Familiar Lies by Brian J. Jarrett Page B

solid to give to the cops, something actionable.”
    Liz opened a container of cream and dumped it in the coffee. She stared into the dark brew as she stirred it with a spoon. “I could help.”
    “What do you mean?”
    She looked up at him. “Getting information. Getting leads. Finding something solid to give to the cops.”
    Max shook his head. “I can’t ask you to do that.”
    “You don’t have to ask. I want to.”
    “Look, Mrs. Potter—”
    “Liz.”
    “Liz, this is getting dangerous. The best thing for you to do is contact that detective and let the cops handle it.”
    Liz looked at him, cocking her head to the side. “You seem to be able to give advice, but not quite as able to follow it.”
    “But I’m right and you know it. You should go to the cops.”
    “That’s what you think you should tell me to do.”
    “It’s what you should do.”
    “What should you do then?”
    Max found that he couldn’t answer.
    “I want to find these motherfuckers,” Liz said, her eyes cold. “I want to make them pay. Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want the same thing.”
    “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t.”
    “Then what are we waiting for?”

Chapter Twenty-Three

    Max sat in the driver’s seat of his car in the parking lot of the Waffle House, with Liz beside him in the passenger seat.
    “Her name is Vanessa Simmons,” he said. “She had a relationship with Josh.”
    “Wasn’t your son a minor?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Oh, I see.”
    “Good, because I sure as hell don’t.”
    “What did she say when you confronted her?”
    “That it was a mistake. Same as what Josh said.” Max removed Josh’s letter from his back pocket and handed it to Liz.
    She opened the letter and read through it twice before handing it back to Max. “This letter…how much of it do you think is true?”
    “You don’t think it’s all true?”
    “I’m not saying your son was a born liar, Max, but he was caught up in something bad. Same as Amanda. She lied to her father and me, mostly to cover up the shit storm she’d found herself in.”
    “I see.”
    “What I mean is that it’s done for self-preservation. Our kids got themselves into something that most adults couldn’t handle. Hell, I don’t know that I’m handling it even now. So it begs the question as to whether or not Josh might have been fibbing in that letter.”
    “Lying to who?”
    “Who knows? I just think that we need to take some of this stuff with a grain of salt. Confirm our suspicions first. Be methodical.”
    “Sure. That’s reasonable.” He remembered Vanessa saying that Josh tended to make things up and wondered how right she might actually be.
    “You’re too close to your son to see things objectively. I can try to provide some objectivity. I’d ask you to do the same with me when it comes to Amanda. Deal?”
    Max nodded. He found this very much agreeable. “Deal.”
    “Back to this Vanessa…she knows more than she’s letting on, I think.”
    “How do you figure?”
    “Only when you pressed on her did she offer up something actually valuable.”
    “But she did open up.”
    “Some, it seems. But did she tell you everything?”
    “I assumed she did. Why would she continue to hold out?”
    “She’s afraid. Probably ashamed too. The fewer secrets she tells you the less she has to face up to what she did. And if she’s convinced that you think she’s not going to provide you with anything useful then you’re more likely to leave her alone. She wants to forget what happened and move on. Understandable, but it’s not that easy.”
    “If you’re right then I want to know what she’s still hiding. There’s something about a cabin and some more girls in that letter. She told me she didn’t know what that meant, but now I’m not so sure that’s true.”
    “Then let’s pay miss Vanessa a visit.”
    Max started the car and backed out of the parking lot, leaving Liz’s car behind.

Chapter Twenty-Four

    Max and Liz