is just about the two of them against this world. Chances are, though, she knows something’s going on.”

“But did she know about the relationship between Steve and his father?” Mason asked.

“That’s the thing that I don’t know. Yet, if she’s expecting to come into a bunch of money, you would think she knew Steve and Richard were talking and visiting. Maybe if that had something to do with all the things that her son missed out on, it makes even more sense for the son to get to know his father.”

Tesla frowned, shaking her head. “It still doesn’t make any sense why Cristal would come after you now, as the final attempt on your life or to barter your life for whatever. It’s not as if you have the USB keys people are still looking for or you can get the money for her, unless the old man is still pulling strings and will give her the money if everybody else fails. How desperate is Cristal though?”

“It depends,” Mason replied. “Seems her house is in rough shape, and she pulled out quickly so she could distance herself. Or she’s just not around her home and thinks that would make her hard to find.”

“Which it won’t, it’ll just push back things a little bit, especially given the fact that she’s hardly an experienced criminal.”

“Yet,” Mason argued, rubbing his chin, “we don’t know that. Maybe that’s what got Mommie and Daddy together in the first place.”

Tesla’s eyebrows shot up at that, and she nodded thoughtfully. “Let me do some digging.”

He chuckled. “Is there anything you prefer more than sorting through all this data?”

“In this case, I have a very personal and a very valid interest in keeping you safe,” she stated, with a smile. “So let me take a look and see what I can come up with.”

She waddled over to her bed and hitched herself up so that she was leaning against the wall, with the laptop on her belly. When she heard a quiet chuckle beside her, she looked over and frowned. “What’s so funny?”

“You. Do you see how high up the laptop is?”

“Yeah,” she snapped, glaring at him, “I’m very aware. It’s not very nice of you to point it out.”

“Oh, but I love it. I love how ripe and full you are with my child.”

She rolled her eyes at that. “Now you’re sounding downright possessive.”

“I have every right to be possessive,” he stated, with that smile that still makes her heart melt. “It’s my child, but look at where we’re at.”

“I know,” she muttered. “Look at where we’re at, but it’s not as if we can do anything. I’m pregnant. Remember?”

“Does that stop us from doing anything?” he asked, with a questioning look in her direction. “I wasn’t thinking it would, and apparently it doesn’t.”

She glared at him. “You’re not allowed to think about it anyway.”

“Ah, but we already mentioned that I was going home in a few days,” he reminded her, waggling his eyebrows.

She burst out laughing. “I do not understand how such a heavily pregnant woman could turn you on.”

“That’s because you are my heavily pregnant woman, of course,” he explained, with a smile. “I don’t think there could ever be a point in time when you wouldn’t turn me on,” he stated, staring at her. “I don’t care if you’re wearing a potato sack, if you’re heavily pregnant, or if you’re old and gray.” He gave her a coy smile, “You’re still the woman I love.”

She sighed at the emotions in his tone and said, “You will get me crying again if you don’t stop.”

He winked at her. “I love you even when you’re crying.”

She groaned. “Knock it off, please.” She turned her attention back to her computer. “Okay.” She sighed and looked at the screen. “I find no other property coming up in either Steve’s name or Cristal’s.”

“He wouldn’t have lived in that apartment with her, would he?”

“In that house, you mean? I don’t think so. Apparently it wasn’t in very good shape.”

“He was making good money, but I don’t know what his other financial commitments would be. There’s a chance—does Steve have any kids?”

She went to typing quickly. “I don’t know. Let me find out.” It didn’t take very long, and she announced, “I don’t see a birth certificate with Steve listed as the father, but he had a fairly long-term relationship, based on my search of social media accounts.”

“That’s interesting, so if they had any kids—”

“That would be an entire family line that old man Richard either doesn’t know about or just recently discovered.”

“If it’s a relative of Steve’s, then Richard probably knows.”

“And that’s likely why he has that whole family thing on the go again.”

“That’s possible, but maybe they have to prove themselves first,” Mason suggested. “It’s not likely the old man will change at this stage.”

“They do sometimes,” Tesla noted, looking over at him. “I get that the chances of it aren’t very good with Richard, but it does happen. Aren’t they both in custody, Richard and Steve, right? Can’t somebody go talk to them?”

