“The woman who won’t speak to me?”
“What if Kane did the asking?”
Mila opened and closed her mouth. “As far as I know, they don’t have any relationship. She never once said his name to me or even acknowledged that there were other grandchildren. In turn, he loathes her.”
“Exactly. He’s unknown to her, which is probably partly on his side as well.”
Mila shook her head, her focus on the papers. “If you want to ask him, be my guest. He would nope right out of there if I did. Another approach is to talk to some of these other people.”
There were two other colours of folder. Fourteen green and six orange. I had a deep suspicion that the orange ones were in on a secret, otherwise why else single them out? That left the green ones as a shield to the others and of no interest to us.
I picked up the orange pile and spread them out, opening each cover to reveal the one-page write-up of each family. “There has to be a clue in this section of family members.” I ran my finger across the names, then their jobs. “Wait, this is interesting.”
Mila leaned in to see what I discovered.
I tapped the first job title. “Owned a taxi company.” Then the next two. “Had a post office. Ran a small freight forwarder in Northern Scotland.”
The blood left Mila’s face. Her eyes rounded. “That taxi company would be convenient for moving trafficked women.”
Chills ran down my spine. “And a post office for faking documents. A freight company for…”
“Deliveries.”
We stared at each other. The last time we examined this, we’d only had part of the picture. Coupled with the trafficking accusation, the Marchant family secrets were getting darker and darker.
Urgency shone in Mila’s eyes. “I’m going to visit them all. I’ll ask Convict to come with me, then we’ll make a day of it tomorrow.”
“You’re going to accuse them?”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I am. If they did this, they need to be held accountable. I’ll know from their reactions if they are lying.”
“What if it sends them running?”
“Where are they going to go? They have houses bought with Marchant money. They are waiting on payments from the business to resume. All were claiming poverty.” She exhaled, and her eyes crinkled at the edges. “I can’t believe this. But at the same point, it makes so much sense.”
I felt so bad for her. Her clear-cut world had disintegrated with revelation after revelation. And I was reasonably certain they weren’t done yet.
Mila straightened her shoulders. “Can you hang around this evening? Convict is working, so I’ll be here until late. Tomorrow as well? I need your rational mind to tell me if what I find out makes sense. And there’s something else. Remember I said Con had someone of interest to talk to? Pollyanna used to work in the brothel but left not long after Dixie disappeared. She’s agreed to come in for a chat tomorrow night.”
I checked the time. Somehow, we’d been talking for almost an hour.
Heat stole through me, warming my cheeks. “Yes to all that. I need to go do something, but I’ll be back. I’ll see if I can talk to Kane on the way.”
I slipped out of the apartment, leaving everything behind including my sanity.
I had a date with Kane, but it was far from the hearts-and-roses variety.
Chapter 23
Lovelyn
At the side exit to the warehouse, nearest the river, I paused in the cool night air, my hands flat to my belly under my skeleton girls’ t-shirt. Nerves swarmed me. I caught a glimpse of Kane at the far corner of the building, a monolith among the clubgoers.
I took a step towards him, assuming we’d go to his car.
But his gaze locked on me, and he held up a hand with three fingers raised and the other as a fist.
Three-zero. My countdown, starting now?
