Ivan unzipped the suitcase and showed him.
“Holy shit,” Jake said. “I knew those cases were full of something shady, but this is unbelievable.” He gazed severely into Ivan’s eyes. “You know he’ll be after your blood when he realizes this is missing? And the guys he’s working for will be after his blood if they find out.”
“I know.” Ivan ran his fingers through his hair. “So why does he want Samira out the picture? Is it because of the drugs?”
“No. It’s because of some insurance claim. And he wants me to do it.”
“To kill her?”
“Uh-huh.”
“But what insurance? What the fuck’s going on?”
“He’s been stringing Samira along all this time. Apparently his other wife had a life insurance policy, so he killed her for the money – but he couldn’t show her body to the cops, obviously. So he disposed of her somehow, then he found Samira and convinced her to pretend to be his wife. My guess is he wanted to make it look like an accident – then he could claim for the insurance on ‘Mrs. Langdon’, right?”
Ivan stared at the kitchen floor – his heart thumped hard in his chest. “Jesus... That does make sense though… Samira said she was certain the bank by the creek didn’t crumble by itself the other day. She said maybe someone had set her up… But I had no idea Langdon had actually been setting her up to kill her.”
“Well, there you go. I guess he was just biding his time for the next ‘accident’. Then you showed up.”
Ivan clenched his fists, trying to contain his fury. “And he’d have plenty of eye-witnesses at the ranch who knew her as Mrs. Langdon, so he could cash in on the insurance policy for the real Mrs. Langdon…”
“Exactly. And in the meantime, he was using her as a drugs mule, knowing she’d do anything to stay in the country and protect her child. He’s pretty smart really.”
Ivan grimaced. “What happened to the real Mrs. Langdon?
“I’d hate to imagine.”
Ivan’s mind raced with questions – as well as desperate relief that he got to Samira just in time. “But I don’t understand – why does he now want you to take care of this?”
“Because he’s getting desperate – and he thinks I still work for him. Suddenly you know Samira isn’t Mrs. Langdon – which fucks up his entire plan. Now I guess he wants her dead before she blabs. Or perhaps he just wants revenge on her for wasting his time before moving onto the next poor girl.”
“Do you think he owes a lot of money to someone? I mean, why would anyone go to those means?”
“He said he has debts, but he didn’t say to who. Maybe he owes money to the drugs cartel for losing an entire suitcase full of coke.”
Ivan gazed blankly at him. “Yeah, yeah, very funny…” He grabbed his phone. “I’m calling the cops.”
Jake folded his arms across his chest. “Not so fast, Ivan – you’ve got a suitcase full of cocaine and an illegal immigrant in your parents’ house, the day before your brother’s wedding. Don’t you think we should leave them out of it for now, huh?”
Ivan lowered the phone and opened his mouth to argue, but his father strolled into the kitchen. “Ivan, what are you doing out here, son? We’re waiting to start the poker – we’re supposed to be celebrating Adam’s last day of freedom.”
Ivan transferred his attention to Jake, who was glaring furiously at Quinlan Senior as if he was about to attack.
Quinlan Senior followed Ivan’s gaze, then offered Jake his hand. “Oh hi. I don’t think we’ve been introduced. Friend of yours, Ivan?”
Ivan understood why Jake was furious with his biological father for what had happened. But Adam’s special weekend had already had enough drama – thanks to Ivan. He needed to contain this. He braced himself to jump in if Jake was planning to blurt out the truth.
He watched tensely as Jake moved his hand toward Mr. Quinlan’s. Then he wrapped his fingers around his father’s hand and shook it in a daze, seething under the surface.
“Uh, dad,” Ivan said. “This is Mr.… er…”
“Jake,” he said. “Jacob.”
Quinlan Senior chuckled. “Jake Jacobs?”
“Ah, yeah.”
“Funny name. Your parents obviously didn’t like you much.”