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“I didn’t remember you, to be honest. Not until I saw your photo after your arrest. Then I did remember that day we met, there in the Quarter.”
“It was Thanksgiving week,” Sandra whispered. “I remember now.”
“I didn’t get to talk with my brother that whole week. He was so busy. And then...”
“He died,” Sandra said quietly, but flatly.
“He died,” Val repeated. “I have questions. See, I’ve blamed my younger sister for Van’s death, all this time. I’ve thought for so long that Sylvi had gone to buy drugs that day and that Van was stabbed when he tried to stop her. But I now understand that Van was also using. I was hoping you could tell me why he was there at the Sixth Day café that day. If he was buying for himself or trying to stop Sylvi from buying.”
Sandra leveled a sharp stare across the table. “You shouldn’t ask questions that you don’t want to know the answers to.”
Val’s shoulders slumped. “He was there to buy, then.”
“Not exactly.” Sandra leaned over to whisper in her attorney’s ear.
The attorney’s brows shot up in surprise. “I don’t know. We can ask Mr.Hogan.”
Reuben took the seat next to Val. “Ask me what?”
“Miss Springfield has information about a murder. She’s wondering what it’s worth.”
“It depends,” Reuben said. “Let’s hear it and we can decide.”
Sandra and her attorney shared another look, and then he nodded. “Go ahead.”
Sandra turned to Val. “Be sure. Once I tell you this, you won’t be able to unhear it.”
Val visibly braced herself, but Kaj could see her hands trembling. “I’m sure.”
“Sylvi wasn’t there to buy. She’d followed Ivan, trying to keep him from buying. She didn’t know who he really was.”
Val swallowed audibly. “Who he really was? What does that mean? Who was he?”
“Ivan ran Sixth Day. He was at the café because the business was his.”
Holy shit. Kaj hadn’t expected that at all.
Val stared in shock, and Kaj wanted to hold her. He wanted to drag her out, take her away to where she wouldn’t have to hear these things.
“What?” Val whispered, her voice breaking. “He was what?”
Sandra’s smile was grim. “The big kahuna. Ivan didn’t make the drugs, but he directed those who did. He decided which dealers got which routes, how much they got to sell, and what they’d charge. And he took a generous cut.”
Val’s mouth opened. “I... I don’t understand. This can’t be right. You’re lying.”
“I’m not. He had a lot of very influential customers. Movers and shakers. Society wives. And, of course, all the normal junkies that Sixth Day had sold to before he took over, but he made his real money off the rich bastards. He was a classy source. An acceptable source.”
“Why should I believe you?”
Sandra shrugged. “You asked. I’m just giving you an honest answer.” She looked at Reuben. “The names of the movers and shakers is a separate deal.”
“Why?” Val demanded. “Why would Van sell drugs? This is insane.”
“Why does anyone do it? Money. He’d had to pay his firm back for some... irregularities. He needed the cash.”
Val continued to stare, her expression tortured. “Irregularities?”
“He embezzled a shit ton of money from Cunningham and Spector.”
