The Russian Cage (Gunnie Rose) by Charlaine Harris

Author:Charlaine Harris [Harris, Charlaine]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2021-02-22T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Savarov women recovered from the spell Brightwood had put on them pretty quickly, maybe because he was dead.

Alice fell to pieces. She started crying as she pulled her blouse together and fastened two of the buttons.

Lucy got up, though she was shaking like a leaf. She put her arms around her little sister. Veronika pushed back from the table, took care of her clothes, and said, “Alice, take care of your sister’s dress.” Since Brightwood had ripped Lucy’s dress, there really wasn’t much that could be done, but Alice pulled herself together enough to help Lucy pull up her bra. Lucy finished buttoning Alice’s blouse. Bright-wood had been in control of himself when he first got here, but by the time Lucy came in, he was drunk on his power over the women, and he might have been drunk, period. I noticed an amber bottle by the plate of food.

“Thank you,” Veronika said, turning to face me. I had slumped down in a chair, the knife still in my hand and dripping blood.

“My job,” I said.

“How is that so?”

“You’re Eli’s family.”

A large number of expressions crossed Veronika’s face, one after another. I couldn’t name them all. She took a deep breath and nodded. Now she knew.

“You up to talking?” I asked, when I could be sure my voice was steady.

Veronika said, “Yes.” Alice was still sobbing, but other than that sad sound, the house was silent.

“Did John Brightwood tell you how he got out of jail?”

“He said he had gotten time off for good behavior,” Lucy said.

“He said Eli had told him to come to our house,” Alice said, looking at me with a wet face. She hiccupped a few times.

“He said a lot of things,” Veronika added.

“Did you know who he was?” I was trying to keep my voice real even and calm.

“I had heard of him,” Veronika said. “At court. How bad he was. But he, Brightwood, was also in jail for murder, like Eli, and I know my son is a good man. There was a chance Brightwood might be also.”

“So you let him in.”

“No, Natalya did. We only knew after he was inside, and Natalya called up the stairs to tell us we had a visitor from the jail, and Alice and I thought it was Eli. We came down the stairs running. But it was Brightwood.”

There was a long silence. Alice quit crying, Lucy straightened up and closed her eyes, and Veronika looked like she wanted to be anywhere else.

“So how you want to play this?” I said.

They all looked puzzled. I felt like being anywhere else myself. I took a deep sigh.

“We got to hide the bodies.” I was doing a lot of that lately on behalf of the family. “You can call the police in the morning and say you found a lot of blood downstairs, that someone must have broken in after you went to bed, and your maid hasn’t shown up to work.” Then I had a better idea. “Or you can call ’em right now.

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