Page 36 of Special Agent Anastacia

“She wanted a drink of water. I invited her inside, and we went to the kitchen where Carly was baking cookies. The stranger seemed shocked to see another girl. In fact, that’s when she started to cry, begging us to call the police. Before we could get to our phones, the boys broke into the house and attacked. Vlad took our phones while Boris smacked Beth for trying to warn us. When she began to cry and begged him to stop, he suddenly pulled her into his arms and began kissing her. You wouldn’t know it seeing her now, but the girl’s beautiful.”

“Was she Boris’s girlfriend?”

“Yes. He protected her from his older brother. We could see the way Vlad looked at her… like he craved to have her too, but Boris kept control over that situation.”

Ana leaned forward, encouraging Hattie by giving her time to think, not rushing her at all. Finally, she smiled, her expression supportive. “And then?”

“It was horrible, living in fear all the time. I worried constantly about Carly who is mouthy and afraid of no one. She learned quickly that not everyone loved her like her family. It didn’t take long before Vlad slapped her around for being defiant and rude. I tried to turn his rage on me, but it didn’t work. I was terrified he’d abuse her, so I withheld the information he wanted, bargaining with him.”

“Information?”

“Yes. How to open the safe they found in our bedroom. It doesn’t hold more than a few thousand in cash and a gun but he didn’t need to know that. I told him there was ten thousand, and he wanted it. I said on the day they left and if they didn’t hurt either me or Carly, I’d do what they wanted.”

“They let you get away with bargaining?”

“I think Beth made Boris listen to reason. Seems money had brought them here, specifically the stash his father had hidden on the property before he died.”

“Excuse me.” Dave added his two cents, his tone shocked. “How did they know he’d hidden any money?”

Hattie looked at him and then back to Ana. “Seems their mother had died in the war, and the boys were notified that the Russian government was holding on to her belongings for them to retrieve. Once they got notice, they arranged to leave their posts to pick up her stuff. Among the parcels in the trunk was an old, unopened letter she’d received from her husband, Mike, telling her he’d cashed the check he got for selling the propertyand would bury the money in the very place that had made her pack up and leave him.”

“How did you find out about all this?”

“Beth told us. She read the letter. Said the boys were furious about the mysterious message on where Mike hid the money.”

“How did they know each other, Beth and the brothers?”

“She’d met up with the boys on their travels through Ukraine. It wasn’t until they arrived in Los Angelas that she found out they’d both gone MIA from the Russian military. And even though they spoke perfect Ukrainian, they weren’t born in her country like they’d told her. In fact, they were some of the prisoners Putin had released in exchange for them fighting his war.”

Dave piped up. “I don’t get it. Why would she want to hitch her wagon to such assholes like those boys no matter what their nationality?”

“Because she’d lost her family and was alone, scared for her safety, and Boris led her to believe she mattered. Though Vladimir is the psychopath, he’s also persuasive when he wants to be. And Boris… he’s weak, charming, good-looking, and the ladies fall for his charisma. The idiot loved the opposite sex... hell, he loved sex. In a way that’s not normal… if you know what I mean. He never left the poor girl alone.” Hattie shuddered. “Lord above, without Beth interceding, he would have had his way with both me and Carly. I don’t know what was said, but she managed to keep him from straying.”

“And Vlad?”

“All he cared about was the money. And if there was one bit of decency in his devil’s soul, it might have been his care for Boris. The only time I saw him human was with his brother. You should have seen him after he shot Boris. He cried like a baby and railed against everything, putting his fist through the mirror in the bedroom. Said Boris was bleeding from his jugular, andhe had no choice but to put him out of his misery. I don’t know what happened there, but after that incident, Vlad became even darker, meaner… downright chilling.”

Dave turned to Ana and saw her shudder, obviously visualizing the scene before the cop in her took over. As if she hated for her weakness to be noticed, she stiffened and urged Hattie to continue.

“So, you’re saying the reason they went to Sadie’s was to get her to tell them about the money.”

“Yes. They believed her family might have found it, and if so, they would get it back. They locked Carly and me in the downstairs bathroom and left us for days. Thank God they left us some food, and we could drink from the tap. But they cleared out everything from under the sink except for a few towels and my paperback book I’d left in there. Boris thought it funny. Said we could read out loud to keep ourselves from killing each other.”

“Just you two?” Again, Dave interrupted. “Beth went with them?”

“Not really. There was a complication.” Hattie shook her head sadly. “It was the morning they woke up to find that Beth had snuck away… again. According to the argument I overheard between the brothers, she’d done it before, and Vlad was furious. Railed against her being any use to them…. she’s nothing but trouble he yelled. For the first time, I saw Boris angry… take control. He pushed Vlad against the wall and threatened to leave if anything happened to her. Vlad backed down.”

“You say she’d run before?”

“Yes. The last time, they found her in the woods. She told them she’d gotten lost, but she admitted to me and Carly that she’d tried to run away. Poor Beth. She’d begun to hate Boris, especially after he’d rifled through her belongings. She had a precious locket she’d kept hidden from them and was terrified ifthey found it, they’d pawn it for money. Guess it was all she had left from her mother.”

“What happened after they found her?”

“She said they broke into the convenience store, looking for the real estate fellow who’d brokered the house deal between Mike and George and Sadie Whitly. Vlad figured Lew would know what happened to them. You know… like where they lived now.”

At this point, Hattie’s head lowered as if it weighed more than she could bear. Sniffling and blowing her nose in the tissues she found in her pocket, she whispered, “Poor Lew.”

Ana poured more tea for her and spoke soothingly. “We were at the hospital earlier, and they say he’s going to make a full recovery. Maria is there with him.”

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