Gabriel - Jessie Cooke Page 0,62

to be too much and I dipped out.”

Patrice looked at Gabe, as if asking if that part might be true. Gabe refused to look at her; keeping his eyes on Bernard he said, “What did Kasey’s father want to know about her...I mean, why have you follow a college student around? What did he think she was doing?”

“It wasn’t what he thought, it was what he knew. Kasey was threatening to talk to the Feds, about her father.”

22

“I don’t understand,” Patrice said.

“Her father, your grandfather, was a crook. He misused his campaign funds. He bribed high-ranking officials. He embezzled money from accounts that had been set up by his father for your mother and her sister. Kasey found out about all of that somehow and when he pressured her about her lifestyle and tried to force her to be the good little Southern belle they wanted her to be, she not only balked, but she threatened to go to the Feds with what information she had. I honestly think your grandmother would have just had her killed. Your grandfather was just hoping she’d change her mind, but had me watching her just in case. Once he was gone, though...well, Granny finally got her way.”

“What do you mean, she got her way?”

“Your mama ended up dead, didn’t she?” Gabe shot him another glare and he rolled his eyes and said, “You ever wonder where your aunt and uncle got all that money they’ve lived on all these years? What is it your uncle does for a living again?”

Gabe could see Patrice’s hand shaking and he reached for it. She let him wrap it up in his and then she said, “He’s a computer tech.”

“You didn’t wonder how they always drove the most expensive cars on the lot, and lived in that nice house, mortgage free...or could afford to pay cash for your education?”

“How would you know what they did or could afford to do?” she asked.

“It was about a year after your mother died that Blackheart ran me off. By that time I was the one in the position to blackmail your family. Your aunt and uncle have been paying me off for years. You don’t think I got this nice place off what the government paid me, do you?”

Patrice was clenching down on Gabe’s hand so hard that it actually hurt. The color had drained from her face and he was glad she was sitting down because she looked like she might pass out. “You’re saying that my mom...I mean, my aunt and uncle...”

When she didn’t finish, Bernie finished for her, “I’m saying that they killed her...well, your uncle did anyway. I’m not sure he meant to kill her. Your grandmother sent him there to make sure she wasn’t going to tell anyone what she was still holding onto about her father and things got out of hand. I saw him go in the back way, and the sirens were already blaring when I saw him come out. It was later before I found out about Kasey’s untimely death...but I knew there was only one person who could have pulled that off, and that was your dear uncle.”

Gabe could see the tears forming in Patrice’s eyes. She was probably visualizing the entire thing and it made him sick to his stomach to think about the pain she must be feeling. He wanted to yell at Bernie to stop, but Patrice wouldn’t have been okay with that...she had to hear it all. She needed to know the truth, no matter how badly it was going to hurt. “You didn’t tell the police what you saw?” she finally said. Her voice was so pathetic that it physically hurt him. Her hand had gone slack in his and he knew it was taking all her energy to keep from falling apart.

“Nah,” he said. “Blackheart and I were already on the outs. I knew he’d figured out it was me who was feeding info to the feds and I knew it wouldn’t be long before he called me on it. I wanted an out, and what I saw that day gave me one...sort of. Unfortunately that asshole caught up to me before I got out of town...but I guess I should be glad he left me alive. I’ve had a pretty fucking good life since then. Before Blackheart took me out behind that shack they call a club, I’d already gone to your grandmother and told her everything I knew. I told her that