by Sherie Keys
“Fine. I will be along shortly.”
“Bring Alexei with you.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Dimitri regretted it. He knew how suspicious he had just made himself sound.
“Alexei is busy,” Rudolph replied. “But I will see if he can free his schedule.” Dimitri did not want to ask what that meant.
“Good. Then I will see you shortly.” He hung up before Rudolph could do the same to him.
“Good job.” A voice from the ear piece said. “We can hear you loud and clear. Just make sure that you don’t react to anything that we say.” Dimitri started the practice by not responding.
He tried to focus on going over what needed done for tomorrow, but he saw no point. What did it matter if there was the risk that he wouldn’t be here tomorrow? He couldn’t keep his focus. Finally, he sat down at the desk and stared at his computer screen until he heard the pounding on the door.
“I am going now to let them in.” He muttered, hoping the police heard him. He was rewarded immediately.
“All right. We are listening. Get one-or both of them-to confess to the murders.” Dimitri crossed the room, pulling open the door. Immediately, Rudolph was pushing himself passed Dimitri. Alexei was only a few steps behind.
“Good to see you both.” Dimitri remarked as he closed the door after them.
“We all know that is not true.” Rudolph turned to face him. “Now you say that this is important. Just what is it, Dimitri? Just what is so important?”
Dimitri steadied himself. He had to be better now than he ever had been.
“You were not so good about covering your tracks, were you?” Rudolph looked at Alexei. He scowled.
“What do you mean?” Dimitri shrugged.
“The police, they come here. They must have seen Victor here.”
“Just whose fault is that?” Alexei snapped. “You brought him here. You met with him in secret.” Dimitri waved him away.
“Is not important now. Regardless, police ask questions. Want to know if I know anything.”
“And what did you say, Dimitri?” Rudolph raised an eyebrow. “What exactly did you tell the police? Did you tell them that Victor and Kristina had to die to prove a point to you about double crossing us? Or did you play the big, dumb muscle that is usually you?”
Dimitri kept his cool.
“I told them that I know nothing. Which, because of that, I believe that you owe me favor.”
“Owe you a favor?” Rudolph answered dryly. “Why on earth would we do that?”
“Because I did not tell police that you two killed Victor and Kristina.” Dimitri waited. Would it play out from here as he hoped?
“We did not kill Victor and Kristina.” Rudolph shot a look at Alexei. Alexei looked both casual and pleased with himself.
“I guess I owe you a thank you, Dimitri.” He smiled. Dimitri scoffed.
“I do not know why you take pride in killing parents of small boy.”
“That was business.” Alexei settled himself to lean on the car next to Rudolph. “I do not take pride in making orphans. When I get back to Russia, I will look after the boy as he grows up. Help him to find work as he gets older. Maybe follow in his father’s footsteps.”
That was what Dimitri was afraid of, but he did not say it. Instead, he shook his head grimly.
“You should both get out of town. Rudolph, if police connect you to murders, you will be arrested as well.”
“I did not come all this way to be arrested.” Rudolph muttered. “Tell you what, Dimitri. You do job tonight, Alexei and I leave country tomorrow.” Dimitri truly hoped that the police were hearing this, but all he heard was silence.
“Fine. Fine.” Dimitri consented. “We do job tonight. But we will all come.”
“Why?” Alexei asked suspiciously.
“So that you can see job gets done. Save us all time.” Dimitri turned. He grabbed his car keys. He suddenly felt like the ear piece was slipping. He raised one hand, rubbing his ear slightly.
“Fine then, Dimitri.” Rudolph said loudly. “Get your keys and come on. No one has all night.”
“Including Dimitri.” Alexei chuckled. “He wanted to get home to Alicia….”
“Don’t you say her name,” Dimitri turned, still keeping his hand on his ear. He was slightly worried now. What if it slipped out?
“Everything all right there, Dimitri?” Rudolph was staring at him. “Is something wrong? You seemed to be just fine a moment ago.”
