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“Thank God.” Kaj sank into a chair and took one of Val’s hands in his. “Then what’s happened? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Val recognized the woman who was arrested with Aaron Gates,” Molly explained.
Kaj frowned. “Sandra Springfield. We know who she is already.”
“No,” Val said numbly. “That wasn’t her name before.” It can’t be true. He wouldn’t.
Of course he wouldn’t. She tricked him. The woman had to have tricked him.
What if she killed him?
“Before what?” Antoine asked.
“Before she was with Aaron.” Val met Burke’s eyes, then settled on Kaj’s. “Her name was Cassie. I only saw her once, but this is her. She was my brother’s girlfriend.”
15
Kenner, Louisiana
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 5:15 P.M.
KAJ STOPPED HIS Lexus in the driveway. The Kristiansen home was a ranch style, the front yard neatly mowed. “You’re sure you want to do this?” he asked Val softly.
She nodded, a jerky motion. “I need to know for sure. I need to find out who that woman was to Van.”
He, Burke, Molly, and Antoine had stared at her in stunned silence after her pronouncement at his dining room table. Kaj had been shocked, but his primary concern at that moment had been the stricken look on her face. She’d gone pale and her hands had trembled.
An hour later, she was still pale and her hands still trembled. But she looked determined, just as she had when she’d interrupted their debate of what it could mean for Val’s brother to have been dating the woman who was associated with the organization who’d murdered him.
I need to go to my parents’ house, she’d said. There’s a photo on their mantel of Van and his girlfriend. I need to know for sure. If he was seeing her, maybe that’s why he’s dead.
Burke and Molly had stayed to guard Elijah and watch over Jace, who’d sat quietly on the sofa, his hands cuffed in front of him.
Kaj had volunteered to drive Val to her parents’ house. He wanted to know if she’d remembered correctly, but he also wanted to be the one to offer her support, because she clearly needed it. The worried expressions on Burke’s and Molly’s faces had told him that Val’s reaction was not typical. It certainly wasn’t what Kaj had observed up until this point. She’d been confident in the face of every challenge, had kept a level head at every threat.
Not so right now.
Kaj cut the engine of his Lexus and turned to study Val’s pale face. “Your parents are going to know that something is wrong.”
She met his eyes, hers tortured. “I know. I need to pull myself together. My mom’s not strong enough to deal with rehashing Van’s murder. It nearly killed her four years ago.”
Her hands were clenched in her lap, so tightly that her knuckles were white. Carefully, he reached across the console and pried her hands apart, taking one of them in his. “What would help?” he asked.
She tightened her grip on his hand. “This helps.”
“Maybe you should tell me what you remember before we go in there.” She’d refused to say anything more about her brother, regardless of how many questions her coworkers had fired at her. Kaj figured she’d been in shock.
Knowing that your brother was murdered by drug dealers because he’d been trying to keep his younger sister from buying was one thing. Learning that he’d had a relationship with a woman who was a close associate with those drug dealers was something entirely different.
“It was in late November, only a few weeks before he died. Around lunchtime. I was home for Thanksgiving, and I was walking through the Quarter, on my way to see MaryBeth and Jess in the bakery. I remember that I was happy to be home, for the first time in a long time.”
He caressed her hand with his thumb. “Why?”
She closed her eyes. “Because Eric Haynes was dead.”
He frowned for a moment, then he understood. “The man who was stalking you? Who... hurt you?”
“Yes. Him. I’d been in the Marines for four years and my family hadn’t seen me often then. Only when I had leave. I’d finally come home and not even a year later announced that I was moving again. They tried to change my mind. They tried really, really hard.” She glanced at him. “I told them that this guy was stalking me. I didn’t tell them anything else. My mom’s always been a little fragile from a mental health standpoint. I didn’t want to cause her to spiral because of what happened to me. So please don’t mention it.”
