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“But I was a street hustler and he was a millionaire.”
Valencia didn’t like the way it sounded, but it was the truth. She married for money. That was what she did and why she did it. She saw her future life with Geno, and although she thought that she was falling in love with him and the time that they spent together was awesome, Valencia just didn’t see a future in it for them beyond living on love.
“Yes, and I am still paying the price for that decision.”
Geno was about to say I’m sorry, but what did he have to be sorry for?
“I had gone back to school, reimagined my company and was just starting to get it back together, when Coleman Patterson came into my world.”
“The dead blackmailer,” he said, since he didn’t tell her that Marvin killed her other blackmailer; he just gave her back the money and said that he wouldn’t bother her anymore.
“He presented himself as an art collector looking for a business consultant. Next thing I know he’s telling me how I arranged for Ezequiel Simmonds to murder Gustavo and knows more details about it than I do.”
“What does any of that have to do with Mrs. Black getting questioned in Ferreira’s murder?”
“Because Ezequiel is blackmailing me too.”
“What does he want?”
“He wants me to arrange a meeting with him and Mike Black, because they want to run their drugs out of Freeport.”
“Why can’t they approach Black directly?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t tell me why, just that he was forbidden. But I do know that it has something to do with the Comodoro’s, and somebody named Rodrigo Iñíguez. While I was in the hospital, Ezequiel came to see me and all but told me that he was responsible for the food poisoning. Then he told me that Andrade was in New York looking for somebody to supply tobacco machine parts for his cigar business in Brazil and asked me to help him. So, me, like the stupid fool that I am, thinking that if I do this for him that I would finally be free of him, I put Andrade in touch with Shy.”
“Guys like that.” Geno shook his head. “Once they get their hooks in you, there will always be something else to drag you in deeper.”
“What am I gonna do?”
Geno picked up the bottle and poured them both another drink. “No point in you talking to Black about it. Rain Robinson is the boss of The Family in New York, but Napoleon runs things in Freeport. I think that we should go talk to him.”
Valencia leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
“Thank you, Geno.”
Chapter Eighteen
For Shy, the hour-long ride from the NYPD 19th precinct
on East 67th Street to their home in New Rochelle, seemed to take forever. She and Patrick Freeman had just spent three hours being interviewed about the murder of Andrade Ferreira.
Where the prior day’s interview seemed casual, with just a few questions being asked about the murder, that day’s interview was much more intense. Detectives Sanders and Ross kept going over the same points and then, DEA agent Dietrich would ask a totally unrelated question about her and her past life. It always drew the same response from Patrick.
“I don’t see where that has any relevance to the matter at hand.”
However, where the detective seemed annoyed by it the day before, that day, they not only permitted it, but fed off it, even encouraged Dietrich’s comments.
Something had changed; she just didn’t know what.
When Black called Rain back the night before, he was disappointed. She told him that since they didn’t have anybody at the 19th precinct, that she wasn’t able to get any information about Shy from any of their usual sources. “Okay,” he said, and ended the call. His next call was to Wanda.
“Hey, Mike.”
“Cassandra got questioned by the police and I need you to—”
“What did they question her about?”
“The murder of Andrade Ferreira.”
