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“I get it,” nodded Miller. “Do you have a partner in Atlanta working the case there?”
“I do. They know that you’re all involved now and have been cooperating where they could without revealing too much information.”
Miller nodded his head, then looked at Addie.
“Looks like we’re getting divorced,” he smiled.
“Oh, no, big fella. Before we divorce, you’re buying me a beer. I deserve it!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Charlie Gates didn’t like flying coach, but he had no choice on a last-minute ticket to Atlanta. As the flight took off, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
“Why did you do it, Charlie?” asked his brother. He was seated right beside him, talking to him as if he were alive and well. But that couldn’t be right. There was a young woman with a baby seated beside him. He saw her sit down.
“Go away. You’re not real,” he whispered.
“I’m real, Charlie. Why kill me? I’m your brother. I wasn’t going to turn you in. I just didn’t want any part of what you were doing.”
“I couldn’t trust that you wouldn’t say something, Tom. I’m sorry.” His brother just shook his head, and then he saw the huge, almond-shaped dark eyes of Patal. She’d been a beauty when he met her. Young, firm, exotic. She was dancing in a traditional Indian wedding, her bare midriff showing caramel-colored skin.
She had a bright smile and twinkling eyes. When he asked her to dance, she giggled and immediately agreed. They danced the entire fucking night. Within a week, he’d learned that her parents were wealthy doctors living in Mumbai. They had amassed a fortune from their savvy investments, and their only daughter had a large dowry.
Charlie knew that they would never approve of an American police officer, let alone someone twenty-five years her senior. Instead, he paid a friend to pretend that he was a minister and marry them. Then he fucked her tight virgin body, ruining her for anyone else. Her parents had no choice but to turn over the money to their daughter. He never expected she’d be pregnant.
The fall down the stairs was necessary. He couldn’t afford to have a wife and kid. He’d always planned it this way. Always.
“You lied to me, Charlie,” she said softly. “I thought I could trust you, and you lied. You destroyed my body, ruined me for any other man, humiliated my family. I won’t let you live with that.”
“Shut up! Shut up!” he yelled. The woman beside him gasped at him and leaned toward the aisle.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“What? Yeah, just a nightmare. I’m fine,” he growled.
“You’re not fine, Charlie,” said Richard. “Those people in New Orleans released us. All of us. We’re no longer unknown prisoners. They know our names and have allowed us to roam free until justice is done. You can’t escape it, Charlie. You killed brothers.”
Charlie squirmed in his seat as the flight attendant came by with the drink cart.
“Whiskey. On the rocks,” he said.
“Sir, you’re in coach. You’ll have to pay for that,” she said.
“I don’t care,” he snapped. “Give me all you’ve got. I’ll pay for them all.”
“The limit is two, sir.” She set the tiny bottles in front of him with a plastic cup of ice. He drained them over the ice, then downed them both in record time. The flight attendant just stared at him.
“Is there another seat I could move to?” asked the young woman. The attendant nodded at her, leading her toward the back of the plane. Charlie just leaned back, hoping the whiskey would take effect and let him sleep for an hour. Just one fucking hour.
“You hurt me,” said the little voice. His eyes flew open, looking directly into the face of the little girl, Mallory. Behind her were the faces of Ben and Darren, two other cops he’d killed.
“You hurt me and made me believe it was okay,” she cried. “You said it was normal. You said we were just playing, but we weren’t. You hurt me.”
“Asshole fucked a kid,” said Ben. “You raped her, you piece of shit. You raped her, and the whole world will know now.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, you’re not real. None of you are real!”
The relentless onslaught of faces didn’t stop. The entire flight to Atlanta, he was pushing back demons from his past. Demons that he created and pushed aside, believing that no one would ever see them. Except now, he was the one seeing them.
