Page 106 of Wicked Brutal

“Future doctor,” Kaiden says.

“Doctors have calculators.”

Arthur closes the study door, and the room settles. The boys and the fathers. Nobody asks whether they should be here. Six months ago, that would’ve been different. Six months ago, the five of us would’ve been trying to figure out how much we could do before the adults found out. Now Arthur looks around the room and gets straight to it.

“I received a call at four-oh-three this morning from the federal prosecutor working through the information Ryan gave me Friday.” Arthur opens the folder in front of him. “The federal team spent most of yesterday cross-referencing the names and locations Alison remembered with material already recovered in the Pennington and Anderson investigations, along with information provided by Daisy and information subsequently obtained through Hartley.”

Arthur continues. “They found enough overlap that we’re no longer looking at Roman O’Toole and Victor Tremblay as two men who happen to know some of the same people we’ve already investigated.”

Kaiden’s expression sharpens. “What are we looking at?”

Arthur folds his hands. “Before I answer that, I want Ryan to walk everyone through exactly what Ally heard Thursday night and what she remembered Friday.”

Every head in the room turns toward me. I pull my phone out and open the notes I made after leaving the bookstore. “Thursday night, Victor came to the O’Tooles’ for dinner.”

Thomas leans forward. “This was the first time he’d been there since the pregnancy?”

“Since Ally knew about it, yeah. Obviously he doesn’t know.” I look down at my phone. “They started talking about travel. Middleburg. New York. Palm Beach. London. Zurich.”

Theodore straightens slightly at the last two. “In what context?”

“That’s the problem. Ally couldn’t always tell. They weren’t having a formal business meeting. They were eating dinner. Victor would mention a city, Roman would answer, then they’d move to something else.”

“Exact language where you have it,” Arthur says.

“I know.” I scroll. “Victor said Hollis was waiting for confirmation from Vane.”

Gideon reaches for one of Arthur’s legal pads. “Hollis and Vane. First names? Companies?”

“Don't know."

“Anything Ally recognized?”

“No.”

He writes both anyway.

“Then Roman asked what happens if Bellamy doesn’t fall in line.”

Arthur looks up. “Those words?”

“According to Ally, yes.”

Callum’s expression changes. “And Tremblay?”

“Said Bellamy would.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t say.” I scroll farther. “Roman told him he’d said the same thing about Mercer.”

Thomas leans forward. “And?”

“Victor said Mercer was different.”

“Different how?”

I look up. “He requires more encouragement.”