Ilka wondered how many times Leslie had set foot inside their father’s funeral home. Amber had told her that Leslie didn’t want anything to do with the dead, that she preferred to stay away. Now she looked unhappy as they approached the back door. Ilka was relieved to see that all the windows were dark, because it meant their father was still at the hospital.
It was almost eight o’clock, and Ilka was practically starving. Why hadn’t she brought along the package of crackers she’d found in Fletcher’s kitchen! She was nearly nauseous from exhaustion as she unlocked the door and punched in the code on the alarm. She turned on the lights, dragged Leslie’s suitcase over the doorstep, and held the door for her.
“This way.” She pointed toward the arrangement room; she planned on parking Leslie on the sofa until she’d gotten her half sister back to the land of the living. Or at least close enough to talk about her future.
She was about to follow Leslie when the door behind her opened. She whirled; to her horror, Miguel Rodriguez stepped inside, followed by his younger brother. Before she could react, he grabbed her arm and jerked her back, then sneered and said they’d come to have a little talk with her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Leslie slowly turn her head and stare at the two men.
Ilka struggled noisily and finally broke loose from his grip, but she straightened herself and kept her wits about her. “What can I do for you two this time?”
She stepped in front of her half sister, who then backed up against the doorframe.
“Lydia Rogers,” Miguel said.
Ilka nodded. “What about her?”
She told them to follow her into the reception, but once more he grabbed her arm.
“You’re not pulling that stunt on us again!” It hurt when his fingers dug into her skin.
“I can’t help you.” Finally, he let go, and she stepped back. “I don’t know where she is.”
The diamond in his left ear glinted, and he made a fist, squeezing so hard that the skin on the back of his hand turned white.
“Lydia Rogers stole our money,” the younger brother said. “Four million dollars. We’re here to get it back.”
Ilka was totally exhausted, and on some level she simply didn’t care. She stared right back at him. So what if they were mad at her for outsmarting them, escaping with Lydia? If they planned on beating her up as they had Artie and her father, so be it. It surprised her that nothing in their manner scared her, even though she knew what they were capable of. She just wanted to get this over with before her father showed up.
“And we want to know what happened to our brother,” Miguel said. He was still in charge. His younger brother with the tattoos stayed in the background, but Ilka had noticed the butt of a gun sticking up from the waist of his pants. She kept an eye on him.
“We know Javi found the Rogers woman, and nobody’s seen or heard from him since. And we found out she was the nun who worked here. Like my brother said, she’s got something that belongs to us, and we’re here to get it back. And to find out about our brother.”
“It’s true, he came here looking for her.”
She retreated a step and glanced back and forth between the two men. “She told me your brother showed up late one night. He broke into her apartment and threatened her and made her give him a bag. And if there was so much money involved, like you say, then it makes sense.”
It was her exhaustion talking, she thought. The way she was handling this situation. “Think about it. Why would he share the money with you two?”
She shook her head at them. “Like they say here, he headed for the hills. With the money.”
She sat down and looked up at them. “But then you came along, and that was dumb. You should have left Lydia alone, because really, I don’t think she’d have made anything more of it.”
Leslie was still standing in the doorway, staring silently at all of them. Ilka ignored her.
“There were documents in the bag too,” Ilka said. “Were, until Lydia took them out. Her brother wrote down all the details of your smuggling ring. Names and dates. Messages, addresses. More than enough to convince the police that they’d been wrong back then.”
She spoke quietly, and they leaned forward to catch everything she said. “The papers are on the way to Texas now, she’ll hand them over to the police and give her statement. Nobody will accuse her anymore of being behind what happened back then. But you could try to catch up to her and see if you can make a deal.”
“When did she leave?” Miguel asked.
He believed her! She’d won. She flashed back to the day the older brother had showed up during a memorial service and asked for her father. Lydia had been out in the reception when he pushed his way inside, and later she’d seemed terrified. Ilka should have known something was very wrong. If she’d been on her toes, she would have sent Lydia away. Everyone would have been okay.
She glanced up at the clock. “A few hours ago. If you leave now, maybe you can catch up to her.”
The brothers looked at each other.
“What was she driving?” the younger one said.
Ilka shrugged. “It’s a light-colored car. Silver-gray, I think. But probably your best bet is to wait outside the police station for her.”
“Which police station?” Miguel asked, as if he were testing her. But again, Ilka shrugged.
“I’ve heard you have good connections, surely you can find out. I’d think the one in San Antonio is a good bet.”
“Why should we believe you?” Juan said.
“That’s entirely up to you.” She stood up. “The question is, can you afford not to believe me. Lydia isn’t here. She left a few hours ago, and I’ve just told you what she told me.”
“And why should we believe Javi would run off with the money?”
She shrugged once more. “That’s what she told me.” Suddenly she couldn’t remember if she’d pushed the desk upstairs back in place, to hide the space where the bag was hidden.
The two brothers looked at each other again and spoke in Spanish, which Ilka didn’t understand. Miguel scowled at her, but then they nodded and walked out the back door, slamming it shut behind them.
Ilka turned to Leslie. “Okay, let’s make the sofa up for you,” she said, trying to sound cheery. Her half sister nodded, as if nothing had happened. For a moment Ilka wondered if Leslie was even aware of where she was, what was going on.
She locked the back door and checked to make sure the front door was locked too, then went upstairs to find bedding for Leslie. A folded-up rollaway bed stood in the storage room across from her father’s room; she planned on sleeping on it now that her father was back. She grabbed the pile of sheets on the bed and stuck it under her arm. Her father: She hadn’t thought about him since the Rodriguez brothers left. Maybe she should call Amber and ask if he’d left. Suddenly she didn’t like the idea of him out there alone after what had just happened.
She rejoined Leslie and showed her the bathroom, then she offered to make something to eat while her half sister took a bath. She found cup noodles in the back of a cupboard, so she turned on the electric kettle. She also picked up two tea bags.
When she heard water draining out of the bathtub, she carried the tea and noodles into the arrangement room and waited. Leslie came out in a bathrobe—the one Ilka normally used—and a towel wrapped around her head.
“Is there Wi-Fi here?” Leslie sounded as if that were more important than food.
Ilka nodded and gave her the code, then sat in a chair and watched Leslie eat. “Do you think you can fall asleep?”
Her half sister nodded. “Our doctor gave me some pills. I’ve been taking them since they arrested Mom.”
Maybe the doctor should have made sure she had someone to talk to instead, Ilka thought.
They sat in silence until Leslie had finished the noodles. Ilka said good night and shut the door. She was holding her phone, about to try Lydia one last time before going to bed, when she heard her father out in the reception.
“Has she been here?” he asked as she walked up to him.
She shook her head, then she told him the Rodriguez brothers had stopped by. And no matter how stupid, idiotic, and irresponsible her father might have thought her lies were, he smiled when Ilka said she’d sent them back to Texas.
It was not until she was stretched out on the rollaway bed that she realized she hadn’t told him that Leslie was there. He’d been so focused on talking about Amber that when they finally said good night, they were both all talked out. Which is why she hadn’t mentioned all the money in the storage space in his room either.