“And?”
Niles sighed again and looked at me like he wished he’d taken me up on my offer for a drink. “It’s no secret this city is run by the crime syndicates that thrive underground. They have theirfingers in everything and have control in almost all departments of law and justice.”
I resisted the urge to reference my father’s death being signed off as a suicide when it was murder, not to mention Torres and Kim. Right now, Niles was giving me information he probably shouldn’t, and burning that bridge would be a stupid idea.
“Murphy’s territory was the largest,” Niles continued, his discomfort visibly growing as the conversation progressed. “He was well protected and held a lot of influence. We could never get close to him, and there were so many contradicting reports on what he looked like, no one really knew for sure. He paid all the right people handsomely and not once had to answer for any of his crimes. If anything went down, he always had fall guys, and no matter how sweet the deal, no one would turn against him.”
“What did he do?”
Niles lifted a shoulder. “What does anyone in that position do? Grow their empire and kill anyone who gets in their way. No amount of money is ever enough. The drug problem got so bad at one point the morale in the precincts was beyond abysmal, and there was a generalwhy botherkind of attitude. We couldn’t win.”
“What happened?”
“He disappeared. There was a definitive shift in how the business was run, lower key, and bodies were no longer left displayed as a warning to others. I’ve no doubt the business is still running, but it’s different now. No one has heard Murphy’s name mentioned in years.” He eyed me. “Until now.”
I said nothing, letting the information wash over me while my expression remained impassive. This simply can’t be true, and if Cade won’t tell mehowhe knows these things he claims, how can I possibly trust him to be telling the truth? Emrick had no real reason to lie to me. It served no purpose to claim my fatherwas someone he wasn’t, he had his property before he was killed, and if all Dad did was worked in real estate, why would someone else then come along and kill him?
Revenge?Maybe to make sure he didn’t build a new empire.
“Who were the other players?” I demanded.
“Nikki….”
“Niles, please, it’s my last question, I promise.”For now.
He sighed again and suddenly looked tired. “Vina and Rocko Sanchez, married couple. She used to be a stripper and married into the business. They own The Palace and most of the other major strip joints around here. As far as I’m aware, they don’t engage in anything too nefarious, at least not on the surface, but they’ve cornered the strip and dance club market. They have connections, and no one messes with them.”
“And?”
“And a few other smaller players, each battling for their own piece of the pie that’s this shithole of a city. Murphy’s biggest rival was Reuben Cole, and we know as much about him as we did Murphy.”
My mouth went dry. “Do you think maybe Cole killed Murphy for his territory?”
“Perhaps, but without a body or evidence or any information, we can’t prove that. What exactly was and wasn’t Murphy’s properties is unclear. He had them tied up in so many different names… Nikki, why are you asking this?”
“Was one of those names Garrett Porter?”
In the silence that followed, the air pounded against my eardrums insistently as I waited. “You can’t be seriously suggesting…”
“I’ve recently come into some information that has indicated my father—”
“Nikki, no, that’s not possible. Your father was a good man.”
“How do you know that, Niles? Because of what I’ve told you?All the wonderful, heart-warming stories of how he took me in and loved me as though I were his own? Who’s to say he didn’t have other things going on I didn’t know about? Wh-what?” I stammered as Nile’s expression shifted.
My resistance was breaking, shattering down faultlines through my body from too much doubt, fear, and heartbreak all at once. “What does that look mean, Niles? Do you think if we look up his history that it’ll be squeaky clean, and that will help me? What if it’stoo clean? I know because I already did it when I first started investigating his death. There’s nothing,nothing,in his history to indicate criminal activity, not even a fucking parking ticket. The man was so clean I’m beginning to wonder if the identity was the front I’m being told it was.”
Niles grabbed my shoulders, and I twisted to get out of his grip, but he held tight. “Nikki, youmustlet this go. It’s tearing you apart, can’t you see? I don’t know who put these ideas in your head, but it’s not possible.”
“You don’t know that.” Resignation was heavy in my tone, and Niles’ hands dropped from my arms. He knew it too. There was no way to know for sure. Murphy was too good, covering his tracks every way he went, to the point that no one even knew if he was dead or not.
But you know, don’t you, Nikki?
The voices in my head were torturing me, and even though Niles sat me on the couch and made me a cup of tea before leaving, and I assured him I was fine and would drop it, I knew he didn’t believe my words any more than I did. I was plagued simultaneously by too much information and not enough. The law enforcement had been paid off for too long, there was no evidence, no records, and even if there were, I had no way to access them. No one would talk to me, and it’s a fucking miracle I got to talk to Emrick at all and received that little clue.
But that one little clue led me down this path of self-destruction. Destruction of everything I thought I knew about who my father was and subsequently, about who I was and what I was even doing with my life. If the criminal syndicates were that rampant in this city, what was the point in even trying? They had control over everything, and the police were simply going through the motions, pretending we could make a difference in a city we had already lost.
I was caught in a spiral that was consuming me, and there was nowhere to go but down.
