Watch Over Me

by Susan May Warren

  Silence crackled through the line. “Pop?”

  “Da. Da. Bread is all I need.” He hung up, and Vicktor stared at the dead phone.

  He was off to a great start this morning. Vicktor kneaded his temple. If his mother were here she’d know what to do. But Antonina had abandoned her men on a snowy night two years ago, and the grief and anger had driven the Shubnikov men apart long before Nickolai’s accident. The Wolf’s bullet had simply pushed them beyond reconciliation.

  Steam fogged the room, obscuring the glass windows that separated Vicktor’s office from the rookies on the floor. Vicktor filled his cup and stirred the coffee. It wasn’t Starbucks, which he’d visited more times than he should have in Washington, but at least it was coffee. Sorta. Okay, it smelled the same.

  A cup and a half later, he had read through his email messages and reached for the phone. He hoped Arkady had eaten a full breakfast. He needed the man slightly sluggish when he needled him for information about Evgeny.

  “Give us a break! Lakarstin’s body isn’t even cold!”

  Nope. Probably had kasha. Even Vicktor would be on edge after a bowl of cold, lumpy mush. “I know, Chief, but what do you know? Tell me—anything.” Please, let him say he was handing the case to the COBRAs. He didn’t want to be caught in the middle of a range war.

  Vicktor heard Arkady snuffle and could almost see him lean back in his tattered desk chair and take a pull on his cigarette. “Well, let’s see what you can do with this, hotshot. His neck was slit.”

  “I’m not quite that stupid, thank you. Tell me something new.”

  “And he had a wad of paper shoved up his nose.”

  “What?”

  “You mean you goats in the FezB don’t know a mafia hit when you see one?”

  “What mafia? That’s not the Russian signature for a hit.”

  “It’s a North Korean superstition. They shove the paper up a victim’s nose to keep their spirit from haunting them. Even a rookie would know that.”

  Vicktor thumbed his coffee cup handle, ignoring the barb. “What would the North Korean mafia want with a veterinarian?”

  Arkady’s chair creaked as the Bulldog shifted his weight. Probably putting out that cigarette.

  “That is a good question. Was your buddy into drug smuggling?”

  “Now, how would I know that?”

  Arkady laughed. Vicktor tensed.

  “You said that dog of yours was a bit droopy…maybe he needed a fix?”

  “At Alfred’s age, following a cute poodle just about does him in.”

  “Your pal was into some sort of tyomnaya delo, some nasty business, for the mafia to track him down. They were searching for something too. We found a charred notebook in the garbage can, like he tried to keep something out of their hands.”

  Vicktor remembered the orange peels. “Maybe it’s some sort of ledger.”

  Vicktor heard the flick of a lighter.

  “Are you doing an autopsy?” he asked.

  “Cause of death is pretty obvious.”

  “Not to the FSB.” As soon as the words left his mouth Vicktor wanted to bang his head on his desk.

  A chill blew into Arkady’s voice. “Something you want to tell me?”

  Vicktor’s stomach knotted. Why, oh why, couldn’t he keep his mouth shut? “I heard the word mafia and…well, it’s not personal, Chief.”

  “Your COBRAs have been banging on my office door all morning. You tell them this is my case and I’ll hand it over if and when I want to.”

  “It’s not your jurisdiction anymore.”

  “I’ll decide what’s my jurisdiction. You just remember, you chose to leave. Nobody forced you out.”

  “I don’t see it that way.”

  Silence stretched the moment taut. Then in a voice so thin Vicktor hardly recognized it, Arkady whispered, “You watch your back over there, Vita.”

  Vicktor opened his mouth. Nothing emerged.

  “I gotta go round up the boys,” Arkady said, his voice fully recovered. “They’re probably out stealing the hubcaps off cars.”

  He hung up, and Vicktor clutched another dead phone in his white-knuckled fist.

  Gracie fumbled with the ropes that bound Evelyn’s wrists. She couldn’t look at Evelyn’s ashen face.

  Evelyn’s body lay at a contorted angle and her head had lolled back to reveal a jagged cut just below her chin. Gracie kept her gaze on the rope. Her fingers were slick, her eyes flooding. “It’s almost loose, Evelyn,” she soothed, as if her glassy-eyed friend could hear.

