Page 20 of Old Secrets

I winced, understanding his point without having to take any time to think about it. “They were all perfectly healthy, cute, and well-behaved kids. None of them were particularly troubled, of sweet disposition, and rarely did anything that triggered the Wrath of Ma.”

“And that had to have been intentional. Someone knew your ma had likely killed her son but they needed a home for someone who would hide your problems from society. Your ma was probably given an offer. The crime of her son’s murder would disappear and cease being investigated seriously, but in exchange, she would raise you. That would also justify why she had the documentation she claimed she had. Part of the deal would have been to give you the intel when you reached adulthood.”

“Except she hadn’t.”

“You had exposed what she’d done, so she wanted petty revenge. But maybe we can get the documents.”

“Safe deposit boxes?”

“She had some, yes. But we haven’t opened them yet.”

“Why not?”

Jake shrugged. “You need to put in the request or we needed proof to give to the bank.”

“That is the dumbest damned thing I’ve ever heard, Mr. Jake Thomas. We’ve been fussing over all this shit when we could have just filed some papers and checked the safe deposit boxes?”

“There was no reason to think the documents were stored in them. They’re the small boxes that don’t fit papers.”

Ah. That made sense. “You think it’s jewelry and things like that.”

“Probably.”

“USB sticks exist, Jake. They fit in those boxes.”

He grumbled a few curses, eyed me, and then picked up the phone, dialing a number. “Jake Thomas. Can you see if you can get access to the closed safe deposit boxes from the Thomas and Johnson case? Mrs. Thomas is upset with me that we have not opened the boxes, as USB sticks can fit in that sized box. Yeah, the ones we flagged as probably containing jewelry. Thank you.” Jake hung up. “They’ll have to wait for the bank to open, but they’ll get the warrants to check. We just assumed that the documents, which would have been issued before the invention of USB sticks, would have been in paper format.”

Assumptions hampered cases more often than not, and I muttered curses at the oversight. After taking a few minutes to think about it, I said, “Well, if they do find something, I’m sure they can find some mystical way to send us the documents in Japan or China. Had they found anything prior, we would have been deprived of a chance to go overseas and handle this issue directly. As such, I will permit this oversight. But just this once.”

“You just want to watch me shop for you in Japan.”

I stared into his pretty brown eyes and replied, “I do seem to enjoy this activity for some reason.”

“You just like making me do all the work.”

I leered at him.

“You win.”

“You’ll win, too—sometime in Japan or China. Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“You’ll have to convince me,” I informed him.

“Are you sure you’re not going to regret issuing that challenge later?”

“As if you can actually make me regret that. But if it makes you feel better, you can try.”

“Game on, Karma. Just remember you only have yourself to blame.”

“Whatever will I do? Having to blame myself for a good time while yanking on your chain. I just don’t know how I will possibly get through this.”

“Could you possibly get any more sarcastic?”

“I don’t know. Should I try?”

“Please, no.”