Thomas rocketed forward. “Theresa? Could her name have been Theresa?”
Lucas nodded. “Yeah, definitely.”
“Shane was constantly staring at this girl on the quad. Whenever I would ask about it, he would just say she was some girl he’d been asked to tutor but had refused. It always bothered me how he never stopped…tracking her with his eyes.”
“Do you know her last name?” Calliope asked.
“No, but I’d probably recognize a photo,” Thomas said. To Calliope, he asked, “Is it enough?”
“In the hands of a lesser man, no. But for me, definitely.” She stood, chucking Aiden under the chin as she passed. “Let’s go see if you’re right.”
They all filed down to the war room, falling into whatever chair they came into contact with first. Except Aiden. He couldn’t sit down. He needed to move, needed to do something with the adrenaline coursing through him. Thomas gave him a worried look but said nothing, opting to sit beside Calliope as she worked.
Aiden passed behind her, glancing at the screen, but it was all hieroglyphics to him. There was no way anybody would understand the streams of code flying past but Calliope, so he continued his pacing. After about fifteen minutes, he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Did you find anything?”
“If I had, don’t you think I would have said something?” she chided. “I’m using the same data frame as I did to pull Holly’s police report, but I’m not getting anything for a Theresa.”
Aiden hit the table with his fist. “Shit.”
Thomas gave him a patient look. “She may not have gone to the cops. She may have just reported it to the school. That’s what Holly tried first, too. But the school protected him. Just like people always did, I guess.”
“I won’t have access to those files,” Calliope said, tapping her nails on the desk.
“What about yearbook photos?” Lola asked. “If the school is still open, most of them have digitized and archived their old yearbooks. Surely, you could hack into a school’s system.”
“Of course, I can,” Calliope said, giving Lola a smile that they most definitely didn’t have time for in Aiden’s mind.
“Flirt later,” Aiden muttered.
“Boy, if you don’t sit down and stop pacing, I’m going to tie you to a chair,” Lola said. “And Iwilldo it.”
Aiden opened his mouth to speak, but Lola raised a brow. Whatever, it wasn’t worth arguing over. He sat in the chair closest to him, folding his arms across his chest as he waited impatiently.
Calliope’s nails on the keys were usually a soothing sound to Aiden, like shit was getting done, but right now it was nails on a chalkboard, working over every nerve ending until he wanted to fucking scream. He just needed a name to put with the face of this motherfucker so he could kill him once and for all.
“We’ve got three Theresas in the school during that time,” Calliope finally said, throwing up three photos of girls that looked far too young to ever be mothers. Do you know which one she is? Do you have anything that might help us?”
“The second photo,” Thomas said, voice dull.
It was likely jarring for him to see how young they’d all been when Shane had happened to them. It was jarring for Aiden. It made him want to go back somehow and protect Thomas from all of it. Even if it meant they never would have met.
Calliope nodded. “We have a winner. Theresa Jeffries.”
“What do we know about her?” Asa asked.
“She didn’t finish high school. She’s listed on the birth certificate as the mother of Nathan Jeffries. Father unknown. The time frame adds up, age wise. Definitely could be Shane’s kid.”
“Do we know anything else? Can you find anything on this Nathan character?” Avi asked.
Calliope typed for what seemed like another hundred years. “Police reports,” she said, sounding sad. “CPS was called to her house several times for child neglect and endangerment. Seems she had a drug problem. The boy was removed from her care when he was eleven on…”
“On…” Aiden snapped.
“On Christmas day.”
“Always Christmas!” Avi yelled like it was the final answer on a quiz show.
Aiden’s tension left him in a whoosh as he fist-pumped mentally. He’d been right. This had to be it. It couldn’t all be a coincidence.