  When the knot slid free, Evelyn’s still hands remained a sickly gray, the blood refusing to flow into the gnarled fingertips. Gracie wrapped her arms around her waist and rocked. Her breath wheezed through dry lips.

  “What happened?” she moaned. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, her body shuddering with shock. “What happened?” She heard a wail, and with horror realized it was her own. “Oh, God, help me.” She covered her head with her hands, scraping up control. Her breath came in hiccups, hard, fast.

  An eerie silence invaded the room. Gracie’s skin chilled. What if the murderer still lurked nearby? Fear drove her to her feet.

  She had to call the police.

  Her head spun as she wiped tears from her face. The phone. Stumbling to the desk, she picked it up and dialed 9-1-1.

  The dead tone buzzed in her ear. Fool! Russia didn’t use 9-1-1. For the first time in two years, Gracie dearly wished she lived in America. She held the receiver against her forehead. “God, help,” she whimpered.

  Her eyes latched on to the phone list. Andrei. She left a trail of red on the number pad. “Be there!” she demanded, sobbing. She slammed down the receiver on the tenth ring, then grabbed up the telephone, shaking it. “Be there!”

  Larissa. Gracie grabbed the handset. Crumpling to the floor, she pulled the phone into her lap and dialed. She hugged her knees to her chest as she closed her eyes and listened to the ring.

  “Aeroflot Travel. This is Larissa Tallina. Hello.”

  “Help.”

  “Gracie, where are you?”

  Thank the Lord, Larissa recognized her voice.

  “Help. Evelyn…” Gracie’s voice sounded reed thin, unrecognizable. Her head spun. Acid pooled in the back of her throat.

  “Are you hurt?” Larissa’s voice held panic.

  Gracie shook her head.

  “Are you at home?”

  Gracie shook her head again, beginning to tremble.

  “Gracie, talk to me! Where are you?”

  Focus. Gracie steeled herself, inhaled deeply and formed speech. “Evelyn…was…murdered.” She felt a sob roiling to the surface.

  Larissa gasped.

  A floorboard creaked. The refrigerator hummed from the kitchen. “Larissa, don’t leave me! Are you there?”

  “Da, da, da. I’m here.” Larissa’s voice sounded pinched, perhaps with grief. “Stay right where you are. I’m calling the police. Stay put.”

  Gracie’s plea lodged in her dry throat and surfaced in a ragged whisper. “Don’t hang up.” The dead tone buzzed in her ear. Oh please, Lord, no. Please don’t leave me here all alone. She pushed the phone receiver into her cheek and blew out, fighting the panic clogging her mind.

  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

  Gracie curled into a ball, ignoring the comfort that could be hers, covered her hands with her face, and wept. Her sobs echoed through the flat and almost, but not quite, drowned the rasp of the steel door as it eased open.

  4

  The Wolf had grown to like the alias. He liked to think of himself as a hunter. “Where is it?” He leaned forward in his rickety chair and slammed his hands down on his desk. The flimsy piece of laminate trembled, as did the weakling sitting in the straight chair across from him.

  “I don’t know.” The man’s face paled. He turned up his fraying collar.

&nb
sp; The Wolf saw the quiver in his hands and rolled his gaze up to the ceiling. The fan swirled the stale air through the tiny office. Dust rose from the matted red rug and mixed with the sour smell of mold clinging to the walls of the cement and log building. The place should have been destroyed years ago. Someday it was going to come down, but he hoped to be long gone before then.

  He rose, rounded his desk, and leaned against it, folding his hands on his lap. His stress was beginning to manifest itself in the flesh of his knuckles. His fingers screamed as dry skin cracked and bled. He needed a bottle of Smirnoff and a good massage. But not here, not now. Pleasure would have to wait until he’d finished what he’d started. That’s what commitment meant. Putting off ’til tomorrow the delights of the flesh, staying the course until the job was complete.

  That much he’d learned over the thirty years of his virtual imprisonment.

