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24. Start Somewhere

24

START SOMEWHERE

T his wasn't how Jarrett thought the day would go. Nor how he'd get all the truth and had a bad feeling that Andi was going to hear things for the first time too.

"You don't look like a Colleen to me," he said. He was looking at her and it wasn't working.

He didn't know if it had to do with the fact that he only knew her as Andi. Andrea didn't even fit either, but at least it was part of her real name.

"I went by it for almost thirty years," she said. "My paternal grandfatherdied when I was around eighteen. He used to tell me all the time I looked like his mother, Andrea. She was called Andi. No one called me it, but when I had to recreate myself, I thought why not? I didn't think anyone would put it together."

"And the name Benson?" he asked.

"Pulled out of a hat," she said. "I threw all the last names of the mean girls in my grade in a hat and that is what came out. No one would think that if anyone was looking for me. Maybe they'd look at close friends or maiden names but not enemies."

"Good point," he said. "Someone start somewhere."

Andi and Jack were looking back and forth at each other. "Start with my father and what happened to him, Jack. From your words because I'm learning things I hadn't heard before and need to know."

Jarrett turned to look at Jack but stood up and went over to sit on the couch, pulling Andi down next to him, their fingers threaded together.

He could see Jack didn't care for that move, but he didn't give two shits right now.

"Luke and I were partners for a few years. Hewasfifty-three when he died."

"I was twenty-nine," she said.

"I was thirty-six when Luke and I were paired up. I was new to the area and he took me in like a younger brother. I've known Andi for years. I was alone in a new area and spent a lot of time at their house."

"You did," she said. "And I trusted you and am not sure why I feel lied to."

"I didn't lie to you," Jack said. "There were things I didn't say because they wouldn't have made a difference in the outcome."

"You don't believe that," Jarrett said.

"No," Jack said. "I don't believe that. And that is my guilt. But it wouldn't have made a difference if Andi knew or not, as it wasn't bringing Luke back."

"Tell me what I don't know," she said.

Jarrett held his hand up. "Is it going to put her in danger if she knows these things?"

He'd end this conversation right now if that was the case and learn to live with the secrets.

"No," Jack said. "Nothing more than the situation nowprior tome showing up here."

"Then say it all and get it off your chest," she said.

"Jack had this case years ago. Maybe five years before we were partners. Human trafficking. The Dustin Family."

"Was he reassigned?" Jarrett asked. "There is nothing worse than when you've got your teeth into something."

"He was," Jack said. "He was too close. He had an informant and she was getting too deep. She was made and murdered. They made an example of her. She never gave up Luke's name, but he was on a path of vengeance. Again, things I didn't know at the time."

"You were briefed when you were partners, right?" Jarrett asked.

"I asked," Jack said. "Luke talked about things and I was trying to put them together. It seemed his identity was kept a secret so he felt like he could continue without anyone catching on."

"So my father was investigating things he shouldn't have been and had no backup?" she asked.

He squeezed her fingers. "Andi, it's so hard to explain. When you feel you're at fault for something, you can't let it go. You need answers."

"Or revenge," Jack said.

"Are you trying to do that for my father?" she asked.

"No," Jack said. "I told you that. Because if I was, then I'd draw attention to you and I wouldn't do that. I have to be content with what I'm doing."

"We'll get to that," Jarrett said. "What happened? Fast forward and spare some of the details for Andi. Luke is investigating things on the side. You didn't know anything about it?"

"I didn't for a long time," Jack said. "We had ourowncaseload, but the few months previous to his murder I started to suspect something going on. Luke wasn't around as much. I could tell when he was evading me."

"I noticed things too," Andi said. "I don't know why I didn't think of it, but I thought it had to do with cases. I learned to never ask. He always told me it was better that way."

"It is," he said.

"It doesn't matter what we noticed. But more than once, Luke had asked me to make sure I always watched out for Andi if anything happened to him. I said the same to him about my mother. She was alive back then and I wanted to make sure she was comfortable."

Jarrett nodded. He'd do the same. "You said you think Luke gave you food poisoning?"

"Listen, Andi," Jack said. "I'm not positive. I'mreallynot. And I didn't want you getting angry at your dad. But we ate the same thing. Both of us. Nothing more than we always did. He didn't get sick, I was feeling it pretty quickly. I went home after dinner feeling as if I was going to puke the minute I pulled in front of my apartment. I texted Luke to find out if he felt fine and he made some joke that he was."

