Page 33 of The Sinner's Son

“Okay, fine.” Royce plastered a fake smile on his face. “You’ll barely notice the missing fat and calories,” he said enthusiastically.

Scrubbing a hand over his face, Eddie groaned. “Don’t suppose you’ll take me through a fast-food drive-thru once they release me from here?”

“Sure.”

Eddie perked up in the bed. “Really?”

“Most of them offer great salads, and you can add grilled chicken for extra protein. You gotta skip the rich, creamy dressings though. It’s vinaigrettes from here on, pal.”

“You eat like that all the time?” Eddie sounded completely disgusted by the idea.

“At least eighty-five to ninety percent of the time.” Before he could ask why, Royce leaned forward and said, “We have a baby coming, remember?”

Eddie’s grin stretched from ear to ear. “Yeah.”

“And I need stamina for other things.” Royce waggled his brows to drive home the point, but Eddie didn’t seem remotely uncomfortable.

“Yeah, well, the apple doesn’t fall far from the ole tree.”

Sawyer raised his arms over his head to stretch his lower back. The team had worked companionably since they’d returned from dropping off the donuts. Marina went over her production timeline, which Sawyer had to admit was impressive and maybe even intimidating. Afterward, Sawyer and Alec reviewed every piece of information in Monica Horton’s file. They had embarrassingly little to work with, but Alec still spotted something that made him sit ramrod straight in his chair.

“I need to show you something before we get on the Zoom call with Talia Atwood,” Alec blurted out.

Sawyer checked his watch and noted that it was already eleven. “Do we have time?”

Alec leaned forward and waved his hand to get Ricky’s attention. He’d been wearing noise-canceling headphones for most of the morning while he edited audio and video on his laptop. Ricky looked up with a raised brow, and Alec gestured for him to remove his headphones.

“What’s up, boss?”

Before Alec could reply, the audio of whatever Ricky was working on came through the laptop speakers. Rushing wind,lively birdsong, and the musical trill of tree frogs filled the conference room. At first, Sawyer thought Ricky had been listening to an ASMR recording while working, but then Alec’s voice joined the symphony of sounds coming from the speakers.

“This is the first time I’ve been back here in nearly thirty years,” he said wistfully. “So much has changed, and I hardly recognized the place.” After a pause, he added, “But I say the same thing when I look back at photographs of the little boy who used to run wild on this land.”

Ricky tapped the keyboard, and the audio stopped playing. “Sorry about that. Did you need something from me?”

Sawyer raised his hand to interrupt. “Was that for the podcast?”

Alec worried his bottom lip between his teeth before answering. “Yeah. It’s my attempt to record an intriguing background segment. I wanted it to come across as genuine, and I thought the nature sounds would make it a little artsy.”

“Mission accomplished,” Sawyer said. “This felt like it came directly from the heart instead of a script.”

“Because our trip to the old homestead was a spur-of-the-moment thing,” Marina said dryly, though a smile softened the edge in her voice. “I guess sometimes going off script is a good thing, but I could’ve done without the bugs and humidity. Maybe the next detour can take us to a nail salon for pedicures.”

“Noted,” Alec told her with a wink before returning his attention to Sawyer. “Do you really think I’m onto something?” His surprise and humility rang true, and it thawed Sawyer’s resistance even more.

“The portion I just heard needs to be in the trailer.” Sawyer looked hopefully at Alec. “Can I hear a little more?”

“Yeah, but that isn’t the important thing I needed to show you before our interview with Talia.”

“Just five minutes.” Sawyer’s whiny plea made him sound like a toddler who didn’t want to go to bed.

Alec nodded at Ricky, who wore a cocky grin as he tapped a key on the laptop.

“The property is overgrown now with tall grass and weeds,” Alec said in the recording. “It was heavily wooded when I lived here, but it looks like nature has mostly reclaimed this space from humans. There are no visible paths through the grass or dense trees beyond the clearing.”

“And yet I have a feeling we’re still going to wade into the weeds,” Marina said.

“It’s the only way.” Alec’s voice sounded distant, not so much his physical proximity, but like his thoughts had wandered off. Rustling feet through tall grass joined the birds, wind, and tree frogs. “Our trailer was over here to the right. We used to have a small shed too. The only thing still standing is the clothesline my dad built for my mother. If I closed my eyes right now, I could still feel the rasp of sun-stiffened denim against my legs.” Alec’s voice fell silent for several seconds, and Sawyer pictured him tilting his head back and closing his eyes. “You could’ve grated cheese with our bath towels,” he said with a laugh. “Fabric softener cost money we didn’t have because every spare cent went into building my dad’s trucking business.”