Chapter Twenty-One

“So, this is it, eh? I expected it to have more security or reinforcements or something.” Cookie craned his head to peer through the car window and surveyed the mediocre medical facility that was St. Mark’s Senior Care. The five-floor facility’s façade was composed of putty-colored stucco and redbrick accents. The front door was flanked by a long front porch with a row of rocking chairs, mostly unoccupied, except for two elderly ladies sitting next to each other, engaged in more talking than rocking.

Jamie and Cookie pulled into the parking lot, sat for a moment, and discussed how to approach Marissa. “Should we wait for her in the lobby, or does she have some super-secret back door reserved for coastal kingpins?” Jamie asked.

That did it. Cookie finally cracked a smile. “It could be hidden behind a bookshelf and lead out to an armored car.”

Jamie inhaled and let out a long breath. In the background of her mind, she understood the painful importance of this meeting, but now, sitting in the parking lot, the gravity of walking through those doors flooded her senses. “So I think the best strategy is just to go in and see if we can get in during normal visitation hours.”

“What if they only let family in? If you lie and they find out, we’ll be dragging the river, looking for your body.”

“Thanks for the reminder.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

Jamie cautioned her friend. “We need to keep it in check. She doesn’t get under our skin. Right?”

Cookie stopped and looked Jamie in the eye. “We discussed this in the restaurant. I understand what’s at stake here, okay? I’m not going to blow it by being emotional.”

Jamie nodded, reached over and touched his forearm briefly, then pulled away. “I know, I know. I’m not questioning your professionalism, okay? But this is the first case where we both have personal ties, and there’s a reason why we don’t usually work personal cases—because they’re messy and complicated. I’m not doubting your ability, just recognizing what we’re taking on here.”

The two sat together, no words between them, for several moments, until the weight of the silence proved too stifling.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Cookie said.

The pair walked through the front door, working to look as friendly and nonthreatening as possible. Cookie prepared to turn on the charm, which would give them every possible advantage. Jamie figured it best to let him take the lead in sweet-talking the receptionist.

It would take some effort. The woman had a stern teacher thing going on, with narrow black-rimmed glasses. And her gray-streaked hair was pulled so tightly into a bun that Jamie figured the woman must have been receiving a mini face-lift from the strain.

Cookie leaned on the counter, smiling at the receptionist. “Hi, I’m wondering if you can tell me which room Mrs. Deltone is in? We’re friends of Marissa’s.”

Jamie almost choked on the lie.

“Do they know you’re coming?”

He shook his head. “No, we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to make it.” He leaned in even further, his elbows holding his weight, his smile becoming more personal, connected. “We wanted to surprise her.”

The receptionist studied Cookie’s face, her frown easing, not to a pleasant expression but one that was a solid distance from angry. “She really doesn’t like surprises, you know. Hold on a second.”

Ms. Stern Face made a call then said, “She’s in room one-twelve.” She leaned toward Cookie and whispered, “Don’t stay too long. She tires very easily these days.”

Cookie nodded, while Jamie kept her expression straight, surprised that they had gained access to an important family member so easily. Then again, how dangerous could the senior Mrs. Deltone be if she had to live in a nursing home?

They walked down the hallway and came upon Room 112 at the end. They knocked, and an elderly voice said, “Come in.”

Jamie and Cookie pushed open the door to find a sweet elderly lady, with smiling eyes and short gray hair, resting comfortably in a reclining bed. She was propped up by pink pillows, and her legs were covered by a crocheted blanket. She wore a navy floral nightgown, and the only thing out of the ordinary was the gun she pointed at the door.

“Forgive the hardware, kids. You know how it is.”

Jamie liked the woman already. She held her hands up. “Hello, Mrs. Deltone. We’re very sorry to disturb you. We’re here looking for Marissa. We need to speak with her.”

Marissa appeared from the bathroom, where the door had been cracked but the lights remained off. She walked toward her grandmother and sat on the bed next to her. “You can put the piece down now. They’ll take it from you if they find it again. You know that.”

Marissa stared at Cookie. “Manny’s older brother, right? Nice to see you again.”

He nodded but said nothing. Jamie could see his jaw clench, the tightness creating a small dimple in his cheek.

Jamie pushed to keep the conversation from turning to Manny’s death. She didn’t need Cookie unraveling before they got the information they needed. “Marissa, we need a favor. Can we talk about this outside? I’m not sure if your abuela needs to hear this.”

Marissa waved off the comment. “She knows where all the bodies are buried.” Marissa exchanged glances with her grandmother. “She’s like a vault. Knows everything and guards it carefully.”

Now she’d heard everything. The women in this family ran a tough crew. Even Grandma had a homicide history. She had such a sweet face, to the point that Jamie could almost forget the woman had greeted her by pointing a firearm at her.

Jamie resisted asking further questions about Abuela’s rap sheet. Instead, she asked, “You know that favor we did for you earlier?”

Abuela Deltone gave her granddaughter a puzzled glance.