Dimitri could hear nothing from the ear piece. What if it had gone out? What if they were no longer hearing what he was saying?
“I am fine. Just a ringing sensation.” Dimitri brushed his comment aside.
“Then let me see.” Rudolph took a step closer to him.
“No. It is--"
“Come on, Dimitri. Put your hand down and let me see.” Rudolph reached for him. Before Dimitri could react, Rudolph’s hand was wrapped around his wrist. Dimitri had never seen Rudolph’s strength, but he experienced it firsthand. As his arm pulled away, the ear piece fell out. That was all Rudolph needed to see. He shoved Dimitri backwards against the desk.
“Well what have we here?” He was yanking out the ear piece, following its wire to Dimitri’s shirt. When he found the piece of equipment he ripped it out.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Rudolph was in his face now, screaming. “Just what do you think that you are doing?”
“He’s double crossed us once more.” Alexei’s voice called.
That was the last thing Dimitri clearly recalled. The next thing he knew, there was a pain in his head and he was falling to the floor. Above him, Alexei was holding a tire iron.
“You think that you can just turn on us because you are tired of us?” Rudolph was leaning over him, screaming the words in his face. Something collided with his ribs-perhaps a well-placed kick. Then something came down on his head once more. A black spot filled his vision.
He wondered for a moment if this was how he died. He decided that it had to be. He could not get away from Alexei and Rudolph. He could not defend himself. He knew now that they could overpower him with ease.
There was more shouting in the room. Dimitri didn’t much care. He was trying to bring up Alicia’s face. He was trying to remember the moments that they had together, but his brain did not want to function. He wanted to slip into the black pit. The blackness was so warm and inviting. He did not think that he could resist.
“Dimitri!” A voice that he could not recognize was calling his name. He wanted to reach out for it. He wanted to answer it. But the blackness was winning. He was slipping deeper into it. There was only one name that he could think of.
“A…licia….”
It was after ten. Alicia had not heard from Dimitri. She was a mess. She had spent most of the night calling his phone. He undeniably had seen them all…that was unless he couldn’t. That was what frightened her the most. Had he done something dangerous? Had he gotten himself hurt? If he had, how bad was it?
“You need to calm yourself down.” Her father was standing behind her. “In your condition, you can’t get worked up.”
“In my condition?” Alicia echoed. “My baby’s father could be out there…dead or hurt. I can’t calm down now.”
“Alicia.…” Barbara shook her head. “If Dimitri is hurt, honey, it is his own fault. Just what type of people was this man mixed up with?”
The whole story had been creeping out over the day. Her parents had not yet learned just what had happened, or how bad it was, but they knew it was bad. And dangerous.
“Mom….” Alicia couldn’t finish the statement. While she’d been angry at Dimitri earlier, now she was only worried about him. She wanted to know that he was all right. She wanted to know that he was safe. Even if their marriage did not work out, their baby needed its father.
Her parents exchanged a suspicious look. She could feel their disapproval radiating off of them. She couldn’t explain it either. If some d
ay it was her child, she would have said the exact same thing.
Her phone was ringing. Frantically, Alicia held it up.
Dimitri.
Oh thank god. Alicia hurried the phone up to her ear.
“Dimitri!” She exclaimed. “Are you ok?” For a moment, there was silence. Then a voice that she did not know spoke.
“Mrs. Petrescu?”
“Yes?” Alicia’s mouth went dry. It was not cold in the room, but she shivered anyway. She noticed that her parents had taken a few steps closer to her.
“Mrs. Petrescu, my name is Officer Tartum. I am sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your husband was injured this evening.”
“What?” Alicia gasped. This time, her mother’s hand fell onto her arm. She supposed that no mother would be able to see her child upset. “What happened to him?”
“If you want to come down to the city medical center, we’ll fill you in here.”
“How…how bad is it?” Alicia whispered. There was another bout of silence on the other end of the line.
