They Sought Vengeance, page 28
Zachary was a little surprised that it was Logan who wanted to meet with him rather than Karen. Karen was the one who had retained him and had run the investigation from the start. Logan had been a bystander, just an observer. It was strange to have him take a bigger part in it now.
Logan motioned Zachary to the table he had been sitting at as he stood up. “Can I get you a coffee? What do you want?”
Zachary nodded. “Sure. Coffee is good.”
Logan went over to the counter to talk to the barista. He didn’t look any different from any of the students who frequented the shop, coming over from the college across the street. He chatted with the barista while she prepared the drink. Logan returned to the table and handed the coffee to him. Zachary leaned toward his cup as he brought it up to his face, inhaling the scent of the rich coffee deeply. Logan settled back into his chair and considered his own drink, swirling what remained of his coffee in the cup.
“We wanted to thank you for sorting this out,” he said. “For figuring out what happened and giving the police what they needed to reopen the case so that guy can be prosecuted. You did an outstanding job.” He sipped the coffee. “I didn’t think you could do it. I wasn’t even sure there was anything to find.”
Zachary shrugged. “I know. It’s hard when all you have is suspicions. Where to start, who to talk to, where to look. And I’m sure you didn’t think I would end up looking at your girlfriend.”
“She wasn’t my girlfriend,” Logan said, holding up one finger. “Amy was my girlfriend.”
Zachary wasn’t sure what to say about this. He didn’t want to get into Logan’s relationship with Charlotte. It was true that it hadn’t been romantic. Logan hadn’t fallen in love with her, and she had only been using him as a tool. The relationship had been a non-starter. Just Logan fooling around on the side, as far as he was concerned.
“Was?” he asked, noticing Logan’s use of the word.
“Well, apparently, Amy wasn’t too keen on the fact that I had been… involved with Charlotte. How do you explain that to someone? I know that the fact that it was her idea doesn’t excuse me, but… I think it should be taken into account, at least.”
Zachary could see how that might not play too well with Amy. At least Logan had been upfront with her, not trying to hide the fact that he had been involved with someone else. But that was small consolation in the face of his betrayal.
“So now that this has all been cleared up, the estate can be distributed without worrying about whether your father’s killer would benefit from his death.”
Logan blew out his breath. “That’s a relief. In two ways—knowing that it wasn’t any of my siblings and that I won’t have to worry about money anymore. I can do what I want.”
“And do you know what that will be?”
“I’m looking around.” Logan shrugged. “I never did want college, even though that’s what Mom and Dad pushed. I knew it wouldn’t be any easier for me than high school. That’s just not the way I learn things. I’d rather be hands-on in a trade. But that was never good enough for Dad.”
“Well, maybe you can pursue that now. And you can talk to your school or instructor about accommodations. For learning disabilities.”
“I don’t know.” Logan looked doubtful. “I always hated being treated any differently. The other kids knowing that I was different. If I could get by without any accommodations…”
“It was better if they thought you weren’t trying than that you had disabilities.”
Logan raised his brows. “Well… yeah, I guess.”
Zachary nodded. “I know how that is. High school especially. I hated teachers and group home supervisors thinking that I was stupid. I would rather they thought I was lazy and acting like a screw-up than that I couldn’t do the work. I had a resource room teacher who was really good for a while there, and that helped. But I was just getting along the best I could, and I didn’t have any friends.”
Logan sipped his coffee. “Yeah.”
“You could get a private instructor or someone to help you out with the work, either instead of a classroom or in addition to it. You can afford it.”
“What about Karen’s son?”
Zachary cocked his head, considering the non-sequitur. “Wally, you mean? I guess she’ll be able to get him the help he needs now too. Better than waiting until he’s an adult.”
“I always liked him. He and I get each other. Maybe it’s genetic instead of because I was born premature. From Mom’s side, obviously, since… Dad wasn’t really my father.”
“Maybe you could help Karen, then. Make suggestions of things she can do to help him. How to understand his behavior. He’s lucky to have an uncle who can help with that stuff. A lot of kids don’t have that.”
“Her other son is great too, of course. Finn. But Wally is the one I really connect with.”
“Maybe that will help you get closer to Karen, too.”
“They were always so remote. Already practically grown up when I was born. What will hold us together now that Mom and Dad are both gone? I think we’re just all going to drift apart and never talk to each other again. At least when Mom went, we still had family dinners. Now that Dad’s gone, too, I don’t think we will. I don’t think we’ll be a family anymore. Especially since I’m barely even related now.”
“You can tell them that you want to keep having the family dinners and stay in touch. You could take charge. Schedule dates and encourage everyone to come.”
“I guess… but that’s more Alex’s role, isn’t it? Or even Karen’s, since she’s the girl. It would be weird if I took charge of it. Wouldn’t it?”
