The Truant Officer v5

by Derek Ciccone

  Audrey agreed. “A relationship can’t be built on lies. They always get you in the end,” she threw his words back at him.

  Sarvydas didn’t rage, as Darren expected. He bowed his head in shameful acceptance. “Paula and I had no apologies for taking any means to protect our son. But in the end, you are right, the kingdom that is built on lies will fall like a house of cards.”

  Audrey once again turned to Nick. “Did you know about this the whole time, Nick? Was our relationship built on lies!?”

  “I had no idea of any of this until after my mother was killed. I was just waiting for the right time to tell you, Audrey, I swear.”

  “You’ve got me here now, Nick.”

  “Do you remember when Viktor showed up at my mother’s funeral?”

  “Yes, when Karl accused him of being behind your mother’s murder and threatened to kill him if he didn’t leave. You were the one with the calm head. You separated them and then escorted Viktor off the premises. The funeral went on without further incident.”

  “Before he left, Viktor gave me an item he claimed would help me to understand what happened to my mother. It was a key to a lock box in a bank. I threw the key to the ground. But my curiosity got the best of me, and I went back to pick it up after he left.”

  “What was in the lock box?”

  “A letter from my mother, explaining that Viktor was indeed my biological father. It repeated what he just told you—basically that she and Viktor thought I was in danger, and that Karl never knew. But I still didn’t believe it—I thought it was some sort of trick by Viktor, maybe to give him an alibi for her murder.”

  “What made you believe him?”

  “I went back to Viktor, demanding answers. He offered up his DNA and I had it tested. It came back as a perfect match—I was his son. He assured me that he was not behind her death, but he knew who was.”

  “Who killed your mother, Nick?”

  “Viktor gave me the name of someone who he claimed had the answers. That person turned out to be Dava Lazinski—she became our intermediary. She provided me with a video.”

  “What was on the video?”

  “The moment that changed everything.”

  Chapter 93

  Nick clicked a remote and the video projected onto the window-television.

  The tape was amateurish. Its source was a camera hidden in the wall of a small New York apartment.

  Onscreen, Alexei Sarvydas entered the room—he looked heavier than his post-prison look, and his hair much longer. A man followed him into the apartment. He was of average height and build and sported a casual outfit of sweater and jeans. He wore a neatly trimmed goatee on a face that was otherwise bookish-looking. It was Karl Zellen.

  “What is this place?” Karl asked, seemingly annoyed to be in Alexei’s presence.

  “A little hiding place I use when I need to have a private conversation—I think Viktor has bugged the club. It belongs to this chick Rachel I’ve been seeing.”

  “One of your whores, I’m sure. So what is so important that requires such secrecy? I have to pick Sasha up from skating practice, so make it quick.”

  “My father would have told you himself, but he’s too busy making music with your wife,” Alexei replied with a knowing smirk.

  “Is this about Paula’s album? Viktor tells me it’s coming along nicely. She’s been very excited about it.”

  Alexei reached into the pocket of his leather coat and took out an object. He tossed it onto a coffee table that was cluttered with girly magazines. It was a tape recorder. Alexei indicated for Karl to click it on. The tape played the voices of Viktor and Paula.

  It started with talk of recapturing their love, agreeing that they had wasted so many years by not being together. Paula stated that she feared hurting Karl, but had made up her mind to leave him for Viktor. “I can’t live a lie anymore. These last weeks in your arms have made that clear. The kids are grown now—they will be angry at first, but they will come to accept us.”

  Karl slumped onto a couch as if he’d been mortally wounded. Then it got worse. Viktor protested on tape, “As much as I want to be with you, Paula, the danger is too great. I sent you to Karl, not just to protect you, but also to protect our son. If we are together again, then my enemies will re-examine the past and wonder if Nick is really Karl’s son. It could put him in danger.”

  “That was a long time ago. You are Nick’s father, Viktor. Karl is a great man who did a wonderful job raising him, but a young man should know his father.”

  “Time might have passed, but old grudges never die.”

