Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) - Karen Rose Page 0,108

asked.

“I asked him that. He said it was from his mother’s control. She was apparently quite overbearing and he was very unhappy at home. He said that the tattoo would ‘show her.’ I got a bad feeling while I was working on him. I might have stopped, but he was eighteen. I made a copy of his driver’s license. Just to cover myself, you know. He’s one of the reasons I keep all my files with signed releases. Just in case someone comes forward years later and complains.”

“Oh wow!” Daisy exclaimed, excited. “Please say you still have it!”

Sergio’s smile was faint, but genuine. “Yes, I have it. I scanned the files to my phone when you first contacted me.” He tapped his phone and turned it so that they could see the screen.

“May I?” Liza asked, reaching for the phone.

“Yes,” Sergio said warily, handing it over.

The driver’s license photo showed a young man with a baby face, but his lips curled down, giving him a sullen appearance. His hair was blond, cut military short. Nearly black eyes stared defiantly through round-rimmed eyeglasses.

“William Holly,” Daisy murmured, looking over Liza’s shoulder. “The name doesn’t mean anything to me, but it might to Gideon. Can you send us this file?”

Sergio nodded. “Of course.”

Liza tried to enlarge the photo, but it swiped left, revealing the original tattoo design with a scrawled signature beneath. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s fine,” Sergio said. “That’s the design he approved.”

“What’s this?” Daisy pointed to a second signature in the margin.

Liza enlarged the sketch. The children kneeling in prayer had something written beneath them. “Are these names?” She peered harder. “Bo and Bernie.”

“Yes,” Sergio confirmed. “For him and his sister, but when I got to that part, he decided he didn’t want the names after all, so I updated the release and had him sign off on the changes.”

Liza frowned to herself. She’d heard those names before, and in conjunction with Eden.

Sergio was also frowning, but at Daisy. “You know who they are.”

Liza turned her attention to the other woman and knew that Sergio was right. Daisy appeared stunned, but her eyes were coming back into sharp focus.

“Where were you when you did his tattoo?” Daisy asked. “Which city?”

“Benicia, same city as is on his ID. It’s outside of Oakland.”

“I know it,” Daisy said quietly. “I lived in Oakland when I was a little girl.”

Liza wanted to ask questions but held them. She could ask once they were in the SUV.

“Can you send this to my phone?” Daisy asked. “It’s the number I called you from a few weeks ago.”

Liza returned his phone and Sergio sent the files via text, paling at the concern etched into Daisy’s brow. “Is this man a danger to me and my family?”

“I don’t know,” Daisy said honestly. “It’s unlikely, but . . .”

Sergio’s expression became grim. “But I should be very aware.”

Daisy nodded. “I would be.”

Sergio ran his hands through his hair before turning to Liza with a strained smile. “Do you still want the memorial tattoo? No worries if you don’t.”

“I really do. But can you give us a minute to talk privately?”

“Of course. I’ll go in the back and prepare your design. It will take me fifteen minutes.”

“Who is he?” Liza asked as soon as they’d shut all the doors to Gideon’s Suburban.

Daisy quickly brought Gideon up to date, his eyes widening at the mention of Bo and Bernie.

Gideon’s mouth fell open. “Are you fucking kidding me? The guy who got the tattoo was Bo? Pastor’s dead son, Bo?”

Daisy nodded. “He initially wanted his and his sister’s names included on the tattoo.”

Gideon stared at the driver’s license photo in disbelief. “I don’t recognize him, but I was very young when he and his mother and sister were declared dead, and he was a lot younger than he is in this photo. Plus it’s been twenty-five years. We need to show this photo to Amos. He might be a better judge.”

“Oh,” Liza breathed. “Bo and Bernie. Boaz and Bernice.” That was where she’d heard the names. They were Pastor’s children.

Gideon was shaking his head, stunned. “This . . . this is not what I expected. We were told that they were lost in the wilderness.”

“Which is what they said about you,” Daisy said softly.

Gideon’s laugh was bitter. “True. Marcia—she was Pastor’s wife—had taken the kids on a hike to gather herbs and they never came back. Pastor looked and Waylon looked. All the men searched, but never found them. Eventually