Identity (48 page)

But instead of avoiding Ludlow and Associates, which was her first instinct, she decided to enter the lion’s den. In her experience, the best way to deal with a bully was to stand up to him, even if—especially if—the prospect of doing so was unnerving.

She gave herself a quick sponge bath, threw on jeans, a light sweater, and ankle boots, and downed half a fluffernutter and a pain pill. Fina gripped her gun and strode down to her car, itching for a fight.

At the office, Carl’s door was ajar, and Fina pushed through it, much to the consternation of his assistant.

Carl was on the phone and glared at her. She sat down in a chair in front of his desk and glared back until he cut the conversation short.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Don’t ever compare me to Rand again.”

“Or else?”

Fina stared at him.

He studied her. After a moment, he spoke. “You need to calm down.”

“Maybe, but you need to stop antagonizing me.”

They looked at each other.

Finally, Carl broke the impasse. “This is a waste of time. Let’s move on.”

It was what Fina wanted, but it also irked her. She knew the error was her own; she always rose to the bait that Carl reeled out before her. She got worked up, and then deflated when he was done with the exercise. It was all about control, and Fina realized that, once again, Carl had way too much influence over her. She could have ignored his harsh words the night before, gotten a good night’s sleep, and been on her merry way. Instead, her father had taken up prime real estate in her head for the last twelve hours.

“Let’s.” Fina stood and left the office.

She spotted a familiar face when she walked by one of the small conference rooms.

“Hi, Renata. I’m surprised to see you here,” she said, popping her head into the room.

Renata looked up from the document she was reading. “Hello, Fina. I have a meeting with an associate to discuss my case against Heritage.”

“So you’re going ahead with it?” Fina came into the room and leaned her butt against the table.

“I’m seriously considering it.”

Fina nodded. “How are the girls?”

“They’re fine. Busy. I’ll be relieved when this murder is solved.”

That was ironic, coming from the original pot stirrer.

“So will I,” Fina said.

Renata’s phone beeped. She looked at the screen and shook her head.

“Something wrong?”

“I’m fighting with our health insurance, trying to get an appointment with a new allergist for Alexa. I hate insurance companies.”

“You and my father both. Good luck with that.” She left Renata tapping furiously on her phone and bumped into Matthew on the way out.

“Do you have a sec?” he asked.

“Sure. What’s going on?” She followed him down the hallway to
Scotty’s office, where he was gabbing on the phone, his feet propped on the desk. Matthew walked over to the Magic Genie pinball machine and pulled back on the plunger, releasing a ball into play. Fina watched as the ball ricocheted around the bright-pink-and-turquoise playfield and celebrated bonus points with flashing lights. The sound had been muted on the machine—it was a place of business, after all—and Matthew swore under his breath thirty seconds later when the ball slipped through the flippers.

“Guys,” Fina said, tapping her watch.

Scotty wrapped up his call, and her brothers glanced at her nervously.

“What’s going on?”

“Rand’s coming back,” Scotty said, and cracked his knuckles.

“When?”

“I don’t know the details,” Scotty said.

Fina folded her arms across her chest. “And you two are in favor of this?” She glared at them.

“No, of course not,” Scotty said. “But what can we do about it?”

“Something,” she insisted. “We have do
something
.”

“I’m staying out of it,” Matthew said, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender.

“You don’t get to stay out of it,” Fina said. “That’s not an option.”

Matthew shrugged.

Fina could feel the blood creeping up her neck. “No, seriously. It’s not an option.”

“What are you suggesting, Fina?” asked Scotty.

She moved her hands to her hips. “That he be banned from the family.”

“How would we even do that? And what about Mom and Dad? There has to be another way, some way to keep the peace.”

“Do you think Haley has much peace when he’s around?” Her brothers were silent. “Please, support me on this.” They didn’t protest, which Fina decided to accept as tacit agreement. She walked to the door and
turned to look at them. “Our family may be more fucked up than most, and you can feel bad about that, but don’t let your sadness cloud your judgment. The next generation is counting on us not to fuck things up even more.”

