Page 17 of Sins of the Fathers
“Well, that was a total fail.” Dawson drummed his fingers on the armrest. His mind flashed back to the conversation with Grady the night before, and he opened his mouth to ask a question, then closed it without saying anything.Too much going on to dig up old secrets. Let’s get Knox out of the hospital and take things one step at a time.
“I’ll get our hacker friends to see if they can turn up anything about missing shifters or break into the sheriff’s system and see what the cops know.” Denny pulled out his phone and sent a text. “There’s a connection. We just have to find it.”
Dawson couldn’t help feeling restless and depressed on the way back to the hospital. Seeing the crime scene hadn’t offered any insights, and he couldn’t shake the sense that they were missing something that was right in front of them. Desperate to keep his thoughts from spinning, Dawson decided to change the subject.
“What do you think really happened to Knox?”
“You mean before or just now?”
Dawson shrugged. “Either. Both.”
Denny didn’t answer right away, but from the set of his jaw and his tight grip on the wheel, Dawson knew his uncle’s mind was hashing out possibilities.
“I know Knox has had some dark times, but I think his turn-around was real. Colt’s been good for him—they’re sweet together, and I think their relationship gives Knox something of his own to fight for,” Denny said after a pause.
“He’s going to therapy and doing a weekly support group. Got sober and put all that extra energy into Colt and the hardware store. So I don’t think it was a relapse—but someonewantsus to think that,” Denny went on. “As for the medication ‘error,’ I’ve got a bad feeling that we’re going to find out it was an attempt on Knox’s life.”
Dawson nodded. “Yeah. That’s what I think too. They were hoping that Knox would die of an ‘overdose’ and no one would question it,” he added bitterly. “Except we saved him. So they tried again to make it look like an accident. That’s a lot of effort. Whatever they think he knows, it’s a bombshell.”
Once again, he had a question on the tip of his tongue about whether Knox’s situation could be connected to the deaths of Grady’s grandparents and Dawson’s parents.Grady deserves to be in on that conversation. It can wait until both of us can hear what Denny has to say.
When they got back to the hospital, Grady was taking his turn sitting with Knox while Colt sat in the waiting area with a sandwich and a cup of coffee.
“Find anything?” Colt asked as they joined him.
Dawson shook his head. “Nothing except that someone transported the bodies to that spot. How about you?”
Colt swallowed a bite of his ham and cheese and washed it down with a slug of coffee. “Grady and I got the room locked down as tight as we can with every protection they’d let us get away with in the hospital,” he reported. “Checked the room for hexes and curse bags too.”
“I’ve got some amulets back at the house all four of you should be wearing,” Denny said. “I’ll run back and get them. They were made by people who really know their stuff. Bought them for the holidays, but now seems like as good a time as any. So, Merry Christmas.”
“And I’ve got a clue—maybe,” Colt said. “They gave me Knox’s wallet for safekeeping. I got to thinking that maybe something would give us an idea of where he’d gone the night he got roofied. I called his assistant manager at the store, who told me that Knox got a call at work when he stopped in to do paychecks and said he needed to deal with a problem. A customer had bought a vital piece of equipment from the store, and it wasn’t working right.”
“I could see Knox going to see for himself,” Dawson replied. “Especially if it was a big item.”
“So I looked in his wallet to see if he wrote down an address or took notes from the call. And I found this.” He held out a receipt for a soft drink from The Maverick, dated two days ago.
“Wait—I’ve driven past this place. Dive bar. Might have been somewhere Knox used to go but wouldn’t be on his list since he cleaned up his act,” Dawson said.
“Yeah, I know where it is,” Colt said with distaste. “Not even somewhere Knox hung out back in the bad old days—and I should know since I hauled Knox’s sorry ass out of most of the bars in Transylvania County. I can’t imagine that he’d go there unless it was the bar that had bought an expensive appliance that wasn’t working. And the call came before usual ‘bar hours,’ so he might have expected it to be mostly empty—that crowd shows up a lot later.”
“Does anyone know what the bar bought?”
“That’s just it,” Colt answered. “I called the bar and spoke to the owner. They did buy a dishwasher and a garbage disposal from the store—special order. And they did have a problem with the dishwasher. He says that Knox showed up for the service call and fixed it—it was a setting that had gotten messed up. Then the manager got called to the back to deal with an issue, and when he came back, Knox was gone.”
“Shit. This stinks of a setup,” Denny said. He looked to Colt. “When are you and Grady due to trade off?”
“Any time now,” Colt replied. “I just wanted to get a bite to eat before I settle in for the night.”
Denny glanced at Dawson. “Sounds like it might be worth a trip for you and Grady to visit The Maverick and see what you can turn up. Just keep your heads down—and stay sharp. I’m going home and working my contacts to see if we can find out more about the fake nurse and the dead shifters.”
* * *
Dawson and Gradypulled up at The Maverick around eight o’clock that night, before the crowd got rowdy, but after the parking lot began to fill. He drove Denny’s pickup because the Mustang definitely didn’t fit in here; far too memorable for them to be incognito. He spotted a black Corvette parked in the shadows and raised an eyebrow, wondering who was slumming and if they knew what they were in for.
They intentionally “dressed down” for the evening, choosing jeans, T-shirts, and flannels barely a step above what they’d wear to go hunting, along with battered boots.
While they didn’t want trouble, both men prepared for the worst, each carrying a small concealed arsenal, right down to shivs in their boots.Looks like the kind of place where I want to take a gun to a knife fight.
