This was one of the reasons she had not said anything about what had happened. Now she had no choice.
“Is everything okay?” James asked, his voice trembling. “I mean, the kids… are the kids -?”
“They’re fine, James,” she said. “I’m fine.”
“Your mom?”
“She’s good. Everybody’s good.”
Sondra walked over to the sink, eyed the coffeemaker. She couldn’t have another cup. Her nerves were frayed as it was. Her veins felt like electrified copper wire. She began to make a pot anyway. She needed to do something with her hands.
As she circled an entry point to the story she had to tell her husband – a challenge that had run through her mind constantly for the past twenty-four hours – she considered how she had gotten to this moment.
The only child of Laotian immigrants, the cherished daughter of a celebrated mathematician and a forensic anthropologist, Sondra had grown up in the rarefied world of academia and applied science. Fall in New England, summer in North Carolina, at least three birthdays spent in Washington DC.
She met James at an all-nighter on the campus of Smith College, where he was one of the younger teaching assistants, and she was a grad student coasting to her MISW. At first she found him bookish and a little too passive, but after their third date she rooted out his charm, and found herself falling for this quiet young man from Wooster, Ohio. They married a year later, and although both would admit privately that their courtship and marriage did not burn with the heat of any grand passion, and that their inability to conceive was a source of sadness and disappointment, they both staked out, and claimed, contentment.
In the eighteenth year of their marriage, when they decided to adopt, the two little girls from Uzbekistan who bubbled into their lives caused a reaffirmation – perhaps even a true discovery – of love for each other. Life was good.
Until this moment.
James floated slowly over to the dinette table, pulled out a chair, drifted down to the seat, as if he were weightless. He had not yet taken a sip of his bourbon.
Sondra sat across from her husband. Her hands began to shake. She put them in her lap. “Something happened last night,” she said.
James just stared at her. For some odd reason Sondra noticed that he had missed a large spot on his neck when he shaved that morning.
Despite all her careful preparation, she just told him what had happened in one long sentence. She told him how she had been doing the laundry, how she had just put the towels in the linen closet on the second-floor landing. She told him how, at that moment, she had been thinking about their upcoming trip to Colonial Williamsburg, and whether or not the girls would like it. They were bright, inquisitive children. When it came down to a trip to Disney World, or a trip to a place with real history attached to it, it hadn’t taken long for them to decide.
When she opened the door to the girls’ room, it suddenly seemed as if all the air in the world had changed, had become red and overheated. The girls were sleeping, the nightlight was on, and everything was where it was supposed to be. Except for one thing.
“There was a man standing in their room,” Sondra said.
James looked gut-punched. “My God!” he said. He began to rise to his feet, but it seemed his legs would not support him. He eased back down to the chair. His skin turned the color of dried bones. “He didn’t…”
“No. I told you. The girls are fine. I’m fine.”
She told him what the man said, and how he had slipped out of the window like a wraith in the night. One moment there, the next moment gone. She went on to tell James what she had seen on the news. The Russian lawyer was dead. Their Russian lawyer. Murdered in his office. And it looked like files had been stolen.
For what seemed like hours, but was in reality only a minute or so, James Arsenault did not say a word. Then: “Oh no.”
“I’m going to call the police,” Sondra said. She had rehearsed these six words all day, concocting what seemed like an infinite variety of phrases, and now that she’d said them she felt an enormous sense of relief. Although, as soon as the words crossed her lips, she wondered if she had spoken them in English or Laotian.
A few moments later, when Sondra Savang Arsenault picked up the phone, her husband was still sitting at the table, his drink untouched.
In the background, the coffeemaker began to brew.
THIRTY-ONE
Michael figured Kolya to be around twenty-three. He was short and solid, powerfully built, definitely a weight trainer. Michael had about six inches in height on him, and they probably weighed the same, but that was where any similarities ended.
Then there was the gun.
They were driving east on the Long Island Expressway, Michael at the wheel, Kolya next to him.
Michael thought about Viktor Harkov’s body. He had seen his share of carnage over the last decade. He had gotten a brutal introduction of his own that horrible day at the Pikk Street Bakery.
Michael considered what a physical confrontation might be like. It had been many years since he’d had to fight anyone. Growing up ethnic in Queens, it was a weekly occurrence; everyone had their corner, their block. He’d had his share of scuffles in and around courtrooms over the years, of course, but nothing that progressed much beyond the shoving or shirt-bunching stage.
The truth was, he had been hitting the gym with regularity. On a good day, he could put in an hour on the treadmill, lift free weights for another thirty minutes, and work the heavy bag for three full rounds. He was in the best physical condition of his life. But that was a long way from physical violence. Could he handle himself? He didn’t know, but he had the dark feeling that his condition was going to be tested, and soon.
As they passed through Flushing Meadows, Queensboro, and Corona Park, Michael thought about the man who called himself Aleksander Savisaar. How did the man know so much about him? Would he really hurt Abby and the girls? Michael had no choice but to believe him.
In the meantime, he knew he had to remain calm, play this cool. He would find an opening. Until then, the lives of his wife and daughters depended on it.