Fina fumed in the elevator down to the garage. All you had to do was pick up the paper or turn on the news to find examples of collective denial and the destruction it wrought, but she couldn’t stomach it when it came to her own family. Sure, it was heart-wrenching to admit that your sibling was a monster, but it was even more terrifying to pretend otherwise.

•   •   •

Heritage Cryobank’s Miracle Ball was unquestionably Walter’s favorite event of the year. Although the children themselves didn’t attend, their grateful parents did and spent much of the evening lavishing him with praise. The staff created an elaborate photo display of the cryokids, and the event gave their clients an opportunity to interact with one another. When they’d first started the ball twenty years before, attendance had been small; people weren’t yet comfortable associating themselves with a cryobank, but that had changed. It was no longer a source of shame or embarrassment. The bank partnered with a local children’s charity, thereby raising their standing in the community. And who didn’t like the chance to dress up in fancy clothes and get a night off from their kids?

“It doesn’t make sense, Walter.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying, Ellen.” He sipped his cappuccino and looked at her.

Ellen took a deep breath, presumably to tamp down her irritation. Good. Walter was glad that he got to her.

“The Miracle Ball doesn’t fit with our mission. We don’t make any real money from it, the charity doesn’t make much, and frankly, I think it’s weird.”

Walter put down his mug and leaned over his desk. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Reproduction and conception are supposed to be private matters. I think it’s weird to throw ourselves a party and invite the press. It’s very self-congratulatory.”

“It’s a celebration of the families we’ve created. I’m stunned that you find fault with that.”

Ellen crossed her legs. She looked tan, as if she’d recently returned from a tropical isle. “There are others who share my concerns.”

“Really? Who are these ‘others’?”

“Other members of management.”

“Well, they should bring me those concerns directly.”

“You don’t generally welcome dissent.”

Walter threw his hands up. “I have an open-door policy, Ellen. You know that.”

“I do.”
But not an open-mind policy,
she thought.

“I know you want to put your stamp on the bank, and I appreciate your enthusiasm, but we won’t be making any changes to the ball. Not this year.” He picked up a pen and began to write.

“Not this year. Okay.” Ellen stood and left his office.

•   •   •

After Fina left her brothers, some questions occurred to her that required immediate attention. She circled the streets near Renata’s office and finally wedged her car into a too-tight space. Just like on her last visit, there was a small gaggle of men loitering by the front door. They were laughing and gabbing, but parted like the Red Sea when Fina approached.

The same stringy-haired young woman was manning the front desk. She held up an elaborately decorated talon to Fina as she wrapped up a call on her cell phone.

“Did you turn it off and then on again?” she asked, rolling her eyes
at Fina. “Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Dad, I’ve gotta go. I’ll stop by tonight and see if I can fix it.”

Fina smiled. The younger generation used to help their parents in the fields; now their job was to troubleshoot their electronics for them.

“So it just came back on?” she said. “What did you press?” Fina could hear animated chatter on the other end. “Dad, I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

She ended the call and looked at Fina. “Sorry about that. My father is lost without his
Ellen
. How can I help?”

“I’m here to see Renata.” Fina handed over her ID.

“Let me see if she’s available.”

The young woman tapped the phone keys with nails painted with a chevron pattern of orange, black, and blue. Fina couldn’t imagine getting daily tasks done with them, not to mention personal care. One wrong move doing her business and she’d look like a crime victim. Fina cringed at the thought.

After a brief conversation, the receptionist hung up the phone. “Renata says go right back.”

“Thanks.”

Fina wound her way through the hallway to Renata’s office, where she was sitting behind the desk, writing something on a notepad.

“I have to leave in a few minutes for a meeting,” Renata announced when Fina crossed the threshold.

“That’s all right. This won’t take long.” Fina stood across from her desk.

Renata looked at her expectantly.

“Do you suffer from allergies?” Fina asked.

Renata raised an eyebrow. “I don’t understand.”

