Richard Montanari: Four Novels of Suspense: The Rosary Girls, the Skin Gods, Merciless, Badlands

by Richard Montanari

  “She was killed.”

  “Yes,” Byrne said.

  Natalya nodded, as if she had been expecting the news. The lack of passion in her reaction was not lost on either detective. They had given her a bare minimum of information on the phone. They had not told her about the mutilation.

  “When was the last time you saw your sister?” Byrne asked.

  Natalya thought for a few moments. “It was four days ago.”

  “Where did you see her?”

  “Right where you are standing. We argued. As we often did.”

  “May I ask what about?” Byrne asked.

  Natalya shrugged. “Money. I had lent her five hundred dollars as part of what she needed for security deposits with the utility companies for her new apartment. I think she may have spent it on clothes. She always bought clothes. I got mad. We argued.”

  “She was moving out?”

  Natalya nodded. “We were not getting along. She moved out weeks ago.” She reached for a tissue from the box on the end table. She was not as tough as she wanted them to believe she was. No tears, but it was clear that the dam was about to burst.

  Jessica began to amend her timeline. “You saw her four days ago?”

  “Yes.”

  “When?”

  “It was late. She was here to pick up a few things, then she said she was going to do laundry.”

  “How late?”

  “Ten or ten thirty. Perhaps later.”

  “Where did she do laundry?”

  “I don’t know. Near her new apartment.”

  “Have you been to her new place?” Byrne asked.

  “No,” Natalya said. “She never asked me.”

  “Did Kristina have a car?”

  “No. Her friend would drive her usually. Or she would take SEPTA.”

  “What is her friend’s name?”

  “Sonja.”

  “Do you know Sonja’s last name?”

  Natalya shook her head.

  “And you didn’t see Kristina again that night?”

  “No. I went to sleep. It was late.”

  “Can you remember anything else about that day? Where else she might have been? Who she saw?”

  “I’m sorry. She did not share these things with me.”

  “Did she call you the next day? Maybe leave a message on the answering machine or voice mail?”

  “No,” Natalya said, “but we were supposed to meet the next afternoon. When she did not come, I called the police. The police said there was not much they could do, but they would put it in the system. My sister and I may not have been getting along, but she was always punctual. And she was not the type to just …”

  The tears came. Jessica and Byrne gave the woman a moment. When she began to compose herself they continued.

  “Where did Kristina work?” Byrne asked.

  “I’m not sure exactly where. It was a new job. A receptionist job.”

  The way Natalya said the word receptionist was curious, Jessica thought. That was not lost on Byrne, either.

  “Did Kristina have a boyfriend? Someone she was seeing?”

  Natalya shook her head. “No one steady that I know of. But there were always men around her. Even when we were small. In school, at church. Always.”

  “Is there an ex-boyfriend? Someone who might be carrying a torch?”

  “There is one, but he no longer lives here.”

  “Where does he live?”

  “He went back to the Ukraine.”

  “Did Kristina have any outside interests? Hobbies?”

  “She had it in her mind to be a dancer. It was her dream. Kristina had many dreams.”

  A dancer, Jessica thought. She flashed on the woman and her amputated feet. She moved on. “What about your parents?”

  “They are long in their graves.”

  “Any other brothers or sisters?”

  “One brother. Kostya.”

  “Where is he?”

  Natalya grimaced, waved a hand, as if swatting away a bad memory. “He is tvaryna.”

  Jessica waited for a translation. Nothing. “Ma’am?”

  “An animal. Kostya is a wild animal. He is where he belongs. In prison.”

  Byrne and Jessica exchanged a glance. This news opened a whole new set of possibilities. Maybe someone wanted to get to Kostya Jakos through his sister.

  “May I ask where he is incarcerated?” Jessica asked.

  “Graterford.”

  Jessica was going to ask why the man was in jail, but all of that information would be on the record. No need to open that wound now, so soon after another tragedy. She made a note to look it up.

  “Do you know of anyone who might want to do your brother harm?” Jessica asked.

