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“Exactly. Thank you, Kaj, for coming with me. If I’d been there alone, I might have yelled at my mother, and I always feel guilty when I do that.”
“What are you going to do next?”
“I don’t know. I want to march into the jail and ask Sandra Springfield what the fuck she was doing with my brother. And my mother.” She went still for a beat or two. “And my sister, too,” she added quietly. “I’m wondering all kinds of things now.”
“Like?”
“Like, how did Sandra meet Van? How did she meet Aaron? What was her relationship with Dewey Talley? Was she using Van somehow? Did she sell drugs to Sylvi? Sylvi was a troubled kid in high school. Smoked and drank and partied. Nearly didn’t graduate because she’d had so many suspensions, but she turned herself around at the end of her senior year. She got into Tulane. Then she got hooked on methamphetamine.”
“To stay awake to study?”
“Yes. After that, everything collapsed.” She slumped in her seat. “And I feel partly responsible. I was in New Mexico by the time she started college. If I’d been here...”
“She may have still bought illegal drugs,” Kaj said. “You can’t play the what-if game. It never works.”
She hesitated, then asked, “Did you play what-if when your wife got sick?”
His throat tightened. “All the time. What if I hadn’t worked so much? What if I’d taken her to the doctor when she first started feeling tired? It didn’t matter. She died all the same.”
Val drew a ragged breath and when he glanced over at her, he saw her wiping her eyes. “I’ll ask Sylvi what was going on with Sandra. And if she’s still using, I’ll try again to help.”
“I think that’s all you can do. You can’t force her to quit. She has to want the help. You want me to come with you?”
Her grip on his hand tightened, almost painfully. “Would you?”
The vulnerability in her voice squeezed his heart. “Yes. You won’t have to be alone.”
She brought his hand to her cheek. “Thank you, Kaj.”
“You’re welcome. I agree, by the way, that Sandra’s relationship with your family in general is extremely suspicious. Too many coincidences. Van and Aaron worked for the same firm before Aaron went off to start his own. Sandra was with Van, then with Aaron. Sylvi was there when Van was killed and now Sandra is visiting her every month.”
“You think that Sandra was involved with Van’s death?”
“Don’t you?”
“Yeah. I do. I thought so as soon as I remembered where I’d seen her. But it’s not like I can ask her. She’ll lie.”
“No, but I can ask. Or another ADA can, since I’m recused from her and Aaron’s cases. She might be willing to talk now that she’s been charged with conspiracy to commit murder.”
Val sat up straighter. “You really think so?”
“We can try. I questioned her right after she was arrested, but she was detoxing.”
“Was that before or after you found the photos of Dewey Talley and Aaron together?”
“Both. She was slightly less confident after but still remained silent on the advice of her attorney. The link to your brother opens things up a bit. I’d like to know more about her before she’s questioned again, though. I’m going to do some digging into her background when we get home.”
“Like what? What do you want to know?” Val asked.
“When she met Dewey Talley, for starters. Did she introduce Dewey and Aaron or did they know each other first? How did she meet your brother? Was she connected to Cunningham and Spector, your brother’s—and Aaron’s—old firm? It wasn’t on her employment history, but she could have been a client. Did she meet both of them there? And if not, what is her connection to the two men? How did she go from dating your brother to dating a drug dealer?”
“I could ask Desmond,” she said thoughtfully. “He’s one of Van’s old coworkers. They were frat brothers at Tulane and he and I went out a few times when I was home on leave, so I know him well enough. He might not tell me anything, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.”
Kaj frowned, disliking that she’d been out with this Desmond, but he pushed it aside. He was not a jealous teenager. “No, it wouldn’t hurt. Call him when we get back to my house, though. I want to be able to listen in and pay attention, but I can’t while I’m watching the road.”
“I don’t think I can pay attention right now, either,” she admitted. “I’m tired.”
“Then sleep. I’ll wake you when we get back to my house.”
