Page 43 of Ghost
“What’s this otheroutline?” Brick asked, pointing to an even larger area circled inyellow.
“Looks like it covers theentire southwest portion of the county, including the Berry farm,the old Miles property, and even part of Bryan’s ranch and a fewother properties,” Elias answered.
“Does anyone else get thestrange feeling there’s shit going on here that goes beyond whatwe’re investigating?” Ray asked.
“Yes,” Brick said. “And Idon’t like it. I want pictures of everything. Tear this place apartif you have to. I need to make a few calls.”
“On it.”
“I think shit is about tohit the fan,” Conor said.
“Agreed,” Ghostresponded.
***
Ray
They returned to the lake house laterthat evening to find Julia and Kyle waiting for them with theinformation they’d found in the boxes. Rocko, Shaw, and a fewdeputies were still out following Rocko’s lead to Mr. Cross aftersearching his truck.
The younger boys were asleep on thecouch after what appeared to have been a fun movie marathon, so theteam stayed in the kitchen to review the documents. It was truly afamily atmosphere among the team, and Ray was constantly remindedof a large part of his life that was missing. Would life inMarshall still be hell now that he’d grown?
“We found these buried deepin one of Sophia’s boxes wrapped in a silk scarf,” Julia said asshe handed the papers out. “There are eleven letters in total fromJericho to Sophia while he was away in the Army. They date between1952 and 1953 and get progressively less often as timepasses.”
Ray felt odd about reading privateletters between lovers, but it had to be done if it shed any lighton what occurred all those years ago.
“They begin normal enough.Details of basic training and then being deployed and flying out toKorea. Life in a war zone, basically, and we only have one side ofthe conversation, considering we don’t have Sophia’s letters tohim. However, by how he speaks to her, you can tell how much hemisses Sophia, and he writes that they’ll be married as soon as hereturns to the States. There’s even one where he laments notmarrying her before shipping out.”
“So our suspicions werecorrect. They were a couple before he left,” Ghost said.
“Yes. I wish we hadSophia’s letters to get a full picture,” Julia said. “But by allindication, their love was shared.”
“We began thisinvestigation trying to find the line that connects Brick andStryker,” Ray said as he put the pieces together. “I’m throwingthis out there as a possible scenario, and we’d need even moreextensive DNA testing to prove it, but what if Sophia got pregnantbefore Jericho shipped out?”
“If so, what happened tothe baby?” Ghost asked.
“It was a different timeback then. Single mothers were taboo, a family embarrassment, andwere hidden away or sent away to have their babies in secret. Thewoman would return after acting like she’d been on holiday, buteveryone knew the truth,” Julia explained. “Sex before marriagewasn’t accepted as proper behavior and looked down upon as a familydisgrace.”
“That child could have beenmy mother or father?” Stryker asked. “I never knew my father, andmy mother traded me in for her rich new husband.”
Stryker’s partner, John, reached overand took hold of Stryker’s hand at the sign of his sadness. Ghosthad heard how Stryker’s mother dumped him because her new richhusband didn’t want the lowly serviceman in the family. Yearslater, she left all the money to Stryker, millions of dollars, assome sort of apology. Stryker immediately donated every last pennyto the Wounded Warrior Program.
“Yes, and that’s how youand Brick are related. Brick’s grandfather was Sophia’s brother,”Ray explained. “This is all conjecture at this point.”
“My father, WilliamMatthews,” Brick said, “would have been first cousins with Sophia’schild. Making Stryker and I second cousins.”
“Yes.” They still needed toprove it, but all indications led in this direction. The onlyquestion was, did Sophia have a boy or a girl?
“So, if that’s true,Jericho Miles was my grandfather, and Sophia was my grandmother,”Stryker said, and Ray could see the realization dawning in hisexpression.
Brick looked over at Stryker and stoodto pull Stryker from his chair, hugging him tight.
“I always knew we werebrothers in arms, but now we know our blood came from Marshall,from the Matthews family. This place is as much yours as mine,”Brick said as Stryker hugged him back. Everyone knew Brick had aclose relationship with his great-aunt, and knowing Stryker was hergrandson must have been life-changing.
Family.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Ghost
