Sejal sighed. What did it matter if she gave the fed who had investigated Rushali’s arrest the whole picture? If he did suddenly turn on her and decide to drag her in for questioning, she’d deny everything. She guessed Mira and Naveen had already done that.
He’s not going to turn on you. He promised.
She pushed away that assurance. Her gut didn’t have a great track record lately, especially around Krish. Best to expect the worst.
How to explain the foolishness succinctly? “She and my father stole a diamond necklace with a passcode to a crypto fortune inscribed inside of it. Like, hundreds of millions of dollars. Then my dad stole it from her. Then he had the audacity to die.”
“Where did you come in?”
“Rushali thought my dad had given the necklace to me or Mira. He had not. After a few days of holding me, my mom realized I wasn’t going to be of much help to her, so she tried to have some of her men kidnap Mira, who escaped. Then she told Mira she’d release me if Mira delivered the necklace to her. I don’t know how Mira did it, but she and her husband found that damn necklace and delivered it in time.”
“Did this all happen in Las Vegas?” he asked slowly.
She saw where he was going with this. “Yes. My mom was arrested right after. We left her in the hotel room.”
“And your aunt? She was there, too, wasn’t she? The timing of when she went missing from Witness Protection is too coincidental.”
Smart man. “She helped subdue my mom. Took a frying pan to her head.”
“That must have been satisfying.”
“Immensely.” A faint smile touched her lips. “My aunt has a habit of showing up in the nick of time. Once I got busted at a party for underage drinking. I thought I was fucked. She came driving up to the house before the cops could even put me in a patrol car.” Rhea had pitched a massive fit, until the cops had just shoved Sejal at her with a warning.
“And when your father kicked you out, she gave you money.”
She gave him a sharp look. He’d listened to her, really listened. “Yeah.”
“You made it sound like you have some complicated relationship with her. It seems pretty straightforward. She loves you.”
Sejal wrapped her arms around herself. “We weren’t on good terms before she went into Witness Protection.”
“Why?”
“She lied to me most of my life, telling me about all the amazing things she was doing all over the world. I was so proud of her. And then I found out that she was a thief, no better than my parents.”
“Why do you think she lied to you? Was she someone who cared about appearances or something?”
Sejal scoffed. “No. It doesn’t matter why someone lies to you.”
He draped his wrist over the steering wheel and squinted out the windshield. “I think it does. Sounds like she gave you the lie because you needed it.”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” A headache was building behind her eyes. Sejal massaged her temples.
“Your family,” he said quietly, “is a clusterfuck.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, no shit.”
“But it sounds like there’s some good stuff in there.”
“Is that how you feel about your family?” she dared to ask.
He gave a short laugh. “Basically. Yes.” Krish picked up the phone, then put it down again. “How long should we wait? Do you have your uncle’s number?”
“No.”
Krish turned the radio on, and Bing Crosby’s crooning voice filled the car. Sejal had noticed that Krish immediately changed stations the second an ounce of static disrupted the tunes. The man was serious about unmarred music.
“Sounds like your sister did help you the last time you saw her,” he noted. “She might help us now.”
