Game

“Hey!” the guy shouted. “Hey! Stay right there! I’m calling the cops! I’m serious!”

I know you’re serious, dumbass, Co

She didn’t know the woods and back byways of Lobo’s Nod the way Jazz and Howie did, but Co

He stopped complaining when Co

And the birth certificate.

“This is the big one,” she said. “This changes things.”

“Why? So, it’s Jazz’s birth certificate. Now we know he wasn’t born in Kenya. Big deal.”

She pointed to a specific portion of the birth certificate. Howie’s eyes widened immediately and his chest hitched as though he’d been shoved.

“Oh my God.” He stared incredulously where she pointed. “Is this for real?”

“Yeah.”

The birth certificate was completely normal and unassuming. Except for one thing.

The spot for FATHER.

It was blank.

“It shows his mom’s name,” Howie breathed, “but there’s nothing for his dad….”

“Which means,” Co

Howie drove Co

“God, it feels like I’ve been gone for days,” she said. “But it’s just been a couple of hours.”

“Maybe your moms decided to stick around the mall. Run errands or something while your brother’s at the movies.”

“Maybe. I’m not go

“I’m not a complete screwup,” Howie said, offended. “I can handle my part. Just make sure you send it.”

She waggled her phone. “Already e-mailed. Let me know what happens. And hey—be careful.”

Howie backed out and headed back to the Dent house, doing his best to pay attention to the road, even though all he could really focus on was a notion that he’d never imagined possible: What if Jazz wasn’t Billy Dent’s son? What would that mean for his best friend? It seemed impossible, but that blank on the birth certificate… Why leave it blank if you knew who the father was? Had Jazz’s mom had an affair? Or maybe a one-night stand with a man she didn’t even know?

Another thought occurred to Howie, one that tightened his gut so much that he had to pull over for a moment until the tautness in his belly subsided: What if Billy Dent had… well, what if he had forced one of his male victims to rape his own wife? What if that’s how Jazz had been conceived?

Co

But he’d stopped Co

After settling his stomach and his nerves, he drove back to the Dent house. Gramma was ru

Upstairs, he used Jazz’s computer to check his e-mail. As promised, Co

Something in Sam’s presence brought out the child in Gramma, which made her a little easier than usual to handle, though Howie still found it beyond perturbing to see a septuagenarian ru

“Can I show you something?” he asked Sam, who was in the process of getting Gramma settled onto the sofa with what looked like a big photo album.

“Jazz warned me about you, Howie. Told me how to handle you. I’m not falling for that old trick,” Sam said. “I don’t want to hear your zipper if I say yes.”

“That’s a little obvious for me,” Howie sniffed. “I love you for your mind, anyway.”

Sam was partly bent over Gramma as she paged through the album, her rear sticking out in a very fetching way. She fixed Howie with an eyebrow-raised glance over her shoulder and straightened up, a

“Right.” He produced the birth certificate and flapped it in the air. “But I really do have something to show you.”

“Can you be a good girl and look at pictures for a little while?” Sam asked her mother, who gasped and pointed at a picture.

“Handsome man!” she crooned. “Handsome daddy!”

It was a picture of Billy’s father.

“Right. Handsome daddy.” A shudder seemed to run through Sam at the photo of her own father. “You see if you can find all the pictures of Daddy.”

“You’re my favorite sister,” Gramma said, and hugged Sam with a strength possessed only by the crazy.

“And you’re mine.” Sam disengaged herself and joined Howie in the kitchen, positioning herself, he noticed, so that she could keep an eye on Gramma through the doorway. “What have you got?”

Howie handed over the birth certificate. He explained how and where Co

Sam sca

“I don’t know. But did you notice the space for father is blank?”

“Yeah. Probably an oversight.”

“An oversight?” Howie struggled to keep his voice down. Gramma was peacefully paging through the album. No point getting her riled. “The guy who got away with killing over a hundred people didn’t make an oversight. There’s a reason it’s blank.”

“There could be a million reasons, not just one. Maybe at one point Billy might not have thought Jazz was his. He was pretty pissed when Janice got pregnant initially. I remember Mom telling me that. But he got over it. But I’m sure they had some reason.”

“Like what?”

Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. Because my brother was completely insane?”

“Was?”

“Is. You know what I mean.” She crossed her arms over her chest, the birth certificate dangling from her fingers like something dead or dying. “Howie, you have to promise me that you and Co

“We’re trying to help Jazz. If it turns out he’s not Billy’s kid—”

“Then what? He’s going to suddenly be all better? His childhood will magically disappear in a puff of smoke? Please. There’s a better chance of you actually getting to first base with me.”

“I already got to first base with you.”

Sam tilted her head to one side. Excuse me? the motion said.