“Well, what?” Vikki Hill asked. She’d eaten her egg-and-bagel sandwich as soon as it arrived at the table, and now she was sipping coffee.
“What have you found out? That police detective keeps showing up at my door, asking questions about the day Tanya was killed and my past relationship with Letty. Which is nuts—because Letty is the one who killed Tanya and abducted my kid. What’s taking so damn long?”
“They haven’t come out and accused you of killing your ex, right?” Vikki asked.
“Not in so many words, but the implication is there, and I don’t appreciate it,” Evan said. “I don’t understand why they’re not concentrating on finding Letty. And Maya.”
“Seems like Letty Carnahan is off the grid,” Vikki said. “The cops didn’t get any hits from the Amber Alert. Zero. Let me ask you this, Evan. How much do you think Letty knows about your Airbnb business?”
He waved the question aside. “She worked for me, for over a year, but that was ages ago. Letty wasn’t involved in the financial side. She was more like guest relations. Why? What’s that got to do with anything?”
Vikki raised one eyebrow. “Motive? That’s what the cops are looking for.”
“I keep telling that detective, and I’m telling you too, Letty was jealous of Tanya. And she was obsessed with Maya. There’s your motive. Maya.”
“Maybe.” Vikki looked dubious. “How much did Tanya know about your business?”
“More than she goddamn should have,” Evan muttered. He stared at her. “She knew about you. About our… arrangement.”
“What?” She set her mug down, sloshing coffee onto the tabletop. “You never told me that. How could she know?”
“I’m still trying to figure that out. But she did. The day she died, when I was at her apartment, Tanya threatened me. Said she knew I’d bribed an investigator working for the city to look the other way. Concerning the uh, the Astoria thing. And the other properties. She knew about theHamiltontickets and the Vegas trip.… She knew your name. Hinted that we were having an affair.”
“Shit!” Vikki Hill looked around the diner, then lowered her voice. “You don’t think Tanya actually talked to anybody about our arrangement, do you? I mean, it’s my ass that’s on the line here, Wingfield.”
“Relax, okay? She threatened to go to the IRS, you know, to blab about the different business entities, but there’s no way she would have. I was her meal ticket, and no matter how many threats she made, down deep, she knew that. She was pissed, that’s all, because she knew I had the upper hand.”
“How so?”
“Let’s just say I had the goods on her, and leave it at that. Can we get back to finding Letty and my kid now?”
“I’m working on it,” she said. “You have no idea where she might have gone? Friends or family who might be helping her hide?”
“No.”
“Wonder what she’s doing for money? I called her former boss, but he wasn’t any help. Said she was a good worker, blah, blah, blah. My source at the police department says her bank account hasn’t been touched, not that there’s much there. I’ve got more moneyunder my sofa cushions than she had in her checking account. Could Tanya have given her money?”
He’d been knotting and unknotting a rolled-up paper napkin, but at the mention of money he looked up. “Maybe. Or maybe Letty stole from Tanya, before she took off with Maya.”
“Would Tanya have ready access to cash?”
“She had the child support I paid, and whatever she might have saved on her own from her acting gigs, but Tanya burned through money. She was like a child that way.”
“Was anything missing from her apartment?”
He scowled. “The cops won’t let me in. Even though I own the place. They say it’s a crime scene. I’m supposed to get an inventory of the apartment at some point, but I’m not holding my breath.”
“Do you think Tanya told Letty about our arrangement?”
Evan blotted his lips with what was left of the paper napkin. “Who knows? Find Letty. And then we’ll figure out exactly how much she does or doesn’t know.”
18
ISABELLE SHOVED THE LAUNDRY CARTthrough the swinging doors. Letty stood at a table in the middle of the room, folding an unending mound of towels and sheets.
“Letty, have you seen Maya?” she asked.
“No, I haven’t seen her,” Letty answered in a high, loud voice. “Where could she be?”
