Things We Do in the Dark(47)

A small smile. “Do you have a photo of this Betty Savage?”

Drew pulls out his phone. He taps on the photo he sent to Sergeant McKinley earlier, and enlarges it so only Betty is showing on the screen. He hands Tranh his phone.

Tranh examines it closely. “Oh yes. I remember her. That’s Mae. I don’t recall if I ever knew her last name, but I did meet her a few times.”

Jackpot. “So she was dating someone in the Blood Brothers?”

Tranh hands the phone back. “She was my brother’s girlfriend.”

Oh. Shit.

This is not what Drew expected to hear. Of course he was familiar with Tranh’s younger brother, Vinh—who went by Vinny—as he was thought to have been involved in the nightclub shooting in Chinatown. A year after that, he was shot and killed, supposedly over a drug deal gone bad.

Which, thinking back to his research notes now, wasn’t very long after Betty—Mae—went missing. It might have been less than a week after the fire. And though it was never proven, the bullet was rumored to have come from a member of his own gang. Someone had ordered a hit on Vinny. And only someone high up could do that.

Someone like his brother, Tony Tranh. Who’s now watching Drew with eyes that seem to know exactly where Drew’s mind just went.

“I’m sorry,” Drew says. “I understand Vinny died years ago. If I had thought he might be Betty’s—Mae’s—boyfriend, I would never have come here. I apologize if I’ve brought up a painful memory.”

“Thank you,” Tranh says. “It was a shame to lose him so young. He was only twenty-three. It was very hard on our mother.”

Drew hesitates, unsure if he should ask his next question.

“Go ahead,” Tranh says, sipping his tea. “Say what’s on your mind.”

“Betty—Mae—went missing around New Year’s Eve 1998. I realize it was a long time ago, but do you have any idea where she might have gone?”

Tranh frowns again. “Why would I know anything? She was Vinny’s girlfriend, not mine.”

“Apparently, she just stopped showing up for work. And her boyfriend—which I now know is your brother—was concerned enough to go to her club looking for her. Vinny never mentioned anything to you about this back then? About his girlfriend disappearing? I mean, that’s kind of a … big thing.”

“Oh, he mentioned it. He was actually quite distraught about it. As was I.” Tranh uncrosses his legs, then recrosses them the other way. “But then he was murdered on January fifth, 1999. If he did tell me anything about his missing girlfriend, it likely slipped my mind as I was comforting our mother and planning his funeral.”

“I’m sorry,” Drew says again.

Tranh sips his tea. Outwardly, he seems relaxed, but Drew’s gut is telling him that the other man is far from it. “You’re probably well aware that Vinny had a reputation for violence. We had a rough childhood, but we turned out very differently, much to our mother’s dismay.”

Drew doesn’t buy it. The only difference between Tony Tranh and Vinny Tranh was that the older brother was smarter and possessed more self-control. Which, in the end, made him much more dangerous than Vinny ever was.

“As tragic as it is, my brother got himself killed because he was stupid.” Tranh seems more annoyed than sad. “He was very impulsive. As was Mae. I wasn’t surprised she disappeared. She had no family, and Vinny told me she grew up in the system. He wasn’t always kind to her, but then again, Mae was bad news.”

It’s exactly how Cherry described her.

“In what way?” Drew asks.

“She was a thief.” Tranh’s eyes are cold. “I didn’t like her from the beginning. I sensed she was trouble, and that’s exactly what she turned out to be. She and Vinny had a very passionate relationship—and not always in a good way. It was causing him to become unreliable, which wasn’t good for business.”

“What did Mae steal?”

“Does it matter?” Tranh offers him a cold smile. “It wasn’t hers to take.”

It’s not much of an answer. There are some people Drew can push, but Tony Tranh is not one of them.

“Thank you, Mr. Tranh.” Drew places his teacup on the table and stands up. “I appreciate your time.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Tranh escorts him back to the front door and they shake hands again. As Drew is putting on his shoes, Tranh’s mother rushes toward him with a plastic container. It’s full of cinnamon cookies.

“You take home,” she says. “For your family.”

“She likes you,” Tranh says with a grin. “And you should know my mother doesn’t like anyone. She hated Mae.”

Tony Tranh lowers his voice. He speaks so quietly that Drew has to lean down slightly to hear him.

“And if you ever find her, let her know I’d like back what she took from me.”





CHAPTER TWENTY


Drew opts to take Lakeshore Road all the way back to Toronto from Oakville, as traffic at this time of day has the highway jammed. It’s a slow but easy drive, giving him time to sort through his thoughts.

Occam’s razor: The simplest explanation is usually the right one.