Chapter 7
By the time we all filed into Norma’s house, the fire alarm was silent. Gloria had two windows cracked, and the thick gray haze was beginning to dissipate from the kitchen. The shattered remains of the smoke detector lay on the cutting board.
“I need a new one,” she said to Ramón.
He shook his head at the rolling pin beside it. “That’s the third detector you’ve broken this month.”
“I can’t help it. They give me a headache.”
He muttered in Spanish under his breath but agreed to go to the hardware store in the morning to buy her a new one.
Gloria got busy filling a small basket with pillowy, warm tortillas, and Norma put me to work serving out bowls of stew from the pot on the stove.
The rich red tomato broth was brimming with ground beef, potatoes, and onions, and a pan of something that looked like bread pudding was cooling on the counter.
The sugar-crusted top was singed around the edges.
Ramón helped me carry it all to the table while Vero filled a bag with ice and pressed it to Javi’s lip.
She set a place for him at the table, and we all took our seats.
Vero reached for the wine bottle and poured me a glass.
Gloria passed me a cup of water. “Finlay’s not having any alcohol. She gave it up for Lent.”
Vero looked at me askance. “Sure, she did.” She hid her smirk behind the wineglass, keeping it for herself.
“Thank you for letting us stay for dinner. Everything looks delicious,” I said, ignoring Vero’s scrutiny.
“It’s picadillo,” Gloria said. “We’ve all been under a lot of stress. I thought a little comfort food might be nice.”
“You should have told me you were coming,” Ramón said to Javi.
“Showing up like you did was a stupid idea. Norma’s right.
Vero can’t afford to give the prosecutor any more ammunition to use against her in court.
You have a record. If they find out she’s married to some guy who got busted trying to boost a car, it’s only going to—”
Norma gasped. Gloria’s mouth fell open. Ramón swore quietly as he realized his mistake.
Norma’s gaze darted to the plastic bat ring on Javi’s fourth finger as he slid it under the table. “What do you mean, married?”
“We’re not married!” Vero said, staring daggers at her cousin. “Javi and I just had too much to drink in some crappy casino.”
Javi looked stung. “Why do you have to keep discounting it like that? There are worse places to get married than a chapel in Atlantic City!”
“Name one!” Vero snapped.
He wisely shut his mouth.
She turned back to her mother. “Javi and I are not married. That wedding doesn’t count.”
“You’re doing it again!” Javi said. “It might not have been perfect, but it was ours!”
Both of Norma’s hands came down hard on the table beside her, rattling the wineglasses as she shot to her feet. The room erupted into chaos as everyone began shouting over one another in Spanish. The words flew like bullets over my head, but not one of them sounded like congratulations.
Gloria tried several times to intervene. Finally, she drained the wine from her glass and shouted, “Basta ya!”
We all fell silent.
She took a deep breath and eased back into her seat. “We’re all here for the same reason,” she said calmly. “To support Vero. Fighting over the past won’t fix what is happening now, so let’s all try to get along.”
Norma and Vero glared at each other across the table.
Gloria reached over, took her sister’s hand, and jerked her down into her seat.
Gloria took Norma’s wineglass and filled it to the brim, emptying the bottle.
Norma drank half the glass in one long gulp.
She violently tore a corner off her tortilla and shoved it into her mouth.
Javi ate slow, cautious bites, careful to keep his left hand hidden below the table.
“Has Vero’s attorney made any progress with her defense?” I asked, delicately changing the subject.
“I’ve known corpses who could put on a better defense than this guy,” Vero muttered.
Gloria clucked her tongue. “I’m sure Mr. Marcin is doing everything he can. Donald came highly recommended by Roberta Hernandez down the street. He defended her son when he got caught shoplifting. That was eighteen months ago, and Angel already finished his community service.”
“He was a minor,” Vero argued. “He took a Twix and a pack of gum from the self-checkout lane at the Walmart! That’s not the same thing. I’d be better off being defended by a third-year law student.”
“We’ve talked about this, mija,” Norma said. “Your friend isn’t qualified to practice law. And even if he was, he couldn’t represent you in this state.”
“At least Julian has a pulse. That’s one more bullet on his CV than Donald Marcin has. But why even bother trying, right? The only person who can testify on my behalf refuses to cooperate.”
