Page 71 of The Secret Dinner

I went to get a glass of water from the kitchen. Sitting at the counter, I confirmed my suspicions: @Kassio_Kolks was Kássio Gheler. Kássio had continued to attend our dinners just to get back at us for what I’d done to him and his boyfriend that first night. Pissed off, I went back to the living room. For a moment I wished for a little crystal of Molly so I could trip balls and forget about everything. But I didn’t have any on me.

“I’ve tried everything, it’s no use,” said Piglet. He yawned, putting his laptop aside. He’d been hard at work for over four hours, and he stank to high heaven. “I need to take a break.”

“We don’t have time!” yelled Umberto. He was losing his grip. Not even his flowery mannerisms and speech could hide the fact that he was scared shitless. “This is serious. If we don’t fix this, we’re screwed. Not just me, everybody. We’re all fucked!”

In that moment, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the terror in his voice. If he was as respected and powerful as he claimed, what exactly was he afraid of? Public backlash? Being investigated by the cops? Umberto was revealing a cowardly side. That was new to us.

Umberto’s phone rang again and he jumped up, hurrying to the hallway. I followed him to listen in on the conversation.

“Yes, of course … With a ch? Great! Leave it to me. I’m telling you, I’ve got it covered! Vladimir won’t hear any more about this. Thank him for me, will you?”

He hung up and caught me eavesdropping.

“I’m trying to fix your mess,” he said, regaining that superior air that had always irked me. Then he went back to the living room. “I got the guy’s password.”

Piglet was smoking a joint at the window.

“What?”

“The password for this Kassio Kolks fellow. It’s trapiche66,” he said. “Log in to his profile, delete that photo, and please do your best to confirm this hasn’t been shared anywhere else.”

“Okay.”

Piglet went back to his computer.

“How did you get the password?”

“My guys found the address of whoever posted the photo,” Umberto said. “They just gave him a good scare. It wasn’t that hard.”

Miguel and Hugo stood beside Piglet as he accessed dark windows filled with seemingly random characters and typed several sequences of numbers and letters to make sure the photo hadn’t been replicated on other sites. Umberto disappeared down the hallway again. I went after him and grabbed him by the arm.

“Who’s Vladimir?” I asked.

His face went pale. “What are you talking about?”

“I heard you on the phone. Who’s Vladimir?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“If you don’t tell me right now, I’m going to go back in there and tell everybody you served us human flesh that day at your house without us knowing.”

He was unmoved. He broke into a wide grin. “You really want to pick a fight over that?”

“You’re an asshole.”

“You know, people say seagull tastes like pork, but I think they’re wrong. It’s so much more exotic and surprising. I thought you’d spot the difference right away.”

“Tell me who Vladimir is.”

“A new partner.”

“New partner?”

In that moment, I didn’t yet grasp the full extent of the power Vladimir wielded over all of us. I was so angry I couldn’t think straight.

“We’ll just call him a silent partner,” said Umberto.

“He was the one who found Kássio and got his password, wasn’t he? I heard you on the phone.”