The Truth About Us

by Tia Souders

  Stifling her smile, Abby stood and followed Leanne through the living room into the hallway.

  Leanne shuffled over the worn hardwood floor. “You might as well come into his office. I never had the heart to get rid of his stuff in here. He loved his job so much.”

  The narrow hallway opened up to an expansive room off the back. In the center was a large oak desk, flanked by bookshelves, filled with periodicals and hardbacks, and dotted with the occasional picture frame. Dozens of boxes crowded the floor by the desk, stuffed full of papers, dust coating the surface like a layer of fine fur.

  Leanne motioned to them. “Those are what’s left of his files. Feel free to have a look.”

  She watched as Abby and Kaden settled themselves in front of the boxes while Cammie took a seat in the leather desk chair. “It’s so nice to have company,” she said, smiling. “Would you like some lemonade?”

  “No!” Kaden and Cammie said.

  “Sure,” Abby said at the same time, and she glanced to Kaden, then to Cammie, lifting her brows and imploring them to accept since Leanne hovered between them, seemingly in no hurry to leave otherwise.

  “Uh, yeah. Lemonade’s great,” Kaden said between gritted teeth, while Cammie shrugged.

  “Fabulous.” Leanne clapped and turned to leave. “I’ll be back in a minute,” she hollered behind her.

  Once she was out of earshot, Cammie leaned toward them. “You’re welcome.”

  “For what?”

  “For breaking the ice, you goon.”

  “Fine. Thank you.” Abby smirked.

  “And why do I get the feeling there is more you’re not telling me. Like your family tree? You never mentioned anything about that. You just said your grandma was trying to find the journal’s owner.”

  “I didn’t?” Abby asked, her tone innocent like it had slipped her mind.

  “Uh, no.”

  “Augh!” Kaden groaned, interrupting her as he flung a lid off a box, sending a cloud of cat hair billowing into the air like a nuclear bomb. He waved furiously as if it might kill him, karate chopping the cat hair away. “When was the last time this place saw a vacuum?”

  “Shhh. She might hear you,” Abby hissed.

  Kaden leaned toward her. “This place gives me the creeps. I mean, there’s something a little too unsettling about the way she just let us in with little regard to the fact that we’re complete strangers. Not to mention the cats!” His gaze shifted wildly around the room like he expected them to converge and attack at any moment.

  “She’s lonely.” Cammie rolled her eyes. “Clearly she doesn’t get visitors. Like, ever.”

  “Plus, we’re teenagers. I don’t think we’re exactly the biggest threats,” Abby added. “The sooner we get my grandmother’s file, the sooner we can get out of here, so suck it up and help me look!”

  Kaden paused in his flailing. “Good point.”

  He crouched next to a box and started pulling files. “What’s your grandma’s first name again?”

  “Gloria.”

  “Gutman?” he asked. “Gloria Gutman?”

  When Abby nodded her confirmation, he pursed his lips. “GG makes total sense now.”

  Abby chuckled, turning to her own box. They rummaged through the files for a couple minutes. From somewhere down the hall, they heard the banging of dishes, then Leanne’s sing-song voice. “I have some shortbread cookies too. I’ll get a tray.”

  Kaden’s frantic gaze found hers. “No way am I’ eating a cookie from this place. She probably bakes the hair into them. Probably thinks it’s therapeutic.”

  Abby stopped scouring the papers and stared at him. Cammie scoffed from her perch at her desk while she filed her nails, watching them work. “Judgy much? You of all people—”

  “I know. Sorry.” Kaden looked down at the files in his hand, frowning. “I’m not exactly Mr. Social, but ever since I was a kid, cats have freaked me out. I mean, all the claws and sharp needle-like teeth. Not to mention, the glowing yellow-green eyes.”

  “You have a fear of cats?” Abby snickered.

  “Not a fear, per se.” He straightened, his tone indignant.

  “Okay,” Abby said, unable to suppress the laughter in her voice.

  She scanned a pile of loose documents in the back of the box, and her smile faded as she read. Noticing her change in demeanor, Kaden moved next to her and peered over her shoulder.

