No Spare Key

Chap 20 📂

  I hadn't realised I had fallen asleep at my desk until the burner phone ringing inside made the drawer vibrate and make a really annoying noise in the desk.  I reach other to answer it and see it's Kent

  "Hello?"

"Hey, so I got something.  But this is all I can do for you, you got me involved in something that's way in over my head." 

  "What do you mean?" I ask, still groggy

"What I mean is that this is way more than me repaying a favor, in fact you owe me now after this shit." 

  "Kent you're not making sense, what are you talking 'bout?"

"I'm saying I'm done being your personal detective.  I don't know who this guy is or why you need to take him down so bad but after this, count me the fuck out.  I'm leaving the file at your door and moving away.  Don't be shocked if I don't answer your calls."

  "Why?!  What's going on?"

"This man could kill me, Schneider!  Forget shady, this guy's a murderer!" He whispers intensely into his phone "He had Ron beaten into a pulp for taking a single picture of him at his job!  Tied him to a chair and tortured him until he told them everything he knew.  Ron's still in St. Bernadette's hospital, he's got internal bleeding, broken bones, what have you.  This guy knows you're looking into him, he knows who I am, he doesn't trust your sister anymore and he wants your head on a spike!"

"Okay, great!  Isn't this kinda fuckin perfect?  We could just take your file to the cops!"
I hear him laugh humourlessly and say
"Are you that fuckin stupid, man?  No shithead sheriff in this state would wanna get in this guy's way, whatever his name is.  Look, everything I got for you is on your door step.  Don't call me again for this shit, I mean it."

Kent hangs up while I run to open the door in time to watch him drive off speeding and I look down to see a manila folder on my welcome mat.

  I take it and run inside quickly to see what's in it.

All of the first page was just information he'd already given me in the email he'd sent me, but the second page and on was more than I could've imagined. After looking through everything for two hours, I call Jen and tell her I need her to get here as soon as she can.

She got here in twenty minutes and used to key I gave her to come in.
She barges into my office and asks "You'd better have a good reason to worry me this much this early. What is it?"

"Kent left this for me after calling to tell me he's probably never speaking to me again."

"What? Why?"

I gesture to the folder and she opens it "You already told me all of this." she mumbles in the first page as she flips to the second.
The crease between her eyebrows deepens as she takes a seat next to me and keeps reading
"Seventeen different names?" She looks up at me over her glasses

"Uh huh, keep reading."

She finishes the page off and says "Okay, so this is shady but so far I don't see anything that would prove he's a danger to the girls."

"Isn't this enough to start an investigation or at least weird enough that a judge might consider granting me custody? Even if it's just partial?"

"I guess it's a possibility, but I wouldn't get my hopes up now.  Can you just tell me directly why Kent said he's not gonna answer your calls anymore?" 

  "..He said he's a murderer."

"Kent?"

"No, this guy.  Whatever his name is.."