“A loan,” I said slowly.

“For what?

What did my sister need two hundred thousand dollars for?”

Julian took two heavy steps toward me, his massive shadow falling across the table, and he answered with the bored contempt of a man explaining something obvious.

“Your sister,” he said, “has a bit of a gambling problem, Nora.

Online poker.

Private casinos down in Renton.

She ran up a very large debt with some associates of mine.