“These two are the ones who found me after the Boxer thing,” she said. “They got me out of there.”

The senior Deltone shuddered. “He’s a toad. No code with that one. Someone needs to take him out.”

“Maybe someday,” Marissa replied. Then she looked at Jamie. “It depends on what you’re asking for.”

Until this moment, Cookie had remained quiet in the corner, taking up no space in the conversation. He took a single step from the back corner of the room, making his presence known. His tone was even and calm. “You might be rotting in the ocean somewhere if we didn’t rescue you. We all know that.” He took one step closer, and though he closed the space, Marissa didn’t move one inch. “It’s time for you to return the favor. You owe far more than what we’re asking for.”

Marissa wouldn’t be so easily convinced. “I suppose it depends on what you want me to do for you.”

Jamie placed her hand on Cookie’s arm, signaling she would take over. “We need to make sure Boxer isn’t an issue anymore for Erin. I’m not saying he should disappear. We don’t need heat, and we don’t want that on our conscience. He should know in very clear terms that she’s off-limits. After all, this battle is between Boxer and your family. He just used Erin’s building as a safe house. She had no idea anything was going down.”

“Boxer was happy to hand you over to the Acunas to do God-knows-what, so this is good for you, too,” Cookie added. “You need to let people know they can’t take a Deltone hostage and walk away from that.” He appealed to her pride and connected.

Marissa seemed amused by his comment. “I’m quite aware of how I need to respond. And what it means to my family’s credibility.”

“We have a bit of experience here, you know,” Abuela Deltone said.

Jamie could feel her stoic expression crack a small smile. She couldn’t help herself. Abuela was a handful. Jamie then took the lead. “I also want you to tell me what you know about my niece, Kristen. I know she was working for you at the time she died.”

Marissa nodded, her expression more serious. No smile, no bravado on her features. “I’m sorry to hear of your loss. I will tell you that no head of this family ordered that she be… handled… in such a way.”

Cookie scoffed. “Handled? She’s dead, Marissa, but I suppose you’re pretty used to that. People just die in your service, but that’s part of the deal.”

“You’re talking about Manny, right?” Marissa asked.

Jamie studied Cookie’s face, wondering if he would be able to keep his composure now that Marissa had poked at his wound. He didn’t move or flinch. He said, “I deserve to know the truth about what happened to my brother. You claim you didn’t kill him. Why should I believe you?”

“He was a good kid, that one,” Grandma Deltone added. “Loyal. Didn’t have the heart or the stomach for any of the tough stuff.”

Cookie looked at Marissa’s grandmother, his body becoming less rigid, his shoulders releasing their guarded position. “Thank you, Mrs. Deltone. He should still be here.”

Marissa moved closer to her grandmother’s bed. “I’m going to tell you something. You may believe me; you may not. I have no control over that.”

Cookie stood with his arms crossed. “I’m listening.”

“We knew Manny was being recruited by the Acuna family to run some logistics.”

Cookie couldn’t cover the surprise on his face. “I’ve never heard this before. That’s not true.”

“Again, you can believe me or not. That’s up to you. We knew he was talking to them. The Acunas were trying to get information about our work. This kind of stuff travels fast back to us, you know?”

Jamie had been quiet, letting Cookie lead the search for answers, but she felt the need to keep Marissa talking. “You didn’t retaliate and kill him because he was talking to them?”

She shook her head. “Manny came to us, told us the truth. He wasn’t going to switch loyalties. He even told us some of what he learned about their operation.” Marissa sat down next to her grandmother on her bed, her body barely balancing on a small space so as not to crush the fragile woman. “Manny’s death is on the Acunas, not us. They killed him because he refused their offer, and they gave us credit to make it look like we were in the business of killing our own too easily. It makes them look like a better alternative.”

“So the two-dollar bill signal?” Jamie asked. “That was the Acuna family making sure they put it on you?”

She nodded. “It keeps the cops looking our way and makes us look ruthless.” She looked at Cookie. “We do… difficult work. But we aren’t careless. And we don’t throw our own people away unless they put our family in jeopardy. Manny didn’t do that. And we aren’t responsible for what happened to him.”

Jamie knew Cookie well enough to see that Marissa’s words had affected him, made him consider that the truth he thought he knew might actually not have been the truth at all. She had to admit that she believed Marissa. The woman seemed sincere, as though she wanted Cookie to know that her family didn’t own Manny’s death. Jamie wanted to give Cookie his answers, but she was also still waiting for hers.

“What can you tell me about Kristen?”

Marissa stood up from her grandmother’s side. “Well, that one was more difficult because she got involved with one of our… lead coordinators.”

“Ritchie?” Jamie asked.

Marissa’s face registered recognition. She tried to hide it, but they both knew Jamie had confirmed the identity of Kristen’s relationship within the Deltone family. “He has difficulty with restraint at times, but he is very good at what he does.”

“What could Kristen have done that was so terrible that she deserved to die?”

Marissa held her hand up. “We never ordered that anything happen to her. Ritchie came to us after she had been found and said that she was alive when he left her at the house. He’s done some stupid things, but I believe him.”