“Look, you look like a smart young man,” he began, trying to keep the fear out of his tone. “You’re name is Kolya? Short for Nikolai?”
The kid remained silent. Michael continued.
“You’ve got to know that this is going to jam you up for the rest of your life.”
The kid still didn’t say a word. He’d probably heard the routine before. After what seemed like a full minute of silence, Kolya responded. “What do you know about it?”
Here it was. As much as Michael wanted to drive the SUV into a guardrail, take the gun from the kid’s belt and put it to his head, he had to take another tack. For now. He took a deep breath.
“You know I’m a prosecutor, right?”
The kid snorted laughter. So he hadn’t known.
Even before he said it, Michael knew it might be a mistake. Telling a criminal you were a ADA could open a lot of possibilities, most of them bad. If this kid had been to jail – and Michael was fairly certain he had – a prosecutor had put him there. Michael had gotten his share of jailhouse threats over the years.
The kid mugged. “A prosecutor.”
“Yeah.”
“Un-fucking-real. Where at?”
“Queens.”
The kid snorted another laugh. He was clearly from another borough. Michael would bet Brooklyn. He had to keep him talking. “Where are you from?”
The kid lit a cigarette. For a few long seconds it appeared he wasn’t going answer. Then on a trail of smoke, he said: “Brooklyn.”
“What part?”
Another long pause. “So, what, is this where we have a heart-to-heart? The part where you tell me that I really don’t want to hurt anybody, or that if only my mother could see me now she would be ashamed of me?” The kid looked out the window for a moment, back. “My mother was a fucking whore. My old man was a sadist.”
Michael had to get off this subject. “This is my family. Do you have family of your own?”
Kolya didn’t answer. Michael stole a glance at the kid’s left hand. No ring.
“Why are you doing this?” Michael asked.
The kid shrugged. “Everybody’s got to have a hobby.”
“Look, I can get my hands on some money,” Michael said, his stomach turning at the thought of ransoming his family. “Serious money.”
“Don’t talk.”
“Whatever he is paying you, it’s not enough.”
The kid looked over at him. Michael could not see his eyes. All he saw was his own face reflected in a fish eye view in the kid’s wraparound sunglasses. “What he’s paying me? What the fuck makes you think this isn’t my idea? My play.”
It hadn’t occurred to Michael, and with good reason. It seemed impossible. When he first looked the kid over – something at which he was skilled, an ability he developed in his first years in the DA’s office on those days when he had to chair three dozen preliminary hearings in a single day and had to read a defendant in ten seconds flat – he noticed the dirt under the kid’s nails, the smell of axle grease and motor oil in his clothes. This kid worked in or around a garage, and Michael was willing to bet he was not servicing his own fleet of classic sports cars.
“You’re right,” Michael began, hoping to placate the kid. “I didn’t mean any disrespect by that. All I’m saying is that, whatever this is paying, I’m hoping it’s enough.”
The kid lowered his window, flicked the cigarette out. “I’m touched by your concern.” He raised the window. “Now drive the fucking car, and shut the fuck up.”
The kid pulled back the corner of his jacket. The butt of the automatic weapon emerged from the waistband of his jeans. It was on the kid’s right side, furthest from Michael’s reach. The kid might have been a thug, but he wasn’t stupid. The gun was all he had to say.
Ten minutes later they pulled off the road on Hempstead Avenue, near Belmont Racetrack, just east of Hollis, into the parking lot of a somewhat isolated off-brand motel called the Squires Inn.
The motel was L-shaped, tired, with a broken asphalt parking lot, missing shingles. It may have at one time been part of a chain, but had long since fallen into disrepair. They pulled into the lot. Kolya pointed to a space. Michael put the car in park, cut the engine. Kolya reached over, took the keys from the ignition.
“Do not get out of the car,” Kolya said. “Do not do a fucking thing. You move, I make a call, and it starts raining shit.”
Kolya reached into the back seat, grabbed two large grocery bags, exited the car, crossed the walkway. He reached into his pocket, fished out a key, opened the door to room 118. Michael checked his coat pockets, even though he knew that Kolya had frisked him before leaving the office, taking his house keys, car keys, cellphone, and wallet. All he had left was his watch and his wedding ring. He reached over, tried to open the glove compartment. It was locked. He checked the back seats, the console, the pockets on the doors. Nothing. He needed something, something he could use as a weapon, something with which he could get the upper hand. There was nothing.
A minute later Kolya emerged from the room, looked left and right, scanning the parking lot. It was all but empty. He motioned to Michael to get out of the car. Michael emerged, crossed the sidewalk, and entered the room. Kolya closed the door.
The room was standard issue for an off-brand motel – worn teal green carpeting, floral bedspread with matching drapes, laminate writing desk, a nineteen-inch television on a swivel stand. Michael noticed a rusty ring on the ceiling over the bed. There had recently been a leaky roof. He heard the pipes rattle inside the walls. The room smelled of mildew and cigarettes.
Kolya locked the door. He pointed to the chair by the desk. “Sit there.”