  “What? What is it?” he asked.

  “This paperwork. It has my grandfather’s name on it.” Abby checked the file behind the papers and snatched it up. “It’s my grandmother’s file. And these papers are...deeds.” Abby bit the inside of her cheek.

  “Are you sure? Lemme see.” He wiggled his fingers, accepting the papers. His eyes scanned over the documents. “They’re to apartments. In Austria?” He glanced over at Abby, his mouth twisting in confusion. “And these are...” He flipped through the remaining papers. “Bank statements and closing documents?”

  “But look at the name on the account.” Abby pointed to the paperwork. “Irma Mentz.”

  “So, someone else bought the properties and put them in his name? Why would they do that?”

  Abby slid her hands through her hair, then massaged the tension forming in the front of her skull. “I don’t know. Either that or these are his accounts, but he’s using a different name. Why? And there’s a business card here. Kenneth Levine,” she read. “Director of Special Investigations, the Department of Justice.”

  She froze the second she read the name and place out loud. “Wasn’t that?”

  Kaden nodded, his expression sober. “The night Lawson was murdered, my dad said he made a phone call to the Department of Justice.”

  “Um. Murdered?” Cammie’s jaw dropped. “Am I supposed to know what we’re talking about? And you never mentioned anything about a murder.”

  Ignoring her, Abby focused on the file. “So, if the business card for the DOJ was inside GG’s file, then it looks like whatever Lawson was doing the night he died in Newberry was definitely linked to the phone call he made to them and my grandmother. Maybe he thought this Kenneth Levine guy helped coordinate the purchase of this land? It seems strange.”

  “Or Lawson was trying to get information from him,” Kaden suggested with a shrug.

  “Yeah, maybe.” Abigail tapped the note on her thigh, something unsettling stirred in her gut. “I think I remember my mom saying my grandfather lived in Austria following the liberation in Germany. A lot of Jews did before seeking permanent refuge there or elsewhere.”

  “Okay, so it kinda makes sense. He used to live there. So, he bought an investment property? Maybe it was sentimental? Or maybe he had planned to stay but decided to immigrate at the last minute? What else is there?” he asked, pointing to the mass of paperwork in front of her.

  “Don’t mind me. I’ll just sit here on my lard-butt confused,” Cammie interjected.

  Abby lifted the documents and started shuffling through them, ignoring her. “Some of this I can’t make sense of. It could have nothing to do with my grandmother’s case. Who knows how much the police rifled through everything and—wait. Here’s a name. Anna Gutman.”

  Abby’s eyes brightened, as she showed Kaden the sticky note.

  “There’s an address and a question mark by her name,” Kaden said, glancing up at her, their heads bent together, only inches apart. “You think this might be the relative your grandmother spoke of?”

  His breath kissed her cheek as his gaze darted to her mouth, causing Abby to inhale a sharp intake of breath, lost in the movement of his eyes.

  Blinking, she shook her head and focused. “Uh, yeah. That’s exactly what I think.”

  “So, the question remains. Was Lawson’s murder linked to your grandmother? Or was McBride finding him on that night in Newberry working on her case a coincidence.”

  Abby’s thoughts flickered to what Kaden said the other day about how it felt like them running into each other was meant to be. ‘Lik
e, some outside force beyond our control was throwing us together for a reason.’

  “I’m starting to think there are no coincidences anymore,” Abby whispered.

  “Me either.”

  Her heart battered against her ribcage as her eyes locked on his. Something flickered in them, and her fingertips reached out to him as all else fell away.

  “Here we are!” Leanne proclaimed.

  Abby jumped, putting distance between her and Kaden as though he caught fire, and bashed her head off the side of the desk in the process. “Ow!” she groaned.

  Behind her, Cammie snickered. “As I said, making eyes at each other.”

  Shooting her a glare, Abby reached up to rub her throbbing skull, which had already started to form a goose egg.

  Leanne glanced back and forth between them, then set the tray on the desk. “Here you are. Don’t be shy.” She hovered over them, staring at the file in Abby’s hands. “Find anything useful?”