“Sure.” Mason smiled. “We can talk until we’re blue in the face, but, if the prisoners don’t want to talk back, you know how that will go.”

“But now that people know something about Richard’s other family, that just might change things.”

He nodded. “I’ll send Jasper a text about it.” Just then Jasper phoned him.

“Hey, Mason. We’re on the way to talk to the father and son. We’ll see what they have to say about Cristal’s whereabouts, among other things.”

“Good, and apparently there’s a chance that the old man might have another grandchild too, by Steve.”

“Shit. Did Tesla find that?”

“Yes, though she’s still confirming. Although the couple weren’t married, they were apparently together for many years. Based on a change of residence, they broke up about the time she got pregnant. No father is noted on the birth certificate, but there is still a chance her baby is his.”

“So, either he didn’t want it or it’s somebody else’s, and that was the reason for the breakup?”

“Any of that and more is possible.”

“How long ago?”

“Looks like about eighteen years.”

“Great,” Jasper noted. “I wouldn’t even put it past old man Richard to be involved in that too.”

“I would hope not,” Mason said, with a groan. “That would just be so wrong.”

“Everything this old guy does is wrong, but we’ll see if we can get some more answers.” And, with that, he disconnected.

Mason looked over at Tesla, frowning, as he put the phone on the bedside table. “You heard all that?”

“Yeah, I did.” She took a deep breath. “I don’t even want to think that could be what happened, as that would be just so wrong.”

“Even if Steve didn’t want a child, that might have been enough to change things with his longtime girlfriend.”

“Yeah, but Steve’s own father, if it proves to be Richard per DNA tests, also left Steve at birth. How could Steve do that to his child too?” Tesla shook her head. “Yet it’s hard to say what each person does in those situations. People have very different reactions when they find out they are pregnant.”

Mason smiled. “In my case I was delighted,… both times.”

“But we were also married, in an established healthy relationship, and we were ready,” she stated, deep in thought. “That doesn’t mean Steve was ready for fatherhood and its responsibilities. For all we know, he hated his father for never acknowledging him or his mother for never telling him who his father was. Meaning, Steve may have father issues that he wouldn’t want to pass on to his own child, yet still carries on that stigma by being the absent father himself.”

“And yet Steve’s girlfriend had a baby eighteen years ago. That’s been quite a few years ago,” he pointed out. “Maybe Steve wanted to know his child at some point in the past.”

“It could happen, so it’s anybody’s guess. However, chances are, Steve just didn’t want anything to do with a baby—or didn’t know about the baby. I wonder if Cristal knew about the girlfriend being pregnant because, if Steve left his own child, the way Richard left Steve…” Tesla left that thought hanging.

“That could cause quite a problem, couldn’t it?”

“But Cristal would also want proof that it was her grandchild. Otherwise I’m not sure she would take it on. She had already been a single mother once with no paternal support, and back then she would potentially be a single grandparent taking on a child all by herself again—or taking in both mother and child. Plus, Cristal’s home revealed a lot about her financial status. Obviously Cristal was struggling to support herself. The tangled webs we weave,” Tesla murmured.

Mason smiled at her. “Very much so, but, on the other hand, with a little bit of time and practice, these tangled webs do tend to unravel.”

She chuckled. “As long as they unravel soon enough,” she muttered and then went back to her research.

When she looked over at Mason a little later, he had fallen back asleep. She smiled and whispered, “Good, that’s what you need. Your body and mind need rest, not the stress and distraction of this mess.”

Tesla hated that he was even involved to the extent that he was, which meant his brain would never shut down, since he wasn’t willing to give up taking point on so many matters. She continued to watch over him, while doing as much research as she could. Still, she didn’t come up with anything new.

Needing another nap herself, she curled up in bed, and closed her eyes, with a final whisper to Mason, “This will all be over soon.”

*

Jasper and Evan walked into the interview room, where old man Richard sat.

“I will be dead before I give you any information,” he stated, with a cackle.

“Yeah, I would imagine so,” Jasper agreed, with a smile. “Obviously we know about your son, Steve. Now the next question is whether you know about your grandchild from that wing of the family?”

The old man stiffened.

“I just wonder how much of all this you’ve been manipulating behind everybody’s back.”