  Natalya laughed, but it was without humor. “I don’t know anyone who doesn’t.”

  “Do you have a recent picture of Kristina?”

  Natalya reached onto the top shelf of a bookcase. She retrieved a wooden box. She shuffled the contents, produced a photograph, a shot of Kristina that looked to be a head shot from a modeling agency—slightly soft focus, provocatively posed, lips parted. Jessica again thought the young woman was very pretty. Perhaps not model-gorgeous, but striking.

  “Can we borrow this photograph?” Jessica asked. “We will return it.”

  “No need to return,” Natalya said.

  Jessica made a mental note to return the picture anyway. She knew from personal experience that as time passed the tectonic plates of grief, however thin, tended to shift.

  Natalya stood, reached into a desk drawer. “As I said, Kristina was moving into a new place. Here is the extra key to her new apartment. Maybe this will help.”

  There was a white tag attached to the key. Jessica glanced at it. It bore an address on North Lawrence.

  Byrne took out his card case. “If you think of anything else that might help us, please give me a call.” He handed a card to Natalya.

  Natalya took the card, then handed Byrne a card of her own. It seemed to come from nowhere, as if she already had it palmed and ready to produce. As it turned out, “palmed” was probably the right word. Jessica glanced at the card. It read: Madame Natalya—Cartomancy, Fortune-Telling, Tarot.

  “I think you have a great deal of sadness within you,” she said to Byrne. “A great many unresolved issues.”

  Jessica glanced at Byrne. He looked a little rattled, a rare state for him. She sensed her partner wanted to continue the interview alone.

  “I’ll get the car,” Jessica said.

  THEY STOOD IN the too-warm front room, silent for a few moments. Byrne glanced inside a small space off the parlor—round mahogany table, two chairs, a credenza, tapestries on the walls. There were candles burning in all four corners. He looked back at Natalya. She was studying him.

  “Have you ever had a reading?” Natalya asked.

  “A reading?”

  “A palm reading.”

  “I’m not exactly sure what that is.”

  “The art is called chiromancy,” she said. “It is an ancient practice in which the lines and markings of your hand are studied.”

  “Uh, no,” Byrne said. “Never.”

  Natalya reached out, took his hand in hers. Immediately Byrne felt a slight electrical charge. Not necessarily a sexual charge, although he could not deny that was a component.

  She closed her eyes briefly, opened them. “You have a sense,” she said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Sometimes you know things you should not know. Things that are not seen by others. Things that turn out to be true.”

  Byrne wanted to take his hand back and run out of there as fast as he could, but for some reason he couldn’t seem to move. “Sometimes.”

  “You were born with a veil?”

  “A veil? I’m afraid I don’t know anything about that.”

  “You came very close to dying?”

  Byrne was a little spooked by this, but he didn’t let on. “Yes.”


  “Twice.”

  “Yes.”

  Natalya let go of his hand, looked deep into his eyes. Somehow, in the past few minutes, her eyes seemed to have changed from a soft gray to a glossy black.

  “The white flower,” she said.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “The white flower, Detective Byrne,” she repeated. “Take the shot.”

  Now he really was spooked.

  Byrne put his notebook away, buttoned his coat. He thought about shaking hands with Natalya Jakos, but decided against it. “Once again, we’re very sorry for your loss,” he said. “We’ll be in touch.”

  Natalya opened the door. An icy blast of air greeted Byrne. Walking down the steps, he felt physically drained.

  Take the shot, he thought. What the hell was that about?

  When Byrne reached the car he glanced back at the house. The front door was closed, but every window now had a glowing candle in it.

  Had the candles been there when they arrived?

  9

  Kristina Jakos’s new apartment was not an apartment at all, but rather a two-bedroom brick townhome on North Lawrence. As Jessica and Byrne approached, one thing was clear. No young woman who worked as a receptionist could afford the rent, or even half the rent if she was sharing. These were pricey digs.

