“Yeah. He was married, but he and his girlfriend were gonna skip town once they had the cash.”
“Ohgod,” she murmured. “He would have gotten away again. Was he arrested?”
“No.”
Her expression fell.
“I took him out.”
His mom regarded him for a few seconds. “We’ve waited a long time for this day.”
“I can’t go into the details now. There’s a lot of moving parts. I’m telling you in confidence. Please don’t share this?—”
“I would never, son.” After a beat, she said, “I heard from Auntie. She said the detective let her know someone has been arrested for Kurt’s death.”
Rebel wasn’t going to tell her that the wrong person had been arrested, and that the right people were dead. He’d let this one play out.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” she asked.
No fooling Elizabeth Dillinger.
“Yeah.”
“But you can’t get into it, can you?”
“Right again, Mom.”
“Thanks for letting me know. It doesn’t bring Dad back, but it’s closure, right?”
“Something like that.”
“On a more positive note, how’s Britain?”
Hearing her name made him smile. “She’s the one.”
“That’s the perfect news to end this call on,” she said. “I’m very happy to hear that. I love you.”
“I love you too, Mom.”
The video chat ended.
He slid his gaze out the window. They had closure, but even Whitaker’s death couldn’t eliminate their loss.
He had one more person to talk to before he could rest.
He sent Z a text. “You up?”
Dots appeared. “Yes. I heard.”
“FaceTime?”
Seconds later, his phone lit up with an incoming video call. He answered.
“Hello, Joaquin. I heard what happened and wanted to call, but didn’t know if you’d be asleep.”
“Brit’s sleeping, but I’m pretty wired.”
“How are you doing?”