Jarrett would never do that. Ever. You had partners you trusted and they had your back. "Why did he keep this from you? There had to be a reason."

Jack sighed. "It's not that he didn't trust me. I believe he wanted me out of it in case things went south—for Andi."

Jarrett turned his head to look at Andi. She had tears in her eyes. "He wouldn't have put his life in jeopardy and leave me. I know it."

"I don't think he thought it was," Jack said. "Because I agree with you. But no one can say why Luke was shot outside a bar that he'd never been to before. He said he was going home. Not only did he tell me he was going home but he went somewhere I'd never heard of and wouldn't have even thought he'd go alone if he did decide to change his mind and get a drink."

"My father always went to the same few places for a drink," she said.

"That's right," Jack said.

"He was meeting someone?" he asked.

"We don't know for sure," Jack said. "He was shot before he went into the bar. The guy was arrested. A gun for hire. He was sloppy, but the Dustin Family was known for that."

"I can't believe anyone that powerful would hire someone sloppy enough to be on camera," Jarrett said.

"No loose ends," Jack said. "It's easier when they are young and sloppy. The night he was arrested he was shanked in jail."

The guy hired to do the hit was never going to live tosayhe did what he was hired for.

Andi took a deep breath. "I knew that much," she said. "I even know who they suspected hired the hit, but there was no proof."

"Did they ever get their proof?" Jarrett asked.

"Weeks later," Andi said, "my father's house was trashed. I wasn't living there. I was going to put the house up for sale. I couldn't keep it. I could barely step foot in it. I'd only been in a few times. I couldn't even say the day it happened, just that I went there to get my father's cat's old bed. She didn't like the one I bought her."

"The cat in the picture on your phone?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's a reminder of my dad. I'm not a cat person, but someone had to take Pillow."

"That's an odd name," he said.

"My father rescued the kitten one day coming home. It was on the side of the road. She always slept on his pillow and he said it stuck."

"You go to your dad's house and it's trashed," he said. "What else?"

"She called me," Jack said. "I raced over and a few other marshals went through everything. We tried to pull prints, but there was nothing. We don't even know what they were looking for. We had his laptop already and there wasn't anything on it."

"After they were done going through Dad's house, I was able to get Pillow's bed and I left. I couldn't stay there. I ended up hiring someone to go through and clean it out, kept what I wantedandsold the place. But I went home with the cat bed and was going to wash it and took the cover off of it. When I did, I heard the noise of something dropping. There was a USB that fell to the ground."

"Did you look at what was on it?" he asked quickly.

"No," she said. "I wanted to, but then something in my head told me not to do it. Give it to Jack."

"That USB was all the proof that was needed to bring the Dustin Family down for human trafficking and close their ring while rescuing close to a hundred women. Luke had more than he needed already. Why he was going for more, no one knows. My guess was he wanted the name of the person who tortured his informant."

The revenge part. "Do you think he would have put himself at risk unless he thought he'd get it?"

"I don't know," Jack said. "Everything he had he'd been gathering for years from a distance. I'm not sure how they suspected it was him, but they covered their bases and took him out. They trashed his house and found nothing. It was weeks after we got the USB before we got our arrest warrants."

"You needed to verify everything?" he asked.

"We did. This was the most and the closest they'd ever gotten to bringing them down. But there were still a few names we had nothing on. They were untouchable," Jack said.

"They are still out there?" he asked.

"Yes," Jack said. "When everyone was getting arrested, pictures of Andi showed up in my email one day. A few of them from a distance. I didn't tell her. We had herwatched. There didn't seem to be any reason to do anything at that moment. I had nothing to do with this case."

"She was being watched to protect her?" he asked.

"Yes. And you have no idea how hard it was," Jack said. "She didn't know and I thought she'd figure it out, but she didn't."

"I can imagine." Jarrett had another level of respect hearing that. "What caused Andi to go into Witness Protection? A few pictures wouldn't do it."

"No," Jack said. "Not yet. Talk, Andi."

He turned to Andi. "That wasn't the only thing going on in my life," she said. "I was dating someone."

"Did he hurt you?" he asked. He'd heard about this accident that happened before she moved.

"Not directly. I hadn't told my father about him. It was only a few dates when my father was alive anyway."

"What's his name?" he asked.

When she hesitated, he looked at Jack, who said, "If you don't tell him I will. We've come this far."

