Chapter12
Sheriff Dans was tall with shoulders like a linebacker and a beard. He looked like he wouldn’t take any crap if it stepped into his path.
“Well now, it’s good of you all to come on over here so quickly.”
“If he’s our brother, he deserves that.” Jack spoke for all of them.
They made the introductions, and Dylan pulled out his card.
“FBI.” Sheriff Dans read it.
“Profiler. Only do a few jobs now, as I’m based in Ryker Falls.”
Luke knew why Dylan was telling the sheriff what he’d been and sometimes was. Establishing that he had a foot in the man’s camp, even if it was a different camp.
“Nixon Redden’s mother passed away sometime during the night. As yet we are unsure when. We have been unable to track down his father.”
“Where is the letter the boy had with him?” Dylan asked. “We know some of what was in it.”
The sheriff pulled something out of his drawer and held it out. The Trainers looked at it like it would bite. Luke finally took it.
“I’ll leave you to read it in private while I contact Child Protective Services.” The door closed softly behind the sheriff.
“Read it out, Luke,” Jack said.
Luke exhaled before looking down at the words scrawled across the page he held.
“I have no right to ask your forgiveness, so I won’t. But I will say that when I left, I was young and scared. Your father terrified me, and I was sure he’d kill me.”
“Instead he tried to kill us,” Joe muttered.
“I know you must hate me, and I deserve that. But Nixon doesn’t. His father is in a motorcycle gang, and that is not the life I want for my youngest son. He’d end up in jail or worse. That’s why I wrote this letter and told him to take it to Sheriff Dans if anything happened to me. I came to Ryker Falls once. I saw and heard about how the Trainer brothers had come good. So I knew then that Nixon should end up with you if anything happened to me.”
Luke said. “She came to Ryker and didn’t even try to talk to us.”
“We wouldn’t have spoken to her,” Joe said. “And maybe we should have, because after what Dylan said it’s started me thinking that she was scared just like we were.”
“Yeah, I know, and maybe he would have continued to beat her if she’d stayed,” Jack added. “Maybe she ran because of fear.”
“Maybe it’s time we thought about forgiving her? Is that what you’re saying?” Luke asked his brothers. “Because we have a good life for all it started out shit?”
He felt a hand settle on his shoulder and knew it was Joe’s.
“We can talk about this too later, now’s not the time to get into it.”
“Okay, let’s deal with the facts,” Dylan said. “We know Nixon looks like Joe and Luke, and that Claire was your mother’s name. We know she wrote a letter with your names in, and why she’d just pluck names out of the air I don’t know, so chances are it’s legit. Which leads us to the fact he’s ours and we need to take him home with us.”
“We need to see him,” Luke said.
Dylan went to the door and disappeared through it. Minutes later, he walked back into the room with the sheriff.
“They will bring Nixon here. Follow me, I’ll take you somewhere to wait.”
They were taken to a large room with a big table and several chairs, and thankfully a coffee machine.
“Joe, get to it.” Jack waved to the machine.
“Why me?”