Michael hesitated for a moment. He was not used to being given orders, especially by someone the likes of which he put in jail for a living. The fact that this man had both a 9 mm weapon and his family got him moving. He eased himself onto the chair.
Kolya parted the drapes slightly, looked out into the parking lot. He took out his cellphone, punched in a number. After a few moments he spoke into the phone. He closed the phone. He then extracted the weapon from his waistband, held it at his side. He turned to Michael. “Come here.”
Michael stood, walked over to the window. Kolya opened the drapes further, pointed. “You see that car over there? The one parked underneath the sign?”
Michael looked out the window. Under the sign for the motel was a ten-year-old Ford Contour, dark blue, tinted windows. He could not see inside. “Yes.”
“Go back and sit down.”
Michael did as he was told.
“I am going to leave now,” Kolya said. “I want you to listen to me carefully. Are you listening?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t leave this room. You don’t make any phone calls. There’s a man sitting in that Ford over there. He works for me. If you so much as open the door to this room, he will call me, and your family is dead. Do you understand this?”
The words sliced through Michael’s heart. “Yes.”
“I’m going to call you on this room phone every thirty minutes. If you don’t answer within two rings, your family is dead.” Kolya pointed to the wall. “The girl working the front desk here is my cousin. In front of her is a switchboard. If you make an outgoing call, she’ll know. If you even pick up the phone without receiving an incoming call, she’ll know. Do either of these things and I will light up your family. Do you understand this?”
The fear began to crawl around Michael’s stomach. The possibility that he may never see Abby and the girls was real. “Yes.”
“Good.”
Kolya pointed to the two large grocery bags he had brought in with him. “There’s food in there. You’re gonna be here awhile. Eat healthy, counselor.”
Kolya laughed at his joke, then held Michael’s stare for an uncomfortable amount of time, asserting his authority. Michael had met so many men like Kolya over the years. He could not look away. He would not.
Finally Kolya backed off. He crossed the room, gave everything one more look, opened the door, and left. Michael slipped up to the window, peered through the curtains. He saw Kolya walk up to the blue Ford. Whoever was inside the Ford rolled down the window. Kolya pointed to the room, to his watch. A few seconds later he slipped into his own car, pulled out of the parking lot and soon disappeared into the traffic on the Hempstead Avenue.
Michael paced around the room.
He had never felt more helpless in his life.
THIRTY-TWO
Aleks looked through the two-drawer file cabinet in the small bedroom Michael and Abigail Roman used for a home office. He scanned the history of their lives, taking in the milestones, the events. He learned many things. He learned that they owned their own home, having paid cash for it. They also owned a commercial space on Ditmars Boulevard. Aleks perused the photographs of the boarded-up building. He recalled it from the story he’d read about Michael. It was the place in which Michael’s parents were killed. The Pikk Street Bakery. Inside the envelope were a pair of keys.
Marriage license, deeds, tax returns, warranties – the residue of modern American life. He soon found the documents he sought. The girls’ adoption decree, forms which would serve as their birth certificates.
Aleks sat down at the computer, conducted a search for the government agency he needed. He soon heard a car door slam. He glanced out the window.
Kolya had returned.
They stood in the kitchen. Aleks smelled the marijuana on Kolya. He decided to say nothing for the moment.
“Any problems?” Aleks asked.
“None.”
“Do you have the license?”
Kolya reached into his pocket, removed an envelope, handed it to Aleks.
Aleks opened the envelope, slid out the plastic laminated license. He held it up to the light
, caught the shimmer of the holographic image. It was good work. He put the license in his wallet.
“Where do you have him?”
Kolya told him the name and address of the motel, along with the room number and phone number. Aleks wrote nothing down. He did not need to.
Aleks glanced at his watch. “I will return within one hour’s time. When I come back you will return to the motel and make sure Michael Roman does not leave. Are we clear on this?”
Kolya mugged. “It’s not that complicated.”
Aleks held the young man’s stare for a few moments. Kolya glanced away.
“You may be there for a while,” Aleks said. “You will need to guard him until I am out of the country.”
“The money is right, bro. No worries.”
Bro, Aleks thought. The sooner he left this place, the better. “Good.”
“What do you want me to do with him then?” Kolya asked
Aleks glanced down at the butt of the pistol in Kolya’s waistband. Kolya saw the look. Neither man said a word.
Aleks looked at the photos of the girls. He had taken them against the wall in the kitchen, an off-white background that could have been anywhere. He took a pair of scissors out of the drawer and cut the photographs into 2? 2-inch squares. He needed two photographs of Anna, and two of Marya. For their passports.
The girls sat on the couch in front of the television. They were watching an animated film, something about talking fish.
He got down to the girls’ level. “We’re going to go to the post office,” he said. “Is that all right?”
“Is Mommy coming with us?” Marya asked.
“No,” Aleks said. “She has some work to do.”
“At the hospital?”
“Yes, at the hospital. But on the way back we can stop and get something for dinner. Are you hungry?”
Anna and Marya looked apprehensive for a few moments, but then they both nodded.
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