It was hard for Zachary, who had grown up without his siblings since the fire, to know what would be normal or abnormal for a family. But he didn’t see why it should matter who took charge of keeping the family dinners going and staying in touch as siblings. “No, I don’t think so. They’d probably be happy for you to take it. Alex is pretty busy with his work and Karen with her kids and night shift. You don’t have to be the head of the family to suggest that you keep in touch.”
It had been Tyrrell that had brought Zachary and his siblings together as adults. And he was one of the middle children. It had never occurred to Zachary that it should be anyone else.
But they’d still never gotten everyone all together at one table. The six siblings had never been all together in the same room since the fire. Zachary let his thoughts drift as he had another sip of coffee and considered it. Maybe one day, all of the Goldman siblings would break bread together again. He didn’t have to wait for Tyrrell to suggest it.
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PREVIEW OF SHE WAS THEIR TARGET
CHAPTER 1
Zachary stared at the screen on his phone after the call ended, frowning and thinking about what the woman had said.
Jennifer. She had been Jennifer Olson when he had known her, but he couldn’t remember what she had just told him her married name was. He looked down at the notes he had scribbled while she was talking. Kristin Jones. That was her daughter. So she was Jennifer Jones now. A common name. One of those ones that was really fun to trace when he was trying to track someone down. But he didn’t have to track Jennifer down. He had her phone number and a time and place to meet with her.
Kenzie crossed his line of vision and said something to him. It was like she was far away or underwater. He knew she had spoken to him, but wasn’t sure what she’d said. Zachary rubbed his temples and focused on her, trying to pull his brain away from the woman on the phone. He was sitting on the couch in the living room, where he had been working on his laptop, and Kenzie had come in from the kitchen.
“Sorry, what?”
Kenzie raised her brows and shook her head, sending her dark curls bouncing. He wondered how many times she had repeated herself already. She didn’t look pleased about having to do it again.
“Where are you?” she asked. “Who was that on the phone?”
“Uh… a new client. Maybe. A woman I went to school with.”
“Oh…?” Kenzie sounded interested. Zachary rarely talked about school or his years in foster care. She knew the overall shape of his life before he had turned eighteen and aged out of the system, but he didn’t talk about it a lot. Didn’t mention specifics. He avoided even thinking about it if he could help it. Talking about it was the last thing he wanted to do. So when Kenzie learned something about his past, it was usually just one tidbit, or maybe something that came up in couple’s therapy. Where he still did his best to avoid diving too deeply into it. “What is her name?”
That part was easy. “Jennifer.” He looked for something else to tell Kenzie about her, to show that he was willing to share. “She was… in high school with me, I guess. I don’t remember very much about her. She was older. A couple of grades ahead of me.”
“So you probably didn’t know each other very well. Kids tend to stick with their own grades at that age.”
Zachary cupped his hands over his eyes. “We were… she was very nice. Not a lot of people in high school were nice.”
Kenzie made a sympathetic noise. “It’s a tough age, even without all the stuff that you had to go through.” She paused, waiting for him to say anything in response. “Are you going to help with supper?” she asked eventually. “Tyrrell will be here before long.”
“Oh. Yeah, of course.” Zachary rubbed his eyes briskly and got to his feet. That was probably what she’d been asking him.
It wasn’t like he was making the meal. Kenzie was handling most of that. But Zachary tried to help out—setting the table, making a salad, and getting out anything else she needed. He was happy to give her a hand with anything she needed him to do in the kitchen, but she didn’t usually trust him to do the actual cooking. That might have something to do with his ADHD and several meals in the past either put into the stove still wrapped in plastic, left in until they burned, or left sitting for an hour in a cold oven because he had forgotten to turn it on. That, and the fact that coordinating several dishes at once so that nothing burned and everything was finished at the same time required a level of concentration and executive function that he just didn’t have most days. He could manage a salad or a sandwich, which wouldn’t be ruined if he left them out or they sat on the counter for a while.
Waking up from his reverie about Jennifer, Zachary could smell the hearty scents of tomato sauce and cheese coming from the oven. And garlic. Hopefully, she had made garlic bread to go along with whatever else she had made—a favorite of Zachary’s and Tyrrell’s.
“Sorry, I should have come in earlier.”
Kenzie shrugged. “You were on the phone.”
Zachary moved around the bright, cheerful kitchen, getting out the plates, glasses, and cutlery. He was determined to stay focused on the job and not forget anything because he was thinking about Jennifer. He didn’t want to think about Jennifer. He would distract himself with the dinner preparations and then with the conversation with Tyrrell and Kenzie over dinner.
His younger brother Tyrrell was doing well with his job at Kenzie’s family foundation. He had been there a few months, and all indications were positive. But that could end at any time. Tyrrell was an alcoholic and had been unable to stay sober for more than a year or two since he was a teenager. While Zachary hoped that the latest treatment program had made a difference and Tyrrell could maintain his sobriety, he was alert for any signs that Tyrrell had started drinking secretly.
