Page 51 of Dichotomy

“Can I borrow one of these whiteboards?” Maya asked Marcus. “I want to make a list of suspicious vehicles we need to follow up on.”

Marcus tossed them a marker, and Maya pulled one of the whiteboards over to their side of the table. Liam started rattling off vehicle makes, models, and license plates. Maya scribbled out each one to build a list.

“If you have an extra computer,” Adrian said, “I can log in to the SDS database and start running some of those.” He indicated the list.

Liam pulled another laptop out of his bag and slid it over to Adrian.

“Seriously, man, how many laptops do you travel with?” I joked.

“Four,” Liam said, his eyes flashing to mine with a quick grin.

I laughed. “I’m impressed. I usually only carry two.”

“If I could, I would carry six, but Evelyn’s always on me about my backpack being too heavy for my shoulders and fucking up my back, so I’m limited to four.”

“Plus, there was that incident—” Maya started.

Liam dramatically hushed them, waving his hands in the air. “No! No! We agreed not to talk about that.”

“I never agreed to anything.” Maya smirked. They looked over at me. “I’ll tell you later.”

“I will hack your alarm clock,” Liam threatened.

“I’ll tell Izzy about the…thing,” Maya threatened back, and Liam slammed his lips shut. He grumbled, focusing on his computer but glaring at Maya out of the corner of his eye.

Maya smiled smugly and turned back to their own computer, content to have won that round. Definitely a sibling relationship.

The printer hummed as I sent a photo of the skeevy little twatapotomas to the printer. Donald Jefferson had been spending too much time in the tanning booth, it seemed. With his orange tan, pale blonde hair, and smarmy smile, he looked like a walking red flag wrapped in a trust fund.

Marcus grabbed the picture from the printer and grimaced. “This him?” He waved the photo at me, and I nodded.

He taped it to the top of the whiteboard and wrote Donald’s full name in block letters underneath it. I hunted the internet for photos of his family. Always good to know where the bad guys come from. Maybe one of his family members was supplying the drugs? I had just found a family picture on one of his social media pages when the door clicked open.

Alexander and Evie entered the room. Evie looked exhausted. Dark circles hung under her eyes, and her shoulders were slumped, but she had a determined energy about her as she stepped into the room. I waved her over to me, and she headed my way. When she was close enough, I tugged her into my lap, ignoring her soft yelp. She stiffened and made to get up.

“We’re going to get them,” I whispered in her ear, and she sagged into me, the tension leaving her muscles. I kissed her temple softly, and she took a deep breath. I knew my darling Evie, and there were no sweeter words I could whisper to her right now than those of vengeance.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her chin lifting towards my computer and the picture on the screen.

“Digging into the little twatapotomas,” I said.

“The what?” She turned to look at me, her brow furrowed.

“The twatapotomas,” I said seriously, lips quirking when she laughed. “I figured it was a good name for the little twat.”

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head, but couldn’t hide her grin on her lips. I relaxed slightly, then printed the picture. She stared at it on the screen, brow furrowing.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I don’t know. His dad looks familiar.”

I leaned forward, caging her in between my arms as I typed, digging up a picture of his dad and printing that one, too. I started a reverse image search of the dad as the picture printed.

Marcus retrieved both pictures from the printer. “I recognize the dad too. He’s a federal judge. Clarence Jefferson. He’s been a speaker at a few legal conferences I’ve been to. He lives locally.”

Evelyn cursed and rubbed her face. “That’s how Donald got out of those charges so quickly.”

“What else do you know about him?” Alexander asked as Marcus taped up the pictures.