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“Leonardo Ursini,” I introduce myself. “Jodie and I are old friends.”
The woman arches an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Nope, not friends,” Jodie corrects. “Just old acquaintances.”
She really hates me, huh?
“Very old,” I say. “We go all the way back to childhood.”
“Really?” Her friend touches her chin. “You must be her first love, then.”
“Gladys!” Jodie admonishes.
I shake my head. “No. That was my brother.”
“Oh, I see,” Gladys says. “You never said he had a brother.”
I try not to let that offend me.
“Something tells me this is the good-looking one.” She grins and offers me her hand. “I’m Gladys Talbot, by the way.”
I smile as I shake it.
“You have a boyfriend, remember?” Jodie reminds her.
“But you don’t,” Gladys retorts.
I like her.
“Anyway, what’s this about being locked up in an apartment?” Gladys asks me. “Jodie told me about how her father’s house burned down, but she didn’t say anything about sharing an apartment with a hot guy…”
“Gladys,” Jodie draws a deep breath. “Can you just leave us alone for a bit?”
For a moment, Gladys hesitates. Then she grins. “My pleasure. Take all the time you need. I’ll just be in my room.”
“Thanks,” I tell her.
Gladys nods and heads upstairs. As soon as she’s gone, Jodie speaks.
“I don’t care how you found me but you wasted your time. I’m not going with you.”
I figured as much. And the more I insist on it, the more she’ll push back.
I glance at the papers on the coffee table. “What are these?”
“Court records,” Jodie answers. “From a case my father handled five years ago.”
I pick up one of the sheets of paper and my eyes grow wide as I read the defendant’s name – Luigi Abramo, my father’s old consiglieri. Bart must have been representing him. As for the plaintiff, it’s also familiar.
Nico Yuzuriha, the son of the head of the Yuzuriha clan.
The case? Trespassing and sabotage.
“Do you think Nico Yuzuriha is responsible for your father’s death?” I ask Jodie.
She takes the sheet of paper from me. “Why should I tell you?”
I frown. I know she has a right to be mad at me because I kept something important from her, but right now she’s just being stubborn, pushing me away when she has no one else. It’s not attractive in the least.
“I’m not the enemy here, Jodie,” I tell her. “I’m trying to help you.”
“Says who? You?”
“I was the one who found out your father was murdered,” I remind her.
“And then you kept it from me,” she points out.
“But then I told you.”
“You slipped.”
I sigh. What do I have to say to her to convince her that I’m on her side?
“Bart was my friend, too,” I tell Jodie. “I liked him. I admired him. That’s why I came to pay my respects in his house. I want to find out who killed him just as much as you do.”
“And if your father’s involved?” Jodie asks me.
I swallow. “Then I want to know for sure. And if it’s true, I swear on Antonio’s grave that I myself will make him answer for it.”
Jodie falls silent. Then she lets out a deep breath.
“No.”
No?
“I will make him answer for it,” Jodie tells me. “I’ll drag him to court and I’ll make sure he stays behind bars for the rest of his life, however long or short that may be.”
I nod. “Got it.”
I sit on the couch.
“So does this mean we get to work together?”
Jodie looks at me. “Fine. But I still don’t trust you completely.”
“That’s fine,” I tell her. “I’ll convince you.”
She snorts.
I tap my finger on the table. “So, what are we going to do? Talk to Nico Yuzuriha? Because if that’s the case, I’m pretty sure I can get an appointment.”
Jodie’s eyebrows arch. “You can?”
I nod. “I know he’ll see me. But I’m not so sure he’ll want to see you, especially if he recognizes your last name. Besides, he’s quite shy. He might not open up to strangers, especially women.”
“Then you talk to him,” Jodie says. “Find out what he knows. And I’ll talk to his lawyer, Victor Delaney, and find out what he knows. It was he who my father defeated, after all.”
My eyebrows furrow. Really? Just a few seconds ago, Jodie thought I was on the enemy’s side. Now she trusts me to interrogate her number-one suspect in her father’s murder?
“Sure,” I say, knowing this is my chance to earn her trust. “I’ll do everything I can.”
~
The Yuzuriha mansion in Elk Grove Village is a traditional Japanese house with sliding doors, painted wall panels, straw floor mats, open corridors and a bonsai garden with a bamboo fountain and a koi pond. A middle-aged woman, also dressed traditionally, instructs me to remove my shoes at the entrance and leads me to one of the rooms. There, I find a mustachioed man in a suit.
Not Nico Yuzuriha but his younger brother, Ken, current CEO of Yuzuriha Corporation.
