Roustabout: Carnival of Mysteries by Morgan Brice

Author:Morgan Brice [Brice, Morgan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Darkwind Press
Published: 2023-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

The next day seemed to pass slowly as Bart counted down the hours until his dinner “date” with Jon. He studied everything in the files, trying to connect the dots.

He tried calling for Kit’s ghost, wondering if she had also died. No spirit answered. That might mean she was alive, or that her ghost had moved on already and was beyond his reach. Bart had no proof, but in his heart he believed she was dead, although he hoped he was wrong.

Richard Jon Tucker had no prior arrests, no fingerprints on file, and no photos. He also had no tax record, no driver’s license, and beyond a birth certificate his official record ended when he ran away from the Carmodys.

He really is Ghost Boy. Even WITSEC couldn’t hide someone this deep.

He’s got to have a different identity that’s good enough to hold up under scrutiny. No one manages to stay off the grid this well for so long.

Jon certainly hadn’t looked homeless or penniless. He had some sort of income to survive all these years. Now Bart wished he had paid attention to Jon’s car or gotten his license plate number, but that hadn’t seemed important at the time, and he had remembered Shawn’s chiding not to treat everyone like a suspect, so he hadn’t pried.

Bart found a death certificate for Emily Sue and Mick, but he could only locate a burial site for Jon’s mother, in a plot beside his unlucky father. Did the Carmodys deny Mick a decent burial? No wonder Jon had an axe to grind.

The people Jon turned in to the authorities were all rotten. How many more victims are out there who deserved justice? Jon documented a lot of them, but odds are good he didn’t know about them all. Were other lives ruined as badly?

Bart had started to put together a narrative about how it might have been for Jon. He wasn’t naïve about what happened to young runaways or how much the odds were stacked against them just to survive and avoid being trafficked, or falling into substance abuse. He sincerely hoped Jon had avoided the worst of it.

He probably got jobs that paid under the table at first, because he wasn’t old enough to work legally. If he created another identity, I don’t know how to find a link. That would explain why RJ doesn’t show up, although fingerprints would be a match. He might have a whole history out there, and I have no idea how to find it.

I can’t believe I didn’t even get his last name. Then again, he might not have told me the truth.

Once again, Bart was back to feeling hurt and betrayed. I’ve got to get a grip before I see him at dinner tonight. This is all going to go to hell if I fuck it up.

Will he even show?

Maybe he’ll just leave town if he’s finished getting revenge.

Is there anyone left on his list?

Despite everything, it hurt to think that he might never see Jon again.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.