Jessica and Trips also gave up any information they had to the cops, although Trips was careful not to implicate himself. The biggest break, though, came when he shared his father’s dying request that he look for a message between two books in that awful office.
What the cops found opened a whole other investigation into market and price rigging among utility companies nationally. It would have been a big enough coup for Trips to pick up where his father left off—it was obviously the man’s Hail Mary should everything else he’d planned fall through.
Luckily, Trips wanted nothing to do with it. None of us did.
The Feds ate it up.
The draft forgeries, as well as the recovered Rubens, shut down the last lingering hunt for us in Chicago. Jasmine was more than willing to keep us updated as the investigation wound down, and quick to let us know that if we were looking for more work, she had plenty. We told her we’d think about it.
All of us needed a long break before we could even think about planning another gig.
The police took over digging up the Westerhouse rose garden, and while they couldn’t verify how many girls were buried there, they found enough to sample DNA and prove it was more than one.
Trips had sisters. Probably many. None of whom ever got to see the light of day.
As more information came in, Trips made the tough decision to exhume his mom, needing closure about what had actually happened to her. And because his father had spared no expense with her burial, they were able to do an autopsy on her almost perfectly preserved remains.
She’d died of a brain aneurysm from blunt force trauma; she’d been pregnant with a girl. The results weren’t surprising, but it hit him hard, imagining all the sisters he never got to know. When he hosted a second memorial, more for himself than anyone else, very few people attended. But his mother’s sister, an aunt he never knew he had, made sure to introduce herself, her broad shoulders and no-nonsense attitude strange to see on someone other than my legal husband.
RJ moved money around until we had more than enough to get Mattie’s mom the best lawyer we could afford. He also verified that the one we hired didn’t just get results, but got them without any extorsion or underhanded methods. We’d had more than enough of that for a while. Even with the best lawyer, though, we all knew she was going to prison, it was just a question of how long. Her lawyer made sure we understood that fifteen years would probably be the minimum time she’ll be locked up, because the death was premeditated. I don’t make the law, but if I did, I’d give the woman a medal and send her on her way.
Because of that, though, Trips and I became Mattie’s guardians. I still feel more like a friend than a mom or sister to her but bringing her to therapy and fencing practice definitely changed our dynamic. And when she went back to school—a new one after one week of horrific bullying at her old school—things changed between us even more. At least she has five of us working to keep her on track. Any less and I’m not sure she’d be doing as well as she is.
Trevor’s case was surprisingly well done. The Feds had gotten involved after RJ sent his intel about the auction over, but the task force handed it off to a junior analyst right before she went on vacation for the holidays. That’s why it looked like nothing much was happening, and why Reed was watching the estate solo on the night of our wedding. Two weeks later, the case was nearly airtight, and with the confessions of some buyers who took plea deals and the testimony of the girls, they could arrest him.
Once they broke into his personal devices, they had all the evidence they needed. The man had assumed he was sofar above the law that he didn’t even try to cover his tracks. The digital security on the Westerhouse estate was his only preventative measure.
RJ broke into the FBI’s database for me, so we could watch the case progress through their system. The more I read, the happier I felt about the direction my life took.
I could have been a glorified paper pusher. I probably would have been good at it, dotting every ‘i’ and crossing every ‘t’. Only I chose a different path. Instead of recording every detail, my goal is to leave none, and instead of enforcing the rules, I have to weave between them in a thrilling race of subterfuge and intellect.
Yeah, I would have been a good FBI agent, but I’m going to be a great thief.
Olivia filed for divorce from Trevor. Jansen won twenty bucks off Trips in a bet over it, and I held a dance party to celebrate. A young woman getting a second chance to build her future is something everybody should feel good about. RJ told me she declared her major right after she filed: political science. She might have been brought up to be a political housewife, but I like to imagine that someday she’ll find herself a nice political house-husband to help her on the campaign trail.
The human trafficking ring ended up being a huge scandal in the news, especially as business leaders, politicians, and even philanthropists were implicated, one after the next. We’d pointed the authorities in the right direction, but it wasn’t our win. When it comes down to it, we’re thieves, not vigilantes. The cops were a better fit for dismantling a human trafficking ring than we ever would be.
We’re just glad Reed was willing to work with us to get those girls free.
Falk ended up in prison for shooting my dad. Even with the lawyer we found for him, he was sentenced to five to ten years for manslaughter. We send him care packages every month for helping us. He sends us letters back. He doesn’t blame us for what happened, and it’s been interesting getting to know his dry wit without the weight of silence we lived through together.
Mattie’s mom’s care packages, however, are hand delivered every other week by Mattie and Trips.
They’re quiet every time they come back, but closer, too. The rest of us will never know what it was like to grow up in that house. I barely lasted the handful of months I was there. They’ve needed each other as sounding boards, and as much as Mattie picks fights with him, he never rises to her challenge.
He’ll never be like his father—and every day he proves it by parenting his sister with love and empathy.
Nothing came of the car accident that killed Bryce. The roads were brutal that night, and the photos the cops took of my injuries, plus his obvious violent escalation over the prior few weeks, kept them from looking any deeper at what went down. We found the extension cords still tied from the rafters in the basement, covered in blood. As far as we can tell, he must have slipped free; extension cords aren’t the best restraints. His organs found worthy donors. RJ tracked each of them down and paid off their remaining medical bills anonymously. At least his death did some good in a way his life never would have.
When it came time for his funeral, I didn’t go, but Jansen snuck in and watched from the choir loft. The crowd mourned the man he pretended to be, my mom included. There were whispers about him running off with a teenager, but no one wanted to speak ill of the dead.
I wouldn’t have been able to shut up about it. It’s a good thing I didn’t go.
My mom hasn’t called me, and I’ve returned the favor. I don’t miss her, even if I still mourn the place in my life where a loving mother should be.
Meanwhile, RJ’s parents’ marriage has been slowly unraveling. He told me privately that he’s proud of his mom for finally stepping away, for admitting that prayer won’t fix things with his dad. Her responsibility lies in keeping her kids safe and stable, not in managing her addict husband. And the way he smiled when he told me that she promised his sisters will never carry the burden he did, it was like the first warm day of spring after a long, cold winter. He’s so happy they’ll get to stay kids as long as he should have. I only wish she could have given him the same promise, all those years ago.
Jansen’s mom has been working on getting him and Evie back together, but surprising all of us, Jansen doesn’t want to try. As near as I can tell, he’s not mad that she judged him. He’s mad that she judged me. Add to that the hurt she caused Emma, who is his new BFF, and I’m not sure what it will take for their relationship to unthaw. Walker said that because it takes so much for Jansen to get mad, it takes him a long time to cool down, and to not worry for now. I hope that’s true. Evie seemed cool, even though she’s overprotective of her brother. I can’t blame her for that. He’s well worth protecting.
