We had some investments, I think. Once in a while, Mom would consult in criminal cases. She served as an expert witness.”
“Any recent cases?” If someone’s conviction hinged on her testimony, it could be a hell of a motive. That or revenge. Always a good one. I would have to pull up all the recent cases Sigourney Etterson had testified in.
“No.” Runa shook her head. “She used to do it more frequently when I was younger. I remember her traveling a lot, especially right after my father bailed on us. But she told me a few years ago that she wanted to spend more time with us, and that the forensic work didn’t pay well enough to justify her missing things in our lives.”
I glanced at Bern. He met my gaze and frowned.
“What?” Runa asked.
Someone had to state the obvious and that someone was me, apparently. “You said your father cleaned out the family accounts and twelve years later you are worth eight million dollars.”
“Less now. Some of it was the house,” Runa said.
“Expert testimony can be profitable, but it doesn’t pay that well,” Bern said.
She bristled. “What are you saying?”
“We’re not saying anything,” I told her. “We’re asking questions. Things are not making sense and we need to keep digging until they do.”
Runa rubbed her face with both hands.
“Did your mother use any kind of remote backup?” Bern asked.
“I don’t . . . Wait, yes,” Runa said. “Yes, she did. She used Guardian, Ltd. All the important documents were backed up to a remote server. Her user name is Hemlock. The password is our three names, RunaHalleRagnar. She made me memorize it. I should have checked it. I’m so dumb. I didn’t even think about it.”
“You had a lot going on,” Bern said. His fingers flew over his laptop’s keyboard. “I’m in.”
“Did she leave any letters for me? A message?”
“Not that I can see right away,” he said. “I’ll look.”
The excitement drained from Runa’s face. “Is that all the questions?” she asked quietly.
“For now,” I told her.
“I’m going to go check on my brother. Please tell me if you find anything.”
I waited until the door behind her closed and turned to Mom.
“Abarca?” she asked.
“The access road barrier wasn’t up. We almost got hit by a truck coming from that street. The barricade by the security booth was down also and when I checked with Kelly, he thought the truck thing was funny. Kelly didn’t have a battle buddy.”
My mother rested her elbow on the table and leaned her chin on her fingers. This was her we-have-a-serious-problem pose.
When I agreed to become the Head of our House, I decided that I wouldn’t repeat Nevada’s mistake. I wouldn’t try to do everything myself. I wasn’t as strong as she was, and if I tried to carry it all, I would crumble; so I delegated. Bern oversaw all things digital that were more complex than our regular information searches. Grandma Frida handled our vehicles. Arabella collected payments. Mom took care of our security. That was her sphere, and I mostly stayed out of it. Delegating didn’t mean anything if I questioned every decision she made.
The doorbell chimed. I got up, went to the front door, and checked the camera. Abarca stood on the other side. Lean and bronze-skinned, Abarca was forty-eight years old but looked ten years younger. He had a full head of hair, once black but now going to grey, and a pleasant face with dark eyes and an infectious grin.
As I opened the door, he gave me a bright smile. I smiled back, because it was polite, and shut the door behind him.
Three years ago, Nevada married Connor Rogan, also known by such fun nicknames as Mad Rogan, the Scourge of Mexico, and Huracan. Connor maintained his own private army, and for a while they provided our security.
We were all very naive back then. We actually looked into building a house next to Rogan and Nevada’s, going as far as negotiating the price for the land. The deal fell through when I crunched the numbers and saw how much money we still owed Augustine and how much we would need to survive. Instead we had to concentrate on paying off our debt.
As time went on and we slowly crawled out of our financial hole, we decided to hire our own security team. We did it for two reasons. We didn’t want to be a drain on House Rogan’s resources, and we had to separate ourselves from Connor’s long shadow.