Kim opened the door and immediately tried to slam it shut, but she was no match for me in my mood. I threw it open and brushed past her with little effort, intent on finding out how much damage she’d done. “Don’t bother trying to make me leave. I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what you did to make Nina run away.”
Closing the door, she scowled at me. “You can’t change things with your money this time. The truth can’t be stifled by any amount.”
“You just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?”
“And let my sister marry a murderer? No way. People like you get away with things every day. I hear my husband talk about getting people off all the time, and with your money, your father no doubt had to just flash a few big bills in front of some underpaid D.A. and that was it. No more problems for his baby boy.”
I shook my head at how in the dark she was. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t kill Melissa. She overdosed.”
“I’m sure. How much does it cost to get a coroner to say that?” she spit out at me.
“I swear to God if Nina is hurt because of you, I’ll make your life a living fucking hell. You think I can buy whatever I want with my money? If one gentle hair on Nina’s head suffers because of what you’ve done, I’ll devote every last cent of what I have to making you pay. You have no idea what you might have done this time.”
Kim shrugged and shot me a sneer. “I told her the truth about you. If that causes you a problem, so be it.”
Balling my fists in rage, I tried to keep myself from hitting a woman for the first time in my life. “That man I made sure you and your family were safe from might have her right now. I don’t know where she is, and I can only hope that the Feds have him in custody or he hasn’t made bail, because if he has, he’s going straight for her. All of this because you couldn’t let her be happy.”
“I was just doing what I promised my father I’d always do for Nina—watching out for her. Your father made sure I had to do that.”
Suddenly, everything I’d been holding in exploded from me. “I’m not my fucking father or brother! I’ve done everything in my power to show you I’m not like my family. If I hadn’t made sure you were safe all that time, Karl would have killed you and your family. I’m not a murderer. All you had to do is have your husband do a little searching and you’d know that. Melissa overdosed. I’m not saying I wasn’t there or don’t still feel responsible in some way still to this day, but I didn’t kill her.”
Kim’s stood there in her living room shifting her weight from foot to foot just like Nina did when she was uncomfortable. She knew I hadn’t killed anyone and still she’d told Nina about Melissa. Slowly, she moved toward the table behind the sofa and pulled a sheet of paper out of her purse.
“My father believed you were a murderer. Just because Jeff found out otherwise doesn’t mean I have to believe him instead. All that lawyer talk just meant that they didn’t have enough evidence to overcome your family’s money.”
I took the paper from her hand and recognized it as the same kind as in her father’s notebook. He’d told my mother the truth. He hadn’t revealed everything he’d found about our family, just as he’d promised her. He’d intended on it never seeing the light of day. That’s why he’d sent her the information with that last letter he’d written.
Looking down at the sheet of paper in my hand, I read what Nina had learned about me. “Your father had decided not to disclose this information. Why did you think you had to do that now?”
“My father was a sentimental man who didn’t always think clearly. He was likely impressed with your mother, probably because of her money, and didn’t realize that the person he was friends with wasn’t that girl he knew in college but just the matriarch of a family of murderers.”
Never before in my life had I wanted to hurt someone like I wanted to hurt Kim at that moment. How anyone so petty and nasty could be related to Nina and her father baffled me, but I didn’t have time to ponder what had happened to make her so vicious and jealous. I stuffed Joseph Edwards’ notes into my pocket and left Kim to her misery, unsure of where I’d find Nina but sure that I wasn’t going to get any help there. I just had to hope I found her before Karl did.
On the way to my car, I felt my phone vibrate and quickly yanked it from my coat, hoping to see Nina’s name. It was only Daryl, though. Sliding my finger across the screen, I answered it and prayed he had some good news. “Tell me you found something,” I said as I opened the driver’s side door.
“Nothing yet,” Daryl said in a somber voice. “Do you have any idea why she left? Varo said you went to see her sister.”
I started the car and breathed a sigh of disgust, not only at Kim but at myself too. “Yeah. She found out about Melissa. Kim told her.”
Daryl said nothing for a long time, and then in his indomitable way, summarized my current problem succinctly. “Well, that was pretty stupid of you not to tell her, especially since you did nothing wrong.”
“Thanks. Just what I need. I know it was stupid, Daryl, but since I still think I was to blame, I just never found a way to tell her.”
“Water under the bridge now. We need to find your lady ASAP. So where would she go?”
Places raced through my mind, but none stuck out as the place I thought she’d go when she was upset. “I have no idea.”
Daryl made that clucking noise with his tongue he made when he was thinking and then said, “I’d suggest getting the word out to your hotels. She might go to one of them. I already checked the penthouse and no one has seen her there tonight.”
I headed out of Kim’s development toward home, wondering how much time I had. “What do we know about Karl?”
“What do you mean? I thought the Washington guys had him.”
“I have no idea if he’ll be held. If he’s not, how do I know he won’t find Nina before we do? And do you have any idea where the hell West is? Varo didn’t know where he was, and I’m worried he has something to do with Nina’s disappearance.”
“Whoa! I don’t think she’s disappeared, and what the fuck would West have to do with that?”
Putting my foot to the floor, I gassed it and began weaving through traffic. “I have no idea, Daryl. It just seems suspicious that Nina’s gone and West is nowhere to be found. I don’t care where he is if he isn’t with Nina, but if he is, he better fucking hope I don’t find him when I finally get to her, or I’m going to fucking kill him.”