  “Actually, we did,” Abby said, standing. “And I think we should go.”

  “Oh.” Leanne’s smile fell. “So soon? Before you’ve even had a snack?”

  “Yeah, we have a curfew. I’m sorry.” Abby scrunched her nose and glanced at her watch. “We need to be home by ten or our parents will be worried.” She rolled her eyes at the inconvenience. “And we have a forty-minute drive back.”

  “Oh, okay. Yeah, I understand.” Leanne stood and followed them as they made their way back down the hall toward the front door.

  Though Abby felt a sting of guilt for leaving Leanne to her cats, they had found what they came for. Staying longer was unnecessary, not to mention risky on the chance Mr. Oliver checked Kaden’s empty bedroom.

  Reaching for the knob, Cammie smiled at Leanne. “We really appreciate you being so kind and helping us.”

  Abby waved the papers in her hand, adding. “Yes, this will help a lot.”

  Leanne fidgeted, disappointment plain on her face. “Well, it’s the least I can do.”

  Abby stepped onto the small patio. The welcoming April breeze greeted her, along with the heady scent of lilacs.

  “You know, I always thought that phone call my father made the night he died had to do with why he was in Newberry in the first place. Whatever it was, something big happened. He was excited. I’ve never seen him like that before.”

  Abby paused on the walkway, then slowly turned and cocked her head at the sight of Leanne silhouetted in the light of the doorway. “What do you mean?”

  Leanne crossed her arms. “When he called me that night, he was going on about a big break in a case. Something huge. Something that would make us big money and make him famous.” Leanne’s gaze shifted. Almost as an afterthought, she added, “I guess we’ll never know. They all think I’m crazy.”

  “They?” Abby asked, squinting into the light of the doorway.

  “The police.”

  From the corner of her eye, she ignored the raised brow Kaden shot her. “You mentioned a phone call. Which call?”

  “The one he made to that special investigator. He made a call to some office there, but they weren’t in on account of it being after hours. Then he called me, raving about it all. He was thrilled. That was the last time I spoke to him. Supposedly, people spotted him with some guy, and the next minute he was gone.”

  The file in her hand grew heavier with Leanne’s implications, turning from paper to concrete. If what Leanne was saying was true, then Lawson’s murder was linked to her grandmother somehow.

  The business card inside the file folder screamed at Abby to pick it back up. Instead, she forced a smile, said goodnight, then raced down the yard to the car with Kaden and Cammie at her tail.

  Once inside, all three of them turned to each other.

  “I have no idea what all this is about, but now I’ve got the creeps,” Cammie said.

  Kaden’s gaze shifted to Abby, his eyes speaking to her in the silence, saying what they both were thinking. That if what Leanne said was true, if she was right, then Lawson died uncovering her grandmother’s secret. Not only was he killed for the secret, but McBride was then framed for Lawson’s murder and killed.

  Whatever answers there were to find, they’d find them in Newberry.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  After being sufficiently creeped out, Abby dropped Cammie off at her house with no complaints and little questions from her.

  Abby’s gaze flickered to her rearview mirror at the car behind her. They kept their distance, but she swore they had been following her the entire way since Leanne’s house. Chalking it up to paranoia, she turned at the light.

  “We need to go to Newberry tonight.” The frantic edge of her voice boomed in the confines of her small car.

  Rain beat down the windshield, forming a river of water as her wipers furiously whisked it away.

  Kaden held his hands up, his voice calm. “Hold up. We need to take a step back and think about this.”

  She stopped at a red light and turned to him.

  “What’s there to think about? Whatever my grandmother’s secret is, whatever got Lawson and McBride killed, it’s there! We need to go find it.”

  “First of all, did you even think this through? Abby, whatever this secret is, it’s big. Beyond the scope of anything either of us ever imagined. Maybe you should—”

  “I’m not quitting.”

  Was she afraid? Yes. The notion someone may have been killed for the information they were searching for frightened her more than anything, but it also made uncovering it that much more important.