The doorbell rang. “There he is,” Kenzie said unnecessarily.
Zachary left what he was doing and went to the front door to let Tyrrell in and punch his code into the burglar alarm keypad so the alarm wouldn’t be triggered. They didn’t need security guards showing up for their dinner party.
“Zachary!” Tyrrell grinned at his big brother and threw his arms around him in a quick man-hug, pounding him on the back. “How’s it going, bro?”
“Pretty good,” Zachary told him, and stepped back to allow him in. “How’s everything with you?”
They started walking toward the kitchen.
“Alarm,” Kenzie called out.
Zachary looked back at the keypad. “I did it, didn’t I?”
Tyrrell shook his head and stepped back to punch the code in himself. There was an answering beep as the system cleared.
They joined Kenzie in the kitchen again. Tyrrell looked around. “Anything I can help with?”
Kenzie shook her head. “I think everything is done. Have a seat and tell us how it is going.”
Zachary went over to the stove to help take out the hot dishes and get things to the table, but Kenzie frowned, making him retreat instead to sit down with their guest.
“It’s going great. Hillary says I have become ‘indispensable,’” Tyrrell bragged.
“Good for you.” Kenzie approved. “She’s so capable; I never thought she would let anyone else help out with the important stuff. I’m glad she has you to backstop her now.”
“Filing is up to date. The database is current. Mostly. I have some research to do on some organizations that we might consider supporting. She says it’s nice not to be behind on all the administrative stuff.”
“I’m sure it is.” Kenzie placed hot pads on the counter and transferred dishes from the oven. “I think we’ll just serve up buffet style, so we don’t have to try to pass around the hot dishes or reach across to get everything.”
She opened up the tinfoil-wrapped garlic bread and Tyrrell and Zachary salivated, watching her slice the crusty loaf. Kenzie paused to look at them. “You guys are two peas in a pod. You’d better eat your veggies!”
“Yes, ma’am,” Tyrrell and Zachary responded in unison, then laughed.
Zachary felt a warm flush of affection for his brother. Looking at them, someone who didn’t know them would think that they had grown up together. But Tyrrell had only been eight when they had been placed into foster care, and Zachary had not seen him until decades later. A year and a half ago. They shared the same dark hair and eyes, some similar facial features, and memories of their family before the fire, but that was all. Zachary had spent eight years in foster care without any contact with his biological family, and when he aged out, he had been alone.
He was lucky to have his siblings back in his life again.
It was best to focus on the present.
CHAPTER 2
So, tell us about this friend of yours who called,” Kenzie told Zachary, after Tyrrell had finished talking about what was going on in his life and at the foundation.
Zachary stopped chewing and looked at her. He had already said he didn’t remember Jennifer very well, so he hadn’t expected Kenzie to pursue it. He strained to swallow the lump of garlic bread still in his mouth.
“Uh… I don’t know how much there is to tell,” he waffled.
Tyrrell and Kenzie were both looking at him with interest. He supposed he would have to tell them something.
“You said she was an old friend from high school?” Kenzie prompted.
“I didn’t think you were in contact with anyone from that far back.” Tyrrell took a huge bite of the crusty garlic bread himself and spoke around it. “Other than Mr. Peterson.”
Zachary had been in and out of various families and facilities for years, and the only person he had kept in contact with was his old foster father, Lorne Peterson. It was Mr. Peterson who had sparked Zachary’s interest in photography and set him on the path to becoming a private investigator, even though by that time, Zachary had long since moved on to other families and facilities. Along with his partner Patrick Parker, Mr. Peterson had provided Zachary with a sense of stability and family that he had not gotten anywhere else.
“We haven’t been in touch. This is the first time I’ve heard from her in years. Since she moved away. That’s why…” Zachary shrugged, “I don’t know much about her. It was a long time ago.”
“And she just reached out and called you?” Tyrrell asked. “Maybe she has some old romantic feelings for you.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Wants to rekindle things.”
Zachary’s face burned. “It was never anything like that!” He glanced at Kenzie, hoping she didn’t suspect Zachary’s motives. “She’s a potential client. That’s all. Needed a private investigator, and I guess she heard about one of my other cases…”
He’d had a few big cases that had hit the media and spread his name around, so some people who called him now were interested in hiring him specifically, rather than just a random name they had picked out of an internet search.
Jennifer hadn’t said which case she’d heard about. Zachary had recently investigated the death of a man who the medical examiner had said initially died of natural causes when in fact, he had been poisoned. It had made a small splash in the Vermont papers but had not gone national like a couple of Zachary’s other cases.
“Oh, I see.” Tyrrell nodded. But he was still using his teasing voice. “A potential client.”
