Page 23 of The Newcomer
“Tanya was just out of rehab. Booze and pills. She was… unbalanced. And Maya’s own therapist—the one Tanya insisted she see, by the way—thought the move to LA was a bad idea. A kid that age needs structure and routine.”
“Which you would have provided?”
Evan glared at her. “What’s this got to do with finding Letty and Maya?”
“I like to know all the underlying issues,” she said.
“These are the issues. Tanya is dead. My daughter is missing and I want her returned to me.”
“Let’s say I find them. What happens next?”
“You tell me where they are. I’ll handle the rest.”
Vikki took another bite of bagel. She chewed, swallowed, dabbed at her lips with a napkin, and then frowned. “What’s that mean? Handle? I don’t like the sound of that.”
“It means I want to talk to Letty before the police do. I just need to make her understand that anything she thinks she might know about my business is confidential, and it needs to stay that way.”
“Not sure I like the sound of that either. But back to Letty. Where was she living after she stopped working for you?”
“Brooklyn. But I’ve been to her place, there’s nothing to see.”
“You went to her apartment and searched it?”
“That’s right.”
“Do I want to know how you got in?”
He sipped his coffee but said nothing.
“I’ll still need to see the place. You said Letty quit working for you?”
“Yes.”
“She broke up with you? And quit? Because you hooked up with her little sister?”
He nodded.
“Must have been pretty awkward between the two of them, right?”
“Yeah. You could say that. Letty was so pissed, she wouldn’t even come to the hospital when Maya was born. She totally ghosted her own sister. It was unbelievable.”
“How long did that go on?” Vikki asked. “The feud, I mean.”
“Let’s see. I remember, Letty came to Maya’s third-birthday party. Begrudgingly. By then, things were pretty bad between Tanya and me. I hadn’t moved out yet, but the handwriting was on the wall. She’d supposedly quit drinking, but I went into the kitchen in the middle of the party, and caught her spiking her Fresca with vodka.I blew up at her. I mean, getting wasted at your own kid’s birthday party? Letty heard us fighting, and of course, she took Tanya’s side. That was it for me. I walked.”
Evan had placed his phone on the tabletop. The screen lit up, and he tapped it to dismiss the call. “Okay, I need to get going. You’ve got all you need, right?”
“For now,” she said.
He reached for his billfold.
Zoeyand Hailey were standing behind the counter when she saw Table Two getting ready to leave. She nudged Hailey.
“Time to take your smoke break.”
“Now? I just took one a little while ago.”
Zoey gave her a look. “Just go stand outside the window where they’re sitting. Take your phone. When the woman gets up to leave, get a picture of her. And try to be subtle, okay?”
