Epilogue

Brendon stared at the copies of the ledgers Chloe had given him. He knew what Renee had said about money laundering. Now he just had to find enough to make a case. He knew if he pushed the right buttons, he could get Danny Cahill to admit what happened to Michael Doyle. Even if Danny had nothing to do with his father's death, he was sure Danny's father Alan would've shared those secrets.

If for no other reason, to keep him safe.

The problem was, that his basic knowledge of finance and financial crimes wasn't enough to figure this out. He needed to find out why Cahill was laundering money.

So in an effort to figure this out, he'd asked for help. The bell rang and he hit the buzzer to let his family up to his condo.

His family.

It had been forever since he thought about his siblings that way. He usually interacted with them one-on-one. But in recent months, it felt more like it had when they were kids.

Kind of a pack mentality.

He had to admit, he didn't hate it.

A few minutes later, he was reassessing. Ronan and Declan both pushed through his door, with their women trailing behind, chatting with each other.

"What are you doing here?" he asked Declan.

"Nice to see you, too, bro. If you involve Renee in your shit, you involve me."

"I told him he didn't need to babysit me," Renee said as she took off her coat. "I want to help if I can."

Everyone gathered around his dining room table. He slid his whiteboard over so everyone could see it. He'd been trying to create a timeline of everything, but there were too many gaps.

"As you can see, I've put everything we have on here. I added the dates of the fake invoices from the Rose. Payments to Alan. Where did they come from?"

Renee raised her hand. "Um...We don't know for sure the payments went to Alan?—"

"I'm sure."

"But," she continued, "the money could've very well come from him, too. Let's say he came into extra money and needed a way to explain it. He'd give it to the Byrnes, and they could pay him a legitimate bill. Well, legitimate-looking anyway."

"Why would he need to hide his own money? He was in construction. It's easy to hide money there," Ronan said.

"Speaking from experience?" Brendan asked.

"Am I talking to a fed or my brother?"

Declan looked at the board. "It's dirty money from a dirty politician. You guys said Dad used to handle the money pickups for side jobs. Cahill might've done construction, but he was known for his politics."

Brendan froze. It was almost too obvious. "So he was hiding his kickback money. Did Dad want a cut? And Cahill got rid of him?"

Ronan shook his head. "You know that wasn't Dad."

"I'd like to think so. But he was under a lot of pressure. Seven kids. Another on the way. It could push a man."

"Not Dad. Something else happened."

"Is there any way to find out where the money came from?"

They all looked at Renee.

"Not without knowing where to look. You saw the books. Alastair Byrne kept it old school as long as he could. There was nothing too outrageous in his taxes. Nothing to raise a flag to cause an audit."

"I think he was doing a favor for a friend," Chloe added. "He and Alan went way back."

"Speaking of way back," Declan said. "I've been listening to this podcast."

Ronan gave him an incredulous look. "You listen to podcasts?"

"I read, too, go figure. Anyway, I only caught one episode. This chick is doing a deep dive into the Cahill dynasty."

Brendan waved a hand. "I doubt I'm going to learn about the Cahills from some fluff piece."

"It didn't sound like fluff to me. I'm just sayin'. She might have sources."

Brendan stopped short of rolling his eyes. "This isn't a TV movie."

"Whatever, man."

Brendan took a deep breath and blew it out. "I'm sorry I'm being a dick. I've been trying to keep this investigation quiet and every time I turn around the circle is expanding." He pointed around the table.

Ronan nudged his shoulder. "But with every expansion, we learn more. Neither of us was getting too far on our own."

"Point taken." Looking at Declan, he said, "Send me the name of it. But so help me God, if this is a joke and I turn on some porn-worthy audio, I'm gonna hurt you."

Declan burst out laughing. "Hadn't even crossed my mind, but now it has."

They didn't make much progress on the investigation, but it was good having other people to bounce ideas off. As shitty as things had been between him and his brothers, he finally felt like they were a family again.

Now, it was time for them to work together to find the answers they needed.

***