"Leo Birch. Leonard Birch. I didn't know that he was secretly selling fentanyl to local dealers in the area to cut with."

"How could you not know this?" he asked.

"He was a pharmacist," she argued. "I thought he was this great guy with an upstanding job. I had no idea about it."

"Was he arrested?" he asked Jack.

"A year later," Jack said. "He was watched, but we'll get to that in a minute. It had nothing to do with any other cases on my docket. Keep going, Andi."

"I thought he had some shady friends, but they were people with good jobs and great cars, homesandthings. I didn't think much about it,didn'talways ask what they did either. It was more a vibe I got from them."

"Because you didn't want to know?" he asked. "And why not tell your father if you thought he was this upstanding citizen?"

"I told you my father was harsh with men I dated. And maybe I noticed he was distracted too." She was crying now and he didn't want to add to her misery. "It was only a few dates. It's not like what I feel or felt for you right away."

He saw Jack frown, but they were past all of those things right now. "What happened?"

"I went to Leo's house one day. I didn't tell him. I thought I'd just surprise him. I had an appointment canceled. The front door was open and I went in. He was upstairs in his loft over the garage. I heard voices and followed them. But then I heard them talking about shipments and being a day late, money being owedandwhat they were going to make on it. I started to put things together and just ran."

"Did he catch you there?" Jarrett asked. He'd have to look into this guy too. He'd get more from Jack later.

"No, not like you think. I tripped and fell down the stairs when I was trying to leave. I thought I could get out without him knowing I was there."

"That didn't happen," he said. "He knew you fell."

"He did," she said. "But I told him I lost my balance coming up the steps and went to turn and grab the railing and just fell backward. The stairs were at the other end of the house from where he was. No way I could have heard him if that was how it happened."

"Did he believe you?" he asked.

"I think he did."

"We thought he did but weren't positive at that time," Jack said. "I got the call and went to the hospital. Leo wasn't there. Andi was in surgery and I was the one with her when she came to. She told me what happened. I don't think she meant to, but she was drugged."

"I didn't want to tell him at that point and slipped, but I was going to," she said. "I had every intention of it once I was more aware of my surroundings."

"Leo didn't know about me," Jack said.

"He didn't know what my father did for a living," she said. "I never told him. I didn't tell many. As I said, it was only a few dates when my father was alive. Maybe a month at the time of the accident."

"Probably a good thing," he said.

"I don't think we would have had more than a few dates if he knew what my father did for a living."

"You were dating him when your father died?" he asked. "How do you keep that secret?"

"It'd been like two dates. They were spread out and he gave me space. I only said that my father was shot. It was kept out of the news. Looking back, I think he didn't have plans to get close to me and I was just someone to pass the time, so it's not like he was there for me when I was going through it."

"We did that on purpose, keeping it out of the news," Jack said. "It helped on more than one case."

"The next day Leo showed up at the hospital. I didn't want to see him. Jack and I were trying to figure out what to do."

"I had guards on the floor in plain clothing," Jack said.

He'd give the guy credit for that. For taking steps when many wouldn't that early on.

"Leo asked me what I was doing at his place and why I didn't call first. I played coy. I kept to my story that I tripped and fell and I was just surprising him, which was the truth. I told him I was drugged and in pain and he stopped asking."

"I was coming around the corner to see her when she said that," Jack said. "I introduced myself as her cousin."

"In plain clothing?" he asked.

"Yes," Jack said.

"Jack asked what happened with Leo and I told him. He asked if I felt unsafe."

"You did," Jarrett said, assuming.

"I did. Something didn't feel right. I knew what I heard but had no proof. The more I thought of things, the harder it was."

"So between both of the things going on in her life you decided to put her in Witness Protection?" he asked.

"The situation with Leo wasn't enough," Jack said. "Andi didn't know we got a threat on her the same day. We were trying to verify the source and if it was credible."

"You didn't tell me that," she said. "Why?"

She was crying harder now and almost shaking. He was pissed for her.

"Because after a fewweeksit didn't pan out," Jack said. "But it was best to get you out of there and that is what happened while we looked into it."

Andi stood up bawling and ran to her room.

"I should get her," Jack said.

"No, I'll do it. Answer me this—you put that threat in to get her out, didn't you? The same day? Give me a break."

Jack looked at him and didn't answer, but he knew the truth in the guy's eyes.

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