Trigger Warning: mentions of pedophilia
Ty's gut somersaulted. He wasn't sure if he would have been more surprised to learn Hank was the perp; but finding out he knew who was certainly threw him for a loop. Or perhaps it was that Hank offered the information instead of telling him to shove it where the sun don't shine. Could the world truly be that small?
"Who was it?" Ty blurted, his grip white-knuckling the handle. Maybe he would finally start getting some real answers. The question of how Hank was even involved was completely shoved aside.
"You know what they say about loose lips," Hank grunted, scowling at Ty. "I'd prefer not to make parole in a body bag."
Ty's teeth clenched, annoyance and frustration popping through his jaw. "Are you truly that selfish not to offer a victim some closure?"
Hank snorted. "Closure? By giving that girl the name of the man who feasted on her body then left a small token of his appreciation? How do you think that would help her move on?"
Ty opened his mouth to respond, and then closed it. Honestly, he wasn't sure how Amy would take the information. She didn't even know he knew – or guessed – what happened. All he could think about was her staring blankly at the new patient forms in the clinic with no name or paternal information to offer. Then blowing up at him again for invading her privacy and digging his nose where it didn't belong. It was an understandably delicate subject Ty now knew he'd have to test the waters before diving into in front of Amy.
"Trust me," Hank continued. "The least she knows about what led up to that night the better."
Ty's back straightened, his grip loosening on the creeper. "Wait, what do you mean 'led up to that night'?" Ty asked, suddenly getting the impression there was so much more that Hank knew about what really happened. So much more to the story. "You make it sound like it was… planned. Premeditated."
Hank's mouth grew tight when he realized what he'd given away. Too much. Already he shared too much. "At any rate," he went on, blowing right by Ty's accurate analysis. "He got picked up about a month ago for some other offense and his rap sheet is a mile long. So sleep well at night knowing he won't be showing up at your front door looking to play house."
Ty narrowed his gaze, not appreciating the joke while also wondering how much pull his grandfather had with the warden to call in a favor for a little information.
Hank sensed it because a moment later he was holding up a hand. "Whatever you're thinking of doing, don't. Leave it be, kid. This is way over your head. And you won't be doing anyone any favors by trying to break it open to see what comes out. From what I hear, you don't have the best track record with that."
He was right about that. But Ty didn't intend to go to Amy any more with his questions. They managed to maintain a precarious truce that kept his grandfather happy and would please Lisa when she finally returned home in a couple of weeks. He knew she was concerned over his objections to host Amy but made it clear that being in a position to help made them obligated. Ty begged to differ but knew better than to try to go head to head with her. Not to mention the fact that she jetted off to Europe not long before Amy's arrival. So here they were walking a thin line between peace and chaos. And Ty was ready to keep poking the bear.
After taking a long moment to process his thoughts, Ty finally asked, "Does he know?"
"About the baby? I doubt it." Hank shrugged. In truth he didn't have a lot of close personal contact with the guy anymore. He'd only just been transferred to Calgary and they were in different cell blocks. But like small towns, word travelled quickly through prison halls. News of a rapist knocking up one of his victims would have spread rampant.
"Or that she's here?" That had been a concern of Ty's ever since he realized the possibility of Amy's past coming after her and endangering everyone at Heartland.
Hank worked his jaw, the gesture making Ty uneasy again. "Not to my knowledge," he hedged.
"Don't lie to me," Ty warned, sensing Hank's hesitation to answer.
"Don't test me. You're lucky I'm telling you as much as I am," Hank growled, finally sitting up and pointing the wrench in Ty's face. "I know you did time, Borden. You know the shit that goes down behind those walls. How word spreads. Every inmate in this program knows about the pretty young thing that mysteriously showed up one day. They're intrigued and that leads to conversation – theories of her origins they share with their cell mates." Among other NSFW conversations that Hank knew better than to confess. "Does he know about some new girl at the ranch? Probably. Is it enough for him to care to bother to make the connection? Doubtful. And trust me when I say I won't be the one to connect the dots for him."
Ty narrowed his eyes. "And why should I believe that? You've no allegiance to her."
Hank's hard expression didn't waver. "Do you know what I'm in for?"
Ty nodded, his eyes briefly flicking down to the wrench still clenched in his fist. "Murder."
Hank's arm lowered, draping over his knee as he planted his feet on either side of the creeper. "That was the charge, yes. But if I told you the man I killed liked to touch little girls and kept kiddie porn on his hard drive would you still think me a monster?"
Ty remained silent. When they got the background checks on the new inmates for the program it didn't go into specifics. If they took the time for a Google search they'd surely find the news coverage of the court hearings, especially in murder cases like Hank's. But Ty never knew anything other than Hank killed a man – shot him execution style. Learning his victim was a pedophile suddenly altered Ty's perspective. It also explained why he butted heads so much with some of the other guys – especially those who were doing time for sex crimes.
"I didn't think so," Hank went on, taking Ty's silence as his answer. "I don't know Amy, but I know the man who hurt her and that's enough for me to be on her side. All the same, I know better than to start sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong. You'd do best to learn the same."
As lovely as the sentiment sounded, there was still one huge question Ty needed answered. A plot hole, so to speak, in Hank's story. "But how do [i]you[/i] know about any of it? If your man isn't aware of who Amy is, then how are you?" He clearly couldn't have been involved. Aside from his morals, Hank had been incarcerated for nearly two years and in the program at Heartland for just about eight months. But Ty got the feeling the world was a lot smaller than any of them realized.
"Mm," Hank hummed. "Now we're running in the no fly zone. The two of us might be behind bars, but the guy we used to work for isn't and he's got a long reach. That's all I'll say on the matter. That, and her daddy shipping her out of Vancouver was probably the smartest thing he could have done. Sending her here, however…. That I'm not so sure about."
Ty's mind was reeling. For getting so many answers he had a dozen more questions and an even worse hunger for information. How much of this did Amy really know? Did she have a bigger part in her assault than she let on? Ty knew her father, Tim, was into some bad things with some bad people, it was possible they went after Amy in order to send a message. Actually, the more the idea settled in Ty's mind the more probable it seemed. It could also explain why Tim was so pushy about getting her out of Vancouver. Heartland was probably the only option he could come up with that didn't leave Amy to fend for herself but offered some support system.
The wheels ticked away as piece by piece Amy's story began to fit together.
A/N: I know it's been a long long time since my last update and I am so sorry for abandoning you all. Just know that I do receive email alerts every time you post reviews and I hear your desperate pleas for more. Truthfully, I didn't intend to step away from this story for so long. It was always sitting in the back of my mind, which is a good sign that my interest to keep writing it is still there. I still have so many ideas for it but sometimes it's the bridge chapters to make it to those ideas that give me the hardest time and where I find myself slipping into that dark hole of a writing slump. For right now I don't have any chapters beyond this one waiting in the wings, but I wanted to at least post this one - as short as it is - to let you all know I'm still here and still invested. I know the exhaustive wait between chapters is frustrating, especially when it turns into years, so I've made a bargain with myself on your behalf that, while I can't promise consistency, I will promise to work on making more frequent updates. More than once or twice a year. Ideally once a month at the very least but we'll see how things play out. I love you all and am so grateful for those who have stuck with this story since its inception and to those who are still discovering it.
**An additional note, I changed the rating of this to M because of the mature dark and triggering themes that have been presented. So it may not show up on the main page any more unless you filter it to show M rated stories.