Mira tucked the suit jacket around her. “It was out of his league.”
“Oh, I don’t think the necklace itself was out of his league. Jewelry gains its value here, you know.” Sunil tapped his chest. “Which means that rich people will pay top dollar to stuff it in their safe and never tell anyone that it exists. He could have used that necklace as a bargaining chip if he ever got caught. Or he could sell it for a neat retirement fund.”
Naveen preferred a different kind of diversified portfolio, but to each his own.
“Who he wanted to steal it from, now that was the out of his league part.” Sunil took a shot of the scotch.
Naveen leaned forward. Finally, a name. “And who was that?”
“Cobra.”
So not a name, but the same alias, uttered in that awestricken way. “Who is this Cobra?”
“A bogeyman, or so I thought.” Sunil turned his glass this way and that, watching the liquid move. “You know Vassar and I met in America as adults, but we both grew up near each other in Mumbai. Both of us had heard whispers back then of a criminal named Cobra. His gang was widespread. They robbed, murdered, scammed, demanded protection money. Cobra’s identity was more protected than any state secret.”
No different from any mafia. “That was in India, though.”
“Yes. He went off the grid decades ago, and everyone assumed he was dead. But then he popped up here, in America. Running the same game, but on a bigger scale, thanks to the internet.” Sunil took a sip of his drink, like he was washing out his mouth.
Mira shifted. “He must be very old now, though.”
“Perhaps. Or someone has picked up the Cobra name and his network. Either way, they’ve established themselves. I would not cross Cobra, and I told Vassar the same. Cobra’s more powerful than God.”
Mira pressed her palms on her thighs. “So why does someone that powerful care about the loss of one small piece of jewelry?”
“Because they also have the ego of God,” Naveen guessed. “They’re probably pissed. And after your dad died, they probably didn’t know where to go next.”
Sunil wrinkled his nose. “It is also not a small necklace. It’s worth upward of ten million dollars.”
Naveen’s eyebrows shot up. “Jesus.”
“Yes. If your dad hadn’t died, he would have been able to have an extremely comfortable retirement.” Sunil resettled his shoulders, and suddenly looked very old and small in his oversize chair. “That was a hard call to get. Your aunt never liked me, anyway, so it wasn’t like she spent much time comforting me.”
Mira narrowed her gaze on her uncle. “Were you one of Dad’s friends she always complained about? One of the ones who always flirted with her? Because in that case, I can imagine her not liking you much.”
Sunil drew back, affronted. “I wouldn’t have flirted with her when her brother wasn’t even cold yet. I observe a solid mourning period for hitting on women. Speaking of which, has she said anything about me recently?”
Mira’s hands disappeared into the sleeves of her jacket. “I’m sorry, I thought you knew. She passed away.”
Sunil’s eyebrows shot up. “Rhea? No!” True sorrow crossed his face. “That’s heartbreaking. She was a firecracker. It’s not every woman who can resist me. Apologies, Mira.”
“Thank you.”
Naveen rubbed his jaw, something bothering him. “You said you hoped they wouldn’t come after Mira. You thought they might?”
Sunil sucked his teeth. “I was hacked a few weeks ago. Fired my whole IT team over that. I had emails from your dad in there. I assume that was why they came to me.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
Sunil picked up his phone and typed, then turned the screen around so they could see. “Your dad sent this to me before he died, from India.”
Naveen read over Mira’s shoulder.
Sunil,
No complications with the transaction, but in the hospital.
If you see my daughters, tell them I’m sorry. I don’t blame Mira or Sejal for leaving home. I was a shitty father. Hope they do better. Left them something, they’ll know where it is.
Talked to Rhea, she says Mira might get married soon. I wish I could make it to her wedding. Feels like something’s missing.
Thanks for everything. Talk soon. Vassar
Naveen cast a look at Mira. Mira calmly tapped the FORWARD button and sent the letter to herself without asking for permission. “So that’s why they think Sejal or I know where this thing is. Sunil Uncle, you should have warned us.”
Her words were calm and without inflection, which in anyone else would have been good. With Mira, it was worrisome. She wasn’t unaffected, reading this final note from her dad, she couldn’t possibly be, but she was really good at pretending indifference.
As a recent recruit to the Feel Your Feelings Club, he knew that level of bottling up couldn’t be healthy.
Sunil grimaced. “I didn’t even know your number, Mira. Or I would have surely at least sent this note on to you. I wouldn’t keep his apology from you.”
“It’s not an apology. I don’t know what this is, but the man I knew would have never apologized. This is some kind of code that I don’t know how to crack. Another scheme.”
“No, no.” Sunil’s forehead creased in distress. “I disagreed many times with Vassar over how he raised you and Sejal. That was the main reason I stopped coming around your house. Well, that and my own anxiety. But the man clearly loved you. Your mother’s death affected him too much.”
“You knew him when my mother was alive?”
“Well, no. I met him after. He spoke of her often, though. How she kept him focused and grounded, and without her he was nobody. How badly he wanted to be somebody again.”
“He never spoke of her to me. He wouldn’t even let us keep photos of her.”
“That wasn’t right, and I told him that. I know your relationship was strained, but he was like a little brother to me.” Sunil’s face softened. “Last time I talked to Rhea, she said he started planning for your wedding from the moment you were born. He loved you.”
Mira turned her face away. Naveen wondered if she was thinking of that chest in her father’s storage unit that seemingly corroborated what Sunil was saying. “He loved money,” she said flatly. “I was a convenience for him, and when I stopped being useful, he was happy for me to leave.”
Every protective hackle inside of Naveen rose. The defensive wall he’d built around his heart the second her secrets had started to unravel chipped even more. Every clue he got as to her childhood made him even more certain that she’d lied to him, not out of malice or because she was intrinsically dishonest, but because she was desperately trying to forget.
Naveen’s hand went to her lower back. She didn’t shrug him away, so he left it there. “The thing is, Mira doesn’t know where the necklace is, and Sejal doesn’t seem to either. So whatever Vassar is talking about here, it’s not that.”
“Of course. I didn’t say Cobra was correct in assuming Vassar was referencing the necklace, merely that this might be what pointed him to the girls.” Sunil gave a dramatic sigh. “If my security team hadn’t been so quick, I would have told Cobra’s minions that I know exactly where those diamonds are.”