Page 106 of Lost Lake
He jerked back. “How?”
Gabe didn’t even think twice before blurting out his statement. “The DNA test on the child Kenna was carrying came back as a familial match to me but we both know I’m not the father of the child. You are.”
He blinked slowly, as if the information struggled to permeate his shock. “She was pregnant? How far along?”
“Twelve weeks,” Gabe said. “A boy.”
A wounded animal growl came from his brother, and he looked like he might drop to the ground. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
“We found a pregnancy test in the bathroom, so maybe she’d just found out,” El said. “From your reaction, looks like you would’ve wanted to have a child with her.”
“Without a doubt. I planned to leave the family business, find a job, and we were going to get married. But then she discovered Trent Jonas at New Tide was not only stealing money from Safe Harbor, but he was falsifying adoption papers, selling, and trafficking children.”
Just as they’d suspected, but hearing it spoken as the truth made Gabe want to hurl. “How did Trent do it?”
Brad closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath. He flashed them open again. Gone was his pain, anger taking over. “Trent convinced a social worker he was finding good homes for troubled children who would’ve stayed in the system and aged out if he didn’t intervene. Likely end up on the street. She bought into it and had no idea what he was really doing with these kids.”
“How did Kenna find out about the kids and the money?” El asked.
“She saw several line items in the budget Trent sent to Safe Harbor. Things like program services, consulting fees, and outreach expenses. When she asked Tinsley about them, he couldn’t explain them. He said they were just fees that Trent incurred on their behalf and not to question them.”
“But Kenna knew they were wrong?” Gabe asked.
Brad nodded. “She looked into the companies paid under these line items, and found one for Mason Engineering, a company with the payments going to a PO box. She suspected it was a bogus company, along with the number of others they couldn’t account for. The last time they made a payment toMason Engineering, she sat outside the post office and waited for it to be picked up.”
“And was it?” Gabe asked.
“Yeah, an older guy came to get the check. She took his picture and did a reverse lookup on the internet. Guy’s name is Howard Mason, a former cop. She continued digging and discovered money went to other companies that didn’t have employees, a website, or any online footprint at all. Turns out the payments were sent to different PO boxes at the same post office, but that’s as far as she got before she was killed.”
“Why didn’t she come to me?” Gabe asked.
“You know how independent she can be. Plus, she didn’t want to put your life in danger until she knew what was going on.”
But if she had…
“Odds are Trent is behind the financial scam, and the checks went straight back to him,” El said. “Probably deposited to a shell company making them virtually untraceable.”
“And the adoptions?”
“Kids at the home were telling her stories about the children who were supposedly being adopted, but they weren’t actually placed in the homes social services had approved. She started looking into it and discovered the same social worker signed all of the paperwork. Kenna confronted her and showed her the proof that these kids weren’t being adopted but trafficked. She caved and admitted her part. I told Kenna to stop and let us get some clarity on this before she took any other action.”
“She could’ve been risking her life,” Gabe said.
“Exactly, but she said the children came first.” He took a few deep breaths. “She confronted Trent. He denied it all. But said if she ever tried to bring her lies to the police, he would kill her and Lucy. That’s when she went to see you. She didn’t tell me she was going, or I would’ve gone with her.”
Gabe felt his brother’s pain, and for the first time in his life, he believed the guy had a heart. Hopefully, Gabe could help him get out of the family business, even if he didn’t have a life with Kenna to look forward to.
“Obviously,” Brad went on, “Trent or one of his goons intercepted her. Those lying scumbags stole Kenna and the baby from me. They likely have Lucy and need to pay beyond me yelling at Trent.”
“You confronted Trent?” El asked.
“Of course. I told him if he got away with murdering her, I’d continue her crusade to reveal his illegal activities. He just laughed at me, so I located the social worker Kenna had tracked down. Unfortunately, she passed away in a car accident. Probably Trent’s doing too.”
“Why didn’t you come to me when you found out I was working this investigation?” Gabe asked.
“For the same reason Kenna never told you we were a thing. She didn’t want you to know about us until I’d gone legit. I figured, even if she’d died, that still stood. But I didn’t make any progress in bringing this guy to justice, and figured you guys might. Besides, I have a potential lead on Lucy’s?—”
A gunshot rang out. Brad spun and hit the ground.