“I guess you’ll never know,” he jeered, with a small smile. “You can guess all you want, but it won’t give you any answers.”

“How much of all this is just revenge? If Gabe was killed and wasn’t even your blood grandson, why do all this?”

“Because he was my grandson,” he sneered, “and nobody does that to my family.”

“Gabe wasn’t your grandson by blood because his mother wasn’t your daughter by blood. Neither of your daughters have your blood.”

Richard glared at him. “Gabe was my grandson, and I’m not listening to any of those lies.”

Jasper and Evan now stood and moved into the separate interview room with Steve.

He looked up and sneered. “What are you guys investigating anyway?” he asked, with a laugh. “Jeez, I would have had this case in the bag a long time ago.”

“Interesting,” Jasper noted. “So, do you have any relationship with your child?”

Steve stiffened and glared at him. “I don’t have a son, but nice volley. You lure me into thinking that we will have a nice conversation and then hit me with something stupid like that? Of course it won’t work. You think I haven’t spent a lifetime learning those same techniques and using them on other people?”

“Of course you have,” Evan stated, giving him a hard glance. “You’ve done all kinds of shit for people, right? Particularly the old man?”

“Yeah, well, I have a reason for that too.”

“Of course there was, and the reason isn’t necessarily one that works in your favor.”

“Doesn’t matter if it does or not,” he declared, sending another sneer their way. “You guys are just full of shit if you think I will talk to you about anything.”

“Oh, you might talk to us eventually. I’m not sure we’ll give a shit enough to wait for it though.”

“I won’t speak to the likes of you,” he stated, with a laugh. “You guys must be getting shit from the brass for taking so long. Some elite investigators you are, aren’t you?”

Jasper smiled at Steve’s attempts to rile him. “Doesn’t matter what kind of wonderful investigator I am,” Jasper said cheerfully, “because all you will be from now on is a felon, spending the rest of your life in prison. That’s something noteworthy.”

“No, I won’t spend the rest of my life in jail. I’ll be a model prisoner, and I’ll be sure to get reformed and to get therapy. Then I can tell them all about my devastating childhood and how it affected me—that need to bond with my father and all that blah, blah, blah . I’ll think of something,” he vowed, with a smile. “I’ll be out of the slammer in no time.”

“You think so, huh ?”

“I know so, Mr. Elite.” He stared at Jasper intently. “We’ve heard it time and time again, how every felon who shouldn’t be out is out, and the ones who went in for absolutely nothing other than a minor possession deal are still stuck in there.” When Jasper remained silent, Steve smiled. “Do you think I haven’t got it all worked out? I won’t do anything to jeopardize my case.”

“What about your mother?”

“What about my mother?” he snapped. “You keep her out of this.”

“Cristal’s missing.”

“Good,” he declared, with a nod. “I told her to get out of town, but she insisted on finishing her shifts because she was needed at the hospital. Plus, I needed her at the hospital to keep tabs on the people I needed information on,” Steve shared, with a shrug. “Now, with that over with, she should have booked it. I’m glad to hear she finally did.”

“What about that house of hers, the one that’s falling apart?” Jasper asked.

“What about it?” Steve waved a hand. “She wouldn’t stay long-term anyway.”

“It sure looks like you could have done more for her over the years.”

“Sure, looks like it, doesn’t it?” He snorted. “That’s just another tactic for you guys to make me feel bad about my mother,” he replied, with a mocking smile.

“I guess she probably didn’t appreciate your relationship with the old man.”

Steve shrugged. “She came to understand it at the end.”

“Or she was just hoping she would finally get all that money that Richard should have helped her out with over the years.”

“She was probably thinking something like that,” he agreed, “and I would have made sure she was taken care of. However, you guys have messed that up for her. If she wanted to get some revenge on the old bastard, I wouldn’t be against it.”

Jasper frowned at Steve. “You would like to see your mother go to jail for something like this?”

“Why not? If it got me out of here, I would take it.”

“What would she do, break you out?” he asked, with a note of amusement.

At that, Steve smiled. “You don’t get anything, do you?”

“No, I sure don’t. Yet you won’t get any of Richard’s money that you think is still stashed away either.”

