“Do Iwantto poison you for everything you did? No comment. But I’m not going to. I do have some questions though. Like why the fuck you didn’t tell us earlier that Zach Kirby was involved in this mess.”
Slowly, he took off the container’s lid and dipped the plastic spoon inside. “Why do you think?”
I supposed it was obvious. If Danny had admitted to blackmailing Zach, he would’ve been admitting a crime. But because he’d kept silent, Piper had almost died.
Fury boiled in my gut as I thought about it.
“I didn’t know he’d go after Piper. I swear.”
“Did you know it was Zach who stabbed you?”
“Not for sure. He was wearing a ski mask. Jumped me as I left my motel room, just like I told the police before. But I suspected it was him. Didn’t think he was a danger to anyone except me.”
“Right, because you rarely think of anyone but yourself.” I paced over to the window and scowled at the parking lot.
Couldn’t believe I had to keep dealing with Danny Carmichael. But he was Ollie’s dad, so I’d have to keep dealing with him for the rest of my life. If I was lucky.
“Piper wants answers,” I said, still facing the window. “I’m trying to save her the discomfort of getting them directly from you.”
“What else do you want to know?”
There was a hint of humility in those words. I glanced over my shoulder at him. Danny took a small bite of the pudding.
“How did you first find the jewelry box?” I asked.
“Piper’s mom was in hospice care. Mrs. Landry was pretty incoherent toward the end, but she said something about a man she’d loved. She seemed to think I was Teller at one point. Toldme to find a locket in her jewelry box and give it to Piper after…uh, she died.”
“Did you find this locket?”
“Yeah. The jewelry box was at Mrs. Landry’s house on her nightstand. I found the locket and realized what it meant. It had a picture of Piper’s biological father inside. Bruce Kirby.”
“But you didn’t tell Piper? Or give her the locket?”
“I left it in the box. I meant to tell her about it. I really did.”
I snorted derisively. “Sure.”
“Idid. It’s not like I set out to be a shitty husband and father, okay? Piper just needed so much all the time. It was constant demands and pressure.”
“All she needed was to be loved,” I bit out.
Danny stirred the spoon in the pudding. “Maybe I just didn’t have that in me.”
It struck me how incredibly sad that was. Danny was a pathetic excuse for a husband and father, but maybe he was finally starting to understand that about himself.
“After Mrs. Landry died, I went to look for the jewelry box again. But the box was gone. I assumed Grace or Callum or one of Piper’s friends had already packed it up to store with Mrs. Landry’s other things in the basement. So I decided to just leave it alone. Piper’s mom didn’t have a detailed will or anything, so nobody knew about the jewelry box.”
“And you figured it might be useful someday.”
He didn’t bother denying it. “I’m deep in debt. Had some big investments that didn’t pan out, and when I tried to make the money back, those opportunities didn’t pan out either.”
“In other words, you gambled everything away.”
“The exact details don’t matter, okay? I’m about a month from bankruptcy. I’m going to lose my dental practice. I remembered Mrs. Landry’s locket, and that was my Hail Mary.”
“Blackmailing the Kirby family.”
“Yeah, and look where it got me.” Danny pointed at himself. “I nearly died.”
