18. Kase

CHAPTER 18

Isit in my office for hours, going over everything I know or have learned in the last few months about my father's death. I can't think straight, I need to get out of here.

Taking my keys, I leave and drive away. It takes me a couple of hours, but I eventually pull up in front of his home. One of his guards opens the door and goes to tell him who is here to see him.

I'm ushered into an office where Orla's father, Joe sits behind a desk. He doesn't get up and doesn't offer me a seat. He stays silent and waits for me to speak.

"Why did you take responsibility for my father's death?" I ask him.

"Because I am responsible." He says.

"No. You're not. Your daughter is paying a debt that wasn't yours to pay, and I want to know why?"

"Son, I may not have killed your father, but I'm still responsible. I should never have left him when I saw things were going south. I thought they killed him because I'd disrespected them by walking out in the middle of negotiations. That's what I sincerely believed. You saying that's not what went down?" He asks. I see the guilt on his face and how my father's death and his daughter's situation have eaten away at this man.

"Yes. We've both been played." I say.

"By who and why? What really happened that night?" He asks. His eyes are desperate for answers.

"I'm still piecing that together, I say. When I know, you'll know." I say and turn to leave.

"Kase." I know what's coming. I turn back to him.

"I'll send her home." I say, and he puts a fist to his mouth to stifle the tears of relief. He swallows hard.

"It'll be good to have her home." He says.

"Joe. I'm going to free Orla, but I don't know if she'll come back here." I leave and get in my car.

Vince Conti was a small-time crook and did odd jobs for any crime organization that would pay him. How did he get the goods on Alex? I pick up the phone and get through to one detective in my pocket. He answers on the second ring.

"Detective Swanson."

"Hey. Mick, I need information on the guy that was pulled out of the river last week. Vince Conti." I ask.

"Have you got information on it?" He asks. He's with people. "Give me a minute to get to my desk."

I keep my eye on the road and activate the wireless connectivity on the console above the gear stick.

"Hey." He comes back on. "What kind of info?"

"I'm trying to figure out how he's connected to someone. Did he have any family, kids?"

He pauses for a minute, and I hear papers rustling and then typing.

"He was widowed. At the time of his death, he shacked up with a hooker who worked 9th street. He had a type." He throws out.

"What do you mean?"

"The wife was a working girl who OD'd five years ago. Elena Petrova. Russian. They had a couple of kids, most of them were in and out of foster care aging out. A daughter and two sons."

"Names?" I ask.

"Sergei was the eldest, Alexander the middle, and Tatiana was the baby. She was adopted."

"Thanks Mick."

"Right."

It was making sense now. Sergei must be Sergei Novikov currently jumped on the East Coast distribution for the cartel that murdered my father. Vince is his dad, and my boyfriend Alex is the brother of Sergei and the son of Vince. Father messes up the deal somehow. Selling product, probably forcing his son to cover his tracks by jacking up prices to protect his dear old dad."