Chapter Nine

Jamie arrived at the Golden Star Racetrack just before the gates opened at ten thirty. The parking lot was beginning to fill up with the cars of early betters eager to start the day by placing their sure bets. Jamie knew the feeling.

The evening had been long, time stumbling in small steps through the dark hours, and she had spent the night alone with only the company of Deuce and a bit too much whiskey. While she’d wanted to call Cookie to tell him about Kristen, she couldn’t bring herself to reach out, not to Cookie, not until she could find the right words to explain how her discovery would affect his life. And she couldn’t call Erin. She needed to sit alone with her grief, maybe to suffer a bit, maybe to wallow in some self-pity. A small part of her also felt as though she owed it to Brian to tell him first before anyone else. She didn’t know if he deserved it, but he was, after all, Kristen’s father—a lousy one, yes, but still her father.

Jamie fumbled with her key ring as she leaned against the hood of her Tahoe. She told herself she need not hurry inside, but deep down, she knew the truth. She didn’t want to have this conversation, and she certainly didn’t want to be in this place. The knot in her stomach tightened. A flutter of nausea created tiny waves inside her, butterflies daring her to lose her breakfast. She pushed off the hood and made her way to the front steps.

Let’s get this over with.

When Brian had called shortly after Jamie’s discussion with Detective Herrera, she told him they needed to talk in person, motivated by equal parts compassion and strategy. She wanted to see Brian’s face when she delivered the news to determine if he knew more than he was letting on. She knew he’d grown up as she had, with a master’s degree in deception.

Jamie stood by the front steps of the track, breathing in the salty South Texas air. She wanted to fully experience this moment of anticipatory rush, the tingling in her senses. Those with addictive personalities knew that itch—the internal pressure that built then desperately searched for release. Coming from a long line of addicts who indulged in legitimate vices as well as illegal ones, Jamie knew her own risk of having her toes dangling just over the line of compulsion. She knew the ways to keep the risk in check, but she wondered at times if she were too confident. The racetrack was where she went when she wanted respite. Gambling opened the floodgates for her, serving as her escape, if only for a few moments.

She remained standing still while other patrons maneuvered around her to open the large double glass doors to the lobby. She overheard speculation about the day’s races and plans of strategies for bets. One man, whose sad excuse for a fedora clashed with his red plaid shirt, recited his bet list while studying the day’s sheet. From the looks of him, his horse had not yet come in.

Jamie knew she was there on solemn business, but still, her itch to place a bet remained. It would be her undoing one day. She spotted Brian, leaning against the outer railway as people hurried around him to find seats. Jamie approached slowly, her steps deliberate and measured. She leaned on the rail next to him. His eyes, strategically shielded with sunglasses, remained fixed on the track.

He acknowledged her presence with a slight nod. “Wanting to see me in person… This can’t be good news.”

“Brian, take your glasses off and look at me.”

He hesitated but then did as he was asked, and in taking off his glasses, he revealed one hell of a shiner. It was a fresh wound, neatly contained around the right eye socket. Two small cuts above the eyebrow were held together with a butterfly stitch, and the skin around the eye had a purplish hue.

Jamie winced at the sight of it.

“A small business disagreement,” he explained.

Jamie studied his face. “Seems you came up short in the negotiations.”

His glance moved between Jamie’s intent stare and the horses lining up in their gates on the track. “So, tell me. Did you find her?”

Jamie nodded, realizing that she must deliver the news with compassion. Kristen was his daughter, and even though there was no strong bond between the two siblings, she knew that the news she brought would forever change him.

She moved closer and turned her body toward him, her eyes demanding to be met with his. “Brian…” She reached for him, but he pulled away. “I need to talk to you.”

He shook his head. “Just tell me, Jamie.” He remained staring straight ahead, either unable or unwilling to make eye contact with his sister. “Is she gone?”

Jamie could only nod. She resisted the urge to reach for him in any way, to comfort him, as they stood together with the news of Kristen’s death taking space between them. A tear rolled down his cheek, but he quickly wiped away any evidence of heartbreak.

Jamie took him through finding the foreclosed crash pad, discovering Kristen with a needle nearby, and the police speculating on an overdose. She made sure to include her belief that Kristen’s death, if it involved drugs, was done to her rather than by her. Kristen wasn’t a drug user. That much she knew, and she wanted Brian to know too.

His expression remained stoic as she spoke, his jaw tight. His body was rigid, and his hands gripped the rail in front of him, knuckles whitening from his intense grasp.

“Did you know anything about her using?” Jamie asked.

He shook his head. “No, but I guess that doesn’t mean anything. We’ve always been good at hiding bad behavior, right?”

Jamie was surprised by his willingness to consider that his daughter had died of a drug overdose, especially since Jamie believed there was more to her death. Maybe she was grasping for a better explanation. Maybe she was blind to what Kristen had been capable of before her death.

“Did they find anything on her?” Brian asked. “Anything that could explain if someone was with her? Or what happened?”

Jamie knew he was fishing for information. She was careful not to respond with even a hint of suspicion in her voice, hopeful that he would reveal more than he intended.

“What do you mean?”

His eyes were fixed on the track. “Nothing in particular. Just anything that points to someone being with her or…”

Jamie tilted toward him, a small gesture, but for her, a large gesture of openness. “She didn’t have any jewelry on her, no purse, not even a pair of shoes. All I found was a two-dollar bill in her back pocket.” She kept her eyes trained on his expression as she said those words.

His jaw clenched ever so slightly—a tell. “I always gave her a two-dollar bill for good luck.”

That clinched it. With that one lie, Brian had confirmed he knew more than he was sharing. At this crucial moment of discovering that his only child was dead, he’d lied to Jamie’s face.

“So, what happens now?” Jamie asked, careful to keep her arms uncrossed, not wanting to show any defensiveness. If she kept her guard down, he might slip and give her a glimpse of what he kept close.

Brian put on his sunglasses, shielding his eyes from Jamie’s scrutiny. “I don’t know what happens now. We pick up the pieces and go forward.”

Jamie’s experience warned her not to lose her temper, but she had now depleted all her reserves of patience. This wasn’t a real-estate scam gone bad. His daughter, her niece, was gone. Gone. And it didn’t seem to move him.

Jamie’s voice now rose above polite conversation. “That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? Your kid is found with a needle in her arm in some abandoned house, and you’re just going to move on? Was she that disposable?” Two older men standing twenty feet away turned at the sound of Jamie’s voice, but she pretended not to notice. She didn’t care who heard her. Part of her wanted the world to know what a coldhearted bastard her half brother had turned out to be.

Brian turned his back on his sibling, just as he had done with his daughter. He began to walk away but stopped, turned to her, and pointed his finger at her. “You have no idea how I feel. You don’t know me.”

Jamie said nothing more as she watched Brian walk across the betting lobby and out the door. She wondered what truths had left with him, what truths would be buried with Kristen, and what the chances were that she could uncover them.

Her brother, the client, could no longer be trusted, even in the investigation of his own daughter’s death. In one short exchange, Brian had placed himself at the top of Jamie’s list. She would have to search for answers, knowing Brian would likely stonewall her every step of the way.