Leave it to Renata to make things more complicated than need be. “It’s not a trick question. Do you suffer from allergies or asthma?”

“No.”

“So Alexa doesn’t get her allergies from you.”

“No, that’s one thing I can’t be blamed for.”

“Does Rosie have allergies or asthma?”

“No.” She put down her pen. “Why all these questions?”

“When you chose your donors, did you get to see a medical history?”

“A very limited one. Nothing like they provide nowadays.”

“So you wouldn’t have known about those particular conditions at the time of conception?”

“No. What does this have to do with Hank?”

“That’s what I’m figuring out.”

Renata stood and began putting folders into her soft-sided briefcase. Fina waited as she grabbed her coat from a hook on the back of the door and followed her to the lobby.

“I’ll be back in a couple of hours,” she told the young receptionist.

Fina held the door open for her and listened as Renata conversed in rapid-fire Spanish with a couple of the men near the door. She laughed at their responses.

“See you, Renata. Thanks.” Fina started down the sidewalk in the opposite direction.

“I want to know what you find out!” Renata called after her.

Why did everyone think she worked for them?

•   •   •

Fina met Cristian at a café close to the police station, where he was getting a coffee to go.

“You want anything?” he asked.

“Nah.” French toast with a side of bacon appealed, but it was tough to eat on the go.

“You’re calmer than I expected,” Cristian said. A waitress handed him a cup, which he carried over to a side counter. He popped on a plastic cover. “You sounded stressed last night in your message.”

“I was a little worked up, but I’m calmer now because I’ve taken action.”

“Oh God.”

“Nothing illegal.”

“I’ll take your word for it. So, what’s up?”

“I got more pictures of Haley last night.”

Cristian looked at her. He motioned to a table in the window that offered a little more privacy. “I guess our friend Denny Calder isn’t behind it, then?”

“He’s still locked up, right?”

“Yeah. He had a couple of outstanding warrants.”

Fina brushed some sugar granules off the tabletop. “So either his employer is sending them to me or it’s somebody else.”

“And the action you alluded to?”

“I went ahead and hired protection for Haley. It seemed stupid not to take precautions.”

“I would agree with that. Who’d you get?” He wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin.

“Robin Dwyer. You know her?”

He shook his head. “The name’s not familiar.”

“She does a lot of high-level protection gigs. She’s good, and discreet.” Fina looked at him. “One of us needs to solve this case. Soon.”

Cristian nodded. “I know.”

“How’s Cindy?” Fina asked.

The corner of Cristian’s mouth twitched into a grin.

“What? You’re being secretive all of a sudden?” she asked.

“No. She’s good.”

“Well, good.”

“I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about Cindy,” he admitted.

“Why not?”

They got up from the table and walked out. On the sidewalk, a woman was gripped in the momentary paralysis leading up to a big sneeze, which she then released into the nook of her elbow.

“Gesundheit!” Fina offered.

“Thank you,” the woman said, and walked through the door that Cristian held open.

“I thought you might have an issue with Cindy,” he said, catching up to Fina, “because sometimes you and I have a thing.”

Fina shrugged. “I feel fine about it.”

But sitting in her car a few moments later, she had to wonder: Did she really feel fine about it?

•   •   •

Fina called Ellen Alberti and arranged to meet her for lunch at the CambridgeSide Galleria. She had some time to kill, so she called Patty to ask about the bodyguard situation and thank her for her patience. Raising someone else’s kid—a challenging kid at that—was no small task, but Patty took Haley’s addition to the family in stride. If you could judge a man by his choice of wife, then Scotty was a star.

Inside the food court, Fina found Ellen by the Middle Eastern counter. They ordered gyros and hummus, and Ellen insisted on sharing a small Greek salad. They carried their trays to a table and waited as a short elderly Asian woman wiped it off.

Ellen looked great, lightly tanned and bright-eyed. Her shift dress flattered her toned body, and a collection of bracelets showed off her delicate wrists.

“How are things at Heritage?” Fina asked.

“The usual, which I’m not pleased about.”