  “This was the last thing GG had on her mind before she died, and I won’t let her down.”

  Kaden sighed. “Fine, but do you know how crazy going there would be? We don’t even know what we’re looking for?”

  The light turned green, and Abby instantly pressed the gas, lurching the car forward. “We know whatever it is has a key.”

  “No.” Kaden shook his head. “You assume.”

  “It’s a pretty good assumption.”

  Frustration flashed in her eyes under the streetlights. “It must be a house or something. What else could it be?”

  “Okay, so even if the key is tied to Newberry, and it is a house, what are we gonna do? Newberry might be small, but you’re still talking a crap-ton of houses. Are you going to check every single house in the entire town, trying the key you found in the lock? I’m sure that won’t alert the authorities or get us shot by some angry homeowner.”

  “Sarcasm doesn’t look good on you,” she quipped, then sighed as she loosened her grip on the steering wheel.

  Why were they arguing? They were supposed to be a team.

  And she hated to admit it, but he was right.

  “Fine.” She sighed. “Then what do we do?”

  “I think we wait a night or two. We need to mull this over, plan our next move. Maybe it’s time we just go straight to your grandfather, see what he knows?”

  “Nuh-uh. Besides, I already tried that, remember? It got me nowhere. He totally shut down. And we can’t tell him everything. GG, and even the old guy with the journal, both told me to tell no one, and I already broke that rule by telling you,” she said, her gaze frantic. “Now Cammie knows part of it, too. I can’t tell anyone else. What if he knows nothing, and the whole key thing and Newberry are just a coincidence? He said he has memories with GG in Newberry. They very well might. And he may have been replacing a key. Maybe that’s where they keep those kinds of things. I mean, it’s not unheard of. People use those hideaway key things all the time! And people get paranoid as they age.”

  “True,” Kaden said, though the way he hesitated told her he didn’t entirely agree.

  “Or maybe he’s searching for answers, too,” Abby speculated.

  “I think that’s more likely, but if you don’t want to approach him about it, then, fine. We still have a lot of things we need to look into, and they might lead us to what we’re searching for in Newberry. We can call the Departmen
t of Justice in the morning and see what we can find out. We can call Anna Gutman, too. If this has to do with family, heritage, or history, and she is a long-lost relative, she might have the answers without even knowing it.”

  Trying to ease her doubts, she turned onto Kaden’s street and nodded. “You’re right. We need to talk to her next.”

  When she pulled over to the curb in front of Kaden’s house, he reached out and grabbed her hands. In her peripheral, the lights of the car behind her flashed as it passed them, but she barely noticed as Kaden intertwined her fingers with his.

  “We’ll figure this out, and then you can move on with your life, but Abby...” He looked from their clasped hands into her eyes. “You need to slow down. I can see how much pressure you’re putting on yourself over this. If it’s too stressful, maybe it’s best to give it a breather.”

  She swallowed and pressed her head back against the headrest. Kaden shadowed her movement and leaned closer, while Abby fought back tears of frustration.

  “You’re probably right,” she murmured.

  Reaching out, he brushed her cheek with his thumb. His adam’s apple bobbed in his throat, showing his emotion. “In your grandmother’s letter, she said she made the wrong choice. It’s not up to you to fix her mistakes. Whatever she found and didn’t address isn’t your responsibility to finish.”

  “I know. But it feels like—”

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  The sound startled them apart.

  “Kaden!”

  Abigail’s hand flew to her chest, and her eyes widened.

  Mr. Oliver stared at Kaden from outside his window. Rain plastered his dark hair to his forehead, and his face contorted in anger.

  Kaden paled. “Oh, crap.”

  THE SECOND KADEN OPENED the door, his father started in on him. “I thought I told you no going out tonight? How could you be so irresponsible?”

  Even in the dark, Abby noticed the way his gaze darted in her direction, the way his eyes took her in, assessing. If he thought she was trouble, he’d be right. Skipping school, sneaking out of the house, wrapping him up in something potentially dangerous. How far would she drag him into her family drama?