“You have a witness?” Javi sat up, clearly as surprised as I was that Vero hadn’t mentioned this before now. He brimmed with hope. “That’s great, V!”
“Who is it?” I asked.
She pushed her stew around in her bowl. “Just someone I used to hang out with sometimes. We were together in my room before I left for the party, and we hung out for a while after it was over. The money went missing while I was there.” There was an uncomfortable silence from the rest of the table.
“I don’t understand,” Javi said. “If this witness was a friend of yours, why isn’t she willing to help you?”
“Because we had an argument. And he isn’t a she.”
Ramón winced. Gloria and Norma kept their eyes on their meals.
Javi looked at their downturned faces as Vero’s meaning sunk in. “You were dating him?”
She tossed her spoon into her bowl. “Sure, Javi. If that’s what you want to call it, I was dating him.” He recoiled as if she’d thrown ice water on his face. “Don’t look at me like that. You weren’t here, so you don’t get to judge.”
“You had an argument with some guy you were screwing around with, and he can’t be bothered to keep you out of prison? You bet, I’m judging! The guy sounds like a dick!”
She glared at him across the table. “Then that’s one less dick you need to worry about. Theo and I got in a huge fight after the money went missing, and he hasn’t spoken to me since. Does that make you happy?”
“Maybe we can talk to him and convince him to sign a witness statement,” I suggested to ease the tension.
“Don’t bother,” Vero said. “I’ve already tried.”
Javi sat back in his chair as if he’d lost his appetite. “Maybe Theo doesn’t want to help because he’s the one who took the money. If you go to jail, he’s off the hook.”
“Theo couldn’t have taken the money,” Vero replied.
“Did he know about it?”
“Yes.”
“And he knew where you kept it?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t matter.”
“Why not?”
“Because it just doesn’t.”
Ramón shot Javi a warning look as he pressed her. “Don’t tell me you still have feelings for this guy?”
“I never had feelings for him. It wasn’t that kind of relationship.”
“Then why bother making excuses for him? He could have stolen the money when he took you home.”
“He didn’t,” Vero said, losing her patience.
“How do you know?”
“Because I never went home, Javi! I stayed with Theo all night in his room!” Her cheeks reddened as the silence thickened around the table.
She lowered her voice. “After the party, I spent the night at his frat house. By the time I got back to my room the next day, the money was gone, and everyone knew it.”
Javi looked like he’d been punched in the gut. “Okay.” He rubbed a hand down his face as he recovered from the blow. “If you were with him all night, that’s at least an alibi. Right?”
“It’s not rock solid,” Ramón said quietly. “The prosecutor can still argue that she took the money out of her room before the party. Vero’s the only one who can say for sure that the money was still in her closet when she left.”
Javi looked confused. “I thought you said you were with Theo before the party.”
“I was,” she said. “But he told my attorney he didn’t know anything about the money.
He denied knowing it was ever in my room.
Theo was a small-time bookie, and he’d been in trouble for gambling before.
If he admitted to the police that he knew about the poker money, he’d have to explain how he and his friends were involved in the games, too.
Guess he didn’t want to get himself and his frat brothers in trouble.
He probably lied to my lawyer just so none of them would get stuck paying fines and doing community service like Ava and Mia did. ”
Javi cracked his knuckles under the table. “Then we’ll just have to persuade Theo to tell the truth.”
Norma gave a begrudging nod. “I agree. We should talk to him. We should ask Don where Theo lives.”
“Don doesn’t know,” Vero said. “He said Theo stopped returning his calls, and even I don’t know where to find him. Theo and his housemates would have all graduated by now.”
“I know someone who might be able to help,” I suggested.
Vero shot me a look. “We are not calling Cam.”
“Who’s Cam?” Norma asked.
It was probably best not to point out that Cameron was an eighteen-year-old high school dropout who had worked as a hacker for the Russian mob.
He and Vero didn’t always see eye to eye, probably because they were too much alike (a fact I would be loath to ever point out to either of them).
“He has a knack for finding people,” I said.
Vero laughed darkly. “No kidding. He was the one who called the cops and told them where to find me.”