  “I would do anything to protect my children, and I have, which is why I’ve decided I must tell Nick the truth. Then I will do the same with Karl. The lies are more dangerous to us than your enemies.”

  The tape clicked off.

  Karl lashed out at Alexei, “You made this up! This can’t be true. Nick is my son, a father would know that!”

  “What would I gain from making this up? I am in line to take over the business when Viktor steps aside. The last thing I want is some gold-digging stepmother to take my portion, or a bastard brother dropping in from out of the blue.”

  Karl began pacing. “Don’t talk about them that way!”

  “Don’t talk about who? Your cheating wife or the son you’re still pretending to be yours?”

  “How did you get that tape?”

  Alexei smiled wickedly. “When I moved to Florida, I lived at the family compound in Fisher Island. I didn’t think the place was safe enough, so I put in a recording system. I guess I forgot to mention it to my father, must have slipped my mind. Viktor and Paula should have rented an apartment like this if they wanted privacy.”

  According to Eicher, Karl was a cool, efficient assassin who rarely showed emotion. But that person had been taken over by the lust for revenge. He screamed out his plans to shred Viktor’s body parts, and a desire to cut out Paula’s womb as a punishment for what she had done. He fired his fist into a coffee table, sending magazines and assorted knickknacks in all directions. He shouted that he would never allow them to be together, and Nick would always be his son. He wouldn’t let them take his life away from him.

  Karl gathered himself and morphed into his cold, calculating persona. The two men then hatched a plan. It would start by leaking enough information to the feds so that Karl would be arrested on money laundering charges. They would get word out that he planned to cooperate—make it clear that he was willing to take down Viktor to save his own hide. Viktor would predictably respond with threats, and when those failed, he would make his point in blood. Perhaps a family member of Karl’s would end up dead. Viktor would be blamed when Paula Zellen was murdered.

  Karl didn’t waver or flinch as he signed off on the plan that would send his wife to her execution. Alexei, who had access to the mansion, would arrange her murder during one of Paula and Viktor’s “music sessions” that Karl assured her were necessary to keep up for appearances’ sake.

  Paula would be killed in the same ambush style that Viktor had used to take power—the ultimate copycat crime. The rumors were always there that Viktor had Alexei’s mother killed, and after what he heard on the tape, Alexei could no longer dismiss them. He would leave Viktor alive, to suffer the same way he did.

  When the tape clicked off, Audrey looked at Nick. Her face was horrified, but filled with compassion. “So when you saw that video, you set up a plan to get revenge on the people who killed your mother—Alexei and Karl.”

  Viktor spoke for his son, “I had the police set up a meeting with Karl, claiming new leads on his wife’s murder. Karl was very interested in them finding Paula’s killer, just not the real one...himself. Officers Dantelli and Bachynsky told me that the look on Karl’s face was priceless when they informed him that the apartment he and Alexei used to seek privacy, had been under surveillance.”

  “But the police didn’t kill him, did they? And neither did Alexei,” Audrey blurted, her eyes lo
cked on Nick. She now knew who killed Karl Zellen—they all did.

  Nick stated without emotion, “I didn’t come home unexpectedly. I came home to get justice for my mother. But not until I made him beg for his life.”

  “And you also set up Alexei.”

  “Dantelli and Bachynsky had access to Alexei’s fingerprints from the NYPD and left them behind. Alexei was on one of his coke benders, and had no alibi...at least not one he could remember. Of course my fingerprints would be there, since I lived in that house of lies most of my life.”

  Lilly spoke, “You played the victim and were put in witness protection, but really the person we needed to be protected from was you.”

  “You did this to yourself, Lilly. You are no more a victim than I am.”

  “You had to get out of Arizona to make sure there was no trial, while getting rid of the evidence along the way—Dantelli and Bachynsky. And the reason you were so desperate to get to back to New York had nothing to do with Sasha’s safety—Viktor never would have let anything happen to her—it was to finish the job by killing Alexei. But you were too much of a coward to do it yourself—you had to use Darren and I as your cover.”

