Rock Chick Regret (Rock Chick #7)(158)

I twisted back to Hector. “Did I say something funny?”

He burst out laughing.

Apparently, I did.

Whatever.

It was time to get back to the matter at hand.

I looked back at the room. “Can we please focus, people?” I asked.

The smiles and chuckles died away and immediately I wanted them back.

Too late because Tom started talking.

“Sadie, you remember a few days ago when we talked in Lee’s office?”

Oh my.

This was not starting out well.

Of course I remembered. How could I forget? It was when I found out my mother was probably murdered. Who would forget that?

“Yes,” I replied hesitantly.

“Well,” Tom went on. “Eddie asked Vance to look into things. Vance did and he found out what happened to Lizzie.”

My body lurched and a hand went out to Hector’s knee, fingers curling around it, gripping hard. Hector’s arm around my chest squeezed.

I looked at Vance.

“I’m sorry, Sadie,” Vance said softly and I knew I wasn’t going to get good news. Mom wasn’t waiting for me in a small agricultural village in the mountains of Peru where news was brought on foot through treacherous mountain paths so she didn’t know yet it was safe to come home.

I closed my eyes and on the backs of my eyelids I saw my Mom smiling at me.

I opened my eyes again and said to Vance, “Tell me.”

Vance’s gaze cut to Hector, came back to me and, without hesitating, he told me.

“Luther Diggs found out what your Mom was doin’. He ordered the hit. Mickey Balducci was one of his men back then. He carried it out.”

This hurt, like, loads.

I didn’t let it show.

“Where is she?” I asked and I was proud that my voice only held a little tremor.

Vance stared at me closely then said carefully, “You mean her body?”

That hurt even more.

Her body.

My Mom’s body.

Dumped somewhere, in a river, in a shallow grave, alone, unmarked, undiscovered, gone.

These thoughts penetrated my heart like a million little, sharp daggers.

I didn’t let this show either.

Instead, I simply nodded.

His eyes stayed gentle on me. “I don’t know.”

I nodded again.

“Your Dad didn’t know she was informing on him,” Malcolm cut in and my gaze moved to him.

“He didn’t?”

Malcolm shook his head. “No.”

“A couple of months after it happened, word got to Seth that Luther ordered the hit and why.” Tom entered the conversation. “You remember Bernie Watson?”

I nodded yet again. Bernie had been my father’s right hand man for years. He’d been around for as long as I could remember. Old enough to be my father’s father, he retired to Florida five years ago. He’d always scared me a little but I still always kind of liked him. We sent each other Christmas cards and he always sent me a birthday card, every year, with a five dollar bill in it just like he gave me when I was a kid.

“I remember Bernie. He sends me birthday cards,” I told Tom.

“I talked to Bernie,” Vance said to me and I looked back to him. “Bernie had a lot to say. About your Dad, about your Mom. About how your Dad didn’t give a shit about your Mom informing on him but he did give a shit that she’d been taken out. Bernie told me when he found out, your Dad went cold. That was his word. Cold. He started takeover maneuvers against Diggs immediately. Took him down within ten months of finding out.”

I realized I’d started trembling only when Hector’s hand came out and took my coffee cup away. Then he leaned into me, his hands going down my arms, his fingers curling around my wrists then he wrapped both my and his arms around my body and rested his chin on my shoulder.

This should have helped. Somewhere deep I realized it felt nice. But it didn’t help.

“He took care of Mickey Balducci too, didn’t he?” I whispered. “The Balducci Boys aren’t insane and mean, they were after revenge, weren’t they?”

Vance didn’t say anything, he just nodded.

I twisted my head to look at Hector, his chin came away from my shoulder and his eyes caught mine.

“I don’t know what to do with this,” I said softly.

“Nothin’ to do with it, Sadie, except know he loved her, he avenged her and he didn’t kill her,” Hector told me.

“I don’t know what to do with that, either,” I said back.

“Seth didn’t come over with your Mom. He wasn’t social.” Malcolm started talking and my eyes moved from Hector to Malcolm. “But we knew him, sometimes he’d come out to dinner or pick Lizzie up from a barbeque and stay for a beer. He wasn’t a mellow guy, he wasn’t laidback, but he wasn’t the man he is now, not back then. Losin’ her did that to him. I thought it then, I’m sure of it now.”

I didn’t have time to process that before Vance spoke again.

“I found her stuff.”

I started blinking.

Yes, again.

“Her… stuff?” I asked Vance.

“Her stuff. Your Dad kept it. It’s in a storage unit in Aurora. The unit is filled with clothes, jewelry, shoes, photos, books. It isn’t just filled, it’s preserved. Every piece has been carefully packed away, the unit is temperature controlled, sealed against water damage and it’s fireproof. Units like that cost a fortune.”