  He watched the man fidget, play with his leather key chain. Idiot. The man had all the markings of a new Russian—cocky on the outside, kasha for stuffing. Flighty. Uncommitted. Men like the one before him made the Wolf physically ill. They had no idea what it meant to sacrifice for the Rodina, the Motherland. Men like him were like a virus, infecting the Motherland with greediness and a lust for westernism. He despised the leather jacket, the black shoes, the clink of keys to a fancy Japanese sedan.

  He despised the next generation. Their idealism, their selfish dreams. The Wolf smiled. He’d shattered some of those illusions today.

  He let the kid sit in silence, watched a line of sweat drip down the angular face.

  “It’s your own fault.”

  The younger man looked up, eyes lined with red. “How’s that?” The tough tone was belied by an edge of horror.

  “If you’d dug deeper, none of this would have happened.”

  “He didn’t have it. He knew nothing!”

  Weakling. “He knew.”

  “He died rather than tell you?”

  “Yes.”

  The man rose and went to the window. “I feel sick.”

  The Wolf knew just how the kid felt. He remembered the day, not so long ago, when everything he built his life on dissolved like salt in water.

  He’d been left to drown.

  The Wolf clamped a fat hand on the chauffeur’s shoulder. The younger man jumped. Outside the grimy window, a group of blue-gray pigeons wandered through the garbage of an over-flowing dumpster, picking at juice cans and hard bread. The wind blew a plastic bag through the rutted dirt yard. It caught in the branches of a budding lilac.

  “Find what I need and you’ll feel much better. I promise.”

  In the wake of Gracie’s sobs, the whine of the steel door on its hinges ignited her adrenaline like tinder.

  Someone was here.

  Gracie held still, letting the saliva pool in her mouth. She heard nothing but the whistle of a draft from the outside hall, yet she felt a presence slink toward the bedroom. Gracie drew in a slow, noiseless breath, trying to ignore the sound of her pounding heartbeat. The presence edged closer. Clamping down on her trembling lower lip, she moved the telephone to the floor. It jangled.

  Gracie froze.

  Glancing around the room for a weapon, her heart sank. The Youngs had nothing more dangerous than a couple of oversize pillows in their room. Her slaughtered body would be found clutching a feather pillow like a shield. Revulsion sent an unexpected streak of courage into her veins. She wasn’t going to let Evelyn’s murderer kill her without a fight.

  Her eyes fell on the crystal vase Dr. Willie had given his wife for Christmas. Gracie eased to her feet and grabbed the vase. The faux flowers went airborne, scattering the potpourri Evelyn had tucked inside.

  Gracie heard a brushing sound, as if the intruder had skimmed his jacket along the wallpaper. She gritted her teeth, willed her pulse quiet, raised the vase.

  The door cracked open.

  Gracie wound up.

  A fuzzy white paw clawed at the invisible.

  The vase crashed.

  Gracie’s heart nearly rocketed out of her open mouth. Shaking, she sank onto Dr. Willie and Evelyn’s double bed and wheezed deep breaths.

  She’d nearly killed a cat. What if it had been the killer? What was she supposed to do, bean him with a vase of flowers? The absurdity of her defense sent heat into her face. She was a fool. And she might be in danger.

  Glancing at Evelyn’s butchered body, she pushed a hand against her pitching stomach and released a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry, Evelyn. I have to get out of here.”

  Gracie grabbed her satchel from its landing place near the door and stepped out into the hallway. Nothing but shadows and the plink of water from the kitchen sink. On noodle legs, she ran to the door, just daring someone to leap from the kitchen or the living room. She’d send him out of the window and into the next country.

  She stepped into the hallway, strode to the landing and started down the stairs. One step at a time, skipping two, then three, feeling the hem of her dress catch as she hung on to the rail and flung herself down every flight until she stumbled, breathless, through the entrance and out into the clear, blue-skied day.

  Her gaze landed on a babushka, still attired for January, sitting on a bench near the door. The old woman scrutinized her with a slit-eyed stare. Gracie stalked away, her strides not nearly long enough for the speed she needed. The cacophony of sirens, horns, and car engines on the street played her tension like a drum.

  Footfalls streaked up behind her. She ducked her head. Panic made her stiffen, yet she glanced up.

