“I’ll call her,” he said, and I wondered how you told your mother that your oldest brother was going to go off like a bomb at any minute because he was a narcissist with a cocaine problem.
“I’m sorry, Ken,” I said. “I know that was hard for you.”
He stood up, too. “It really wasn’t, Liz. I know you and Anemone will do the right things with the place. Cash would have just destroyed it.” He shook his head. “A Costco in Burney.”
He looked so miserable that I leaned over the desk and kissed his cheek, and he put his arm around me and held me for a minute, and then he let me go, and I turned to Vince.
“So we have some stuff to talk about,” I said to him, and he opened the door.
“Not that much.” He smiled. “You’ve got a lot of money now and I’ve always wanted to be a kept man. I am looking forward to a life of leisure.”
I tried another smile. “A cabana boy. I’ve always wanted one of those.”
“I won’t wear those little speedos,” Vince said. “Nothing you can do will make me wear that.”
“You have no idea what I can do,” I told him, and went out the door, and for the first time, I looked around to see if Cash was in the parking lot waiting for me.
Great,I thought.Now along with everything else, I’m paranoid.
“Why do you have Big Red in the back of your Gladiola?” I asked.
“A restoration mission,” Vince said.
I nodded. “Veronica’s pee. It’s pretty wicked.”
“Yep. Crys said she could take care of it at the fire house.”
“Good.” That meant Peri had asked Anemone or George to ask Vince for help. I liked that. She trusted him with her Big Red Bear. That was a big deal for a kid whose life had been full of turmoil.
But when I followed Vince’s Jeep to the Red Box in my Camry, I would have sworn I saw Cash pull out behind us a couple of cars back. When I pulled into the parking lot in back of the diner next to Vince’s Gladiator, there was no sign of him.
I got out, but noticed Vince didn’t. He was looking at me. We’d been together long enough. I walked around and got in his passenger seat.
“What’s wrong?”
“Cash,” he said.
“I know, he was behind us. I saw.”
Vince shook his head. “He’s losing it, Liz. Don’t make any assumptions about him.”
“I know,” I said. “He really paid Mickey to torch the garage?”
He nodded. “To force them to sell. I think he paid Mickey to kill Thacker, too.”
This was insane. “Why?”
“To shut him up. To get his phone and computer and whatever was on them.”
“Why would Cash care?”
“Thacker was getting too close to the truth about Alex Wilcox and Cleve. And Cash is tied to Senator Wilcox. He’s her boy.”
I leaned back in the seat, trying to wrap my head around the idea of this new Cash. “Why are you telling me this?”
He turned in the seat and looked me in the eyes. “I think Cash is in deep with the Wolves, much like Cleve Blue was. I think history is repeating itself here. The shit that Cleve and Alex Wilcox and the Wolves were doing years ago has restarted out at River Vista. Except, I don’t think Senator Wilcox knows. I talked to Franco this morning outside the country club, and he didn’t know about the Wolves going active again. It’s Cash’s deal. He needs the money. He’s giving them what he views as a temporary haven. But he’s got the wolf by the ears, which is more than apt for the current situation.”
“What are you going to do about it?”