“First, who is Fred Dawson, and second, how is someone sort of related?”
“Fred Dawson is a high ranking official in the Iowa state police.Think commissioner.”
“Fuck, that’s bad.”
“Yes.Second, I found out that Eddie’s biological mother was best friends with Fred’s wife.She left Eddie to them in her will.I know that sounded crass, but Sara Brickman had no other family, and she and Pamela Dawson were close growing up in the foster care system.”
“I understand.”
A phone went off, and Paul grabbed it off his desk.“It’s Cass.”
“Take it,” Petra said and started doing something with her laptop.
Paul answered the phone and went outside.He sighed in relief when he saw Warren walking in circles in the area beneath the old oak tree where they had set up a picnic table for the summer.
“Rankin,” Paul answered the phone.
“It’s Cass.”
“I know,” he said with a smile.“You’re name popped up.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.I just wanted to give you a heads up.You were partially right on what you said about Eddie having some sort of blackmail over Dawson.”
“Okay, what was I right about?”
“One, he was blackmailing Dawson, but not for cheating on his wife.Well, not at the age you suspected the cheating occurred.”
“I’m here with Petra and Warren Mott, let me gather them so we can discuss this together.”
“Fine,” Cass said.
Paul whistled to Warren, when the other man looked up, he held up his phone and waved him over.As soon as Warren started forward, Paul turned on his heel and went to the room in the back of the shop.He looked at the two, and noted Warren had stopped to fill his coffee cup.
“Cass is on the phone, he has some news.I was right about Eddie blackmailing Dawson, but not about the timeline.”He pushed a button on his phone.“You’re on speaker.As I said, Petra and Warren Mott are here with me, listening in.”
“Hey, I’ll get right to the point, as I was telling Rankin, Eddie was blackmailing Dawson, but not for why we thought.”
“Then why?”Petra asked.
“Around the time the blackmail started, Eddie found out that Fred Dawson is his biological father.”
“Holy shit,” Warren said.“Are you saying he was married to Pamela already, but had an affair with her best friend, and got her pregnant?”
“Yes, and according to Eddie, I’ve interviewed him, Pamela couldn’t have children.When Sara got sick, around the time Eddie was a year and a half old.She told Fred that he would take Eddie in after she passed, or she would tell Pamela everything.”
“Ah, that makes sense,” Paul nodded.
“We also have DNA proof that Dawson is the bio father.”
“Good.”Paul looked at the others and back at his phone.“Was there anything else?”
“Not right now, I thought you’d want to know that your blackmail theory was correct, just for the wrong reason.”
“Thank you.”They hung up and Warren looked at him with a frown.“Why didn’t you tell him what Petra learned?”By the time he finished the sentence, his voice had turned angry, and his eyes drilled holes into Paul.
