“Yeah?” Mace’s voice was deceptively light.
“Yeah,” Brody replied. “See, Stel a’s folks’ve been having problems for some time now. That’s what Kim looked into. Stel a’s Mom’s got cancer and they don’t have insurance. They’re in debt out the ying yang, drowning in it.
They were already behind on payments when The People’s Bank bought the mortgage. It was a bad purchase but that shit happens al the time. What’s weird is that, even though they weren’t current on their payments and fal in’ behind on their other bil s, their credit rating is in the shitter, by the way, they went to the bank and borrowed more money against the house and the bank gave it to them.”
“God damn it,” Lee muttered.
“It gets weirder,” Brody went on and Hank watched Mace close his eyes for a second, sit back in his chair again then train his gaze on Brody as Brody carried on. “This isn’t new.
This al started to go down a year ago.” Brody turned back to Mace. “I wasn’t here then but Kim said it was when you first started to see Stel a.”
Hank watched as Mace traced his teeth with his tongue behind closed, tight lips. Hank knew this wasn’t a good sign.
“Mace –” Lee started but Brody was stil talking.
“It gets weirder.”
Mace’s jaw got tight.
“Brody, just finish it,” Hank put it quickly.
“Wel , I found out al this shit about Stel a’s folks in, like, an hour. Kim’s good at asking questions and friends and neighbors talk, especial y when someone’s sick, so we had the story real quick.” Brody stopped, swal owed, turned to Mace and said, “Ovarian cancer. That’s where it started.
They thought they caught it but it spread.” He paused again and shared quietly, “It’s not looking good.” Mace sucked breath into his nose but nodded at Brody to go on and he did. “Wel , I don’t know why I did it.” Brody shrugged and fidgeted. “I’m no detective like you guys, but it was weird. I mean, why would anyone f**k with a sick woman? Kidnap her daughter?” More hostility from Mace but Brody soldiered on, “So, I started to look deeper and this is where it gets real y weird.”
“Fucking hel , Brody, just –” Lee cut in.
“I’l finish, I’l finish,” Brody said, putting a hand up to Lee then dropping it. “You know that guy who came around awhile ago? Out of the blue, makes a meeting with you, wants to invest in Nightingale Investigations, tryin’ to talk you into expanding?”
“Yeah,” Lee answered but Hank was watching Mace and he didn’t like what he was seeing.
“You shut him down but I got a hunch. I looked into him.
That trail was deeper, harder to track but I got it eventual y and that guy, and his money, is linked to Mace’s dad too.” Lee’s eyes sliced to Mace and he muttered, “Power play.”
“What?” Brody asked.
Lee’s gaze moved back to Brody. “Anything else?” Brody shook his head. “That’s it so far.”
“You feed this to Vance?” Lee pressed.
“Yeah,” Brody answered.
“Keep diggin’,” Mace ordered and Brody’s head turned to Mace as Mace kept talking. “Everything. Look into Stel a, me, Lee, Nightingale Investigations –”
“Luke,” Lee said.
“Fuck,” Mace mumbled.
Hank closed his eyes. He knew about Luke too. It would be a long shot; Luke’s past associations were buried in a lot of folders where black marker was undoubtedly used heavily. Stil , you had enough money, you could find out anything. And Preston Mason had more than enough money.
Hank opened his eyes again when Lee started talking.
“Anything, Brody, anyone, any member of the team, any one of the Rock Chicks. This is your mission. You sleep it, you eat it, you f**kin’ breathe it. Find out if Preston Mason has uncovered anything or tied himself to any of us. Even you,” Lee demanded.
“Me?” Brody asked.
“You,” Lee replied. “And while you’re diggin’, you’re buryin’. Anything you can find, they can find. They haven’t found it yet, you bury it so deep it’l never be found.”