The Family Hightower (30 page)

And in the early morning, Feodor's beeper goes off. It's a number he doesn't recognize. If it were a normal day, he would ignore it. But things are a little crazy right now.

“Feodor. It's the Wolf.”

Feodor wants to ask how it is that the Wolf got his number, but he's way too smart for that. “I figured I'd hear from you soon,” he says, as if they're old friends. As if they've ever spoken before. The truth is that Feodor didn't think the Wolf would sound like he does. Didn't expect his voice to be so high-pitched.

“You know what's happened,” the Wolf says.

“I've heard, yes.”

“It's that bitch the White Lady. She fucked me.”

“How do you know it's her?”

“There's no one else it could be.”

“Uh-huh,” Feodor says, as noncommittal as he can sound.

“I'm hoping you're already thinking what I'm thinking,” the Wolf says, “that someday she'll fuck you, too, hard, as hard as she can. And that it's best if we just cut her out.”

“Cut her out,” Feodor says.

“Yes. Perhaps we could take the opportunity to merge our operations.”

“I see.”

“Yes.”

Feodor can't say he was expecting the last part. It isn't something he and Sylvie have discussed. It's not quite in the script. He wishes he had a minute, but he doesn't.

“I mean this with a great deal of respect,” Feodor says, “but what's in it for me?” He lets the weight of the words sink in a little. They both know how vulnerable the Wolf is right now. There's almost nothing left of the organization under him, and he's teetering in the air. The Wolf names a very high price tag that surprises Feodor even more. He knew the Wolf was doing well, but he didn't know he was doing that well.
How is he making so much money?
Feodor thinks, and then stops. Yes. The harvesting. The harvesting and God knows what else that Feodor won't touch. Why did the White Lady ever get involved with that man?

But it's so much money, too. Enough that Feodor could get out himself, sooner than he planned. Stop and then buy a house on the Black Sea. Meet a nice young lady, have a family, and never think again about everything he's done for the past ten years. It sounds nice. Very nice.

“We should meet,” Feodor says.

“Good. When?” the Wolf says.

“Soon.”

“Tomorrow night.”

“Okay.”

They agree on a place outside of the city, where no one'll know who they are. Bodyguards are fine, as long as they wait outside and don't draw too much attention. After they hang up, Feodor just walks around his office, pacing. He runs his operation out of an apartment he's bought in one of Kiev's newest buildings, a tower with some serious geometry on the top of it, triangles of mirrored glass. From the window he can see the curve of the Dnieper as it flows through the city, the traffic moving on the highway beside it. The bridge to the Hidropark. The Friendship Arch on the edge of the cliff. The red, yellow, and blue of the Ferris wheel and the circus tents beneath it. A bit of the blue and gold dome of St. Andrew's Church.
I love this city,
Feodor thinks,
but it's making me old, too.
He's glad he has a day before the meeting. He needs some time to think.

 

 

Chapter 20

In
Negostina, they've been up all night. Claudiu, Madalina's father; Georgina, her mother; Alexandru, the neighbor who speaks English; and Petey Hightower. For three of them, it's the worst night of their lives. Alexandru, who has to translate everything, who can't find a way out and has to be there for all of it, won't ever tell his wife or children a lot of what he saw, what he heard, beyond the barest facts.
Look, I just should never have been there,
he says.
I felt sick, I felt dirty. That's how much I didn't belong.

It starts with the revelation that Madalina's gone. In his panic, Petey can't remember a word of Ukrainian, and he's never known Romanian. He says it in English, in the most evasive way he can think of—
they took her—
but Claudiu knows what he means. He tries to be quiet; even there, in the second that he realizes his entire life is coming apart, he's thinking of Georgina, asleep two rooms away, and he tries not to wake her. But then his grief takes over. First he chokes on it. Then he wails,
oh, oh, oh,
and Georgina comes out in a nightgown.
What's going on, Claudiu?
Looks at Peter.
Who is this?

For Petey, it feels like a nightmare, because he can't understand what anyone is talking about. Claudiu says something to his wife. It's short, only a little longer than what Petey's told them so far, and Georgina's eyes widen, her mouth opens. She keeps saying the same word over and over, and then breaks down and shrieks, followed by a long, stuttering breath that sounds like she's drowning. They stand there in their kitchen, holding each other, and just talk and talk, crying and crying. They say a lot of things that make Alexandru
realize that it's as if he and the American aren't there. The parents don't care. Their despair has made them too honest for things like politeness. There's only the annihilating truth. It goes on for maybe forty-five minutes, minutes that feel like hours, and then Georgina looks up, stares straight at Petey, startled, as if she's just noticed he's there, and asks him what happened.