  “You wanted this, Lilly, as much as I did. And deep down, even with what you know now, you would do the same thing again.”

  “So now that your revenge is complete, you can get rid of the rest of the evidence. Toss us out at sea and claim we died in the plane crash.”

  “This is not over,” Nick shot back, glaring at her.

  Viktor put his arm around him. “Your mother will never return, but she would be happy that you are home now, son.”

  Nick looked incredulously at his father. “Home? That’s an interesting word. I lived in a great home with a loving family and a hopeful future. I had a girlfriend, whom I loved and wanted to marry. I was happy, but then you chose to re-enter my life. And you killed your own son, and I don’t mean Alexei. You killed Nick Zellen. He will never be that person again.”

  “Everything I did was to protect you.”

  “Yet in the end, by engaging in an affair with my mother, you essentially destroyed my true family.”

  “I would never harm your mother. I loved her more than life itself.”

  “Good intentions never mitigate destruction. A crime was committed and there needs to be a punishment. So I find the defendant responsible for the murder of my mother.”

  Nick raised a gun, and gasps filled the room. Viktor was too stunned to talk. But when he found the words, he did what most bullies do when being forced to swallow their own medicine. He groveled for his pitiful life.

  Nick put the gun down with a grin. “Don’t worry, I would never shoot my own father.”

  Then an explosion filled the room. Lilly and Audrey screamed, as Darren tried to shield them from the horrific scene.

  Zubov lowered his still-smoking gun to his side as he watched Viktor’s body fall to the ground.

  The room stood silent. Zubov looked past their fear to Nick, and declared, “He deserved his fate. Your mother was innocent. Nobody should ever kill an innocent person.”

  Chapter 94

  Not one shot was fired by Viktor’s bodyguards when their leader was gunned down. They too now worked for the don’s son.

  Nick ran right to Audrey and grabbed tightly to her arm. “Get away from me,” she screeched, wrestling away from his grip.

  He continued after her. “It’s over now, Audrey. It’s over.”

  He caught up to her, forcing her into an embrace.

  Audrey thrashed with her arms, trying to break loose. Heavy tears began falling down her face. “It will never be over,” she shouted. But then she gave in and accepted his arms around her.

  “I can’t stop thinking about Rachel—you killed that innocent girl!” she wailed through sobs.

  “Dava took matters into her own hands. I swear that wasn’t my idea. That is why Zubov shot her on the plane.”

  “I read all the reports, Nick. There was no forced entry. The intruder had used my key—that’s why they were so sure it was me who’d been killed. How many times had you taken her to my apartment? You were the reason she was there that night.”

  Nick said nothing.

  “When you were with her, did you know you were going to kill her?”

  The question caused him to snap. “I would do anything to protect you. I have no apologies! We had to make people believe you were dead.”

  “You sound just like Viktor.” She looked at his dead body on the floor, his purple suit stained red. “Look how that worked out.”

  “Audrey, please understand. I did this so we could be together again. My life is nothing without you.”

  Darren noticed Lilly out of the corner of his eye. She looked almost jealous. He didn’t take satisfaction in his wife’s pain, even if it was deserved. Revenge was a hollow drug. It didn’t give Nick his mother back, and it wasn’t going to heal their marriage.

  “Together? Who would I be together with? I don’t know who you are. All I know is that you’re not the man I fell in love with,” Audrey continued to resist.

  “I’m still the same person. Only the circumstances have changed. A soldier might have to go off to war to protect his loved ones, and the experience might shape him, but that doesn’t change his core,” Nick was practically begging.

  “You are so filled with revenge you can’t even see straight. You’re not the Nick I knew.” She dragged him in front of one of Viktor’s many vanity mirrors and made him stare at himself. “You’re not him!”

  He twitched, as if sickened by the sight of himself. “You came here to kill Viktor, just like me. But I never blamed you or judged you. Because I love you. I killed him so you didn’t have to.”

  “Get away from me!” Audrey shrieked. She jerked away from his touch and turned to leave.

