Ken headed out to the sofa in the living room and stretched out there, awakened with a start what felt like seconds later by the sound of the helo landing in the backyard.
Disoriented, he sat up, confused that the light looked so different, very dim, nearly dark. When he checked his phone, he realized he’d been asleep for almost five hours.
Hamish walked into the room. “Ah, good. You’re awake.”
Ken rubbed his eyes. “Yeah, sorry I collapsed.”
“No worries. I didn’t spot anything so far that raises more questions than we already have. After what you told me this morning, I figured we’d let you sleep as long as possible.”
About that time, the front door opened, and two of Trevor’s men walked in with enough food for everyone for dinner.
Ken washed his face in the powder room and when he returned to the dining room, Peyton and Trevor were walking in.
“Well?” Ken asked.
Both men looked a combination of infuriated and exhausted. “Let’s tell this story once,” Peyton said. “After dinner, because I’m fucking starving. Ken, can you set up a conference call on speaker between you, Dewi, Trent, Badger, and Duncan after we eat? And make sure to warn them not to be anywhere near Gillian or Asia or Tamsin. Or anyone,” he added. “Needs to be a secret call.”
“Sure.”
They settled at the dining room table, eating mostly in silence. Ken didn’t need any special Prime powers to sense that Peyton and Trevor had obviously uncovered something big.
Something that bothered them.
Once they finished, Trevor and Peyton asked Ken, Hamish, and Jake into the office, closing the door so Ken could set up the call.
“How’s it going?” Dewi asked upon answering. “Are you missing my?—”
“You’re on speaker on this end, babe,” Ken cautioned, making Dewi pause, then laugh.
“Love you,” she said.
“Love you, too. It’s me, Trevor, Peyton, Hamish, and Jake.”
“Hey, you fuckin’ rat bastard,” she said. “Ken put that tracking collar on you yet?”
Peyton laughed. “Love you, too, Dewster. Trent, Duncan, Badger, you there?”
“Aye,” Badger said. “We’re all here in the cabin wi’ Dewi. What’s goin’ on?”
Peyton settled into the chair behind the desk while the rest of them stood or sat around the desk on chairs from the dining room. He sounded exhausted in a way Ken couldn’t remember him sounding.
Considering all the shit they’d been through, that was saying something.
“Hyacinth Lewis isn’t Hyacinth Lewis,” Peyton said.
“I’m sorry, say whut?” Dewi asked.
“You heard me,” Peyton repeated. “Hamish informed us that the woman we believed was Hyacinth Lewis is not, and that her real name is Frannie. He saw one of the photo albums today and, long story short, she’s not the real Hyacinth.”
“She’s not Tamsin’s mother?” Trent asked.
“She is,” Trevor said, “but she’s apparently not the real Hyacinth Lewis.”
“She’s definitely not Hyacinth Lewis,” Hamish said. “I knew my sister-in-law for decades, and that woman is not her.”
Dewi sounded understandably confused. “I… What? What? How can she not be Hyacinth Lewis? Why then would Faegan… Whut?”
“Trevor and I literally just returned from questioning her again, and she insists she’s Hyacinth Lewis,” Peyton said. “And she’s not lying—she truly believes she’s Hyacinth Lewis. But there’s a gaping black chasm in her memories from before she married Faegan. We never thought to probe that far back because we all naturally assumed she was Hyacinth.”
