“Lisa’s dad was the only one Mom ever acknowledged,” Will replied. “He was a pastor. Not the regular kind. Not the kind who took care of his flock and fostered a family there. It’s funny because I avoided church for years because of that man. Another thing Bridget helped me with. But Father Frank, as he called himself, was the guy who went to college campuses and told coeds they’re going to hell.”

He knew the type. They were nothing like the kindly pastors and priests from his home. “He came for Lisa?”

“I was an adult at the time, but I didn’t have legal custody of my sisters. That would have required far more cash than we had. I still don’t know how he found out where we lived, but he showed up with a social worker who decided Lisa needed her father. Naturally Mom had just started a six-month stint for possession. I remember how powerless I felt. I couldn’t admit that I was the one taking care of them and Cousin Marie simply signed the papers and let her go. Lisa had never even spent the night away from home.”

“What happened to her and is her father still alive?” Because Remy got the feeling he was going to want to kill the man.

“From what I understand it wasn’t bad at first. Frank had married and the woman seemed fine, but they refused to allow Lisa to contact us. We were poor influences, according to her father.” Every word out of Will’s mouth was measured, as though he was forcing them out, forcing the tone he used to be calm. “Luckily we were in the same school district. She and Laurel were in the same school, so we at least had that. But then one day, Lisa stopped coming to school.”

“He kept her at home because he was abusing her?”

“Not in the way you think,” Will replied. “According to Lisa, he never hit her or touched her inappropriately, but his punishments could only be considered cruel. When she wasn’t respectful enough, he took away things. Not things like her cell phone. He took away the light bulbs in her bedroom and her toothbrush, and shut off the water to her bathroom. He refused to wash her clothes. He locked away the soap and shampoo in the house and she was told that if she wanted them back, wanted him to provide for her as a father should, then she would be a good daughter to him.”

She’d been young and vulnerable, and her father had taken all her comforts. She would have been embarrassed to have no way to stay clean. “And this asshole thought she would bow down to him?”