Petey tries to get out of it at first.
I don't know,
he says, still thinking he can somehow avoid responsibility. He tells himself that in the strictest sense, he's not lying to these people. He doesn't know, not really, what's happened to the woman he says he loves. She could be anywhere. They could have done anything to her. He tells himself he's trying to protect them. But he's not good enough a liar to sell that to Madalina's parents. He gives Georgina
a look he thinks will let her know that he wants to spare them. But Madalina's mother is way too sharp for that. All she sees on his face is the hope that he can spare himself. She sees a boy trying to be a man and not knowing how much he's failed. A stupid kid who's turned the world sideways in his head, has convinced himself that it's still right side up, and thinks he can convince everyone else, too.
You disgust me,
she thinks. And she's going to let him know it. She looks at Alexandru.

“What does he mean, he doesn't know?”

“I don't know,” Alexandru says.

“No. Ask him what he means. I want to force him to talk.”

Alexandru asks, and Petey repeats himself. She doesn't need the translation.

“Well, what was she doing when he last saw her?”

Alexandru asks Petey, and there's a long pause. Then he says one word.

“He says she was driving,” Alexandru says.

“Where?”

“Um. He says nowhere.”

“Why?”

“Because there was a car in front of her, and a car behind.”

“Like a traffic jam.”

“No, he says. No. Not like a traffic jam.”

“Like what, then?” Georgina says. “Tell him also that I'm getting tired of guessing. Very, very tired.”

She's angry now, and looks at her husband, who's getting angry, too. A tiny part of her almost feels sorry for this stupid American, this child who fucked her daughter and doesn't know anything about anything. They're going to rip him apart.

Petey's quiet again for another half minute and then starts talking. Alexandru asks him to say some things again, to slow down, to use different words. Georgina
knows how bad it's going to be by the expressions on Alexandru's face. The surprise. The horror.

“What did he just say? Tell us what he's saying,” Claudiu says. There's a growl in his voice. Something primal is coming out. Alexandru looks scared when he turns to Claudiu and Georgina. He slows down, tries to be as precise as possible. Tells them the whole thing. They came down from Madalina's apartment, got in her car. Were surrounded, blocked in. Then these men came for them.

“So he was in the car with her?” Claudiu says.

“Yes, I think so,” Alexandru
says. Checks with Petey and he nods.

“How is it that he got away and she didn't?”

Alexandru turns to Petey and asks him the question. For almost a minute they watch him while he just stares at the floor.

“Answer the question, you fucking piece-of-shit coward,” Georgina says. “You have the balls to fuck my daughter, you should have the balls to tell us what else you did to her.”

Alexandru stares at her.

“Tell him,” she says. “All of it.”

“I don't know if I can,” he says. “My English—”

“Just do it.”

Alexandru's words are slow and careful, and after he's done, Petey just looks at Georgina and starts crying. Talks more and more, blubbering and weeping, though he seems to be saying the same thing again and again.

“What's he saying?” Claudiu says.

Again Alexandru
stalls. He's trying to find the words.

“Tell us,” Claudiu says.

“He says he ran. He jumped out and ran before Madalina could stop the car. That some guys chased him but he got away. But he heard Madalina say something, just as he was running away. Just as that bunch of men came down around her. She said:
You sons of bitches. You fucking animals.

A sound comes out of Claudiu that isn't language. It's a shriek, a roar. The sound of a man losing himself in his own rage. He seems to grow, until his head touches the ceiling. The air seems to darken around him. His hands come out and they're claws. For the next few seconds, Alexandru believes that if Claudiu and Petey were alone right now, Claudiu would kill the American with his bare hands, bury his fingers in Petey's body until he found the places where the muscles were weakest, then pull until they came apart. The arms, the legs, the chest. Somehow Claudiu would find a way into Petey's guts, too, maybe with his nails, maybe with his teeth. Then, at last, the boy's face and neck. If the police came after Claudiu was finished, they'd find the boy in pieces on the floor, know what color his intestines are. Know what the underside of his scalp looks like. Claudiu wants to do it all to Petey, so much, and Alexandru can't do anything to stop him.

But Georgina can. She just puts a hand on Claudiu's chest, tells him to go to their bedroom and come out when he's ready. He gets quiet and gives her a slow nod. Then leaves the room. Though they can still hear him howling.

Georgina turns to Petey. Gives him three taps on the cheek with her hand that aren't gentle.

“He has it in him to kill you right now, do you understand?” she says.

Alexandru translates and Petey nods.

“Good,” Georgina says. “Keep fucking around and I'll let him. You're going to tell us everything. Everything you know, so that we don't spend the rest of our lives wondering more than we have to. Get it?”

Petey nods again.

“Good. Now wipe the snot off your nose and start talking.”

And so he tells her everything, from start to finish. What he was doing before he came to Ukraine. What he got himself involved him. How he met Madalina. It takes a long time because poor Alexandru has to keep translating, asking for clarification.
I love her, I swear I love her,
he says, and Georgina almost softens, but then remembers how responsible he is for her not being a mother anymore. She wasn't ready for it to be over, was hoping it never would be. Thought it was her job to go first. Claudiu comes back in the kitchen about halfway through it and Georgina looks at him.
Are you okay?
she says.
No,
Claudiu says.
I never will be.
Me neither,
she says. It's almost dawn when Petey's done. Then there's just the question of what to do with him.

