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Desmond’s hesitation was clear. Then he said, “Fuck it. I’m going to tell you because Cassandra is preying on your mom. Aaron got caught embezzling. He’d been doing it for quite a while. The partners had to reimburse what he’d stolen from the clients out of their own money. They weren’t happy about that, as you can imagine.”
“I suppose not. So how was Cassandra connected to the firm? Did she work there?”
“She was a receptionist for C&S for quite a while, but she worked for a temp agency. Not for the firm directly. She latched on to Aaron pretty damn quick.”
“Did Aaron quit?”
“Yes, or he’d have been turned over to the cops. The partners wanted to keep everything hush-hush to avoid a scandal, but everyone knew. Everyone was... well, we were all afraid to tell. The firm threatened to fire and blackball anyone who reported it. Unofficially, of course.”
“Is that why you left?”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “I couldn’t work for them anymore after I found out, but—and I’m not proud of this, Ingrid—I couldn’t risk reporting it. My wife was pregnant at the time and I couldn’t be blackballed. So I kept my mouth shut.”
“Why are you telling me now, then?” Val asked, suddenly uncomfortable that she hadn’t divulged Kaj’s presence.
He sighed. “Because I’ve been thinking about reporting it for a while. It weighs heavy on my mind every year around this time. Plus, I’m established with a good firm now. It’s not as glitzy as C&S, but I work with good people who’d back me up if C&S tried to blackball me now. I guess I’m finally ready to tell. Especially now that Aaron’s been arrested for murder. I can’t help but think that if I’d said something four years ago, then that doctor might still be alive.”
Val wasn’t sure what to say about that. It was a little bit true, but she didn’t want to hurt Desmond nor did she want him to hang up on her, so she went on to a point that had struck her as odd. “Why this time of year? You said Aaron’s embezzling weighed heavily on your mind this time of year, but he left C&S in the spring. Not this time of year.”
There was a long pause. “Ingrid, Ivan was the one who turned Aaron in.”
Val blinked at this. “What?”
“Yeah. Aaron left without much of a fuss, but when his son got sick, things got bad. He didn’t have decent health insurance on his own and he begged the partners to give him another chance so that he could go back on the company’s group policy. They wouldn’t take him back, of course. They couldn’t. Not if they wanted to keep their licenses. It was a clusterfuck all the way around.”
“Did Cassandra leave when Aaron did?”
“No. She and Ivan started seeing each other right after Aaron left, though. She stayed on until Ivan died. Said she couldn’t bear to come into the office every day after that, knowing he wasn’t there anymore.”
Val’s throat constricted, not because of Sandra’s sorrow, but for her own. “I get that. He left me his house, but I lived with my parents for the first six months. I couldn’t bear to go in the front door of his place, knowing that he wasn’t there. I still haven’t sorted some of his things. There are boxes of papers in the attic that I’ve been putting off. I’m hoping there aren’t old parking tickets in them.” She tried to joke, but it came out flat.
“I’m sorry, Ingrid,” he said sadly. “I should have been there for you. I honestly thought you’d sell the place and go back to... where were you back then?”
“New Mexico. I’d planned to do exactly that, but my mom didn’t do so well afterward. I stuck around to take care of her and Dad. I’m still here.”
“Still teaching?”
“Yep.” Which was true, just on a volunteer basis at the community center. “I’ve moved from math to music.”
“You could always sing like an angel,” Desmond said gruffly.
Kaj smiled at her and Val’s cheeks heated. “Thank you. And thank you for this information. It doesn’t really help me know if Cassandra has any ill intentions toward my mother, but I’ll know what to watch for. I didn’t know until yesterday that she was still visiting. She also visits Sylvi.”
“Your sister? Why?”
“I don’t know. She goes to Sylvi’s shop and buys flowers, which she brings to my mom. I was wondering... Did you ever suspect that Cassandra did drugs?”
Another pause, longer than any of the others. “Yeah. She did. Coke was her poison, at least back when I knew her. Are you thinking that she and Sylvi are using together? I thought your sister got clean.”
“Sylvi says she has,” Val said.
“Ah. I see. Well, I know for a fact that Cassandra snorted coke. I saw her do it.”
Something in his voice sent an unpleasant shiver down Val’s spine. A glance at Kaj revealed that he found something troubling as well. “Did you do it, too?” she asked.
“Once. I didn’t like it. And then I had kids and there’s no way I’m risking my family. Getting hooked is too easy.”
There was something he wasn’t saying. Val’s heart began to beat harder. “Did Van?”
