All I could do was stick with it. Never change your story. “Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I’m alive and I’m here.”
“Give it up,” Griffin said. “We’re past this. Danny’s dead. He’s been dead for three years.”
“Oh, that’s why I’ve been away. I forgot.”
“He never went away. Ty killed him and said Danny hadn’t come home, to cover his ass. When Ty’s really flying, he’s a violent guy. He’d beaten on all of them before. That’s why Danny was in foster care—or had you forgotten that part?
“Riiiight,” I said. “So why didn’t you nail him, great detective?”
“Not enough evidence. There was no body, for one. And when the family found out he was a suspect, they backed his story.”
“That’s crazy. Why wouldn’t they turn him in?”
“You don’t know much about families, do you? Maybe they’d rather lose one than two.”
A bead of moisture slid down the water glass. I swallowed. I had to ask, but I kept it sarcastic-sounding. “And so they’re all in on it, this big plot?”
Griffin shook his head. “Not the extended family. The mother knows. Carleen knows for sure.”
“What about Shannon?” I kept my hands flat on the table, like his, but my knees were revving.
“What do you think?”
That one threw me; it was so close to home. The best I could do was, “Well, she better think I’m her brother.”
“I’m not sure which would be worse,” Griffin said, “knowing the lie or finding out later. If you had a conscience, that question would be keeping you up nights.”
“Does it keep you up nights? Or do you just want to send her to jail too?”
“She’s already in jail with that family. I wish she wasn’t.”
There was one last question I needed to ask. I had a sick feeling I already knew the answer. “So if I’m a fake, and they know it, why aren’t they turning me in?”
“If you don’t know, you’re not as smart as I thought. You’re the ultimate alibi. Ty can’t be a killer if Danny’s back home. Why do you think he gave you that chain? To seal the deal, in case you know more than you’re letting on. You’ve got them the way I’ve got you, and they know it.”
For an instant I thought I saw daylight. “Well, if they sealed the deal”—I gave him the Danny smirk— “I guess you’re screwed, aren’t you? You haven’t got anybody. If they say I’m real…”
Griffin’s thumb rubbed at his nicotine stains. “You’re still not listening. You asked what I wanted, I told you. Now, we can deal on this or…” He shifted his bulk forward and pulled out a cell phone. He punched something in, put it flat on the table and turned the screen to me. There were three phone numbers. “The first one,” Griffin said, “is for a guy I know in the States, used to be with the FBI in Buffalo; now he’s with Homeland Security. The second is a friend in our RCMP. The third is a copper I talked to in Tucson. I told you before, but I guess you didn’t get it. You blew it with the eyes. One call from me about someone crossing the border under a false identity and possibly setting up a sleeper cell in southern Ontario, and they’ll be on you like a ton of bricks, no matter what the family says.” He gave me a long look. “Especially with that black hair and those cheekbones. I mean, they’re not supposed to profile…What’s your real family’s background?”
I was too stunned to even make a face.
“Just asking,” Griffin said. “Anyway, from there, well, the DNA test will be the only part that doesn’t hurt. You know about waterboarding? Just between you and me, they still do it, but you won’t die unless you have a weak heart. Your Tucson problem might be worse, if it’s murder. I hope you can prove you’re a juvenile. Otherwise, they have the death penalty there, don’t they?”
I started to shake. I snatched my hands off the table. “This is crazy,” I said. “You’re crazy. You won’t believe me, no matter what.”
“Eyes don’t lie,” said Griffin. I wanted to jam my fingers in his. “Time to deal, no?” I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t give in. Griffin spun the phone back around. “Last chance.” I was shaking so hard, I thought I’d fly apart. “Let’s see…” Griffin’s thumb hovered over the touch pad. “Maybe start with Jimmy at the Mounties. Then he can make the other calls. More official that way.”
His thumb started down. “Wait,” I blurted.
His thumb stopped. Griffin looked up from under his eyebrows. I went with the only thing I had left. “Look. You won’t believe me, okay. That’s your hangup. If you’re gonna persecute me like this, I give up. I’ll just go. I’ll clear out, run off again. That what you want?” I tried to zip my backpack. I couldn’t make my fingers work. I clutched the fabric instead. “That what you want? It’ll rip Shan apart again too, but what do you care about that?”
The last part got him. Maybe. At least, he squinted out the window for a moment before answering. He huffed a breath out his nose, then looked back at me with those cement eyes. “You’re not going anywhere now. I gave you a chance to run, and you didn’t. Now I’m running you.”
“Then what do you really want?”
“I told you. You’re going to help me with an investigation.”