Page 16 of The Fighter
Tears were welling up in Erika’s eyes, and she gave a dismissive shake of the head and returned the paper to Mila. “No. They were friends of the groom. One of them was a roommate, I think.”
“Do you remember which city they lived in?”
“Raven, it’s been so long. Please.” She was fiddling with the sleeve on her dress.
“I know, but anything might help us. Do you know if there’s anywhere we could find some of Dina’s belongings?”
When Erika didn’t answer, Mila followed up on my question. “Grandma, do you know what happened to Dina’s things?”
With a voice thick from suppressed crying, Erika brushed back her hair. “Well, as far as I know, everything was taken to the storage room down in the basement.”
“What storage room?”
“You’ll find it if you continue all the way down in the long hallway. It’s directly under the library, but I never go there.”
“Because of all the painful memories?” Mila’s face was full of sympathy.
“Yes. That’s right. It’s better to leave the past in the past.”
“But what if we could find out what happened to Dina, wouldn’t you like to know?”
This time it was Erika who patted Mila’s hand. “It’s been more than thirty years, darling. You’re asking for the impossible, and going around asking questions will only cause pain. My mother always told me that the dead are best left in peace.”
When Mila and I left Erika that afternoon, I was more determined than ever to find answers. “Did you see how your grandma had goosebumps on her arms when she spoke about Nikolai Wolf and how Marcus killed him?”
“Yes, but it’s because he was an evil dictator. She lived through his tyranny, so it probably gives her the chills to think about him.”
“I get that, but the way she said that Marcus had made him give an apology to her…hmm.” I narrowed my eyes. “I’m telling you, Mila, your grandmother only told us half the story. We are definitely on to something, you just wait and see.”
CHAPTER 6
Action
Leo
“She did what?”
I’d been a police officer since I was twenty-four, and in those seven years, I had seen many strange things, but nothing like the policeman reporting a domestic violence case was telling me about.
I listened, and as the computer produced a transcript of his words on a screen in front of me, I was underlining things he said such as wife, attack, vicious, and humiliation.
“I have no fucking clue how to deal with this shit,” the man ended. “Do you?”
There’s no way I would tell him that I was unsure how to deal with it, too. “We’ll figure it out. I’m coming to meet you.”
Ending the call, I gave a loud outburst of frustration. “Fucking hell!!”
“What’s up?” Cameron and Raven were standing by his desk, both looking over at me.
“A wife just tried to chop off her husband’s dick.”
“What?” Cameron looked as pained as I had felt when I first heard it.
“Apparently he cheated on her.”
More colleagues came over. “Did you say a husband cheated on his wife?”
“Yup, and she didn’t take it well.”