  A teenager ran past, his backpack slapping against his hip. He frowned at her as he whizzed by. She lowered her eyes and repositioned her satchel on her shoulder, increasing her stride.

  Color caught her eye. Dark red. She slowed and examined her hands.

  Blood. Her breath stuck in her throat. Blood welled in the creases of her palms, smeared her hands, stained her shirtsleeves. It saturated her denim skirt, lined the hem of her trench coat.

  She’d held her head in her hands, wiped her tears…Evelyn’s blood streaked her face.

  Gracie felt another howl begin in her gut and fought it. She wanted to retch on the sidewalk.

  Run.

  Light-headed, she stumbled to an alleyway. Threading between metal garages, she found a niche between two blue, peeling units and sank down next to a pile of vodka bottles.

  Hiccupping in horror, she wrapped her arms around her body and rocked as Evelyn’s pale face ravaged her memory. And Gracie was covered in her blood. The world spun and she forced herself to breathe. Battling for sanity, she spoke aloud.

  “Get home. Get clean. Get out of Russia.”

  Yes, get out of Russia. Now. Gracie climbed to her feet. Bracing an arm on the garage, she forced herself to formulate a path home.

  She’d cut through the garages, around the park, along the alley, and behind the bread kiosk, then make a frenzied dash to the front door.

  Ducking her chin, she raced toward her apartment.

  “We’re not as free as you think, Vita, that’s all.” Yanna didn’t look at Vicktor. She stirred her cold tea, pushing the tea bag into a wad at the bottom of her cup. The beverage had long since sent off its last wisp of steam. Vicktor’s stomach churned as he watched her twirl her spoon. Something was eating at her, something bigger than tonight’s tournament.

  Vicktor kept his voice low. “Could you be clearer?”

  Yanna sighed, dropped the spoon, and flicked her hair back. It shone rich mink brown in the well-lit café. She crossed her arms over her chest, wrinkling leather and appearing exasperated. “Nyet. Just keep our little online friends a secret. Don’t breathe names or even connections. Chat rooms are not private, even encrypted ones like ours. Ponyatna?”

  “Yeah, I got it.” Annoyance plucked his nerves, and he felt a faint ripple of fear. He wasn’t under any illusions that the internet and even his email couldn’t be monitored. That was why they used nicknames and chatted in English, why Pr
each had set up their private, encrypted chat room. Vicktor rubbed his thumb along the handle of his coffee cup. Post-Communism residue soured his stomach.

  “Is it lunchtime yet?”

  Yanna’s face lit up. “Roma!”

  Vicktor stood and locked hands with Roman, who grinned. “I got a tidbit for you that will make your day.”

  “You’re on Evgeny’s case,” Vicktor guessed. It gave him pleasure to see his friend’s smile droop.

  “How did you know?”

  “Malenkov. Chewed my ear off this morning for not calling him on his day off.”

  Roman turned a chair around and straddled it, joining them at the round table. He eyed Vicktor’s beverage with a grimace. “Vicktor, why can’t you drink tea like every other Russian?”

  Vicktor ignored his sour stomach and took a long, loud sip of his coffee.

  Roman put two hands to his neck and squeezed, mimicking choking. Vicktor nearly choked for real with laughter when a waitress hustled up and looked at the COBRA captain like he had a disease.

  Yanna shook her head.

  Roman cleared his throat, becoming instantly the counter-terrorist Red Beret who knew how to defuse a tense situation. He smiled nicely. “Got any borscht?”

  “I’ll see,” the waitress snapped. She whirled and headed for the kitchen.

  Roman gave an exaggerated shiver. “Oh, how I love Russian service.”

  Vicktor gulped his laughter. Roman didn’t need any outside encouragement.

  “So, you already know my big news.” Roman crossed his arms and waggled his eyebrows. “Well, I’ll bet you don’t know this…”

  Vicktor gave him a mock glare.

  Roman glanced at Yanna. “He’s grumpy, huh?”

  She smirked.

  “Roman,” Vicktor warned.

  “Keep your shirt on, Vita. Some of us got to asking how the comrade major found out about Evgeny. I mean, Arkady certainly didn’t roust him out of bed with the news, did he?”