“I know that!” she barks at me like I’m an imbecile. “I mean you seen him since he got out?”
“Since he got out? I… didn’t know he got out. We split up before he got arrested.”
“He’s missin’ and he has to get his ass to court Monday or else I’m not gettin’ the money back. I need that money.”
I give my head a shake. “I… I haven’t seen him.”
“Well, fuck,” she grits out. “That little shithead best not fuck me over. I bail him out and he fuckin’ vanishes. You see him, you tell him to be in court Monday or else he’s dead to me. I got plans for that money when I get it back and if he dicks me over again…” She throws her hand up in the air. “Little fucker.” She looks me over again and then storms out.
I’m kind of thrown. More than kind of.
Ray told me he didn’t talk to his family. I can see from not even two minutes with her why he had no relationship with her. He always said she was abusive. Even more abusive than his father who used to get drunk and beat him. It’s written all over her. She bailed him out of jail? He made it sound like she was living in squalor in the same dumpy place he grew up in.
I’m glad Tara is on the phone and unable to ask the questions I can tell she has by the look on her face. I head back to my desk and shakily close things down. It’s five to five. And my head is kind of spinning.
65
Killian
When I see Violet leave her office building, I get out of the car and round it, ready to open the door for her. That’s when I hear my name from behind me.
“Killian? That you?”
I turn and see Sandra Iadanza crossing the street, coming toward me.
Violet’s approaching from the side.
Sandra looks at Violet and then her eyes dart back to me with questions in them.
Fuck. My. Life.
I open the door.
“You, stay there,” I point at Sandra as soon as her feet are on the sidewalk. “I’ll talk to you in a minute. Don’t come any fucking closer. And keep your mouth shut for a minute.”
She freezes.
“In the car, baby.”
“Killian?” Violet asks.
She’s heard me, obviously.
“In the car, baby,” I repeat and gesture for Violet to get inside.
Raymond’s bitch mother is afraid of me, but she’s standing her ground with a cold glare on her face. She used to be an attractive woman. I see the scar over her eye that I know my mother put there when they got into a fist fight over that asshole who was fucking Sandra while living with my mother. Beyond that scar, the years haven’t been kind. Not surprisingly.
Violet still hasn’t gotten in the car.
“Baby, please.”
She climbs in and I shut the door and meet Sandra at the back of my SUV.
“What do you want, Sandra?”
“I came to see her and find out if she knows where my boy is. And she tells me they split up. Now I see you here. That’s kind of odd. She split with him and now she’s with you? Didn’t even know you and Ray are still friends.”
“We’re not. Total coincidence. When you saw me, you know you should’ve turned around and walked away, Sandra.”
She flinches. I told her a long fucking time ago I did not want her anywhere near me when she tried to offer me a blowjob for dope money. Yeah. I was seventeen and she caught wind I was making good money with bookmaking. I’d just gotten paid from her idiot son when she approached me and came onto me. I told her if she ever got near me again, I’d make her sorry.
“Ray’s got court Monday and I can’t find him. He’s been gone for a couple weeks and if he doesn’t show up, I lose the security.”
“This isn’t my problem. It’s also not Violet’s. Stay away from the both of us.”
“I got no beef with you, Killian Coulter. None at all.” She raises her hands. “But, if you see my son, tell him I need that money. Henny said -”
“I don’t give a fuck what Hennessy said, Sandra. And I don’t expect to see your son.”
She stares at me.
“Violet and I have plans. If you’re taking a bus home, that’s your bus coming.”
I gesture across the street.
She narrows her eyes. “You happen to hear news of Ray, you know where to find me. Same place as always.”
She’s thick-headed, that woman.
She jay-walks, and gets to the bus as it stops on the opposite corner. As the bus pulls away, I see she’s got her eyes on me out the window. And I don’t fuckin’ like that it looks like her wheels are turning. She’s a headache I do not need right now. Or ever.