Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

We have time, Daphne.’ He glanced sideways again. ‘Don’t we?’
    ‘Sure. It’s just . . .’ She sighed. ‘I met Cole today.’ She’d gone to visit the foster home into which he’d been placed while Joseph was still in his debriefing meeting.
    ‘How did he seem?’
    ‘Overwhelmed. Shy. Embarrassed about his family. Grieving for his brothers.’
    ‘Will he and I have any trouble going forward?’
    ‘Because you shot Doug? I don’t think so. He seemed to know Doug was doomed. He confessed that he’d wished he was adopted. And he cried. About his mom, about Doug, about getting expelled from school. I held him like I would have done Ford. He’s just a boy, Joseph. He wants a family. A mom. I told him we’d take it a day at a time.’
    ‘You’re going to bring him here.’
    It wasn’t really a question. ‘If we get along, yes. I just wanted you to know.’
    ‘I kind of thought you would,’ Joseph said. ‘Both Clay and JD seemed to like the kid. I just want you to be safe and . . . he did bring a gun to school.’
    ‘Some boys were threatening to assault him, Joseph,’ she said quietly. ‘Sexually. He cried about that too. The boys at school knew about his brother’s jail time. Kids can be cruel.’
    ‘So he was defending himself?’
    ‘Yes. I believed him.’
    ‘You planning to do a paternity test?’
    ‘For Cole’s sake, yes. I think he needs to know definitively. But I can see Travis in him. Cole’s got his eyes.’
    ‘Will Travis want him?’
    Daphne laughed bitterly. ‘No. Neither will Nadine. The boy represents too much scandal. But even if she does want him, I don’t want that boy living with Nadine. He’s got enough problems already.’ Then she frowned, perplexed. ‘I said something about it to Ford and he said to leave Nadine to him. That’s all I could get out of him. Do you know anything about this?’
    ‘Yeah. Ford’s been blackmailing his grandmother for years.’
    ‘ What ? Why do you say that?’
    ‘Maggie told me. Ford confirmed it. That’s how you got the divorce settlement and all your medical expenses paid for.’
    Daphne stared at him. ‘Ford was blackmailing Nadine? With what?’
    ‘I asked Ford yesterday. I needed to make sure it wasn’t connected to the forging of that death certificate. It wasn’t. Seems that Ford had stumbled on Travis in a . . . compromised position one night. He had his phone, got some grainy photos. Nothing illegal about it. No one involved was underaged.’
    ‘Joseph, what did my son see?’
    ‘Ah . . . well . . . Travis had a dominatrix. He was licking her boot, stuff like that. The photos were pretty tame, actually, compared to the stuff kids see online these days. But if they had become public, Travis’s career as a judge would have been over. Ford thought it was why Travis never ended up running for Congress. Nadine has stayed out of your hair over the years because of Ford.’
    ‘So that’s why he thinks she’ll back away from Cole. Good Lord.’
    ‘Kid had guts. And he loves you. He knew you’d stayed in that house for twelve years for him. He wanted you to have a life and be free of the Elkharts.’
    Her eyes stung. ‘I’m very lucky to have him. I hope we can give Cole a better life. He seems starved for . . . normality.’
    ‘That’s kind of a relative term,’ he said.
    ‘More normal than he had with Doug or would have had with Hal if Hal had wanted him, which he didn’t. And I know how that feels, Joseph, to have your dad not want you.’
    Joseph flinched, then lifted his eyes to the tree, his brow furrowed in a frown. ‘There’s something you need to know, Daphne. I don’t even know how to tell you.’
    Dread had her heart fluttering unevenly. ‘Then just tell me.’
    He blew out a breath, took her hand. ‘Lieutenant Ciccotelli’s wife has been at Beckett’s all day mapping the graves we thought we’d find on the property. This is her area of expertise. She’s one of the best in the country.’
    ‘Joseph, just tell me.’
    ‘So far they’ve found ten graves. Nine are filled with females. One an adult male.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘They, um, decided to uncover him first, because it was so unexpected. Caucasian male, late twenties. His skull was cracked open. He had his wallet, so they had ID. It was your father, Daphne.’
    She shrank back to the corner of the sofa, staring at Joseph’s face. ‘My father?’
    ‘Yes. I don’t know what happened to him. What I believe