“It is stashed away, and it will be in my name. So I’ll have it by the time I do my stint in prison and become a reformed citizen,” he explained in a mocking tone. “I’ve waited a long time for all that money, so waiting a little bit longer won’t make any difference.”

Jasper asked Evan, “Should we play the recording we have of Richard?”

“What about it?” Steve asked.

“Richard states he has no money left.”

“Good one. I wouldn’t believe that con even if you had a recording in what sounded like Richard’s words.”

“We tried to tell you. Just remember that. What about Greg, his grandson?”

“He’s in jail too, and for some serious shit. I doubt he’s got the chops to make it through what’s coming to him while incarcerated, not without causing more trouble,”

“He’s not happy at all to find out he’s not getting all that money that was supposed to come to him. And now you seem to think it will go to you.”

“It is coming to me,” Steve claimed. “I made sure to get the old man to sign some paperwork so he didn’t try and screw me out of it.”

“You don’t think he screwed you out of it anyway?”

“I’ve got the paperwork,” Steve confirmed, with a wry smile, “so it doesn’t matter.”

“Yet paperwork can be changed, particularly if you’re a felon.”

“Not something like this,” he stated. “I had lawyers draw it up.”

“Lawyers who knew exactly what you were doing?” Jasper asked.

“No, of course not.” Steve shook his head as he looked up at Jasper. “I’m not such a fool as to end up without insurance in all this.”

“Sure, but what about if dear old dad made it a condition that you succeed in the job, and then and only then will the money come to you.”

“There was a condition that I succeed, but the condition was just for the extra money. Regardless he owes me for the rest of it anyway.”

“Did you collect already?” Jasper asked.

He just smiled and didn’t say anything.

Evan noted, “Good thing we know that now. We’ll have to go get that money too.”

“Go ahead, try and find it.” Steve smiled.

“Will your mother have access to it, at least when you get killed in jail?” Evan asked.

“I won’t get killed in jail,” he declared. “I haven’t done anything that will get me put anywhere but into a minimum-security penitentiary.” Steve laughed. “I’ll be out in no time.”

Jasper and Evan exchanged a glance, knowing it was all too possible—unless they could nail him for a lot more.

Evan listened as Jasper questioned Steve a few more minutes. Then Evan decided to go another direction. “What about your own child?”

He stiffened. “I don’t have anything to do with any supposed child, if it’s even mine,” he shared, with a sneer.

“So, you were okay doing the same thing to the mother of your child, as the old man did to Cristal? Doing the same thing to your kid that Richard did to you?”

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know what the hell Cristal was even thinking about when getting involved with Richard,” he muttered. “If she thought he would save her from her life of servitude, she was wrong.”

“Guys like that never make for good parents,” Evan noted, with a smile. “You don’t hold it against him?”

“I did as I was growing up, but not afterward, not once I understood.”

“Oh, you mean, once your girlfriend got pregnant with your child, and you decided to ditch both of them?”

“I didn’t promise her anything, so no way I would get hooked up and tied down with her. I wanted something different in my life, not to spend every moment working like a dog to pay bills,” he declared, with a shrug. “The single life suited me much better.”

“And what about your child?”

“Doesn’t matter about my supposed child,” he stated, glaring. “Why do you keep harping on that?”

“I wonder why a guy like you, who had a rough childhood because of no money, would put your own kid in the same situation?”

“Tough luck,” he said, with a snort.

“Like your life,” Evan said, staring at him.

“Yeah. Don’t I know it. I told you that I wasn’t getting tied down.”

“What about your mother having a relationship with her grandchild?”

“Nope, I insisted that she didn’t,” Steve snapped. “She might cross me on some things, but they’re only minor things. She would never cross me on that.”

“Ah, and what about your father?”

“Nope, Richard doesn’t know.”

“ Ha . You think Cristal didn’t tell Richard?”

“There would be no reason for her to tell him. And, if she had, the old man would have mentioned something to me.”

“Yeah, he probably would have patted you on the shoulder, and you could have just shared a laugh, right? Stupid women and all that.”

“Yeah, something like that.” Steve smiled. “You make it sound like I’m different from any other guy,” he pointed out. “I’m not different. None of us want to get caught with a pregnancy like that.”

“And yet you were there for creating the child.”

