Midnight Wreckage - Winter Travers Page 0,16
Lynn bowed her head. “Years of addiction and she came out of it only to be killed randomly on the street for her shoes.”
“She was using again,” Queenie growled. “She wasn’t clean. She took her baby, my nephew, to a fucking shady as fuck neighborhood to score some fucking meth, and she wound up dead!”
Lynn frowned. “Recovery and addiction are a hard thing to get your hands around. I was talking to Duchess. She told me what she was going through. We planned to meet that afternoon and get back on track.”
“What she was going through?” Queenie shouted. “She was living rent-free with me, had no fucking bills, and not a worry in the world. All she had to do was take care of Gunner. That was fucking it, and she couldn’t do that. She wanted to get clean for me and Gunner? She wasn’t! For what, thirteen fucking months she was clean? That’s supposed to erase everything going on now and before? Thirteen fucking months does not bring back my sister and help me find my nephew. I watched her kill herself for years, and there wasn’t anything I could do because, in the end, she had to be the one to save herself. She had to be the one to choose to be clean. She bamboozled you into thinking she cared about me and Gunner. At the end of the fucking day, all she cared about was getting high and where her next score was coming from. Don’t act sorry for Duchess, be fucking sorry to the people she left behind destroyed because she couldn’t handle life.”
I reached over and laid my hand on Queenie’s leg. I didn’t know the whole story between Queenie and her sister. All I knew was what I had read in the news when everything happened. They hadn’t painted Duchess in the best light, though. What was killing me was Queenie was still dealing with everything. She was suffering through the loss of her sister and now, she might have lost her nephew, too.
Queenie shot up and leaned toward Lynn. “You’re not dumb. Don’t assume I am by spewing that shit at me. I loved my sister no matter what and all she did was wind up dead. My love didn’t save her. Nothing could have.” Queenie stormed out of the office and down the hallway.
“Someone should go after her,” Lynn whispered.
Zephyr clicked his tongue. “Pretty sure you’re the most qualified one for that, Doc, but I’m ninety-nine percent sure she wants to rip your face off right about now.”
“That was way more exciting than I thought it would be,” Kaye muttered.
“She’s right on everything she said. Being an addict is hard, but to me, watching someone you love being an addict is even harder.” Lynn sighed and sat back in her chair. “Let me know if you have any other questions, and I’ll try to see if there is anything in her files that might help with finding Gunner.”
“The name of Gunner’s dad would be good,” I suggested. Lynn was being the devil’s advocate between Duchess and Queenie. She could see the pain they both suffered and didn’t take sides. I bet she was damn good at her job. If Duchess would have made it to that appointment they scheduled, she might have still been here today.
Lynn shook her head sadly. “As I said, I didn’t press her for one, but maybe I can piece something together from the file. I have some journal entries from her. She might have mentioned something in there.”
“I’m gonna head back to the station and try to find out who was in court around the time Queenie got pregnant. Maybe I can narrow down the list of who Gunner’s dad could be.” Kaye pushed off the wall and pulled a card out of her pocket. “Give me a call if you come up with anything.” She handed it to Lynn with a sad smile. “The more time that goes by, the less likely we are to find Gunner.”
Zephyr glanced at me. We both had more information that might help, but neither of us was going to open our mouths without running it past Quinn first. He seemed pretty adamant last night that we weren’t going to tell the cops about Core being hired by C.
Lynn grabbed the card. “You got it.” She glanced at me. “Maybe don’t tell Queenie this right now, but if she ever wants to talk, I’m always willing to listen and help