Page 107 of Nobody's Fool

“Why?”

“Not important. Some kind of illness.”

There is something on his face when he says this. Something I don’t like.

“Anyway, maybe a year after you—I don’t remember—Anna came to me and we started up again. She hooked up with the wrong man. Or kid, I should say. He was seventeen, flashing a lot of money. The kind of guy we loved to take down. Except we didn’t know his family was connected. It all went sideways. She got beaten up. I got arrested. But this guy, his family was relentless. They went after us. She, I don’t know. To be honest, I thought maybe Anna was dead, so your visit, I mean, I guess she got away. That’s when I got out of the business too.”

We sit there a moment.

“You said she came through an agency?”

“All the girls did. It wasn’t a real agency, of course. Our economy relies on scams, you know that, don’t you? You ever watch daytime TV? Buy gold, buy insurance you don’t need. We all scam in our way. This agency used to have kiosks in malls. They’d stop people and say,hey, you could be a model. All you need is a portfolio, which could be arranged for a fee. A con job. And sometimes, they’d spot something else, someone more vulnerable.”

“Do you remember the name of the agency?”

“Radiant Allure. Funny how I remember that.”

“Is there anything else you can tell me about Anna?”

“I know what you must think of me. But there is more to it. I had my own sadistic handler. I came from an orphanage too. I thought they were sending me to film school in Spain. That’s what they told me. I was going to work as a production assistant on a real Spanish film. And when it all went wrong with that mobster’s kid, my handler told them where to find us. They held me down. Three men. Flipped me on my stomach. Two sat on my legs. The third straddled my back and held me by the hair. The fourth man…” He stops and licks his dry lips. “He had a hacksaw. He sawed through my Achilles tendon. I spent four months in a hospital. Then I moved here.”

I say nothing.

“I don’t tell you that for sympathy. You come here and tell me that you’re looking for Anna and it involves a high-profile kidnapping. So I assume you’re talking about the Belmonds’ daughter. You think that Anna had something to do with it. I don’t believe that. I’m not saying she was a saint. She wasn’t. She was a survivor and clever. But she took care of the other girls. She wouldn’t kidnap one. For all I know, you want to hurt Anna. You want to put her in prison or get some kind of revenge. And it isn’t like the Belmonds hired a random private detective. It’s you. Someone she conned years ago. And if Anna got away, I’m happy for her. She made it. And I’ll tell you something else, Sami Kierce, though you won’t believe it. She cared about you. Those cons? We ran them for a day or two at the most. She kept making excuses to keep you around. Because she was falling in love with you. I had to put my foot down. I told her we were taking too long. The bosses wouldn’t be happy. I think she was planning to run away with you.So if you’re looking for a bad guy or someone to blame, it’s me. Let her be.”

I believe him. I know that sounds crazy. But I do.

“I only want what’s best for her too,” I say.

“Then maybe don’t try to sell her out to a rich family.”

“That’s not what I’m doing,” I say. “We already found her.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She’s Victoria Belmond.”

“What?” He shakes his head and smiles. “My god, talk about the ultimate con.”

“What?”

“Pretending to be a long-lost heiress.”

“The family ran DNA tests.”

“Are you serious?”

“I am.”

“Wow.” He shakes his head, trying to comprehend. “So the Anna I knew… was like a rich heiress?”

“Something like that.”

“So why are you asking me what happened? Why don’t you ask her?”

“She says she doesn’t remember.”

“How can she not remember?”

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