“Someone left her in a foreclosed house alone to die,” Jamie said. “Who would do such a horrific thing?”

Marissa stood stoically, her arms by her sides, her posture straight and strong. Jamie could see how this woman could lead a small army of men. Her calm confidence was impossible to ignore. “Kristen had been taking notes about our business, about our territories—specific dates and times of certain operations. Our intelligence told us that her father was trying to get cozy with the Acuna family and she was his way in. Maybe she betrayed the Acunas too.”

A tightness filled Jamie’s chest as she processed what Marissa had just shared. Brian had put his own daughter up to this work, and her loyalty to him was rewarded with her death? Cookie moved from the corner and stood next to Jamie. He didn’t touch her, but his presence let her know he was there for her.

“This is Brian’s fault?” Jamie still struggled to wrap her mind around the possibility that Brian would jeopardize his daughter’s life for his personal gain so he could be in a position of true power.

“He’s the reason she was in this situation,” Marissa replied. “I think she liked Ritchie or at least saw some reason to be with him, and he was careless with how he talked. He took her into things where she had no business being. And we still have a problem, so if you need my help, I’m going to ask for yours in return.”

Cookie scoffed at the comment. “You already owe us to be even. Now you want something else?”

“Wherever Kristen was making notes about… things… Ritchie didn’t find it. That information is still out there somewhere. We need to get it back.”

The missing journal. Jamie knew she had one of them, but Marissa’s request meant that the second book, the one needed to decipher Kristen’s code, was still out there. Where could Kristen have hidden it? She had been smart not to store both books together, but finding the journal was critical to everyone in that room. Or did someone else already have it? In the wrong hands, the journal could prove devastating for the Deltone family. Jamie and Marissa had a common goal. They needed to get the journal back before it fell into the wrong hands.

Jamie crossed her arms in front of her and considered Marissa’s words. “Do you believe Ritchie? Really? That he left her at that house alive?”

Abuela Deltone, who had been quietly dozing on and off during their exchange, suddenly became more attentive to the conversation. “If Ritchie did anything, it wasn’t under our direction. Bodies are bad for business. There are far more effective ways to keep associates in line. That’s how I lead and how I taught Marissa to lead. I’m sorry you lost your niece, but she put herself in that situation. It was her decision to use Ritchie for information.” So her sleeping was all a ploy of eavesdropping. The older woman turned her grandmotherly gaze to Cookie. “And Marissa gave you the truth about Manny freely. No strings attached. Because she knows what it is to lose someone and live without answers.”

Jamie wondered when Kristen had realized that she had finally gone too far with a scam, the moment she realized that her current job was far more dangerous, the people far more nefarious, than anyone she had ever conned. Did she see her own end coming? Or did she just slip away, not realizing she would never wake up? Jamie’s stomach still hurt, the pain of the truth about Kristen still finding its way into her bones.

“If I help you find Kristen’s notes, I expect you to take care of Boxer. He is to make sure that Erin and her business, her customers, are all off-limits. He’s not to even so much as sneeze in their direction.”

Marissa nodded. “Oh, don’t you worry. We are going to make sure Boxer is out of our business for good. And we’ll make sure Erin is part of the deal. She seems like good people.”

“One of the best,” Jamie said.

“You have my word, as my abuela is my witness.”

Marissa’s grandmother said nothing but simply raised her hand in agreement. She then crossed her arms and closed her eyes. Old people could apparently sleep though anything, including a gang negotiation.

“It really is the men who make the messes, isn’t it?” Marissa asked. “I suppose that makes us both the daughters of bad men. Your friend Erin too, yes? And Kristen. The men that have been lauded in fairy tales to care for us and protect us fall short. So we protect ourselves instead. They don’t really control the battlefield—we only let them think they do. They believe they can do whatever they want to the women around them, but they don’t understand how much power we wield because we don’t flaunt it. We don’t need the credit. The power is enough.” She turned and smiled at her grandmother. “That’s how we handle ours, anyway.”

Jamie offered a small nod in acknowledgment of Marissa’s truth. She was right. Jamie wouldn’t admit it aloud, but she was right.

Marissa stepped back two steps, offering more space between her and Jamie. Cookie had since moved back against the wall, his shoulder next to the closed blinds covering the room’s window. It seemed they had come to an agreement; they were all searching for the same thing but for different reasons. Jamie’s chest was still tight with the knowledge that Marissa had shared with them. She needed to get out of there and make sense of what had transpired in the old woman’s room.

“We’ll be in touch,” Jamie said.

“I know how to find you,” Marissa replied.

Cookie nodded to Grandma Deltone then looked at Marissa. He said nothing but gave her a slight nod, a small concession, but huge by Cookie’s standards.

Cookie opened the door, and Jamie followed him, neither looking back as it closed behind them. The woman they had once thought responsible for their loved ones’ deaths was now an uneasy ally. That reality hung between them, an unspoken presence far more complicated than they ever could have imagined.