Chapter 41

“So Rachel was married before,” Eddie said. He shook his head as he tapped sugar and cream into his coffee. “Damn, dawg. The jaw-droppers keep coming, don’t they?”

That morning, Joshua and Eddie had met at Aurora Coffee, an indie coffee shop on Moreland Avenue, in the east Atlanta neighborhood of Little Five Points. Eddie had picked the spot. Aurora had some of the best—and most inexpensive—java in the city. With its New Age, industrial design and minimal frills, it wasn’t somewhere you went to luxuriate in sensory impressions, but a Starbucks had opened a short distance away and Aurora was still packing in customers, so they obviously knew their stuff.

Stifling a yawn, Joshua sipped his double latte. He needed the caffeine jolt. After his late-night telephone conversation with Thad, he’d been unable to sleep. He was tormented by the idea of Rachel married to cold-eyed Bates, and an endless series of questions revolved restlessly through his mind.

He hoped that Eddie, with his knowledge of computers and information databases, could help him root out a few more of Rachel’s secrets. Eddie had brought one of his laptops to the shop, to take notes during their conversation.

“What I don’t understand is why she lied to me,” Joshua said. “I wouldn’t have stopped pursuing a relationship with her if she’d said that she’d been married before. I wouldn’t have cared.”

Eddie pointed to the inmate record of Bates that lay on the table; Joshua had made a color copy for him. “If I’d been married to a crazy brother like this, I might not have told you about it, either. She was probably scared to death, man. She knew this dude would eventually be released from prison and would come after her.”

“I can understand that, but she should’ve told me. I don’t know what to believe about her any more.”

“She was trying to cover her tracks, I think. Make it harder for him to find her. She couldn’t do that if she told the whole world about her past.”

“I’m not ‘the whole world.’ I’m her husband.” Joshua set down his coffee cup so forcefully that liquid slopped over the lip.

 Eddie raised his hands defensively. “You’re right, dawg. She should’ve told you the truth. I’m not agreeing with what she did. I’m only trying to see things from her perspective.”

Joshua checked himself. Eddie was not a suitable target of his anger; the only appropriate target was Rachel. She had to explain to him why she’d lied. In the past, he’d never asked her the tough questions, and had accepted her tendency to gloss over details about her background. No more. The next time he spoke to her, he was going to apply the full-court press and not let up until she had spilled everything. He deserved at least that much.

 “Joy Bates,” Joshua said, and the name felt like a four-letter word coming from his mouth. “That was her married name—Thad said ‘Rachel’ is actually her middle name. I want you to find out everything you can about her. Where she was born, where she lived, where she went to school, if she has any close relatives, if she was ever married to someone before Dexter, if she has any children—everything.”

Eddie had been typing furiously on his laptop. At the mention of children, however, he looked up, scowling.

“You think she might’ve had kids by this dude, man?”

“No—well, I hope not.” Joshua thought about the child of his that Rachel claimed she was bearing. He wanted to believe that Rachel, in spite of all the lies she’d told him, hadn’t lied about her pregnancy, and that their child would be the first for her. Joshua couldn’t explain why that was so important to him, but it was.

Nodding, Eddie resumed pounding the keyboard. “We’ll assume that she lived in Illinois before she moved to ATL, since that’s the state where Bates did his time. Didn’t she always say she lived in Chicago before she relocated?”

“Yeah, but her word doesn’t count for much right now,” Joshua said with a sour expression. “But based on this guy’s prison record, I guess it’s a sensible assumption.”

“I’ll start with her marriage records and the details of Bates’ arrest, backtrack from there.” Eddie grinned. “Hey, I might be able to find out everything you want to know without cracking into any private databases.”

“Whatever it takes, Eddie. Hit me on my cell when you have something. I’ve got to make a run after I leave here.”

“Where you going?”

He told Eddie about the property management company, and his suspicions that Rachel owned property somewhere in Georgia.

“Speaking of property, can you add that to your research?” Joshua asked. “See if she owns something down here.”

“That’s a matter of public record, too. Piece of cake.”

“Good. Maybe that’ll tell us where she’s staying.”

“Maybe.” Eddie looked up from the computer. “Wanted to ask you—you toting that piece?”

“The gun? I left it at home. I don’t have a permit to be carrying it around everywhere with me, remember?”

“I don’t know, man.” Eddie glanced at Bates’ inmate profile. When he looked up at Joshua again, concern shone in his eyes. “This dude, Bates, sounds like a psycho. What if he finds out where you live?”

“So? I’m not scared of him. I’m not backing down like some punk.”

“I’ve never heard you talk like that.” Eddie made a show of looking underneath the table. “You grow a pair of steel balls in the past couple of days?”

Joshua didn’t laugh. “Listen, this guy scared my wife so badly that she ran away. Her running has messed up everything for us, in so many ways. I’m pissed at her for lying to me—but I’m even more pissed at him for what I think he did to her, and what he probably thinks he’s gonna do to me, and to her again.” And to our unborn child, Joshua thought, but didn’t say. “So hell no, I’m not running from him. This is my life, Rachel’s life. I’m not gonna back down and let this motherfucker take it all away. If he wants to throw down . . .” Joshua squeezed his hand into a fist as massive as a sledgehammer. “Let him bring it.”