Spooky Business (The Spectral Files #3) - S.E. Harmon Page 0,98
murdered him front.”
He glared at me. “Of course not. Why would I do anything to hurt Joey?”
“You tell me.”
“I just did,” he snapped. “We were old college buddies. Friends. I was glad he called me to reconnect.”
“You did more than reconnecting. Why did he hire you?” When Rex didn’t answer, I decided maybe a little clarification would help loosen his tongue. Just so we all knew where we stood. “We’re not leaving until we get some answers. You can give us those answers, and then go on your merry way….”
“Or?” He asked when I didn’t offer him the other option.
“Or we can get those answers in a more formal setting,” Danny finished.
Walker’s eyes shifted back and forth between us. “Say my license was revoked for an incomplete application, but I’ve got a clean record. Say I do a little investigating on the side while my new application is being processed.” He fiddled with his coffee mug. “Would that be the kind of thing you’re willing to overlook?”
Danny raised an eyebrow. “For the right kind of information, I might not be able to see a damned thing.”
“Glaucoma like a motherfucker,” I said helpfully.
“Then maybe I can help you.”
Well, hurry up before they stop serving breakfast. The dark-haired woman fed her curly-haired companion a whip-cream laden bite of crepe, and my stomach growled. My sensible bowl of Special K with almond milk was a thing of the past, and I jiggled my foot impatiently. “We’re listening.”
“First and foremost, you need to know that I’m Joey’s friend. Was Joey’s friend.” He swallowed. “He’s been gone a long time now, but I still sometimes forget.”
“What did he hire you to look into?”
He took a deep breath before he began. “It started with him wanting to find his mother’s best friend, a woman named Delilah Rose. She’d been missing for years and he thought it would be a nice gift to his mother to find Delilah. I told him people who go underground for that long generally have a good reason for hiding.”
“But he wanted to find her anyway,” I said.
“Yes. I gave it my best shot, but the trail was ice cold.” He shook his head. “She left in a time when it was easier to disappear.”
Yes, it is easy to disappear when someone feeds you cyanide-laced honey and crams you in a deep freezer. “So how did you get around to figuring out Delilah was Joey’s birth mother?”
“I checked Valerie’s hospital records. She had a serious car accident in her midtwenties and suffered major pelvic and abdominal injuries. It left her unable to have children,” he said. “I talked to her ex-husband and he confirmed that she already had Joseph when they married.”
“What made you suspect Delilah was his mother?”
He shrugged. “What better catalyst to get you moving from your crazy ex than finding out you’re pregnant? She wouldn’t leave Kane for herself, but maybe she’d leave for her unborn child.”
“How did Joey feel about that theory?”
Rex snorted. “He fired me.”
Yeah, I’d fire someone too if they told me Thomas Kane was my father. “Did he confront Valerie with that information? Is that why they hadn’t spoken the few months before his death?”
“Probably. Joey rehired me a few months later. I assumed he wanted me to start looking for his real mother again, but he had other ideas.”
“Like what?” Danny asked.
“He became obsessed with Thomas Kane. He wanted me to track down the family members of the victims, so he could ‘make it right.’”
I grimaced. “You didn’t think to tell him that wasn’t a great idea? I thought you said you were his friend.”
“I was his friend,” he said fiercely. “I told him that no amount of restitution could fix what Kane did to those families. But Joey felt like he needed to do something.”
“Something like what?”
“I don’t know.” He sighed. “I gave him everything I could find on a thumb drive. Names, addresses, and numbers of people who’d been affected by Thomas Kane’s crimes. It wasn’t a short list.”
“We’re going to need a copy of that,” Danny said grimly.
Rex bobbed his head in agreement. “Of course. I’ll send it to you by email.” He reached for his glasses, and I moved them farther away. He got the picture pretty quickly. “Right now?”
“Wow, how nice of you,” I said with a sweet smile. “Right now would be fantastic.”
He grumbled a little as he searched through his phone, casting anxious glances at the couple across the room, who had called for their check. Tersely,