Мэри Эндрюс - The Newcomer

Letty hadn’t heard from Tanya in a while. The last she’d heard, her little sister was living down south somewhere, doing some modeling and living with an on-again, off-again boyfriend. Tanya was not big on phone calls or emails, so Letty was shocked to get a call from Tanya early one Saturday morning.

“Lettttttyyyy,” Tanya sobbed.

“What is it?”

“Rooney’s gone.”

Letty wasn’t sure whether Rooney was Tanya’s boyfriend or her cat.

“Gone? Oh my God, is he dead?”

“I wish. No, the fucker moved out. I came home last night and there was a for-sale sign in the window of the condo. There’s a multi-lock on the door, so I can’t get in, but I looked inside and it’s completely empty. All my stuff is gone. My clothes, my shoes, everything. Thank God I was carrying my Louis Vuitton, or it would be gone too.”

“Did you try calling him?”

“Only like a gabillion times. Nothing. He’s gone and my shit’s gone. And P.S. He owes me like a couple thousand dollars. I’m officially broke.”

“This happened last night? Where are you staying?”

“I slept in my car last night, because it was too late to do anything else.”

“Oh, Tanya,” Letty said with a long sigh.

Her sister had a long history of short, disastrous relationships with men, but even for Tanya, this was the Tanya-est thing ever.

“What are you going to do?” Letty asked.

“I’m not sure. I’m supposed to do a catalog shoot down in Florida next week, but I don’t have any place to stay until then. I don’t even have a change of clothes. Literally, all I have is what’s on my back. And my car, which I have to keep moving because the bank wants to repo it.”

“And the Louis Vuitton,” Letty pointed out. “How much is that thing worth?”

“Don’t even go there. I’m not hocking Louis.”

Letty waited for the other shoe to drop.

“I was thinking,” Tanya said slowly. “What would you say about my moving up there?”

“Here? You’d move to New York?”

“Why not? I could probably get a lot more magazine work. Definitely more runway. Maybe take some acting classes. Like you. Hey, I meant to say I loved you in Christmas in Charleston. You were the only one with an authentic Southern accent. Maybe you could hook me up with your new agent?”

For a moment, Letty was seized with an irrational—and selfish—urge to scream “No!” But she would never do that. Tanya was her baby sister. Okay, technically half sister. The two of them had been on their own since they were sixteen and seventeen. Scarlett and Tanya against the world.

“Maybe,” she said. “Where would you stay?”

“I was thinking maybe I could camp out on your sofa or something? Just until I get my feet on the ground, start getting some work?”

The waitress arrived back at the table with their order. She lingered, arranging the plates just so, pouring more coffee and water. “Anything else?”

“That’s all,” Evan said.

“Hold up,” Vikki said. “I understand you’re friends with Scarlett Carnahan?”

Zoey shrugged. “She used to work here, so yeah, I knew her. But she quit, so I haven’t seen her in, like, forever.”

“But you know your friend is in trouble, right?”

“I read about it in the Post, but you know how newspapers are. They make up most of that crap they print. Anyway, I know Letty wouldn’t hurt anybody. Especially that sister of hers.”

“Okay,” Vikki said. She tore the mustard packets apart, squeezed mustard on top of the egg, then picked up her bagel and bit into it.

“She’s lying,” Evan said, when Zoey was gone.

“I know. I’ll get back with her later, when you’re not around.”

She took another bite of sandwich and chewed slowly. “Let’s talk about you for a minute. I see from the tabloids that things were pretty bad between you and your ex. You’d already moved on, right? New girlfriend and all? You don’t exactly look like a grieving widower to me.”

Evan’s jaw tightened. “Tanya was the mother of my child. And now that child is missing. Who knows what kind of situation Letty has gotten her into? Maya is only four. She’s very sensitive and high-strung. She was seeing a therapist even before all of this.”

“Why not just let the police find Letty and Maya?” Vikki asked. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy to take your money, but be straight with me here. This isn’t just about finding the person who killed Tanya, and it’s not just about the kid. Am I right?”

He sipped his coffee and then carefully composed his answer.

“As I mentioned on the phone, Letty worked for me, until I met Tanya. She was privy to some, uh, confidential business arrangements, and then, while Tanya and I were living together, she obviously was around all the time, while I was doing business, talking to associates, that kind of thing. She asked a lot of questions. Tanya was a head case, but she was no dummy.”

“Ohhhhh,” Vikki said, nodding. “Letty and Tanya knew the dirty details about the Airbnbs, and you were afraid they’d spill the beans to the city. Am I right?”

“Not in so many words,” Evan said. “Tanya was determined to move out to LA. She thought she’d get more acting jobs there. I was happy to let her go.…”

“And get her out of your hair, and off your payroll,” Vikki interrupted. “But she wanted to take the kid. And you weren’t having it.”

“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.”