“A good friend of mine died in a house fire a long time ago,” Drew says. “Her name was Joey. The fire was supposedly accidental, but there are a few things I’ve learned recently that suggest it might not have been an accident at all. But the woman who might know more about it has been missing for nearly twenty years. And this missing woman might have dated someone you know.”
“What’s her name?”
“That, I don’t know. She was a dancer at a strip club called the Golden Cherry. Her stage name was Betty Savage, and her boyfriend was someone in the Blood Brothers.”
If any of this is ringing a bell for Tranh, he’s not letting on. “And you need me to do what, exactly?”
“I’m hoping you’ll tell me who he is, so I can figure out who Betty Savage is, so I can find out where she is, and talk to her.”
A small smile. “Do you have a photo of this Betty Savage?”
Drew pulls out his phone. He taps on the photo he sent to Sergeant McKinley earlier, and enlarges it so only Betty is showing on the screen. He hands Tranh his phone.
Tranh examines it closely. “Oh yes. I remember her. That’s Mae. I don’t recall if I ever knew her last name, but I did meet her a few times.”
Jackpot. “So she was dating someone in the Blood Brothers?”
Tranh hands the phone back. “She was my brother’s girlfriend.”
Oh. Shit.
This is not what Drew expected to hear. Of course he was familiar with Tranh’s younger brother, Vinh—who went by Vinny—as he was thought to have been involved in the nightclub shooting in Chinatown. A year after that, he was shot and killed, supposedly over a drug deal gone bad.
Which, thinking back to his research notes now, wasn’t very long after Betty—Mae—went missing. It might have been less than a week after the fire. And though it was never proven, the bullet was rumored to have come from a member of his own gang. Someone had ordered a hit on Vinny. And only someone high up could do that.
Someone like his brother, Tony Tranh. Who’s now watching Drew with eyes that seem to know exactly where Drew’s mind just went.
“I’m sorry,” Drew says. “I understand Vinny died years ago. If I had thought he might be Betty’s—Mae’s—boyfriend, I would never have come here. I apologize if I’ve brought up a painful memory.”
“Thank you,” Tranh says. “It was a shame to lose him so young. He was only twenty-three. It was very hard on our mother.”
Drew hesitates, unsure if he should ask his next question.
“Go ahead,” Tranh says, sipping his tea. “Say what’s on your mind.”
“Betty—Mae—went missing around New Year’s Eve 1998. I realize it was a long time ago, but do you have any idea where she might have gone?”
Tranh frowns again. “Why would I know anything? She was Vinny’s girlfriend, not mine.”
“Apparently, she just stopped showing up for work. And her boyfriend—which I now know is your brother—was concerned enough to go to her club looking for her. Vinny never mentioned anything to you about this back then? About his girlfriend disappearing? I mean, that’s kind of a … big thing.”
“Oh, he mentioned it. He was actually quite distraught about it. As was I.” Tranh uncrosses his legs, then recrosses them the other way. “But then he was murdered on January fifth, 1999. If he did tell me anything about his missing girlfriend, it likely slipped my mind as I was comforting our mother and planning his funeral.”
“I’m sorry,” Drew says again.
Tranh sips his tea. Outwardly, he seems relaxed, but Drew’s gut is telling him that the other man is far from it. “You’re probably well aware that Vinny had a reputation for violence. We had a rough childhood, but we turned out very differently, much to our mother’s dismay.”
Drew doesn’t buy it. The only difference between Tony Tranh and Vinny Tranh was that the older brother was smarter and possessed more self-control. Which, in the end, made him much more dangerous than Vinny ever was.
“As tragic as it is, my brother got himself killed because he was stupid.” Tranh seems more annoyed than sad. “He was very impulsive. As was Mae. I wasn’t surprised she disappeared. She had no family, and Vinny told me she grew up in the system. He wasn’t always kind to her, but then again, Mae was bad news.”
It’s exactly how Cherry described her.
“In what way?” Drew asks.
“She was a thief.” Tranh’s eyes are cold. “I didn’t like her from the beginning. I sensed she was trouble, and that’s exactly what she turned out to be. She and Vinny had a very passionate relationship—and not always in a good way. It was causing him to become unreliable, which wasn’t good for business.”