“Mrs. Petrescu, I wouldn’t hesitate, if I were you.” That was all Alicia needed.
“I’ll be right there.” She didn’t want for anything further. She hung up the phone and turned to her parents. “We have to go. Now.”
Neither one of them said a word; they merely sprang into action. Her mother got both of their purses. Her father got his car keys. A moment later, he was leading her out of the house to his car. Alicia could only imagine what type of horror was waiting for her.
Dimitri’s equipment had not failed him. As the two men had come even closer to determining just what was going on, the police had been on the way to the garage. It was not just the two plain clothes officers; it was two more squad cars that they’d sent for after Alexei’s confession. Unfortunately, by the time they had gotten the door open, they found Dimitri on the floor. In addition to various kicks, he’d taken several blows to the head with a weapon. They went on to determine that it was a tire iron.
Rudolph and Alexei were arrested. The police had everything they needed on the two of them. While those two had been lead out, an officer administered first aid to Dimitri. Paramedics had come soon after, whisking him off to the hospital.
These were the details that Alicia was picking up in pieces. When she’d arrived at the hospital, she’d only been told that her husband was in surgery to relieve some of the pressure on his brain. In addition to the concussion, he had a number of contusions and cuts. He also had several broken ribs. The doctors were monitoring him closely. They would give her the information as it came in.
Alicia figured that she should be grateful that he wasn’t more seriously hurt. Actually, she should be grateful that he wasn’t dead. Numb, she sat in the waiting room. Her parents took a seat on either side of the couch with her. She was vaguely conscious that she was holding each of their hands. She did not want Dimitri hurt-or worse yet dead. She had too many things to tell him. She was still mulling over this situation when a police officer came in. He looked like he was older than both she and Dimitri, but not by much.
“Mrs. Petrescu?” He pulled a chair over to sit in front of her. He had a friendly smile that went all the way to his brown eyes. Alicia didn’t know how she felt about him. He seemed too pleasant. He seemed like the type of man that they sent in when your husband was about to die.
“I’m Officer Tartum. We spoke on the phone?” Alicia nodded. She didn’t really care.
“Is there something that we need to discuss, Officer?”
“Well, I thought you might be curious as to just what happened to your husband tonight.” Alicia stiffened. She wasn’t overly certain that she wanted to know. Dimitri had obviously connected with this group of men that he had told her about. He had tried to get out, or something along those lines, and everything had gone wrong. It had probably been a valent argument, but to the wrong people.
“I--" She shrugged, sighing. “I guess I need to know, don’t I?” Officer Tartum nodded.
“Your husband did a very brave thing today.” Alicia shook her head sadly.
“I know, I know.” Had he said ‘brave’? “Wait, did you say a brave thing?” Officer Tartum nodded again, this time much more enthusiastically.
“Mrs. Petrescu, your husband came downtown this morning to try and help us sort out a case.”
“He did what?” This time it was Wayne Augustus who stepped in.
“You’ve heard about the murder of the young couple earlier this week?” Alicia remembered her conversation with Dimitri that morning.
“Yes.” She frowned. “I recall.” Officer Tartum appeared to be trying to pick his words.
“Your husband had some former business associates who were connected to the case.” Alicia heard the gasp from her mother, but she did not look at her. If that had been Dimitri’s lifestyle, then they needed to get it all out. “He unfortunately knew about this, so he came down today to talk to us about it.”
“And then what?” Wayne asked. “You all sent that boy up to them?”
“We offered, and he went willingly.”
“What?” Alicia felt like that was the only thing that she could say. “What did he do, exactly?”
“Dimitri wore a wire for us.” Officer Tartum explained. “He went into the garage with these two men to get a confession.”
“He did what?” Alicia was suddenly jolted out of her shock. “Dimitri…he was trying to help you?”
“He was,” Officer Tartum assured her. “And he got it too. Unfortunately, he had some sort of mishap with his wiring device which led to these two suspects discovering it. But we were able to make a solid arrest thanks to him.”
