He seems to accept that at face value as he nods slowly. “Smart boy. Smart, smart boy.” He looks back up at the trees and squints like there’s something small to be seen there. “Don’t worry about Cassandra. She’s been useful for a while. She’ll be useful for a little longer still. After that…” He shrugs, one shoulder, nothing in it. “Well. Sometimes the jewelry gets left behind in the hotel room. Sometimes, a wife develops a pill problem in the Caribbean. Sometimes, she stays there with friends. There are a lot of ways for a woman to go quiet, Matvei. Some of them are even her idea.”
I keep my face neutral and my breath steady as I think to myself, I’m going to bury this man.
It’s not even him I’m seeing in my mind’s eye anymore. I’m seeing Yura’s sleeping baby in the arms of a thug and
