Page 77 of The Fighter
“Didn’t he conspire to have you killed?”
Khan narrowed his eyes. “That’s different.” He paused. “If Zobel was responsible, my dad would have killed him back then.”
Remembering the unanswered calls from Khan that Dina had mentioned in the sound files I’d heard, I had to ask. “Did you talk to Dina after her wedding?”
“No.”
“Did you call her?”
“No.” Khan pulled off his gloves. “I’m sorry that I can’t be of more help in the case, but I’ve always found a sense of peace in the fact that my father avenged Dina. I’m sure he crushed whoever did it.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“There was a major shift in my dad after Dina died. I have no doubt that he regretted his weakness because he became twice as hard and ruthless as he’d been before her death. Sometimes when I think back to how cruel he could be, I try to remember that he was a man battling demons and that it would have haunted any father to know that it was his own weakness that caused his daughter’s death.”
“Did you ever ask Zobel if he knew who the blackmailer was?”
“Yes, but he didn’t know. He said that my father just informed him that the matter was taken care of.” Khan exhaled noisily. “But it’s all history now, and I never felt the need to dig up that sad part of my life. As a ruler there are always urgent matters that need my attention.”
“I get that.” I stayed in the ring while Khan moved to the door. “Thank you for teaching me today.”
Khan turned and gave me a smile. “You’re a great fighter, Raven. Your father taught you well, and I’ll make sure to tell Boulder when I see him later today.”
It was rare for Khan to praise anyone. I could feel myself grow an inch and I was still smiling when the door closed behind him.
Khan had given me more information than he realized. From the sound clips I had of Dina, I already knew that she’d gone from begging Marcus to pay her husband to threatening him to reveal that Marcus and Khan weren’t father and son. It had to be Dina who was the blackmailer that Marcus and Mr. Zobel had fought about. That would explain why Marcus refused to kill the person blackmailing him.
I bit my lower lip.If only I knew if Mr. Zobel did it for him.
As I sat down on the edge of the boxing ring, another thought popped into my head. “Why has Khan denied calling Dina that week? It was possible that he simply didn’t remember calling her, but what if…” I gave a small gasp from the thought alone, and then I called up Leo and told him what I’d learned.
“What if Khan overheard more than he told me? What if Mr. Zobel and Marcus discussed the threats and Khan learned that he’s not Marcus’ son? Do you think it’s possible that Khan might have killed Dina?”
“Geez, Raven. Khan was fourteen.”
“Yes, and destined to take over for his father one day. It would have been a threat to his future. Don’t you see? Maybe he tried to call Dina to ask her to keep silent or to figure out how to best get to her if he planned to kill her”
“Or maybe he tried to warn her, Raven. That’s more likely isn’t it? I mean, if he heard Mr. Zobel encouraging Lord Marcus to have his sister killed, wouldn’t he try to warn her?”
I bit my lip. “He said he didn’t know the identity of the blackmailer.”
“Do you think he was lying to you?”
Closing my eyes, I rubbed the bridge of my nose and tried to remember how Khan had looked while telling me what he knew. “No, I don’t know.”
“Some people lie because they don’t remember. They suppress what happened to them, and those lies are hard to spot because they feel real to the person who tells them.”
“You think Khan suppressed something from back then?”
Leo sighed. “If he did it’s going to be hard to find out. We can’t exactly ask our ruler to do a session with a hypnotist to unlock memories.”
“Right. No. I’m sure he wouldn’t go for that. It’s weird how he seems content and doesn’t want to dig around to find out exactly what happened.”
“You have to remember that this case is new to you but for Dina’s family it’s a scar that’s more than thirty years old. They had to find peace with what happened somehow.”
“Khan thinks Marcus avenged Dina, and that’s all that matters to him.”
“Maybe Marcusdidavenge her.”
