Page 106 of Unbound

“Maybe he did.” I glance at Tom’s face on the mantel. “My mom was working on a big project at work before she died. She wanted to be more than an administrative assistant and was busting her ass to get a position where she would actually get to investigate and report.” I point at the man Sybil’s known since she was born. “What if your dad knew Tom was doing bad shit but couldn’t bring himself to take his buddy down?”

Sybil stares at me for a second. “Is he on that list your mom wrote?”

The answer to that involves a few minutes of research to figure out which district he would have represented. Once we have it, Ruth scans the sheet, her expression schooled as she looks up from the paper. “He’s on the list.”

34

Sybil

Iswallow hard, holding my hand out toward Ruth. “Can I see?”

It’s not that I don’t believe her. I just don’t want to believe her. Part of me is hoping against hope that maybe she just misread the numbers. That even though Tom was kinda bad, he wasn’t bad enough for me to worry he was responsible for my dad’s death.

But Ruth is right. Tom’s district was one of the ones Walker’s mom sent to my dad.

“So the question is, what is it that ties the people on this list together?” Ruth follows the same train of thought I do. “Is there a way for you to figure that out?”

She’s asking me. Questioning if there’s a way I can get the dirt on all the politicians Walker’s mom identified.

I look up and discover everyone in the room is focused on where I stand. And for the first time, their expressions aren’t wary. There’s no suspicion or unease. Just hope.

I nod. “Yeah. I can figure that out.”

Turning to my laptop, I start typing before my butt is even in the chair. The first step is to identify everyone on the list by name. As I work my way down the paper, my stomach starts to churn. A lot of the men on here sound familiar.

As much as I should probably stay the course and focus on one thing at a time, I can’t. I need to know if my hunch is right. So I pull up another list. One I’m pretty sure contains a lot of the same names.

“This is the list Heidi sent you of the people Alaskan Security identified as being associated with the Dead Dans.” I open a program designed to scan documents for similarities and let it run. “I think I remember some of the guys from Donna’s list being on this one too.”

And I’m right.

One by one, names appear on the screen. Names of men who have been in positions of power for decades. Men who are supposed to be good and upstanding. Men who are supposed to be trying to make life better for the people they represent.

But that’s not what these men have been doing. These men have been doing very, very bad things.

I’ve just started searching through a mostly redacted police report one of the names pulled up, when my computer goes black.

I jerk back, head swinging from side to side as I search for the issue, hoping someone tripped over a power cable or something. “What happened?”

The screen flares back to life, the police report replaced by a familiar face.

“Sorry. That was me.” Heidi leans forward, chin on her hands. “Whatcha doin’?”

“The same thing I’ve been doing. Trying to figure out what happened to Walker’s mom.” I lift my brows at her. “What are you doing?”

“I’m popping in because I get alerts anytime someone searches one of the men on my list.” She points at me. “And you have searched a bunch of them.”

“What list?” My eyes lift to the photo of Tom I pulled from the files Heidi gave me. “The one you sent?”

“Uhh, no.” Heidi tilts her head. “The list of men we’re investigating in connection with the trafficking ring we’re trying to dismantle.” Her lips form a flat line. “I know there’s some overlap between the two, but you also searched the names of men no one else knows are involved.”

My eyes drift to the paper Walker’s mother gave my dad. “Someone knew.”

I explain to her how we came up with our own list of names, and our suspicion that Walker’s mom and my dad were killed because they knew these men were doing some very bad things.

“They were doing bad things all right. The worst of the bad things.” Heidi shakes her head. “I knew this went back a while, but I’ve been struggling to pinpoint when it started.”

I rub my temples as an ache forms between them. “So you’re saying you think my dad’s friend was involved in trafficking?”