“Is that all Ike does for Mr. Toscano?”
“Far as I know.”
“Does Ike’s collection work ever involve threats of violence?”
Trina’s mouth hardened. “Some people don’t like paying their debts, Detective. If they get a little roughed up over it, it’s their own damn fault.”
“Does Ike ever do that kind of work for anyone else?” Nick asked. “You know, rough people up for money?”
Trina narrowed her eyes at him. “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m just trying to get a better understanding of the nature of his work. It might help us narrow down a list of possible suspects in his disappearance if we knew the kinds of people your husband might have interacted with while he was in Virginia.”
Trina sucked on her vape, studying Nick and Garrett throughher long exhale. “Sometimes Ike does a little repo work on the side. That’s all.”
“Are you sure your husband was in Virginia doing a job for Marco? That he wasn’t hired by someone else?”
“He told me Marco sent him. Why?” she asked, darting looks between the men.
Garrett was first to answer. “When the investigator from Culpeper County spoke with Mr. Toscano on the phone, he denied any knowledge of your husband’s trip to Virginia. He said he doesn’t have any clients in that area and Ike must have been there on a personal matter.”
“That lying son of a bitch,” she whispered.
Nick’s eyes lit, as if he sensed an opening. “Do you know the name of the client your husband was meeting the night he disappeared?”
“No.” She gave an agitated shake of her head. “I called Marco last week when Ike stopped answering his phone. I asked him where my husband was and who he was meeting with. Marco told me it wasn’t any of my goddamn concern and keep out of it. I called him again when the police found Ike’s car. Told him if he has any idea who messed with Ike, he ought to tell the police, but Marco doesn’t like anyone knowing his business. He got sick of me pestering him every day, so he stopped taking my calls altogether.” Nick and Garrett exchanged a long look.
My cell phone vibrated and I dragged it from my pocket.
Vero:Where are you?
I typed out a reply.In Ike Grindley’s house.
Vero:Very funny.
I discreetly held up my cell phone and snapped a picture of Nick, Garrett, and Trina at the kitchen table in the next room. The dog’s nose had steamed up the lower half of the photo, but the resulting image was clear enough.
I tappedSend.
My phone vibrated with an incoming call.
I answered, holding the phone away from my ear as Vero shrieked into it, “What are you doing in that man’s house?”
I shooed the dog from my legs as I carried the phone to the other side of the living room. “Nick suspects Feliks had something to do with Ike’s disappearance,” I whispered. “He’s convinced Ike was in Virginia doing a side job for the mob and it went sour. He came to question Ike’s wife about it.”
“Uh-oh. What’s she saying?”
“Only that she thought her husband was in Virginia doing a job for Marco, but she says Marco refused to tell her anything about it.”
“You think she’s covering for him?”
“I don’t think so. She sounds too angry at him to want to cover for him.”
“Why?”
“She says she called Marco repeatedly after Ike disappeared, demanding answers, and Marco stopped taking her calls.”
Vero fell silent, as if she was suddenly thinking the same thing I was.How angry was Trina?
