“From the guy selling out of his trunk,” I said. “He’s got all kinds of stuff, and he said they’re selling like hot cakes. I got the last one of these in my size.”
“Yikes,” Angelica said. “Did you just fall off the turnip truck?”
“I like to support small businesses,” I said primly. “I want to get back to Vince. If he’s not with you then I’m afraid he’s in trouble. How did he find you?”
“That’s part of the agreement with witness protection,” she said. “That you’ll never have contact with anyone from your former life. I know Vince and your father were working with that FBI task force, and I have a contact at the FBI if my past comes back to bite my ass. But I never trusted him or those other two cops. Not like Vinny.”
“What other two cops?” I asked.
Angelica waved her hand away and said, “I don’t remember their names. But they wanted me to fry right along with Carmen, so good riddance to them. Vinny and your dad were the only ones I could trust. So I broke the rules. I sent Vinny and your dad a card with my number and my new name and told them I felt better knowing they would maybe look into it if something happened to me.”
I decided to start with the funnel cake instead of the tacos because I’m an adult and can eat dessert first if I want to, and then I asked Angelica, “Did y’all stay in touch a lot over the years?”
“No,” she said. “He’d check in every few years. And I’d check in with him if I moved or anything like that. Maybe five or six times we spoke over the last twenty years. I grew up in Miami, so when I had the chance to start a new life and come home, I took it. You have no idea what it’s like for a Puerto Rican woman who’s married to a mob boss while living in Savannah. That place is not my style. I hated every breath I took there. But that’s where the money was,” she said, shrugging. “And I like money. And I liked the house okay, but the Feds seized all that when they arrested Carmen.”
“No one from the FBI found out you and Vince were in contact?” Kate asked.
“Pssh, please,” she said. “The FBI don’t care about me or Vince. He was just a local cop to them. But he and your daddy did all the work so far as I could see. They actually listened to me. The FBI gave me this new face and a new identity, but Vinny gave me respect.”
“I’m more interested to know how you didn’t end up in prison,” Kate said. “I’ve read those case files forward and backward. Your nickname was Reina in the de Salva organization.”
“What’s that mean?” I asked.
“Queen,” Kate answered. “So I wonder how you managed to escape a life in prison, while your husband and two of your sons went to federal prison.”
Angelica smiled, her black eyes sparkling with good humor. “I knew I liked you. And I think you know the answer.”
“You turned your husband over to the Feds,” Kate said. “Gave them their case in exchange for your freedom and protection.”
“Whoa,” I said. “You sent your husband and most of your family to prison and you didn’t move to Alaska or the North Pole? How are you not terrified they’ll find you?”
She shrugged. “What are they going to do to me from prison?” she asked. “Besides, I’m not without my own resources and security. I’m well protected. I saw the two of you coming from a mile away, and still got the drop on you.”
“That’s true,” Kate said. “You called Vince, didn’t you? He wouldn’t have come unless you’d needed him. And you’ve not stopped scanning this place since we got here. You’re nervous and you wanted us to all be in public. Why?”
“Me, nervous?” Angelica asked, putting a hand to her chest. “I’ve never been nervous a day in my life.”
“I didn’t peg you for a liar,” Kate said, and then the tension in the car skyrocketed and I wondered why Kate was antagonizing the woman with the gun. And then I remembered that Kate had a gun too inside her purse, though I was hoping the two women didn’t have a showdown in public on the pier. This looked like the kind of place where everyone was armed.
Angelica sighed. “Fine,” she said. “And nobody likes a know-it-all. I’ve felt eyes on me the last couple of months. I haven’t seen anyone, but something I learned while being married to Carmen was you always listened to your instincts. There’s no new neighbors on my street. No daily joggers I don’t recognize. When I’m in my car and feel as if someone is following me I’ll watch the cars behind me, but they always turn off.”
“Carmen died a couple of months ago in prison,” Kate said. “Did your instincts start tingling before or after?”
She narrowed her gaze in thought. “After.”
“What about your sons? Do you ever hear from them?”
Her smile was sad. “No, never. They were loyal to their father. They didn’t understand why we had to stop.”
“Why did you stop it?” I asked. “You had everything you could ever want?”
“All good things must come to an end, sí? We would not have lasted much longer where we were. There is always someone younger and hungrier who wants what you have. Our home base was in Savannah because it was easy and ripe for the taking. But it was also easy access to surrounding states and the gulf.”
“You mean drugs?” Kate asked. “Everything is easily transported along the waterways and through the bayous. Drugs have always been a problem in Savannah. From what I remember about the case, your husband insisted he had no idea about the drugs coming into the city.”
“No,” she said. “Carmen did not have
