Page 90 of Wicked Arrangement

Upon seeing my strained impatient expression, Thomas chuckles. “So, I am sure you are thinking, ‘Enough small talk Gillihan, give me the information I need!’” he accurately guesses.

“You know me well,” I say with a small smile.

“I feel I am beginning to, my friend,” Thomas replies. He takes a sip of his freshly squeezed orange juice before starting. “So, this Amelia, Bogdan Sharkozi’s wife, is an interesting study. On the surface, she seems like any other trophy wife. She doesn’t do much other than work-out, go shopping, or go for girls’ lunches,” he says.

My heart drops as I worry that he’s found nothing but before I can speak, he continues. “That’s what first intrigued me. Of course, people like us seem for all intents and purposes to be legitimate businessmen to the outside world. My wife’s lifestyle isn’t so different from Amelia’s. But, the Sharkozis have never been subtle. I also found the choice of Amelia as a wife an odd one. She’s a relative nobody. So, I did some more digging.”

I lean forward in my chair slightly, intrigued about this woman who once was Kim’s best friend.

“As you’re aware, Amelia’s family moved to Miami from Charleston five years ago when she was sixteen. The official line was that the move was because her father was starting his own cosmetic surgery office. This is all true, but it was Sharkozi who funded it. Turns out Mr. Warren is a social climber and had made some bad investments, so Sharkozi bailed him out. Amelia was promised to Sharkozi as payment as well as the good doctor now has to perform any off-the-book surgery Sharkozi,or his people might need if they want to disappear or have a wound that might raise questions.” He pauses to check if I’m still following him.

“All rather standard. But why marry his son to Amelia and not the daughter of someone more powerful who isn’t under his control?” I ask.

Thomas smiles, a glint in his eye. “That’s the interesting part. Amelia’s got a record. Juvie of course so all sealed. Turns out she’s a vicious little bitch. They lived in LA when Amelia was younger, trying to propel Warren’s plastic surgery career, but they moved to Sacramento when Amelia was six after she blinded a girl in one eye. The girls got into a disagreement over a coloring book, and she stabbed the poor kid in the eye with a pencil. Amelia was so young nothing much came of it,” he pauses for a moment, but I can tell he’s just getting started.

“She was seven the next time. Another young girl, another attack. This one was less serious, though traumatizing enough for the victim that she still remembers it today. Amelia tried to drown her at a pool party. The family didn’t move following that incident, though the victim’s parents wisely did. The police chalked it up to an accident, but the parents believed their kid. Then, the following year Amelia struck again, another girl. This time the poor kid ended up permanently disfigured. Amelia claimed to have accidentally cut off the girl’s earlobe playing hairdressers, she also chopped huge chunks of her hair off leaving abrasions to the scalp. This time the authorities did step in. Amelia was briefly institutionalized and given a juvenile record.”

“That’s when they moved to Charleston?” I ask, vaguely recalling what Kim told me about their friendship.

“Yep. She was twelve at the time. Kimberly is lucky that she managed to escape Amelia’s violent tendencies. But, I have it on good authority that part of the reason the Warrens moved to Miami was because of Amelia. They felt she was gearing up for another, more violent attack, probably against Kimberly,” he says.

My blood boils at the thought of how narrowly Kim escaped this psycho only to unknowingly welcome her back into her life again.

“How do you know all this?” I ask, curiously.

Thomas gives me a knowing look, “Women gossip. My wife and Mrs. Warren have mutual acquaintances. There are other instances, nothing more than rumors but, likely, some are at least partially true. The Warrens went through a lot of staff, nannies especially. The tactics vary but most report being afraid of and verbally or physically attacked by Amelia at some point. I also found an old news article about an unsolved assault in a nightclub against a young mixed-race woman.”

Thomas slides his phone across to me, and on the screen is the article. In it, there’s a before and after photo of the victim, she looks remarkably like Kim, that is before acid was thrown in her face.

“The attacker was never caught, but it was a young, most likely underage, woman who fit Amelia’s description. The nanny at the time reports that Amelia would sneak out to nightclubs and that she was absent on the night in question. Circumstantial, but you have to admit, the vic looks a lot like Kimberly,” Thomas says pointedly.

“She does,” I agree. “But what does all this have to do with Sharkozi?”

“Surely that’s obvious? The attractive daughter of a nobody under your control might be worth keeping around as a mistress, or perhaps to sell, but a violent, ruthless, and calculating woman who can hide it so well, now that’s more interesting. Bogdan’s a sadistic psychopath too. It’s a match made in fucking hell. Having loyal men willing to do violence on your behalf isn’t too hard to find, but a woman… well, that’s another story,” Gillihan finishes.

He’s right. To Bogdan and Roman Sharkozi, having a woman like Amelia on your side would be a good thing.

“That’s not all I found out. Bogdan and Amelia have a son. He’s one,” Thomas says.

At that, my eyebrows shoot up. “How have I not heard about this?”

“Seems they want to keep him quiet, a young baby is a vulnerability that can be targeted. Amelia’s hardly the nurturing type, it seems the child is mostly kept inside under the supervision of a team of nannies. That’s why I almost missed it.”

“Missed what?” I ask.

“Two new health workers turned up at Amelia’s home the other day. Nothing remarkable about that, the kid could have a cold or something. But then I looked into it a little further. These two are specialists in taking care of the elderly, or I should say more relevantly, people with Alzheimer’s. Emma Walsh has Alzheimer’s, doesn’t she?” Thomas asks, though he already knows the answer.

“She does,” I reply, waiting to see how much Gillihan has figured out.

“And shortly before Kim was rescued, her brother signed Emma Walsh out of the care facility and neither has been seen since,” he continues.

“That’s correct,” I reply stoically.

“You’re a smart man, Yaroslav. I can only assume this is the information that you were searching for and that you’ve drawn the same conclusion I have.”

“What conclusion would that be?” I ask, still unwilling to reveal my hand just yet.

“That Kimberly was deliberately rescued and sent here by Sharkozi, that they have her grandmother as leverage to blackmail her into spying on you,” Thomas says, hitting the nail on the head.

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