Page 4 of Out Of A Fix

“Give me the last name again, please,” I requested, walking to the door, gently putting my shoulder into it, pushing it open and stepping out into the hall, where I could put him on speaker and look for a file on my phone at the same time.

“Mine is Roarke, but my brother-in-law’s last name is Duchesne.”

“Okay. Just a second.” I found the folder on my phone and opened it.

Jared had given me—and Shaw, since he basically ran the office now—the heads-up on everything that was coming up while he would be gone on his three-week honeymoon in Italy, where he and Owen would be seeing all the country had to offer. I was happy for him. I couldn’t remember him taking a vacation in the last ten years, other than seeing his friends at Christmas, so he was due.

“So your sister is Caitlyn Duchesne?” I asked, scrolling on my phone.

“That’s correct.”

“And she witnessed Edward Beaton shoot and kill five men.”

“She did, yes. She witnessed it from the second-story window of her hotel room and even took video for good measure.”

“That was very brave of her to go forward. You should be proud of her.”

“I would be prouder if she hadn’t witnessed the crime while she was at a hotel with her lover, whom she was having a six-month affair with. She’s thirty-nine now, and Marcello Conti is a whopping twenty-four.”

He seemed upset by the age difference, and I had no response to that.

“I—anyway, she went into WITSEC with Mr. Conti instead of opting to take her family, which apparently you can do.”

“That’s right, I have that,” I told him. “And this was eighteen months ago.”

“Yes.”

“And the case is coming up next month?”

“That’s what was originally related, yes.”

“So you and your family are concerned for your brother-in-law and your niece and two nephews?”

“Not the family. Me.”

“Pardon?”

“I don’t know if you’re aware of Roarke Pharmaceuticals, Nash, but that’s what our family does. We own the company, and I’m the CEO. My parents did not want their daughter to marry a landscaper. They wanted her to marry David Oglethorpe the Third. But she bailed on the engagement and married Luke Duchesne instead. They have three children, as you know, and I’m the only one who stayed in contact with her.”

“So your parents are estranged from their daughter.”

“Correct. My parents have never met her children and will not. I wish that was different, but I don’t ever see it changing. Caitlyn and Luke were married for seventeen years, and there was never any thaw.”

“Okay.”

“Now that she’s entered WITSEC, none of us will see her again, but when I reached out to the marshals, I was told they cannot offer Luke and the kids any protection.”

“Perhaps that’s because they’re not in any jeopardy,” I pointed out. “Not to mention the fact that if Mr. Beaton was killing⁠—”

“My understanding is that he was working for a cartel the FBI is very interested in dismantling through him. That’s why her preferences were taken into consideration.”

“You mean taking Mr. Conti with her.”

“Yes.”

“Having worked with the marshals on a number of occasions over the years, I suspect they feel that by taking Mr. Conti with her and no one from her family,” I said, trying to be as tactful as possible, “she’s telegraphing who is, and is not, important to her.”

“Meaning what?”