Page 281 of Property of Whiskey

“What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“FBI?”

“Twice.”

Whiskey looks at him now.

Daddy nods. “Got told there wasn’t enough to establish a pattern.”

I look at the old envelope again, thinking about everything Sophie already uncovered and how far back the same network might stretch.

“Back then, did Montgomery’s name ever come up?”

Daddy’s attention shifts to me. Another thing he didn’t expect me to ask. “What about Montgomery?”

“Sophie already found money connecting her father to Pearly Gates. I’m asking if he was showing up in this mess twelve years ago too.”

Daddy takes too long to answer. “Yes.”

Whiskey says nothing but breathes out hard.

“How?”

“Money. Donations, community grants, property transfers. Pearly Gates had friends with clean names and deep pockets.”

That part isn’t new.

I lean closer. “Did you ever find anything proving Montgomery knew what was actually happening there?”

“No.”

“Did you ask him?”

“Once.”

“What’d he say?”

“That his lawyers handled charitable giving and he didn’t personally oversee every contribution.”

Convenient.

“Did you believe him?”

Daddy looks into his coffee. “I believed he knew more than he wanted me to know.”

That is not the same thing as knowing he funded girls being hurt.

Important distinction.

“What about Reverend Crowley?”

Daddy shakes his head. “I didn’t connect him to the girl then.”

“When did you?”

“Few years later.”