“I wanted to tell Ackerson about Bobby hurting Shumi”—Ajay’s voice was a whisper now—“but…she loves him so much.”
Every ounce of my attention coalesced onto him, onto this moment. “You should.” Ajay’s independent corroboration of my insinuation that Bobby had been violent could dig me out of this hole. “Not for me, but for Diya. If they come after me, then Diya’s the one who’s going to get hurt. And she’s been hurt so much already.”
“I know. She was always the opposite of Bobby, you know—so sweet and gentle. One time at camp, she used her spending money to buy me ice cream after I dropped mine on the ground right after I’d gotten it. I know it’s a silly thing to remember, but it mattered.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I thought it had to be Bobby the instant Dad told us what had happened. He was so angry inside, even though he did a good job of hiding it.”
“You got over the hero worship.”
“I wish I had.” Taking off his glasses again, he put them on the table and rubbed both hands over his face. When he dropped them, his expression was raw. “But I wanted so much to believe Shumi when she said that he hadn’t touched her, wanted him to stay my hero.” His shoulders shook, tears streaming down his face.
I didn’t know what to do, finally got up to sit next to him, my arm around his shoulders. He leaned a little into me and I thought,Fuck, he’s so young.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever been that young.
I’d certainly never had anyone attempt to comfort me when I cried. I didn’t blame my brother—Raja was who he’d been molded to be. As for my mother, she’d always been that person. My father had known who she was when he married her; yet not only had he married her, he’d had two children with her.
“Why did you want a second child?” I’d demanded of him at thirteen, right after I’d swept a glass full of whiskey off his desk.
The smell of expensive alcohol a sickening mist in the air, my dad had pressed his hands onto the desk and sighed. “I didn’t want Raja to be lonely. I thought you two would be best friends.”
That was when I’d understood: I’d been created as a distraction to entertain Raja so that my father could have his wife’s full attention. Deep down, Anand Advani was the one I blamed for what had been done to me—and what I’d become as a result.
Ajay sniffed back the last of his tears. “I’m glad Diya has you.” Breaking contact, he used a paper napkin to wipe his face, then put his glasses back on. “Do you think Ackerson will answer if I call now? It’s after work hours.”
“I don’t think she’s the kind of cop who turns off her phone.” She struck me as a woman with little to no understanding of work/life balance. That was probably what made her the caliber of cop Ngata had warned me against underestimating.
Ajay got to his feet. “I’ll call her before I head upstairs.” His hand was tight around the back of the chair. “My parents…they won’t like it. They want to pretend everything was perfect, that their daughter married into a good family.”
“You’re doing the right thing.”
As Ajay walked out toward an exit and the night air, his phone already in hand, I considered the most important piece of information I’d learned during the conversation: Bobby had gotten into trouble bad enough in his youth that Shumi’s parents had tried to talk their daughter out of an infatuation they’d previously indulged, or at least not opposed.
I had to unearth the details of that trouble. And I had to figure out some way to discover if Bobbywasalive. If Ackerson was as good as my lawyer had indicated, she had to have all his monetary resources under surveillance. But the man had been a successful businessman for a long time.
Chances were he had a cash reserve.
But he’d also have to hide himself. The media had put the faces of the three likely victims online, and he was a good-looking man, the kind of man people noticed. He might’ve done something drastic like shave off his hair, I supposed, but even then, he’d have to be careful. If I was him, I’d hide until the heat eased up and the news cycle moved on.
Where?
His businesses had moved real goods. Goods needed warehouses. Not just offices.Warehouses.
—
Three hours later, the night dead silent around me, I walked up to a large warehouse in an industrial area on the edge of the city. The company did have other warehouses in other cities, but I had no way to get to those without arousing suspicion.
I had to start here.
The entire area was dark but for the anemic street lighting, the forklifts and trucks of the various businesses parked for the night,and the lights off behind security fencing. All the fencing bore the signs of various security firms, but I didn’t see any actual guards as I walked over from where I’d parked the car some way down the street. Live guards probably weren’t worth it for most of the businesses.
But they were for Bobby’s.
I ducked back, barely avoiding the scythe of light that was the security guard’s flashlight as he patrolled the Elektrik Ninja warehouse.
“Come on, boy!”
A huff of sound, then four feet scrambling behind him.
