Andrei by Patricia Rosemoor

Author:Patricia Rosemoor [Rosemoor, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pronoun
Published: 2017-03-31T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

ANDREI DREW CLOSE ENOUGH TO Milo to see the moon gleam off the knife’s sharp edge and the fancy carving on the handle. “So, that’s the murder weapon?”

“What?” Milo’s head jerked up, and he looked around wildly. “Andrei!”

Shock altered his voice and twisted his features into someone Andrei didn’t recognize.

“Yes, Milo,” he said. “I’m still alive and uninjured, no thanks to you. But Theresa Granville wasn’t so lucky. Is that the knife you used to kill her?”

“I had nothing to do with the gadji’s death!”

Andrei could see the lie written all over the older man. As a boy, he’d looked up to Milo, who’d seemed to be an honest and fair leader and a devoted father. He’d had such respect for Milo that he’d once told his mother that he wanted to be like him when he grew up.

He shuddered at the memory.

The last thing in the world he wanted was to be like the lying, quivering murderer before him.

Andrei continued to inch forward, while saying, “The murder weapon has been missing all these years. No wonder—you stashed it in the tree right where you killed Theresa Granville.”

Milo appeared frantic when he said, “Andrei, you don’t understand.”

“What don’t I understand, Milo? That you’re capable of a crime of passion? Were you jealous of Carlo?” he asked, continuing to advance slowly, carefully. “Did you think you could have Theresa Granville for yourself?”

“No. It wasn’t like that. I felt nothing for the gadji but—”

“Bastard!” Lizzie yelled, launching herself past Andrei and straight at Milo.

“Lizzie, no!”

Andrei tried to stop her. He was fast, but Milo was faster. Before Andrei’s horrified eyes, the man yanked Lizzie against his body, levered an arm across her chest and held the knife blade to her throat.

“Stay back, Andrei, or I’ll cut her. I swear I will!”

Andrei heard the words threatening the woman he loved, and through a haze of red, saw the knife at her throat.

Holding on tightly to his rage, he said, “You don’t want to do this, Milo.”

“I don’t, Andrei, but you’re forcing me to do it—you and your cousins and the gadje you’ve brought to our camp. All your poking and prodding has destroyed us. The carnival will never be the same!”

“The carnival isn’t the same now, Milo. It hasn’t been for ten years. It’s tainted with the blood of Theresa Granville and now Valonia and God knows who else.”

“Tony,” Milo admitted, his eyes crazed. “He would have told…I couldn’t let him…I can’t let you…or her!”

The hand holding the knife was shaking with tension. As Andrei concentrated on the weapon, he sensed Milo’s control slipping.

“Stop now!” Andrei told him. “Too many people know too much. You can’t get away with this.”

Milo licked his lips and shook his head. “I can,” he said as if trying to convince himself. “I’ll say it was Tony, that he’s the murderer, that he was jealous of Carlo back then…and of you now. That he killed Valonia and put the letter in her hand. No one will be able to prove different.

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