They clearly talked a lot. Conor wasn’t the type of guy who wore his heart on his sleeve and who’d catch feelings easily. Yet he’d just told me that he loved her. And her expression on the video… just thinking about it made my heart squeeze.
"You are. You just don’t want to get her in trouble." He wasn't wrong. "Was she involved in Da’s shooting?"
On edge, I folded my arms against my chest. "How the hell would I know?"
His gaze turned thoughtful. Somehow, I knew he was changing the topic as he informed me, "I went to West Orange."
Curiosity pricked, I let him divert my attention. "To see Star? When?"
"The day Da was shot." His chin tipped up. "Impeccable timing as always."
"Don’t be hard on yourself," I said gruffly, wanting so badly to reach out and hug him, to comfort him, but he had a wall around him that might as well have been a mile thick.
He merely shrugged. "I spoke with Lily Lancaster."
Star had been living with Lily and her partner in Jersey. I knew Lily. Not well, but some. Her father had once been the Sparrows’ chief money man.
"You talked with her about Star? What did she have to say?"
"That the only person who knew where she’d gone was Katina."
I didn’t know Star’s foster daughter well, but I knew that she was devoted to the little girl.
"I’m guessing Lily didn’t let you interrogate the preteen child?" I drawled.
"No. But maybe she’d let you."
"I’m not going to traumatize a little girl, Conor."
"Who said anything about traumatizing her?" He grunted. "Do you know what Star would do to me if I upset her kid?"
My lips twitched. "True."
"If you go there, speak with her, maybe—"
"Katina doesn’t know me. She has no reason to share secrets with me." I raised a hand when he started to argue. "But I’ll go. Okay? Not today, I have some shit to do, but I’ll head over to Jersey and speak with her when I've got a moment." I leaned a hip against his desk. "What was in this info dump that Star left you?"
Not unsurprisingly, he didn’t answer, just asked, "Did she send you that parcel she promised?"
I shrugged. "More bank statements. Some other info on how Sparrows were chosen and inducted into the ranks. Mostly lists of banking transactions.
"Boring shit, but it’s evidence the AG’s office will like. Some forensic accountant is about to get a boner from all the numbers she sent me."
"Disappointed?"
"Maybe. You can’t write exposés on crap like that."
"Running out of people to write about?"
"With Star away, yeah." Trying a different tactic to get info out of him, I asked, "You got anything I can write about to spread the word?"
"I’ll transfer you some files over that I think might be of interest to you."
Barely hiding my glee, I nodded. "Thanks."
"The induction process was in the info dump. It's curious she included that in the package she had delivered to you."
"Why?"