He had.
“Tons of adopted people put their DNA in the bank and hope for a hit,” Dee Dee said.
“So I assume some of the Truth’s sons—”
“Found out about each other, yes.”
“And then somehow linked it back to Vartage?”
“Yes.”
“So two sons go on the same site, for example. They realize that they are half brothers.”
“Right. Then a third. Then a fourth. All fairly recent.”
“And someone in your cult decides that the best way to eliminate the problem is to, uh, eliminate the problem.” Ash looked at her. Dee Dee smiled again. “In exchange for a leadership position?”
“Something like that.”
He had to shake his head in awe. “How much is Truth Haven worth, Dee?”
“Hard to estimate,” she said, “but probably close to forty million dollars.”
That opened his eyes. “Whoa.”
“But this isn’t just about the money.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Stop being cynical for a second. Just imagine what would happen to Truth Haven if fourteen more sons come forward with claims. It will, in effect, destroy the Truth.”
“Come on, Dee.”
“What?”
“Will you stop with the Truth? You know that’s all a lot of nonsense. You just admitted that to me.”
Dee Dee shook her head. “You’re so blind, Ash. I love the Truth.”
“And you’re using it to get what you want.”
“Yes, of course. Those two things aren’t contradictory. No one believes every passage of a holy book — they pick and choose. And every pastor who makes money from his religion — if he believes in what he preaches or not — is getting something out of it. That’s life, my love.”
That was wild rationalization, but on some level, it was also absolute truth.
It was getting hot in the car. Ash turned up the AC. “So we only have two more sons to eliminate.”
“Yes. One in the Bronx, one in Tallahassee.” Then Dee Dee added: “Oh, and now we also have to get rid of Simon Greene.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Simon and Cornelius stood outside the same bank branch where a few hours earlier Simon had withdrawn the money for the DNA test. Rocco had sent Cornelius to make sure Simon understood that he wasn’t getting this information for free. So here Simon was, back at the bank, looking to take out more cash.
Because he’d already withdrawn a somewhat large amount of money and didn’t want to draw more attention to himself, he’d called Yvonne for help. He spotted her now, walking toward him.
“Any issues?” he asked.
“No.” Yvonne glanced over at Cornelius, this black man with the threadbare T-shirt and the thick white beard, then back at Simon. “Who is this?”
“Cornelius,” Simon said.
Yvonne turned to him. “And who are you, Cornelius?”
“Just a friend,” Cornelius said.
She looked him up and down and then asked, “And what do you need this money for?”
“It’s not for him,” Simon said. “He’s helping me.”
“Helping you what?”
Simon quickly explained about Rocco and Luther. He naturally left off the fact that Cornelius had been the one who saved his and Ingrid’s lives. When he finished, he braced for Yvonne’s counterarguments. None came.
“Stay out of sight,” Yvonne said. “I’ll get the cash from my account.”
Simon wanted to tell Yvonne that he’d pay her back, but Yvonne was Ingrid’s sister and would get pissed off if he made the offer, so he just nodded. When Yvonne entered, Simon and Cornelius walked down the block so they weren’t loitering directly in front of the bank.
“Good time to fill me in,” Cornelius said.
So he did.
“That’s messed up,” Cornelius said when he finished.
“Yup.” Then: “Why did you help us, Cornelius?”
“Why not?”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I. Not a lot of chances to be a hero in real life. You got to step up when the opportunity presents itself.”
Cornelius shrugged as if to emphasize it was a no-brainer and that simple, and Simon believed that maybe it was.
“Thank you.”
“Also Ingrid, she was nice to me.”
“When she wakes up, I’m going to tell her what you did, if that’s okay.”
“Yeah, that’s okay,” Cornelius said. “You still got the gun I gave you?”
“Yes. You think we’ll need it?”
“Never know. But no, I don’t think you’ll need it. Still, we will make provisions.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning we don’t just walk in with thousands of dollars unarmed.”
“Got it.”
“And one other thing,” Cornelius said.
“What’s that?”
“Don’t let me be the black friend who gets killed. I hate that in movies.”
Simon laughed for the first time in what felt like months.
Cornelius’s phone buzzed so he stepped aside. Yvonne came out of the bank and handed him the cash. “I asked for nine thousand six hundred and five dollars.”
“Why that amount?”
“So it’s not the exact same as yours and trips up a computer somewhere. Six hundred and five, six five. June fifth. You know the date?”
He did. Simon’s godson Drew, Yvonne’s oldest kid, was born on that day.
“I thought maybe it would bring you luck,” she said.
Cornelius came back. “That was Rocco.”
“What’s up?” Simon asked.
“He’ll be at my place in a couple of hours. He needs to locate Luther.”
Cornelius waited outside the hospital while Simon and Yvonne headed back up to Ingrid’s room. They greeted Sam. The three of them sat near the bed for over an hour and waited for Rocco to give Cornelius the okay. When the nurses changed shifts, the new nurse, a stickler for the rules, came in the room and said, “Only two people are supposed to be in the room at any one time. Do you mind rotating? One of you can stay in the waiting area down the corridor?”
Sam stood. “I need to do some studying anyway.”
“You should head back to school,” Simon said. “Your mother would want that.”
“Maybe so,” Sam said, “but I don’t want that. I want to be here.”
He turned and left.
Yvonne said, “He’s special.”
“Yes.” Then: “I spoke to one of Paige’s professors today.”
“Oh?”
“He thinks Paige might have been raped on campus.”
Yvonne said nothing. She just stared at her sister in the bed.
“Did you hear me?”
“Yeah, I heard you, Simon.”
He watched her face for a tell. “Wait, you knew?”
“I’m her godmother. She... she used to confide in me.”
He could feel the red rush to his face. “And you didn’t think to tell me?”
“She made me promise not to.”
“So if Drew came to me with a huge problem and told me not to tell you—”
“I would expect you to keep your promise,” Yvonne said. “I’d trust that I picked you to be his godfather so Drew would have someone to talk to when he didn’t want to go to Robert or me.”
It was pointless to argue about it right now. “So what happened?” Simon asked.
“I helped Paige get private counseling.”
“No, I mean, what exactly happened with this rapist?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Seriously, Yvonne?”
“Paige was having trouble remembering the details. He may have slipped her something, I don’t know. She didn’t report it for days, so the rape kit didn’t help very much. The therapy was helping her, I think. She was trying to remember, work through it slowly.”
“How about charging the bastard?”
“I encouraged that. But she wasn’t ready. She had no memory of it. She couldn’t even say for certain if she consented or not.” Yvonne held up her hand to stop his next question. “It was messy, Simon.”