Secrets Collide (Bluegrass Brothers)

Fred had been pretty cooped up the last couple days.
    “Excellent. We’re off then. Marshall, remember you’ve got two hours. Your mom wants us all at the farm for dinner. We’ll meet you there, won’t we, boys?” Fred yipped and danced on his hind legs as Justin’s big tongue hung happily out of his mouth. Chuck had already started ambling down the path as Bob grudgingly got off the cushioned chair and followed, keeping an eye out for any wildlife to chase.
     
    Gemma took a seat in between Cy and Marshall on the couch. She'd never felt so small as broad shoulders towered on each side of her. Cole, Cade, and Annie sat on the other side of the table that was piled with papers and pictures.
    “Here are all of the files on the dog-fighting case. Here are the mug shots of the people we arrested. And this final stack has the names and whatever information we have on those who were never caught. These names were in the black book we found on Nancy,” Marshall explained as he pointed out the papers and pictures on the table.
    “I’m a little in the dark here. What is it that you have that relates to this old case?” Annie asked as she leaned forward in her chair.
    “My sister Gia is . . . was an investigative reporter for International Press. It appears that she was investigating a man she called Lucifer and who Cy calls Mr. X. This man runs sex, guns, drugs, and more. Cy got wind of him during this dog-fighting case and I just found these pictures that my sister had hidden away.” Gemma handed Annie the first picture of Nancy taking bets and handed the picture of Paul Russell’s body to Marshall.
    Marshall let out a low whistle as he traded photographs with Annie. “So, your sister was here in Keeneston during that dog-fight. And your sister was just killed because of this?”
    “And this.” Gemma showed the group the pictures of the women and told them what Gia’s notes read about the sex trafficking and the dog-fights.
    “Damn. I thought this was over. I thought I had cleaned up Keeneston,” Marshall cursed as he angrily stood and started pacing.
    “This is so much bigger—but it all relates back to this mystery man. How much of our trouble relates back to him?” Cole asked himself as he flipped through the pictures.
    “We don’t know yet. Obviously what happened with Pierce and Tammy, and then Gia and Gemma, are related to this man. What I think we need to do is dig through those files and see if we can draw more connections.”
    Cy took the stack of pictures from Gemma and split them up before handing some to everyone. “These are all the pictures we found in Gia’s box. They have to be important. Let’s look through what you all have and see if we can put any names with these faces.”
     
    Gemma was deep in research mode as she tried her best to be her sister.  What would Gia think? What would she look for? The blast of text messages hitting Marshall and Cole’s phones broke her concentration.
    “Crap!” Marshall and Cole both leapt up.
    “We’re late for dinner.” Cole grabbed his black cowboy hat and slid it on as he picked up the notes and pictures he was working on. “Here are the pictures I was able to identify. Mostly they are of mid-level criminals. Some we picked up during the raid and some are still at large. I took notes to tell you everything I know about them.”
    “Here are mine. I was only able to find the ones we caught in that raid and some were killed. Beyond that, I couldn’t find much else,” Marshall reported as he handed her his notes and pictures.
    “Me too. I’m afraid it’s the same as Marshall. If you want, I can run some of these pictures by the DEA office,” Annie suggested.
    “Let’s keep everything in the family right now. If these guys have infiltrated Congress, then I bet they’re in law enforcement. We run a picture through the FBI or DEA database and I guarantee an alert will be sent to Mr. X.”
    Cy picked up the photos he had been going through and held one up. “This guy is a bad guy. He was in Russia as part of the arms deal that went down. He’s the one I arrested and he’s the one I bet somehow got information on me to Mr. X. Like Cole, I recognize some of these men from wanted posters. But I don’t have any specific information on them. Did you find anything?”
    Gemma looked down at her notes. They weren’t much at all. “Not really. I was trying to find a certain name or something that would be the key, but I didn’t see