She sat in the living room with her computer and waited for it to load. In the quiet of the suite, the only movement the progress bar creeping pixel to pixel, it was hard to keep her focus on the task. Without distraction, the weight of what happened was more apparent, more immense. All day, she’d managed to keep it to one side—emotional periphery—but now it was right here, and she felt this strange temptation just to give up, sink into the feeling that everything was terrible, irreparable. And in her head the undamaged world—a counter-world—was playing out, and they had gone to dinner like she’d said in her note to him, and the real world seemed built on such surreal and morbid chance it was absurd she was even here.

The room swam, and she waited for clarity. She opened Google and ran a search on Page Swanson. Nothing in the news tab. She tried Page Swanson Eugene Lamar Sylvester Crow. The Crow mention yielded a hit: an LA Times article about a cancelled real-estate development. This must have been the project Vincent mentioned—the one Sylvester Crow had been chasing her father over, for the lost two million. She clicked the link.

Development of a Santa Monica hotel and apartment complex has been halted indefinitely amid claims of organised-crime involvement.

The proposed Oasis building on Montana Avenue is a joint venture between Sly Holdings Ltd and Monarch Hotels. The Times understands the project was suspended following concerns from Monarch that capital used by Sly Holdings had been obtained through illegal activity. Sly Holdings’ director, Sylvester Crow, was unavailable for comment, however a statement issued through his attorney, Terry Page, notes that ‘to the best of the company’s knowledge’ the funds used as a deposit on a construction loan for the complex were ‘derived lawfully’.

The Times has obtained a copy of an email from Monarch Hotels to Los Angeles District Attorney Lewis Cryer, claiming that funds used in the project have been sourced through cartel drug activity, and that the development is intended as ‘a laundering mechanism for such funds’. The email offers no evidence in support of the claim, other than to say that the information was obtained ‘anecdotally’. Mr Cryer’s office has not responded to requests for comment.

Terry Page was the Page half of Page Swanson. She remembered his name from the company website.

Cartel drug activity. God. What were they into?

She stared at the text. As if floating between the lines was her real father, right there in the subtext. A side to him she never knew.

She got up and wandered round the apartment.

Living room, bedroom, living room. The problem was: what portion of the man was the hidden side? And was it worth avenging?

She picked up the room-service menu and set it down. She turned on the TV and flipped through random stations.