“I put him in the furnace myself,” he said with a covert look side to side. “That was my job at the time—when there was a call for it. Cremation wasn’t as popular then as it is now. Especially when it involved kids.”
Allie could certainly understand why. It would be a difficult decision. “Why did you leave Wembley a few weeks later?”
He shrugged again. “I changed jobs a lot back then. Why not? They all paid the same. I could walk down the block and get another job doing something completely different, and I’d still get paid minimum wage.”
Valid point.
“According to Wembley,” Steve spoke up, “you were discovered in a compromising position with one of the female—”
“That was a lie.” Griggs pointed his finger at him. “They made that crap up because they wanted to scare me. They knew what I’d seen, and they wanted to make sure I stayed quiet.” He sneered. “Don’t pretend to know me or understand what I’ve been through in my life. I know what I saw.”
“What did you see, Mr. Griggs?” Allie asked. “I think it may have been related to what got my parents killed.”
He studied Allie for a long moment before deciding to respond. “Why does it matter? Really? Finding the truth won’t bring your folks back. It won’t make you feel any better about them being dead. So what’s the point? I mean, these dudes are too big to bring down. If that’s your goal, that will never happen. Digging around in this will get you the same place it got your folks—dead.”
“You leave that part up to me, Mr. Griggs,” Steve pressed. “We won’t use your name. We just need to know what you know about the little boy. Then we’ll leave you alone.”
“Fair enough.” He shifted his attention back to Allie. “But don’t make me regret trusting you. If some form of the po-po shows up here after you leave, I’m gonna—”
“They won’t,” Steve inserted, his words a little on the lethal side.
“The parents brought the kid in. They were both distraught, you know. Tore all to pieces, like you’d expect. They waited while I did what had to be done. But—” he cast another of those furtive looks first right then left “—before I took him back, the mother leaned down and kissed him. Not unusual.” He shrugged. “But she whispered something to him. Not I love you or something you’d expect.”
“What did she say?” Allie asked when his dramatic pause went on a beat too long.
“She said, ‘Daddy will bring you back.’ It freaked me out a little, I have to tell you.”
A chill raced over Allie’s skin. “Did you see or hear anything else?”
He nodded. “When I prepared him for the crematorium, I noticed something weird. Trust me, I’ve seen some weird stuff in my time—working with the dead, I mean. But this was really creepy considering that one of the parents would have had to do it.”
“What exactly did you notice?” Steve prompted. “If you could be as precise as possible.”
“His eyes were missing.” He patted one eyelid. “You know, the whole eyeball.”
Allie’s heart stumbled then started to race. “You’re certain?”
He nodded. “Oh yeah. I checked. I’m sorry, but that is just bizarre. Who takes their own kid’s eyes? I mentioned it to the manager later, and he told me never to talk about it again. It was a matter of discretion. He said I’d be fired if I ever mentioned it to a soul. So I didn’t ask anything else, but I did talk about itwith a couple of guys at the pub. I was a little drunk. I guess it got back to the wrong person. The next thing I knew, I was being followed.”
“You’re sure someone was following you?” Steve countered.
Allie could understand why Steve would be skeptical. The guy gave off a less-than-reliable vibe. Still, what he’d said so far made her feel ill.
“Definitely. I’ve been the target of drug dealers, loan sharks, pissed-off broads, I know when I’m being followed. It didn’t take me long to figure out who it was. Especially after that sleazebag reporter, Rivero, tracked me down. I knew it was Ledwell. Damn it. I knew it, and I got the hell out. I had heard what those bastards did to people who saw things and dared to talk.”
For a moment, Allie couldn’t find her voice. Of course the idea had been in the back of her mind that Ledwell had been taking care of anyone who might dare tell his secrets. Rivero had confirmed as much…but this was the sort of affirmation that made her worry about what she might find at the end of all this.
Didn’t matter. She was on a mission to find the truth about her parents’ accident and to prove she did not murder anyone. “Did you happen to overhear the Madisons mention what they planned to do with his ashes?” She really needed to know where he was interred.
You planning to dig him up?
Allie banished the voice. If that was what it took to find answers then…yes. Maybe.
Griggs drew in another of those big, exaggerated breaths. “The wife mentioned she wanted him with her roses. Whatever that means.”
Allie’s breath stalled in her lungs. She knew exactly what that meant.
Talbert/Madison Residence