“I hope you'll understand,” Georgina says, “why we can't bear the sight of you.”

“Yes, I do,” Petey says. He's put himself back together enough to say it in Ukrainian. Alexandru agrees to take him and escorts him back to his house. Tells his family that Petey is Madalina's boyfriend and something's happened to her.
Please don't ask me any questions right now,
he says to his wife.
We'll talk when this is over, but not right now.
But like I said, he'll never tell her everything.

Petey's sleeping a few hours later when Claudiu gets another knock on his door. He hasn't slept at all and looks as if he's been in a fight. He's ready for it to be Alexandru, and he finds himself hoping that he's come to say that Petey's killed himself. Hanged himself by his belt from the rafters in Alexandru's barn. Claudiu hates himself for thinking it, but he can't help it. Can't stop thinking about it, either. The way the body moves on the end of the belt, swaying just a little from side to side. The knife they'll use to cut him down. He's still thinking about it, wondering if he'll feel any better, at all, when he opens the door.

It's not Alexandru. It's a tallish man in a leather jacket with a crew cut. Claudiu's never seen him before in his life, which means he's not from Negostina. He can't be from around here at all. The shoes are wrong, the pants are wrong. The stranger's hands are in his pockets, and he licks his lips. His name is Gleb, and the truth is that he hasn't slept, either. He's been chasing Petey since he abandoned Madalina, first through Kiev, then out of it, because he's guessed—and guessed right, as it turns out—that they were heading to Madalina's parents' place. That Petey has nowhere else to go. But it's been a long trip, down a long straight road that, in the middle of the night, makes him feel like he isn't moving at all. Then there's crossing the border, the irritating bribes he has to pay.
The Wolf will be paying me back for those,
he thinks. And now this town, which he hates as soon as he pulls into it. He looks at the lines of houses, the unpaved roads, and shakes his head.
The sooner I'm out of this place, the better.

“You're Claudiu?” he says in Ukrainian.

“Yes,” Claudiu says.

“I'm Misha,” Gleb says, “and I'm with the police.” He flashes a badge that Claudiu doesn't get a good look at. “I'm looking for an American. His name is Peter Henry Hightower. I believe he is an acquaintance of your daughter's. Have you seen him?”

There's no way this man is a policeman,
Claudiu thinks, and the image of Petey hanging from the rafters comes back. Now there are more images. What will this man do to Petey if he finds him? Maybe just do it fast and shoot him, right through the head, from temple to temple. Or if Petey tries to run, the man'll shoot him twice in the back to bring him down, once in each knee to make sure he doesn't get back up, and then get him in the back of the head. Then again, maybe the fake policeman isn't the only one who's here for Petey, and they have every intention of taking him alive, a young, healthy man. Then it'll all be much slower. He's not a doctor, and he's only heard stories about what the organ harvesters take. But it's enough for him to picture it. Petey strapped to a table, with a man sitting on each of his limbs, as a fifth man cuts into him and pulls things out. In Claudiu's imagination, Petey's alive and awake for all of it, and because they do the eyes last, he sees everything.

“Claudiu?”

“I'm sorry,” Claudiu says. “I'm a chronic insomniac and last night I didn't sleep at all.”

“I'm sorry to hear that.”

“I did see Peter, though,” Claudiu says. “He was here yesterday. But I told him to leave and he did. In all honesty, sir, I hate him and have no idea what my daughter ever saw in him. I hope that he's in a great deal of trouble, and that he pays for whatever crimes he's committed. Pays and then some.”

It's a convincing performance because Claudiu means every word. And Gleb believes him.

“Do you know where he might have headed?”

“I couldn't care less,” Claudiu says.

Gleb stands there at Claudiu's front door, nodding.

“Do you want to come in for a moment?” Claudiu says.

A look passes across the gangster's face that Claudiu can't read.
Not if I have to spend one more minute in this place,
he's thinking.

“No, thank you,” Gleb says. “Sorry to have troubled you.”

And the man is off. Claudiu watches him from the window, heading back to his car. Alexandru's place is only three houses away, and for a minute or so, Claudiu is terrified that the stranger's going to knock on a few other doors. If he finds Petey at Alexandru's, what'll happen then? It's carnage again, for Petey, his neighbor, his neighbor's family. Claudiu can't think about it this time. Afterward, he's pretty sure the man would come back to the house and finish with Claudiu, just to cover his tracks. Claudiu and Georgina. She's sleeping, at last, in the next room.
I'm so sorry,
Claudiu imagines saying to her.
I didn't think fast enough.
But the fake policeman just gets in his car and drives away. Claudiu waits ten minutes to leave his house, then takes a quick walk around town, just to make sure the man's gone. Doesn't see his car. So he goes to his neighbor's house.