Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) by Karen Rose

            “Only that he showed up with Waylon one day, but Ephraim talked about it.” He leaned over the center console to swipe her phone screen until he came to a part of the Eden file she hadn’t read aloud. “Did you see these? The photocopies of the notebooks that Ephraim Burton left behind in his safe-deposit box?”

            “I read the parts that Raeburn highlighted—mostly about the fifty million in the offshore accounts. Which part specifically?”

            Tom was annoyed. Raeburn had dismissed much of Ephraim’s record as interesting reading but not integral to finding Eden. “Read the page I turned to. W is Waylon and P is Pastor.”

            “ ‘I got goods on W. I’m saving it for now, but I’ll tell P if W gets in my way. W killed a chick who showed up at Eden’s gate in a very hot car with a kid—his kid, she said. W called the chick Charlie. She said she was tired of babysitting his kid, that she wanted to have fun, so it was his turn. He twisted her neck. Snapped it like a twig, then saw me standing there. He was not happy to see me, but I told him that if he taught me to snap necks and gave me the car, I wouldn’t tell P that he let a woman follow him to the compound. He agreed to both and now I have a very hot car and I can kill with my bare hands.’ ”

            Croft looked up, her expression grim. “I wonder if Waylon’s brother suspected that Waylon was involved in DJ and his mother’s disappearance.”

            “Waylon was a suspect at the time, mostly because of his prior record and the years he spent in the pen, but they never found him, of course. It’s all in the file.”

            “Dammit. I need to read all of this, don’t I?”

            Tom wanted to roll his eyes, but he didn’t. “I’d recommend it.”

            “I deserve that.” Croft frowned. “But didn’t I read that Pastor adopted DJ?”

            “You did. It was a casual arrangement, according to Amos. Pastor’s own children had died and he wanted to raise DJ. But this was years before Waylon died.”

            “Why would Waylon allow that?” Croft wondered. “Unless DJ was a hell-child even then.”

            “Possibly. But Gideon remembers that DJ was nice to him when they were little. DJ was four years older and played with Gideon sometimes. But DJ changed when he was thirteen and became Edward McPhearson’s apprentice.”

            “The pedophile blacksmith,” Croft said. “Who targeted adolescent boys.”

            “Exactly. As opposed to his brother Ephraim, the pedophile who targeted adolescent girls.”

            Croft rolled her eyes. “Their mother must be so proud.”

            Tom grimaced. “She is. I listened when Mercy visited her in her nursing home last month. The woman was convinced her sons were angels. I don’t think that was her dementia talking.”

            Croft tilted her head. “Liza Barkley was with Mercy that day,” she noted.

            “Yes.” Which had been both a good and colossally bad idea on his part. “Liza worked with Alzheimer’s patients at the VA home and she’s levelheaded in a crisis, so I thought she’d be a good companion for Mercy.” It had also bonded the two women, creating an instantly deep friendship and further drawing Liza into Mercy’s troubles.

            Which was why she’d been in a killer’s crosshairs the day before. I set Liza up for that.

            “I read the transcript of the nursing home visit,” Croft said, interrupting his guilt fest. “Miss Barkley was really good at distracting and redirecting Ephraim’s mother.”

            “She was.” Of course she was. Liza was good at everything she did.

            Except picking men, apparently. Present company definitely included.

            “But back to DJ,” Croft said, her gaze far too knowing for Tom’s comfort. “If he was apprenticed to McPhearson and his behavior changed, it’s not a huge leap that he was molested as well.”

            “I agree. Doesn’t excuse him being a monster.”

            “I couldn’t agree more. Let’s go talk to the aunt and uncle. And I’m going to go over Ephraim’s notes with a fine-tooth comb. I should have anyway. Glad you did.”