“Putting it together after the fact. Those two kids were thick as thieves. Would pull pranks, most of which were Cedar’s idea. Started a damn urban legend with that fucking turkey. They got older, and they were inseparable. You know the type, seeing one without the other was strange.”
Killian did know the type. His parents had that. Cedar had too, and she lost it. “You never brought him in.”
“No.”
“But you know where he is?”
“How do you know that?” Donnelly demanded.
“A hunch.”
Silence followed before he muttered, “Good hunch. Yeah, I know how to find him, but there are extenuating circumstances.”
“And they are?”
He exhaled in frustration. Killian understood that sharing information with a stranger on an ongoing investigation was unorthodox, but Cedar was here now, and the only way he could protect her was to know all of it. “You’ve verified who I am. I can’t help her if I’m in the dark.”
“I know.” Another exhale. “Kenneth Callahan was laundering money for the mob, using dummy corporations he’d setup. At the time of his death, he was laundering close to twenty million dollars, money that never found its way back to the mob.”
“Holy fuck.”
“Yeah.”
“He was working with someone,” Killian deduced.
“Yeah, and when he died, this partner decided to take the cash.”
“Do you know who?”
“Yeah, but getting to them is proving very difficult because they have friends everywhere.”
Killian resisted the urge to drag a hand through his hair. “Dirty cops.”
“And DAs. I bring Brock in, he’s dead before he gets to lock up. We’ve kept Cedar out of it, as much as possible. I don’t think they’re looking for her because she was here. If they wanted her, they would have snatched her up here.”
Killian agreed, but someone had been watching her.
“There’s something I never told her. It didn’t seem like information she needed, but…” he paused, before he added, “Brock called her parents that night for help—”
“They were killed on their way to him,” Killian added and dragged a hand through his hair because what a fucking burden to carry. He didn’t even know Brock, but what a thing to have hanging over you. “Appreciate the transparency, Detective.”
“Cedar has been through enough. She’s finally ready to move on. I’d hate for anything to get in the way of that. The kid deserves some peace.”
She wasn’t a kid anymore, but, yeah, she did deserve some peace. He’d be damn fucking sure she got it. “Thank you, Detective.”
“You need anything, just call.”
“Will do.”
Killian disconnected the call and then called Johnny. It was probably nothing, but it couldn’t hurt to be thorough.
“Hey, Boss. I was just going to call you. Frank was at The Barrel the last few nights. Got a few people who saw him. And according to the bartender, who knows Frank pretty well, he quit smoking a couple years ago.”
If it wasn’t Frank watching her place then who the fuck was it? “I’m going to send you an email. Can you track where it originated?”
“I’ll have to send it out, will take some time.”
“Yeah, do that. You heard back from Sebastian?”
“Not yet.”
“Okay. Sending it now. Thanks.”
Disconnecting the call, he forwarded the email Cedar received then dropped his phone on the passenger seat. His instinct was to pack her up and move her to his house. He wasn’t going to do that just yet. He agreed with Donnelly. If the mob was after her, they would have gotten to her when she was right under their noses. They wouldn’t wait until she was halfway across the country. He wasn’t sure about Brock, but if he left her, walked out of her life to protect her, why would he show up now and put her in danger? It didn’t play. So it was looking more like whoever was scoping out her house was doing so because of the house…or rather a place that had sat empty for so long that was now occupied. So what was happening on this land that would have someone paranoid about being discovered? He’d follow up with Sebastian, but for now, he had to get back to work. He climbed from his truck and saw Cedar with his dogs. Unlike people, animals were excellent judges of character, and his dogs liked her. He did too. He now knew what skeletons hid in her closet, but there she was pushing through it. Not where she thought she’d be but forging a new way.
He glanced at her garage, the workspace over it. Had a thought on a use for it but turned his attention back to Cedar when she fell backward on her ass. She was trying to pull a weed that was nearly as tall as her. Instead of digging it out, she was trying to wrestle it. He crossed his arms, leaned against his truck and enjoyed the show. She squatted down, giving him a great shot of her ass, and then she pulled and fell on her ass again. What was that expression? Insanity was doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. He would have stepped in sooner, but quite frankly, he was enjoying the show too much to interrupt her. It was only when his jeans were getting a little too snug for comfort that he strolled over.
“You need some help?” he asked.
She turned, and he saw the wheels turning. She had questions about his conversation with Donnelly, but she didn’t voice them now. Instead, she blew a curl from her face and said, “It’s being stubborn. I don’t think anyone can pull it out.” He gestured to it. She stepped away. “Be my guest.”
He yanked the weed free, dropped it on her pile and started for the house.
He’d just reached the front step when she called after him, “I loosened it for you.”
He didn’t hide his smile. Yeah, he liked her, too.
Killian drove out to the trailer park just outside of town. He hadn’t charged Monica. She was impulsive and didn’t think, but she didn’t need the trouble that would
