Page 16 of Brazilian Revenge

“What the hell is going on?” Satyanna whispered. “Things seemed tense there for a moment.”

“Jacinta has moved, but her mother lives here. We’ll ask her what happened.”

“Crap. That doesn’t sound like good news. What if Jacinta disappeared from the face of the Earth? Worse, what if she’s dead?” Satyanna asked, despair flickering in her eyes.

“We’ll find her,” he said between his teeth.

Luiz stopped in front of a house with a door that had been stained from the sun. There wasn’t a porch like the others, but a couple small flowerpots by the entrance. He knocked, and after several seconds, a lady with glasses and a limp in her gait opened her door.

“O que vocês querem?”she asked, scrutinizing them one by one.

“We need to talk to Jacinta. Your daughter,” Leonardo said. Why waste time with small talk?

She shook her head and opened the door for them to come in. “What has she done this time?” she asked calmly, like it was no big deal.

Leonardo gestured for Satyanna to enter, and Luiz preferred to stay by the door. Maybe he didn’t want to get more involved, or maybe he was watching for their safety. Some slums required authorization from their leader for an outsider to roam freely. Leonardo doubted those two clowns at the entrance were it.

“My boss just bought the clinic she worked for downtown,” Leonardo said, and flashed her a smile. “I’ve noticed they didn’t pay all her vacation days, and I would love to mail her a check.” He had opted for not leaving any trace of information about his daughter. The less other people knew, the better.

She gave him a skeptical glance and rubbed her shoulder as if to alleviate an old ache. “Well, why don’t you give me the money? I’m her mother.”

“He can’t. It has to be made out to her,” Satyanna said before he could squeeze another word in.

The woman drew back, as if trying to understand Satyanna’s heavily accented Portuguese. A wave of admiration swept through him. When he met her, she spoke only the most basic words. A year in hiding had certainly given her time to improve her language skills, a bitter part of him thought.

“And you all came here to say that?”

“I’m only following orders, senhora. I tried to call you on the phone, but it’s been disconnected. My boss doesn’t want any loose ends. He may be trying to get into politics next year. You know how it is.”

She waved him off. “Políticos. Of course I do. Okay, fine. Let me go find the address.”

“Thank you.”

A cat purred in the loveseat, and she went through an address book, licking her finger to separate the pages until she said, “Here it is. I’ll write it for you.” She leaned over what passed for a table and jotted the information on a piece of envelope. “There.”

Leonardo glanced at it. “Maranhão.”

Not only had Jacinta left the community, she left the state of Rio. “Interesting. Why did she leave? What is she doing there?”

“Be damned if I know. Said she got a better-paying job; she calls twice a month and occasionally sends money. That’s my daughter for you.”

“Thanks for the information. And, please, if she calls within the next couple days, don’t tell her about our visit. It’ll be great if the check is a surprise.”

The woman shrugged. “Whatever you say.”

…

“Why did you never tell me about this woman? That you were looking for her?” Bruno demanded on the other side of the line.

Leonardo stared at his half-empty tumbler. Why would he have buried that ghost from the past? His brother was happily married, and didn’t deserve to hear him nag about a greedy woman who stole from him. “I may have mentioned her once.”

“I knew you had unfinished business with someone, but I didn’t know she was the one who stole your sculpture. Or that you were actively searching for her,” Bruno said.

Shaking his head, Leonardo rocked from his swivel chair and walked to the console table. Holding the cordless phone with one hand, he poured more whiskey into the square glass with the other. When he bought the coveted twenty-year-old bottle, he imagined he’d open it to celebrate a victory in court, or maybe on a date with a beautiful woman. “That’s not the point now.” Last thing he needed was for his brother to get him to talk about stuff that was better left alone.

“What are you going to do?”

“We’ll fly to Maranhão first thing in the morning. I would have gone today, but the jet was on maintenance. I’ll find that nurse. We believe she’s the key to finding what happened to Lyanna. When I have my daughter back, I will make sure whoever was involved will be prosecuted.”

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