Page 86 of Tell No Lies

“His cousin is Morgan Carrington.”

The world tilted on its axis. I narrowed my eyes at the man before me. Was he insane? Nothing made sense.

Liv spoke for me. “What are you talking about?”

“We did background checks on Mr. Carrington’s family. No one lives on the West Coast.” Brandon looked like he was going to explode. His leg was bouncing so rapidly it was shaking the couch.

“Mr. McLane was very, very careful in his contact with his cousin. He used his mother’s maiden name and his father’s Chicago address to sign in to visits. We found correspondence between the two. Morgan would send letters to his uncle’s house, and they were then forwarded to his address here.”

Carter was clutching my upper arm. “How did I miss that?”

I reached one hand out to hold his to calm him down. “How could you have looked that deeply into it? Tucker was doing everything to get around anything that could be tracked back to him.”

“I should have seen it.”

They continued to talk about what details they had put together, but things still weren’t making sense to me yet. I needed more.

“I want to talk to him.”

My words snapped everyone’s attention to me.

“No!” Carter practically growled.

“I need to understand why. From his own mouth.”

☼ ☼ ☼

Carter stood beside me, gripping my hand in his. “You sure about this?”

I stared through the window to where Tucker was sitting behind a table. “Yes.”

The officer escorting us gave a curt nod and opened the door before waving us through.

My breath caught when Tucker met my eyes. Where was the fun, flirty guy from school? The person in front of me looked haggard and menacing.

Carter kept hold of my hand as he pulled out a chair for me, and we sat across from Tucker. No lawyers were present, since we’d arranged this and gotten approval. He already pled guilty and made his statements, so what else could happen?

“Surprised to see me, Aubrey?” His smirk was vile. “I mean, did you ever suspect it was me?”

I glared at him, wishing I could somehow cause him the pain he caused me over the past several months.

“Of course not! I was brilliant.” He was so confident. He was sitting in a jumpsuit handcuffed to a table, and he was looking at me as if he was king of the world.

“Why, Tucker?”

“Why?”

“Why did you do this to me?” My voice was cracking as my resolve dissolved.

“You ruined my family. You had to pay.”

I knew this part from his notes, but it still wasn’t making sense.

“Morgan, my cousin. You ruined his life. You destroyed my aunt. Everything he ever worked for was ripped from him. Their names were ruined. My aunt had to leave the city.”

“Everything was settled out of court. I thought no one knew.”

“No one knew who the victim was, just that Morgan was some sick lunatic. I was the only one who knew the truth. You had to pay for what you did to him.”