Allison Brennan - Love me to death

Good riddance. I’m glad she died. The cancer ate her heart, ate her soul, took her body and made it hurt .

I went to the funeral and told her bitch that I was glad she was dead. The woman screamed at me and tried to have me arrested. I walked out .

My father was weak. Drinking. A foolish man’s elixir. Had he been a real man, he would have kept his job and provided for his family. Mom would never have worked; she would never have left me .

“Twenty-six unsolved residential arson fires in Baltimore during those years,” Sean told Hans. “Two fatalities.”

“How many were within five miles of the first Wilmington house or his second house after his mother left?”

Sean typed rapidly. “One five miles from his mother’s house; fourteen within five miles of his father’s rental.”

“I’m surprised the investigators didn’t nail him. They look at teen boys in the area when there are clusters like this.”

Sean was growing increasingly frustrated. His head ached and he itched to get in his car and look for Lucy-even though he knew it was futile. He had always been a slave to computer science; anything could be found using the Internet. And normally, he was patient with research. But today? After Lucy had been missing for fourteen hours ? He felt helpless and hopelessly lost. He wanted Lucy back safe, and he didn’t see them getting any closer to finding her.

Dillon came downstairs. He walked to the coffeepot and poured a cup. “You should have woke me,” he told Sean, then asked, “Any news?”

“No. I want to find out more about his ex-wife, but can’t find her anywhere,” Hans said.

“If she came to realize that she’d married a psycho,” Sean said, “she probably changed her name and moved far away.”

“You’re right.”

Sean didn’t want to be right.

Hans flipped through files. “It’s odd that he went into teaching, which is considered by many to be a female profession unless you’re a college professor. I would think his misogynist tendencies coupled with his computer science background would put him in the science and technology field.”

Sean could hold it in no longer. “How the fuck is this going to help us find Lucy?” He jumped up and left the room.

Dillon watched Sean as he slammed the front door, and his face fell. “He’s right,” Dillon said, pained. “But I don’t know what else to do until Noah gets Miller’s financials.”

“He reminds me of your brother Jack,” Hans said.

Dillon frowned. He didn’t see that at all. “Jack?”

“A man of action. His reliance on technology is because he understands it. For him, it’s usually expedient-he can find anything he wants. Until now.”

“I still don’t see Jack in Sean,” Dillon said. “Jack is a mercenary. A soldier. He takes orders and gives them. Sean is not a soldier.”

“No, he doesn’t take orders well. I didn’t say he was Jack’s twin brother.”

Dillon raised his eyebrow. “Touche.”

“You and I find answers in the give and take of psychology. We figure it out based on what we know about people and human nature. Sean and Jack? They see facts, they act. Sean is just … more modern and refined than your brother.”

“But he’s right about this-none of this is getting us closer to finding Lucy.”

“It is. We’re close.”

Sean stood in the cold, the air thick but the snowfall light. It would get worse. He called Duke, who answered on the first ring.

“Any news?”

“We don’t know where Lucy is,” Sean said.

“I’m doing everything I can-”

“Any way I can, legal or otherwise, I need to find out about Miller’s ex-wife. She was Rosemarie Nylander, then-”

“I have her stats here. We haven’t been able to find her under her maiden or married name.”

“She very likely changed her name.”

“I’m sure you know this, but-” He stopped. “The FBI isn’t going to appreciate our involvement.”

“Who cares? Hans Vigo thinks if we can find and talk to Nylander we’ll find out where this freak is. I need your help.”

“I won’t be able to get you out of this if you get caught with information that you shouldn’t legally have.”

“I never asked you to.”

“What state?”

“Virginia, where Nylander was born and went to college, or Delaware, where they lived during their marriage.”

“I’ll call back in ten minutes.”

Sean hung up. Duke knew what Sean needed-the technical specs on the court computers. Once he knew what kind of security and systems the courts employed, Sean could hack in faster and pull out the information he needed: Rosemarie Nylander Miller’s new legal name.

He hacked security for a living, but only because people paid him to test their systems. He hadn’t illegally hacked since college, and he didn’t like the idea. He didn’t want to go to jail, but jail time wasn’t the greatest risk. He’d have his P.I. license revoked, wouldn’t be allowed near computers, and RCK East would be disbanded.

But Lucy would be alive and safe, and that was all that mattered.

At this point, he was in limbo. They knew exactly who had kidnapped her, and why; Miller had figured out WCF had set him up. Yet with all the talk, all the research, and all the investigation, they still didn’t know where Lucy was. His head told him that investigations took time, and after fourteen hours during the night, when business and government were shut down, they already knew a lot. But a lot wasn’t good enough, and his heart told him Lucy was in immediate danger.

Dillon stepped outside. “It’s twenty-three degrees,” he said.

“So what?”

“Noah called. They got the administrative warrant for Miller’s financials. He pays his Wilmington mortgage with a check that lists a P.O. box in Wilmington. The mortgage company believes it’s his primary residence.”

“That doesn’t help us.”

“Noah is now talking to the bank. Somewhere in the files is an address that leads back to him. Or a check he wrote that we can trace.”

“The address he uses will be the Wilmington house,” Sean said. “That’s what I would do-it’s his house, but he doesn’t live there. It’s a front.”

“Then what? We’re covering every base we have.” Dillon’s voice cracked and he averted his gaze.

Sean realized then that his anger and pessimism wasn’t helping. “More information is coming,” he told Dillon.

“What are you waiting for?” Dillon asked.

Sean couldn’t answer because his phone rang. “Duke, what do you have?”

“Her name is Marie Fitzgerald. She lives in Austin, Texas.”

Sean’s heart skipped a beat. “Duke, I didn’t want you to risk-”

“I didn’t. I got the information through a judge in Virginia who has helped us in the past, and I went that route. Sean, I know you would do anything and risk your future to save Lucy. You’re also my brother, and I couldn’t let you lose everything you worked so hard for. Once you go down that slippery slope, it’s hard to stick on the right side of the law. We walk the line close enough.”

“Thank you.”

Duke’s trust and understanding surprised Sean, but maybe it had been there all along and Sean hadn’t seen it.

He said to Dillon, “Duke found Miller’s ex-wife. In Texas. Let’s talk to her.”

The door opened and Lucy’s captor stomped down the stairs, whip in hand. He lashed out at Carolyn three times, and she cried out and burrowed into the corner. “I will punish you later,” he said. “I know who the guilty one is.”

Lucy’s heart beat so loud that she couldn’t hear herself think. She tried to get away from the edge of the cage but of course that was futile. He slapped her with the whip. It cut her ear and she bit back a scream.