Trouble puts his hand on my shoulder and taps me on the back.
“Good luck,” he says while pushing me slowly out of my chair. Taking a big breath in, I stand and walk toward the raunchy smell of condescendence perspiring from Crawford.
Then it hits me.
“How do you know my name is Fitzpatrick?” He smiles like a Disney villain and shakes his head, a little amused by my question.
“Sit, and I’ll explain what I can.” He says before returning to the head of the table—where he was obviously sitting before— shuffling the files spread out in front of him. Mark nods at my arrival, showing me where to sit with his hand, and the bleach-haired girl smiles at me before introducing herself.
She seems nice, in a serial killer vibe kind of way.
“I’m Leo,” she says. I’m about to reply when dickhead interrupts us.
“I don’t have time for pleasantries. We have a question for Miss Fitzpatrick and I believe time is of the essence here as we’re certainly dealing with a kidnapping. Banks, tell us what you know.”
“Of course, Boss,” she snorts, “do you want me to remove the giant cactus up your ass first?” Crawford doesn’t even answer nor look at her. All he does is swirl his hand in the air for her to start speaking. I look at Mark who’s of course, amused by the situation, and cross my arms waiting for the woman to start.
“Let’s dive in. I’m sorry if it sounds a little impersonal but it’s better to get a better perspective on the target...” the girl says and, in a few seconds, I’m submerged by an ocean of information.
“Andre VanHorn, Garrett Fitzpatrick and Emeline Richards grew up together. VanHorn and Richards started dating in high school. VanHorn became a navy SEAL and went on numerous missions while Richards studied psychology in college and Fitzpatrick trained to become a NASCAR driver. VanHorn came back years later to Richards being pregnant. She kept the baby, tried to pass it off as VanHorn’s—going as far as to put his name on the birth certificate—but the kid looked more and more like Fitzpatrick and the secret couldn’t be hidden anymore. Fitzpatrick didn’t deny he was the father even if Richards begged him to. Wanting to have a family, he asked for his paternity rights back to claim the child as his. He stupidly believed his friends when they said they did the paperwork when in fact they never did therefore no adoption papers could be found by Spencer. Despite it all, VanHorn decided to stay with Richards and married her. She asked him to stop the missions, blaming his time away for her infidelities, and so he did. Becoming a CIA analyst and lived happily ever after… until VanHorn came back from a trip and Fitzpatrick was dead. I checked the dates, and there is no doubt he was out of the country. Now that’s when it becomes juicy. All these years, Richards was also in an adulterous relationship with Fitzpatrick’s coach who was married to her sister. Side note, the sister vanished at some point and no one knows where she has been. I don’t have proof of what comes next, but it seems VanHorn understood what happened, covered it up and took his family far away from Dereck Sheppard. But nothing lasts forever and Oliver coming here kind of disturbed the web of lies everyone lived in. Add to that Miss Fitzpatrick-VanHorn calling Sheppard to coach her and there was a nuclear bomb ready to explode.”
So that’s what it feels like to have your car roll a couple of times. The whole table looks at me, letting me take it all in while I compartmentalize all that Leo shared.
“Wait a second, are you saying Andre is really who he says he is and my mother is the devil incarnate?”
“Kind of,” Leo says, apologies in her eyes. As if she was responsible for my mother’s actions.
“And that she killed my dad with the help of Dereck?”
I try not to crumble but everything juggles in my head. Coldness hits me and I shudder under the pressure of their stare. What the fuck? “But you helped them hide me for Andre’s campaign!” I point at Crawford who dismisses me with an annoyed glare.
“I protected you Miss Fitzpatrick. Mr. VanHorn took me aside and told me it was crucial you didn’t appear, for Sheppard not to find you. He hired me as a lawyer for my confidentiality without telling me the extent of the troubles your mother had caused. I’m not an expert in criminal law but my father being a judge, I understand that the less I know, the better I can live my life. Now, did I let it rest? No. I’m not the kind to leave crime unpunished, which is why I asked Leo here to find all the details she could about your family. You can thank my OCD tendencies.”
“Tessa,” Mark steals my attention once Crawford is done with his long declaration, “what we need now is for you to tell us if your parents have a second house in the state or around. Because I can help and get a team ready for a rescue op but if we don’t know where Oliver is, we can’t do shit. We can try to spy on your mother and see if she leads us to him but I doubt she would take the risk to be followed.”
“We… We have a house past Charlottesville but we barely go there anymore.”
“The perfect getaway,” Mark says, already getting his phone out of his pocket.
“Leo, you’re okay not working alone for once?” Crawford asks.
“As if it’s my first time working with that band of misfits. Right Twilight?”
Mark nods, his finger up in the air, calling God knows who.
“Does everybody know everyone here?” I ask Leo a little surprised.
“In our world, we do know
