How To Salsa in a Sari by Dona Sarkar Page B

lunatic.
    â€œWe have to go to the police. Diego killed Cat’s mom!”
    â€œDiego told me everything, Iz. Let’s sit down and we can—”
    â€œWhat, I—I’ll get the articles! I know where he keeps them!”
    â€œOn the top shelf hidden behind the books. I know. Diego showed me already,” Alisha said in a calm voice.
    Issa’s mouth dropped open, her teeth still chattering. “What? And you believe whatever lie he told you? Didn’t you see—”
    â€œHis wife was killed.” Alisha cut her off. “But he certainly had nothing to do with it.”
    Issa felt a nervous breakdown coming on. This had been the longest day of her whole life. Frustrated tears squeezed themselves out of the corners of her eyes. She didn’t want to hear Diego’s story. She didn’t want to live in a house with Cat. She wanted her mother back. Her best friend who considered her the most important thing in her life. Who was this woman standing in front of her defending an axe murderer?
    Issa lowered herself into the open passenger side of the car, her head in her arms. She could go to Atlanta. Hide in Aunt Helen’s house till Diego stopped looking for her. But what about Alisha? She didn’t look as if she was going anywhere.
    Alisha’s voice sounded far off as she narrated Diego’s story. “Diego married a girl his parents found for him and they had a baby girl, Cat. They were good people. Happy.”
    â€œJust like ours was until he walked in the door,” Issa yelled. “He is a killer!”
    The Morenas’ next door neighbor had just come home and was staring openmouthed at where Alisha and Issa were standing in the middle of the lawn and yelling.
    Alisha glanced nervously back at the neighbor. “Why don’t we go in the house?”
    â€œI am not going anywhere except away from here!” Issa shot Alisha a fierce look. What was the matter with her? She was becoming more and more like Diego, not listening to her daughter. Where had all the equality in their relationship gone?
    â€œFine! Stand here and yell. When we get arrested for disturbing the peace, it’s your fault!”
    â€œYeah, whatever. I’m sure Diego can get you out of jail. He has plenty of experience running from the police!” Issa was growing angry. If Alisha wanted to get into the middle of this, fine, but Issa was too young to go to jail for obstruction of justice. She had a long career in journalism ahead of her and she was not going to ruin it in the eleventh grade.
    â€œDiego is not a killer!”
    The neighbor quickly went inside his own house.
    â€œExplain to me what—”
    â€œDiego climbed the corporate ladder at his company, Three Isles Financial,” Alisha continued in a lower voice. “He thought he was set for life. Then one day he uncovered a very large embezzlement scheme by his boss, Santiago Sanchez, the CFO. He split the money with Diego and asked him to look the other way.”
    â€œAnd he did it.” Issa didn’t even need Alisha to confirm it. “That’s the kind of guy he is, Mom. How can you even think of marrying him?”
    â€œDiego was afraid . If he said no, he didn’t know what his boss would do. He took the money and tried to figure out how to go to the police.”
    Issa was silent.
    â€œDiego told Maria the whole story. Maria was ashamed of him and she went to the police with the whole story and Sanchez was arrested.”
    â€œThen Diego killed her.”
    â€œNo, he did not! Maria was attacked and killed in their home the very night Sanchez was arrested. Diego found her body and knew that he and Cat were next. He took all the money and caught the next flight for the U.S. to here, New Joliet. And that’s what happened.”
    Killed.
    Issa felt her throat close. It wasn’t what she’d expected, but she didn’t care. Yes, he had a tragic past, but so had she.