Page 105 of Unbound

She tells my family who her dad was and then shares the notes we have between him and my mom. My family passes them around, looking over the faded pages as she continues. “At first we were afraid they’d been having an affair, but then we found the letters Walker’s mother wrote, and they’re definitely not love letters.”

Titus is holding one of them now, his brows pinched. “What are they?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet.” Sybil turns back to the board. “But we do know Walker’s mom and my dad knew each other well enough to exchange correspondence.” Her voice softens as she looks at me over one shoulder. “And well enough they were probably in the same car when they died.”

We’ve been dancing around the possibility since the night she confessed her true identity, but hearing Sybil say it out loud still hits me like a ton of bricks. Thinking about that day always does.

But now there’s the tiniest bit of comfort in knowing my mom didn’t die alone.

“So if all of this is connected, it has to also be connected to your parents’ deaths.” Titus stands from where he’s been sitting next to Mariah, his eyes on the whiteboard. He looks from all the occurrences to the list of dates. Lifting a hand, he taps the one attached to the explosion that almost took Mariah and Maren’s lives. “Walker, when did you first ask me to begin looking into your mother’s death?”

I try to think back, but asking him to rip open the wounds I’d stitched back together was fucking hell, and that’s all I remember about that day. The fight it took to make it happen. The struggle I had with myself over whether or not I really was ready.

Shaking my head, I’m forced to admit, “I don’t remember.”

“I do.” Mariah looks from me to the board. “I was here when that happened.” She chews her lower lip, brow furrowed in thought. “It was before we were actually together, so that narrows down the timeframe.”

She and Titus confer, and come up with a week span that’s probably pretty close to right.

He adds it to the list of dates.

Sybil gasps. “The accident.” She spins to face me. “You and Toby were on your way to the archives that day.” She moves to the next incident. “What about the shooting in the lobby? What happened before that?”

I step closer to the board. “I’d called Pierce about trying to get back into the archives.” I swallow hard, guilt twisting my gut. “I told him there would be three of us instead of just two, because I wanted Ruth to come too.”

Titus frowns. “Are you thinking Pierce has something to do with this?”

Sybil snorts. “Do you think for a second Heidi wouldn’t have taken him out herself if he was pulling some fucked-up shit like this?” She shakes her head. “I don’t know Pierce, but I know Heidi, and she would never let that happen.”

We’re all quiet for a minute as we each consider the possibility. Pierce has done so much to help us, it’s hard to imagine playing both sides would benefit him in any way.

Plus, Sybil’s right. Heidi would have put a stop to it if he was.

And it wouldn’t have necessarily had to be Pierce who leaked the information.

“The only way we could get into the archives was if we gave them the names of who was going.” I think back to what a shit show the records were and how difficult of a time we had getting to see them. Even someone as well-connected as Pierce struggled. “So the police knew too.”

“Sounds like someone on the force is involved.” Titus frowns. “Someone positioned high enough to be able to get away with falsifying an investigation and damaging records.”

“That would explain why so much evidence is missing and my mother’s car was destroyed so quickly.” Now that the pieces are coming together, I can’t assemble them fast enough. “But what do the police have to gain from covering up what happened to my mom and Sybil’s dad?”

“To do that, we have to figure out why they were together.” Ruth scans the whiteboard. “Because someone has been working really hard to make sure we don’t.”

“But there’s no way to figure that out.” Sybil tightens the bun at the top of her head the way she does when she’s frustrated. “We might have been able to find some sort of a clue in the letter my dad wrote, but they’re not legible at all.” She gestures at where Titus still holds the ones my mother penned. “And Donna’s are just a bunch of random letters and numbers that don’t make any sense.”

Ruth tilts her head, looking from the whiteboard to the images displayed on the monitors. “What if it wasn’t the police who wanted this covered up?”

“It would have to be someone pretty fucking powerful.” Toby shakes his head. “Because there’s a lot of risk in doing something like this.”

“Someone powerful.” Ruth mumbles the words, almost like she’s talking to herself. Her brows pinch together as she turns to Titus. “Let me see that.”

He passes off one of my mother’s nonsensical letters. Ruth scans it, her eyes moving from left to right as she makes her way down the page.

Then they stop.

“This isn’t just random letters and numbers.” She points at a spot on the page. “These are government districts.” She walks to Sybil’s side, holding it so they can both see. “The letters indicate the state and then the number is the district.” She lifts her eyes to Sybil’s face, wrinkling her nose in distaste as she continues. “When Birdie’s biological dad was a senator, he represented district twenty-four.” Ruth indicates the spot she pointed out earlier. “WY is Wyoming and D24 is district twenty-four.”

Sybil’s skin pales as her eyes move to meet Ruth’s. “This is a list of politicians.” She turns to me. “Why would your mom send my dad a list of politicians?” She throws her hands up, turning back to her computer. “My dad knew all the politicians. He should have been sending the list to her.”