“I’m afraid that’s not the worst of it, though,” he offered up with a scowl. “Jefferson has been out for eight months. Then…” His voice choked up as he sank into his recliner and cradled his head in his hands.
Julian watched for the group’s reaction as Statler spilled the balance.
“…then five weeks ago he stopped showing up for his parole meetings and disappeared off the radar.”
The faces all around Julian, hardened into granite; all but the redhead, who clearly wasn’t accepting Julian’s intelligence so easily.
He turned to confront Julian. “And exactly how do you know all this?”
Julian wasn’t sure how this would sound, but he had to explain. “My, uh, family has this friend…”
The redhead scoffed immediately. “Right. A friend who knows somebody, who knows somebody else, yadda, yadda, yadda. That doesn’t make the information, true, buddy.”
Julian didn’t know what else to say as he ran a hand frustratedly back through his hair. He tried to clarify. “I understand if you don’t trust me. But if you knew Tex?—”
“Tex?” The man’s eyes grew wide as he repeated the name. Dazedly, he shook his head. “Holy shit. Do you meantheTex?”
Halleluiah.Now they were getting somewhere.
Thank god Tex’s name was legend in all branches of the armed services.
“Yeah. That’s the one,” Julian assured him and everyone else, all of whose mouths were hanging open.
“No fucking way. You know him?” The skeptic moved forward, hand outstretched. “I’m Sherbert, by the way.”
Of course he was. That strawberry-blond hair…
“But they call me Sherb.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Julian said as everyone else approached and introduced themselves.
Julian was pretty sure he could keep the names straight. Pipes, Tonka, Blue, Dizzy, and Hazard.
Once the introductions had been made, Julian continued. “Yeah. Tex is a good friend of my older brothers’, and he’s become an honorary member of our family. He, along with his wife and kids.”
“So cool,” the scarred one replied.
They all grabbed chairs, snapped them open as they’d obviously done hundreds of times, and turned to face Julian. “Okay then. Tell us everything you know,” Sherbert ordered.
Julian repeated exactly what Tex had said, exactly what he’d told Statler, and once he was done, everyone looked grim.
“We’ll have to put security around Petti, and she’s not going to like it,” Statler huffed. “Are all of you ready to take shifts?”
“Of course.” No one opted out, which said a lot for the cohesiveness of the crew.
Julian also made an offer. “If you want, I can get my brothers in on it, too. Since someone did a deep-dive on me,” he glanced at Sherb, whose lips twitched upward in acknowledgement, “you know that two of them are cops, and the rest of us have long credentials with the military.”
“We’ll keep the offer in mind,” Statler told him, but this time with more warmth.
Julian, now that he’d been given some consideration, couldn’t keep his next caveat from being heard.
“I think, and Tex concurs, that you might be looking at this a little sideways.” He addressed Statler with all seriousness. “I don’t know what your relationship was with your brother, but it seems to me that since Petula was only six when shit went down, Jefferson wouldn’t have had a beef with her. You, on the other hand…”
“He has a point,” Blue agreed. “Not to bring up a sore subject or anything, but how, exactly,didyou and your brother get along?”
“It’s…complicated,” Statler sighed. “Jefferson was different. The nerd of the family.”
Julian caught Sherb’s eyeroll. Clearly there was a time when that man had been painted with the same brush.