  The guards didn’t stop her, but Nick’s words did. “I know you love me, because you did things for me that you wouldn’t be proud of, just like I did for you.”

  He clicked the remote and another video displayed on the window screen. It was of Natalie Gold. Darren couldn’t believe what he was watching. It was of an intimate encounter between Natalie and the prime minister of Israel!

  Audrey began to cry as she watched herself in action.

  “You were Viktor’s whore. You did that for me. You did that to get revenge on him—to gain his trust so you could kill him. We are no different.”

  He paused the film, freezing Audrey in mid thrust. He walked to her and wiped the tears from her face, and then took her into his arms. “You said on the plane that you would follow me, even if you saw things you didn’t understand. You pledged your loyalty, and now I’m going to pledge mine to you.”

  He began to kiss her, and Audrey reciprocated. But Nick unexpectedly pulled away and wiped blood from his lip. Audrey had bit him.

  “I might be a whore, but I’m not a murderer.”

  Nick stood eerily calm, as if his metamorphosis into a Sarvydas was now complete.

  “I have proven my loyalty to you, Audrey. I don’t hold it against you that you shared a bed with the man responsible for my mother’s death, and worked for him. I think it’s time for you to return the favor and prove your loyalty to me.”

  She slapped him.

  He rubbed his cheek, then coldly handed her his gun. “I want you take the McLaughlins out to the cliffs and shoot them.”

  “What will you do if I refuse—kill me?”

  “No—I will send Zubov to meet with your parents. He needs to find religion, and I think he would hit it off with the Reverend.”

  Audrey remained defiant, but her hands were shaking. “You wouldn’t.”

  “You’re a pragmatic girl. Look how you persevered this past year. You did whatever it took. One act of loyalty is all I’m asking for. They’re going to die anyway.”

  He held the gun out for her. She looked at him and then to Darren and Lilly. After a long moment, she accepted the gun. Darren unders
tood her decision. She chose to make any sacrifice, no matter how vile, to protect those that she loved—her parents. They all had made a similar decision in the past few days.

  She led Lilly and Darren outside with the gun pointing at their spines. Just outside the estate was a Jeep. Zubov would go as a witness to the execution.

  Nick instructed Audrey to drive across the estate until she came to the cliffs. She wasn’t really to shoot them—the gun was just symbolic. Nick wanted them to wash up ashore as victims of the plane crash. So Audrey was to bash their heads in with a crowbar found in the back of the Jeep, while Zubov held them down. Then toss them into the sea.

  But as Audrey and the prisoners arrived at the Jeep, she turned and hit Zubov with the gun handle. His wounded knees couldn’t hold him, and he fell to the ground. Nick made a move at her and she pressed the trigger, but nothing came out.

  His telling look said that he knew the gun wasn’t loaded. But he looked saddened by the irreconcilable wedge that she’d just driven into their relationship.

  “Run!” Audrey shouted to Darren. He tossed Lilly over his shoulders and climbed into the Jeep. He found the key and started the vehicle. They sped off over the dark terrain.

  Nick calmly helped Zubov up and instructed him to go after them. Zubov limped to another Jeep, and drove off after the McLaughlins.

  He then grabbed Audrey by her Natalie Gold wig. “You betrayed me!” he shouted so viciously it echoed off the sea.

  She again slapped him across the face. “I already know you killed my parents. I could see it in your eyes, Nick.”

  “Anything I did was to keep you safe.”

  “Spare me!” She thought for a moment and then said, “I take that back—kill me. Do it now. Then you really will be just like your father.”

  “I’m not going to kill you…yet. I loved Audrey Mays and she was murdered in her apartment and is buried in Oklahoma.”

  He returned her slap, violently knocking her head to the side. “You are Natalie Gold, nothing but a cheap whore. But a whore who makes me money. You see, Viktor left his financial empire to his living son. That makes me the head of Sarvy Music and you are my top-selling artist. As long as you make me money, you will get to live another day. And each day I let you live, I want you to remember that I own you.”