“I don’t give a shit,” he said, with a sneer. “Besides, I don’t have too many healthy swimmers.”

“So, you’ve got the same health issues as your father?”

“Yeah, apparently,” he said, not shying away from the topic, “which is nice in a way because it’s pretty hard to get caught, until you get these women who think you’re stupid.”

“Right, and did you ever get DNA tested?”

“Nope, I sure didn’t,” he snapped. “I don’t want to know.”

“Meaning that it wouldn’t change anything?”

“Exactly.” He appeared bored, as he stared around the room. “I’m through here. I would like to go back and work on my reform,” he quipped, with a pious look in their direction. “I know you’re all still here, stumbling around in the dark, without a clue as to what’s going on,… but that’s your problem.”

“Oh, I think we have a damn good idea what’s going on,” Jasper shared, with a knowing smile, “and I think—just like the grandson, Greg—you, Steve, think you’ve got a bundle coming your way. However, the old man gets the last laugh. He’s pulled the wool over your eyes.”

“Of course he tried. That’s what he does, but that doesn’t mean he’s succeeding,” Steve declared on a laugh. “He doesn’t have as much money as I’d hoped he had, but I got what I could already, and the rest is coming to me, once we can get the job finished.”

“ If you get the job finished,” Jasper clarified, “but the joke’s on Richard because both Greg and Gabe, his grandsons , weren’t even Richard’s blood.”

Steve smiled. “You hadn’t figured that out yet, had you?”

“Oh, we had, at least it’s under discussion,” Jasper noted, “but the old man doesn’t seem to know or doesn’t want to know.”

“No, and I will save that for a punch line.” Steve cackled. “I just want to see the look on his face when he figures it out.”

“But then you don’t know for sure.”

He shrugged. “That whole shooting blanks thing is a pretty good giveaway.”

“Yet he managed to have you.”

“Yeah, which is damn funny in the long run, but, just like me, we’ve got like a one-in-a-million chance of creating a child. Which is also why I know that the one you call my kid… isn’t my kid.” Again Steve laughed.

“And yet, just like your own father, it could very well be your child.”

“Too damn bad for it then”—Steve sneered—“because I don’t give a shit. And I’m done talking.”

When Evan stepped out of the interview room, he phoned Tesla. “Do you have a current address for Steve’s old girlfriend?”

“No, I don’t, but let me see if I can come up with something. Why?”

“I’m just wondering about something. He says that his mother had no relationship with his girlfriend after they split up or with the supposed grandchild, but I’m thinking Cristal might not have been quite so hard-hearted when it was her own son being a jerk.”

“Meaning that she might be there with the jilted ex and the grandchild now?”

“It’s possible,” Evan said. “Also, if you could get a picture of his mother, that would be great.”

“I have an old picture of Cristal,” Tesla shared, “or I can get one off the hospital board that might be more current.”

“Did you ever figure out where she’s working?” Evan asked.

“She took a few days’ leave of absence from the hospital,” she replied.

“We’re also talking to management back at the retirement home where she worked before. Jasper is on that call right now.”

“I imagine she was probably an exemplary employee,” Tesla suggested. “She wouldn’t have risked being let go for failure to do her job. You mentioned how her house was not in great shape, right?”

“Terrible shape from the looks of it, but her son wasn’t particularly bothered about it. Steve had good money coming in from his navy paycheck. Plus, he already got a good chunk of money from Richard already, if we can believe that much from him. Yet I don’t think he intended to share any of that with Cristal.”

“I can look into that,” Tesla offered.

“If you can, we might grab it and freeze those accounts.”

“Yeah, that would be nice,” she muttered. “I’ll work on that and send you the photo I have.”

“Don’t worry about that. Jasper just got a photo from the hospital.”

“Good enough, send it my way too. Plus one of Steve, if you have a current one handy.”

“Already done,” Evan said cheerfully.

“I’ll look at them in a few minutes,” Tesla replied, “but also send it to Janelle.”

“Right, she thought something was recognizable about somebody there. Jasper, send that photo of Cristal to me too. I’ll pass it along to Janelle, plus one of Steve. She couldn’t quite figure out who it was who reminded her of Steve.… Okay, I sent those to Janelle too.”

*