There was one thing Juliancoulddo while he stood by. He got up, retrieved the wet towel off the coffee table where it had landed, and brought it to the kitchen to get another. While doing so, he stopped momentarily to take in the beauty of the space.
It was amazing.
Whereas the living room was all about comfort, the kitchen was all about glitz and efficiency. He noted the shiny, state-of-the-art appliances, the multi-burner, big-name gas range. He ogled the high-end countertops, which were made with some kind of natural, iridescent stone that sparkled with brilliant blue veins. It was all…stunning.
He wanted to open each cabinet and see what secrets were inside, but stopped himself from snooping because…Yeah.With Tex’s help, he’d already snooped enough.Andit wouldn’t endear him to anyone.
He grabbed a roll of paper towels and a bottle of cleaner from beside the two basin graphite sink, and headed back to the living room.
Statler still paced, so Julian bent and cleaned up the balance of the spill.
By the time he was finished and disposing of the wet paper towels in a nearby wastebasket, two men were walking in the door.
“What’s up Stat?” A big, rough looking guy with a severely scarred face asked. “And who the hell is this?”
Statler broke out of his stupor.
“Fuck, guys,” he cursed just as three more men and one woman burst in from the front porch. “I forgot to warn you.This is Julian. The guy Pet’s been seeing. He came to…introduce himself, but he also had some disturbing intel to impart.”
“Yeah?” A man with strawberry blond hair looked less than impressed. “Something regarding Petula?”
“Regardingmeand Petula,” Statler returned, but didn’t mince words. “Our brother Jefferson is out of jail.”
Everyone blinked.
The woman in the group spoke up. “You’ve, uh, kind of been expecting that, though, right? For any number of years. Because he was incarcerated as a minor. You never figured he’d be in for life.”
“I didn’t,” Statler agreed. “But I also thought I’d know about it when he got out.”
“Nobody contacted you?” she asked.
“No,” Statler answered gruffly. “But now that it’s happened, I’m not surprised. It’s…kind of my fault.”
All eyes were on Statler to explain.
He clenched his jaw. “You all know—except maybe you, Julian—that when I was in the service, Petula and I went by Bothwin, the last name of our adoptive parents.”
There were terse nods all around, with Julian saying, “I knew.”
“When I separated from the Army and Pet and I got our first apartment, we still had that name, even after everything that had happened. It pissed me off. We were trying to find our feet again; to become our own little family, so logistics being what they were, that bit of business had to wait.”
Again, everyone dipped their heads grimly in the affirmative.
Julian wasn’t completely in the know, but eventually he’d figure out all the details that had everyone looking like they could spit nails.
“Well, just before we bought this house, we made it legal. We changed our name to Bothswait, and that’s where I screwed up. I might have let us go off the radar without notifying anyone.”
The redheaded one who’d taken exception to Julian a bit more than the others, spoke up. “But, a simple search by anyone competent with a computer would have found you. Your social security numbers never changed. All they’d had to do was cross-reference with the Social Security Administration, and they would have found you.”
“If I might interject?” Julian held up a hand.
“Go ahead,” Statler allowed.
“Not to fault anyone, but we’re talking about state run agencies. Social Services and the mostly, independently run penal system. It’s not like any of those underpaid civil servants would have spent much time trying to locate someone who’d dropped off their contact list.”
One of the men groaned. “Fuck. He’s right, Stat. Those people don’t get paid enough to do anything outside their job descriptions. Hunting down relatives who clearly don’t want to be found isn’t exactly something they’d pursue.”
“It makes sense, and I should have known better,” Statler agreed. His shoulders went rigid, and Julian knew he was about to fill them in on the rest.