  They knocked, rang the bell. Twice. They waited, cupped their hands on the windows. Sheer curtains. Nothing visible. Byrne rang one more time, then inserted the key in the lock, opened the door. “Philly PD!” he said. No answer. They stepped inside.

  If the outside was attractive, the inside was immaculate—heartwood pine floors, maple cabinets in the kitchen, brass fixtures. There was no furniture.

  “I think I’m going to see if there are any receptionist jobs open,” Jessica said.

  “Me too,” Byrne replied.

  “You can work a switchboard?”

  “I’ll learn.”

  Jessica ran a hand over the raised paneling. “So, what do you think? Rich roommate or sugar daddy?”

  “Two distinct possibilities.”

  “Maybe an insanely jealous psychopathic sugar daddy?”

  “A definite possibility.”

  They called out again. The house appeared to be empty. They checked the basement, found a washer and dryer, still in the boxes, waiting to be installed. They checked the second floor. One bedroom held a folded futon; the other had a rollaway bed in the corner, a steamer trunk next to it.

  Jessica returned to the foyer, picked up the pile of mail on the floor in front of the door. She sorted through the stack. One of the bills was addressed to a Sonja Kedrova. There was also a pair of magazines addressed to Kristina Jakos—Dance and Architectural Digest. There were no personal letters or postcards.

  They stepped into the kitchen, opened a few drawers. Most were empty. Ditto on the lower cabinets. The cabinet beneath the sink held a collection of new apartment staples—sponges, Windex, paper towels, cleanser, bug spray. Young women always had a supply of bug spray.

  She was just about to close the last cupboard door when they heard the creak of the floorboards. Before they could turn around they heard something that was far more ominous, far more lethal. The click of a revolver being cocked behind them.

  “Don’t … fucking … move,” came a voice from the other side of the room. It was a woman’s voice. Eastern European accent and cadence. It was the roommate.

  Jessica and Byrne froze, hands out to their sides. “We’re police officers,” Byrne said.

  “And I’m Angelina Jolie. Now put your hands up.”

  Jessica and Byrne both raised their hands.

  “You must be Sonja Kedrova,” Byrne said.

  Silence. Then, “How do you know my name?”

  “Like I said. We’re police officers. I’m going to reach into my coat now, very slowly, and pull out my ID. Okay?”

  A long pause. Too long.

  “Sonja?” Byrne asked. “You with me?”

  “Okay,” she said. “Slow.”

  Byrne complied. “Here we go,” he said. Without turning around, he plucked his ID out of his pocket, held it out.

  A few more seconds passed. “Okay. So you are police. What’s this about?”

  “Can we put our hands down?” Byrne asked.

  “Yes.”

  Jessica and Byrne put down their hands, turned around.

  Sonja Kedrova was about twenty-five. She had teardrop eyes, full lips, deep auburn hair. Where Kristina had been pretty, Sonja was glamorous. She wore a long tan coat, black leather boots, a plum silk scarf.

  “What is that you’re holding?” Byrne asked, pointing at the gun.

  “It’s a gun.”

  “It’s a starter’s pistol. It fires blanks.”

  “My father gave it to me to protect myself.”

  “That gun is about as deadly as a squirt gun.”

  “And yet you put your hands up.”

  Touché, Jessica thought. Byrne wasn’t amused.

  “We need to ask you a few questions,” Jessica said.

  “And this could not wait until I arrived home? You had to break into my house?”

  “I’m afraid it can’t wait,” Jessica replied. She held up the key. “And we didn’t break in.”

  Sonja looked confused for a moment, then shrugged. She put the starter’s pistol into a drawer, closed it. “Okay,” she said. “Ask your ‘questions.’ ”

  “Do you know a woman named Kristina Jakos?”

  “Yes,” she said. Wary now. Her eyes danced between them. “I know Kristina. We are roommates.”

  “How long have you known her?”

  “Maybe three months.”

  “I’m afraid we have some bad news,” Jessica said.

  Sonja’s brow narrowed. “What happened?”

  “Kristina is dead.”

