Page 43 of Night Hawk
“Nah, he admitted to knowing before he went to interview the guy.”
Clay whistled, and Pong gave him a sharp look.
“Easy, boy,” Erik said, his tone assertive yet soothing.
“Even working an investigation involving a relative is frowned on. Killing one had to get him in serious trouble.”
“Like I said. He almost got fired.”
“How’d you find this?”
“An old news article on the web told me Long was DEA, so I called Devon, and he did some digging.” Devon Dunbar was a DEA agent and Kelsey’s husband. “He said the DEA kept her dad on because he spoke several difficult languages, and they needed guys with that skill.”
“I wonder if Toni knows about this.”
Erik’s eyebrow went up, and he looked so much like Sierra that Clay found it uncanny. “Toni hasn’t mentioned it, then?”
Clay’s gut twisted. It wasn’t like she’d lied to him, but not mentioning something so important was unsettling. If indeed she knew about it.
“I asked the guys to give you some time with her alone but didn’t tell them what was going on.”
“Hey, thanks, man,” Clay said. “I’ll talk to her and let the others know at our update meeting.”
Clay started for the door but turned back. “And thanks for taking the initiative to do the background check.”
“Welcome.” Erik slid forward, and Pong perked up. “FYI, Drake called Malone, and she didn’t have anything helpful, but she’ll talk to a few of her sources and call if she learns anything. You should also know Drake started reviewing your Safe Harbor files on the drive to see if he could pinpoint something you missed.”
At that, a flash of irritation bit into Clay, but he let it go in favor of making progress on the investigation. “It’s good to get a fresh pair of eyes on things. Oh, and I almost forgot. Can you run financials for Fritz Rader? We found a ton of cash at his place, but the place was a dump.”
“Will do.”
As Clay walked down the hall, he considered how he would bring up the topic of Toni’s father and tell her what Erik had discovered. Would be touchy for sure. No matter what he said, his brother had done a background check on her, and that would sting. Sure, Clay didn’t direct Erik to run the check, but Clay should have, as protocol in their agency would demand such a thing.
He passed the second bedroom, where his other brothers were hanging out. They looked at him as he walked past, but said nothing. He found Toni alone at the table, her laptop still open, the light reflecting on her skin. She looked up, her face pale, her eyes tight.
“What is it?” He hurried over to her. “What’s wrong?”
“I…I…this.” She stabbed a finger at the screen.
He stepped behind her, and caught a look at the ancestry site. “You looked up your parents?”
“I talked to my grandpa. He seemed evasive, so I thought it would help, but I…” She tapped a pink square holding a darker pink female silhouette. A caption next to it said,Lisa Long, sister.
“I have a sister.” Toni’s words held immeasurable distress. “How could my family have kept this from me?”
Toni had suffered tremendous heartache in life with losing so many family members, but discovering she had a sister—a sister who, according to the records in front of Toni, was still alive—tore a hole deeper in her heart than she could ever have imagined. And filled her brain with questions.
Were the records right and her sister really was alive? What did she look like? Did she resemble Toni? Did Lisa know about her? She would be how old now?
Toni glanced at the screen and tried to calculate her age, but her head was spinning, and she couldn’t make sense of anything.
Clay scooted a chair next to her and took her hand. “These sites can make mistakes.”
“I figured as much.” She resisted shuddering over the discovery and clicked on another tab. “Here’s the birth certificate listing my parents.”
He looked at the screen then stared at her as if he couldn’t think of a thing to say. She understood his reaction. Completely. She could almost see the crazy thoughts pinging around in his head. The discovery had generated crazy ones in hers too.
“What do you think happened to her?” he asked.
