I swallowed. It had to be coincidental. “Mob guys can hate child molesters too.”
“Not denying that. But supposedly Nick didn’t even know James Pries was a sex offender. So why was a mafia guy taking a hit out on a child predator?”
Even though the thought had already taken up residence in my mind, I wasn’t ready to believe it. “There could be a hundred reasons. Maybe they fought over toilet paper. Maybe James fought back when Nick was making him his bitch. This probably has nothing at all to do with Amber.”
“Maybe.” Joe’s tone said he didn’t believe that for a second. “It’s just interesting considering the last man she was seen spending time with was Reeve Sallis, who also has mob ties.”
“Rumored mob ties.” Jesus, even to myself I sounded defensive.
“Yeah, yeah, ‘rumored.’” He was quiet for several seconds. “I just can’t get that picture out of my mind, the one of Sallis with Vilanakis. Not many people can get that close to Vilanakis.”
I knew the picture. It had been one of the earlier things that Joe had uncovered about Reeve. I’d seen the picture myself on the Web, but hadn’t known the significance of the second man. His name wasn’t even labeled on the post. It was a crappy phone pic taken at a family dinner and shared on a personal blog. I’d thought nothing of it until Joe had emailed it to me almost two weeks before Christmas with a simple message: “Michelis Vilanakis. Known crime boss. What’s the connection?”
It was the moment that the plan I’d been knocking around in the back of my mind seemed to become necessary.
Then why was I so eager to dismiss the connection between the mafia and James Pries now?
If I was being honest with myself it was because of Reeve. Because now I’d met him. Because now I didn’t want to think of him as that dangerous. Because I didn’t need any reason to be more attracted to him than I already was.
But Joe was right. “I know. I know. Just, there hasn’t been anything to prove that and I don’t want to make connections that aren’t based on anything verifiable in case it causes us to neglect other important facts that will help us find her.”
“Find out what happened to her,” Joe corrected. He made sure I never forgot that he believed we were looking for a dead person.
It was one of the first things he’d said when we’d met. “You know, after forty-eight hours missing, the odds are that the victim is deceased.”
“Amber’s not a statistic,” I’d said firmly. “I know her. She knows how to lay low, how to disappear. In fact, I don’t even know that she’s missing. Just that she needs my help.”
“No one can find her. That means she’s missing. She’s been missing for several months. She’s not going to be alive.”
“Well,” I’d said. “We’ll just agree to disagree.” I’d realized I was lucky to have someone help me at all. If we had different bets on the outcome, that was fine. The search process was the same either way.
Still, I reminded him of my stance as often as he reminded me of his. “What will you do when you find her alive and well?” I asked him now.
“Let you say, ‘I told you so.’”
“Oh, I will.” I chewed my lip as I debated whether or not to share the information I’d learned since last speaking to Joe, knowing he’d want to know my source. Since any detail could prove important, I settled on disclosure. “On the topic… did you know that Reeve lived with his maternal grandparents in Greece for a couple of years after his parents died?”
“No. Where did you hear this?”
It was the question I’d been dreading. I hadn’t told Joe what I was doing, nor did I plan to. Whether or not he tried to talk me out of it, he certainly wouldn’t approve. “It doesn’t matter where I heard it. But it’s credible. Maybe that’s where the rumors of ties to Greek mafia started?”
“Huh. Maybe. Or that’s when he started working with them.” Joe sounded like he thought the latter was more likely. “You didn’t happen to learn the maternal grandparents’ surname?”
“Isn’t it Kaya?”
“Well. Short answer – I don’t think so. His mother’s marriage certificate lists her maiden name as Kaya, but there’s simply no record of her existence before that. Every bio that Sallis has published says she grew up in Athens and met her husband at the opening dinner reception of his resort there. She was supposedly just out of school. Problem is, that event was invitation only and there’s no Kaya on the list. So say she came as a plus one. Ignore the question of who’d take a nobody kid to an important political event. Because that’s what it was – a dinner to schmooze the officials. It was a big deal for one of Greece’s own countrymen to bring his success back to his homeland. There would have been tight security. Elena would have been on the list, even as a date. Kaya has to be a fake name or that wasn’t where she really met Daniel Sallis. One of those is a lie. Which begs the question – why?”
Probably because where she really met him wasn’t suitable for discussing in polite company. I was jaded where very rich men were concerned, though. It was my experience that most of them bought their women. Why wouldn’t that be the case with Reeve’s father?
I hoped it was the case with Reeve as well or I was wasting my time at his resort.
But I didn’t say that to Joe. Instead I let his question hang.