  “Oh my God.” Her face drained of color. She grabbed the counter. “How did this … what happened?”

  “We’re not sure,” Jessica said. “Her body was found this morning in Manayunk.”

  Any second Sonja was going to topple. There were no chairs in the dining area. Byrne retrieved a wooden crate from the corner of the kitchen, set it down. He eased the woman onto it.

  “Are you familiar with Manayunk?” Jessica asked.

  Sonja took a few deep breaths, puffing out her cheeks. She remained silent.

  “Sonja? Are you familiar with that neighborhood?”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “No.”

  “Did Kristina ever talk about going there? Or if she knew someone who lived in Manayunk?”

  Sonja shook her head.

  Jessica made a few notes. “When was the last time you saw Kristina?”

  For a moment, it appeared as if Sonja might be ready to do the floor-kiss. She weaved in that special way that indicated a fainting spell on the rise. In a moment it seemed to pass. “Not for maybe a week,” she said. “I have been out of town.”

  “Where were you?”

  “In New York.”

  “City?”

  Sonja nodded.

  “Do you know where Kristina worked?”

  “All I know is that it was in Center City. A receptionist job for an important company.”

  “And she never told you the name of the firm?”

  Sonja dabbed her eyes with a Kleenex, shook her head. “She did not tell me everything,” she said. “She was sometimes very secretive.”

  “How so?”

  Sonja frowned. “Sometimes she would come home late. I would ask her where she was and she would get quiet. It was as if she was doing something about which she was ashamed maybe.”

  Jessica thought of the vintage dress. “Was Kristina an actress?”

  “Actress?”

  “Yes. Either professionally, or maybe in community theater?”

  “Well, she liked to dance. I think she wanted to dance professionally. I don’t know if she was that good, but maybe.”

  Jessica consulted her notes. “Is there
anything else you know about her that you think would help?”

  “She sometimes worked with the kids at St. Seraphim.”

  “The Russian Orthodox church?” Jessica asked.

  “Yes.”

  Sonja stood, picked up a glass on the counter, then opened the freezer, extracted a frosty bottle of Stoli, and poured herself a few ounces. There was hardly anything to eat in the house, but there was vodka in the fridge. When you are in your twenties, Jessica thought—a demographic she had just recently, grudgingly, left behind—there are priorities.

  “If you could just hold off on that for a minute, I’d appreciate it,” Byrne said. He had a way about him that made his commands sound like polite requests.

  Sonja nodded, put down the glass and the bottle, retrieved the Kleenex from her pocket, dabbed her eyes.

  “Do you know where Kristina did her laundry?” Byrne asked.

  “No,” Sonja said. “But she would often do it late at night.”

  “How late?”

  “Eleven o’clock. Maybe midnight.”

  “What about boyfriends? Did she have someone she was seeing?”

  “Not that I know of, no,” she said.

  Jessica pointed toward the stairs. “The bedrooms are upstairs?” She said this as amiably as she could. She knew that Sonja was well within her rights to ask them to leave.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you mind if I have a quick look?”

  Sonja thought about it briefly. “No,” she said. “It’s okay.”

  Jessica mounted the stairs, stopped. “Which bedroom was Kristina’s?”

  “The one at the back.”

  Sonja turned to Byrne, held up her glass. Byrne nodded. Sonja let herself down to the floor, took a huge gulp of icy vodka. She immediately poured herself another.

  Jessica continued upstairs, walked down the short hallway, entered the back bedroom.

  Next to the rolled futon in the corner was a small box with an alarm clock on it. A white terry-cloth bathrobe hung on a hook on the back of the door. This was a young woman’s apartment, early days. There were no pictures on the walls, no posters. There were none of the frilly accoutrement one might expect in the bedroom of a young woman.

  Jessica thought about Kristina, standing right where she was standing. Kristina, considering her new life in her new home, all the possibilities that are yours when you are twenty-four. Kristina, imagining a room full of Thomasville or Henredon furniture. New rugs, new lamps, new bedclothes. New life.