Both Alicia and her parents sat staring at the officer. The three of them had been shocked before, but they’d moved on to stunned. Alicia felt her father’s hand tightening on hers.
“That Dimitri....” Wayne shook his head. “That is one interesting fellow.” Alicia had to agree. She didn’t know how to react.
“Is Dimitri….” She had to ask this, even if she didn’t want to. “Is Dimitri in trouble?” Officer Tartum hesitated.
“Well, your husband did come in under some unusual circumstances. But we did work out a deal, which exonerates your husband from any potential wrong doings in the situation.” This story got stranger with every twist.
“Do we need a lawyer?” Alicia asked. Officer Tartum chuckled.
“Your husband asked the same thing. The answer is no, no you don’t. After your husband’s actions, we are overlooking any connections which he may have had in these deals. However, we are watching him.”
“He almost got himself killed for this.” Alicia was shaking her head. “He might still.” Officer Tartum nodded.
“I am so incredibly sorry. Our officers got to him as quickly as they possibly could. You have to know that he is receiving the best care that he could possibly get.” Alicia nodded.
“I…. Thank you. Thank you for telling me all of this.”
“Of course.” Officer Tartum got up. “Good luck to you, Mrs. Petrescu. And I truly hope that your husband pulls through.” She suspected that he had wanted to add something, but he didn’t. Instead, he headed out of the waiting area.
“I just can’t believe it.” Wayne finally spoke up. “Can you?”
“He said he was going to do something.” Alicia remembered her last conversation with him. “He said that he had a plan. This must have been it.”
Suddenly, she needed Dimitri to pull through. She needed it more than anything.
Dimitri lay in bed connected to a thousand different tubes and machines. Alicia had never seen him look so helpless. He was such a big man. She had never imagined him in such a frail position. But now her eyes drifted from the bandages on his head to the bruising on his face that they were not covering. She shook her head, trembling at the sight.
“Dimitri.” She grabbed a chair, dragging it up to his bedside. She reached over, closing her hand over his. At
least his skin was warm. She lifted his hand and brought it gently to her lips.
“He’ll be all right.” Her father rested his hand upon her shoulder. “He’s a fighter. Look at everything that he’s done so far. You know as well as I do that he’ll want to survive.”
Alicia nodded. She couldn’t believe the risk that Dimitri had put himself up to just get himself out of this life. She knew that she had a right to be angry for his lies, but he was not a bad person. She’d been too harsh about that.
“You want us to stay?” Barbara rubbed her arm. “We can if you need us.” Alicia shook her head.
“You guys can take a few minutes. I’m just going to sit with him.” She wanted a moment alone with Dimitri.
Wayne appeared to want to argue, but Barbara merely nodded. She patted Alicia’s arm one final time before tugging at her husband’s. Wayne went-all be it reluctantly.
Alicia pressed her lips to Dimitri’s hand once more. “They tell me you can probably hear me.” She told him softly. “So I want you to know that I’m here. I’m not going to go anywhere. I wish that you hadn’t lied to me, but I’m overwhelmed by what you tried to do.” She paused, shaking her head.
“You could have been killed.” She tightened her fingers on his hand at the thought. “Really. Those men almost killed you. As angry as I was with you, I never wanted anything like that to happen. I just…can’t believe the risk that you put your own life into.”
*
The machines beeped around her. Dimitri was breathing on his own with only a small bit of oxygen for help. All of his vitals were strong, but there was no telling what type of damage may have been done. Alicia didn’t much care. If he was seriously injured for the rest of his life, she would help him. She would see to it that she found him the best care. If he had to relearn to walk and talk, then so be it. She was not about to abandon her husband-not after everything that he had been through.
Dimitri’s head was a halo of fuzz. The first thing that became clear to him was a beeping sound. He had no idea what it might have been. But it was loud, and it was unceasing. He wanted it to stop. Then he was aware of the sound of his own breathing…and the feeling of something soft beneath his head and something else covering his body.