If Avi could be threatened, that meant Avi was alive. And unless it had been an empty threat, at least one person might know where he was.
Chapter Eighteen
Sejal was getting really good at sitting in silence in a car as someone drove her somewhere. This time, though, she was squished in the back seat, next to a giant security guard, trying to make himself small between her and Mira.
She was glad now that Naveen had stayed home. Bad enough that she had to navigate the awkwardness with her sister. The last thing she needed was the brother-in-law she barely knew coming along for the ride.
And Krish? Are you glad he stayed away, too?
No. She’d gotten used to his presence in a very short amount of time. This was weird.
Mira sat forward. “It’s right there, on the left.”
They turned into the entrance to a much nicer storage facility than the one her father had used. Sunil’s driver parked, and they got out. “You can stay here,” Sejal said to the guards.
The one who had been smooshed between them shook his head. “No, ma’am. We’re under orders to stick close. We’ll be happy to give you some privacy, but we’ll follow you to the unit.”
Mira nodded when Sejal was about to argue. “Sure. Thanks for your help.”
Sunil, I hope youvetyour menrealwell.The last thing she needed was finding out one of these brutes was in Alexei’s pocket. Paranoid thinking probably, but she was pretty paranoid.
She followed her sister to an unassuming unit. “So you moved everything here? But you kept the other place.”
“Not really, but it’s paid up for the next five years or so. Maybe eventually the cops or feds or whoever will realize the unit once belonged to Dad and seize it.” Mira unlocked the door. The lock was extremely heavy-duty, Sejal noted with approval. She could probably still crack it, but it would take time.
Sejal waited a beat before following her sister into the unit, trying to brace herself for what she might find.
It was neatly organized, with boxes stacked on boxes. Mira gestured to them. “Do you know what you’re looking for?”
“A flash drive, I think. At least, that’s what Dad waved at me back then. Might not be the same one, though. Hopefully, he transferred it to a newer one.” The tragedy would be discovering her insurance and having a technical issue.
“I never found any storage drives, but it could be hidden in something. You know how the man was.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
Sejal crossed over to a stack of boxes and picked up the top one. It was extremely light, so she opened it. Inside was a leather wallet and some random, childishly scrawled kid’s drawings. “This is all Dad’s stuff?”
“Yeah, there’s definitely some odd things in here. Snowmen drawings and whatnot.”
Sejal ignored the wallet and pulled out the drawings. There was an M on one with a drawing of four stick people. Sejal’s name was written on the drawing of a house with what appeared to be a snowman outside it. Something scratched at her brain. She tilted the paper sideways. The snowman was a circle, with two more circles for legs and another for a head. The smile was a thin line. “I remember drawing this,” she said slowly.
“You do?”
“Yeah. I think... I drew it for Mom. I mean Rushali.” Sejal’s memories of her mother could fit into a thimble. Mostly she remembered raised voices, the scent of lilacs, and occasional smiles, though not maternal ones. “I tried to give it to her, but she was busy.” Sejal tilted her head and held the drawing up for Mira to see. “This is a snowman?”
“I think so.”
“Maybe the snowman is actually the friends we made along the way,” Sejal mused. “But you’re the one with the kid now, so I guess you’d know. Does, uh, Ananya draw a lot of snowmen?” The question was casual, but Sejal was surprised to find out how hungry she was for information on her niece.
“Ananya’s still kind of new at life. She’d probably eat a crayon.”
If Mira had said Ananya was readingGone with the Wind, Sejal would have believed it. What did she know about developmental milestones?
Mira came to stand next to her. Her sister was so much smaller than her, smaller than Sejal remembered. How had she carried a baby?
“Was it hard? The pregnancy?” Sejal didn’t take her gaze off the snowman.
Mira didn’t speak for a second, but also continued to stare atthe paper, like it held some kind of secret clue. “As hard as any pregnancy is. I was tired a lot. I had preeclampsia at the end, so we had a C-section a few weeks early.”
