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On cue, Akim bent down to turn the dead man over, and as soon as he did, he said, “Well, would you look at that.”
“It’s Louie Manziel,” Melor announced unnecessarily.
“It’s Louie Manziel with a knife in his neck and what? Two, three bullet holes in his chest,” Akim added. “Think Samara did this?”
As I stared at the dead body, I said, “It’s possible, but it’s also possible that he wasn’t alone. Though the cameras showed only one man in the car, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t have someone waiting for him here. Could have been Nikel himself.”
“So, we still don’t know fuck,” Maksim bit out. “I mean, it’s not as if we’re going to get any useful information out of Manziel now.”
“Yeah, our only link to Nikel Ovchinnikov is dead,” Melor added. “Unless he told Samara anything, then we’re right back where we fucking started.”
“Provided that Samara is even still alive,” Akim remarked, making me shoot a look his way.
“He’s not wrong,” Maksim said, trying to save his younger brother like always. “Whoever is behind this, they didn’t take Samara without a specific purpose in mind.”
“I still don’t know what the fuck is going on,” Melor said. “Why take Samara if this is about Maksim and Akim? Plus, how in the fuck would Nikel or Manziel even know about Samara? How could they possibly know that taking her would send us all out after them?”
“He’s right,” Akim chimed in. “How could Manziel possibly know about Samara’s connection to you?”
Ignoring all the questions that we didn’t have answers to, I dropped on my haunches, then began searching for a phone. If Manziel had a phone, then that would be something. We could look into any numbers that he might have stored in there, and that might give us a lead on how to find Ovchinnikov. If he had Samara, then I needed a way to get in contact with him. Granted, even if we did find a phone, it was probably going to be a burner cell, but I’d take anything right now. Samara was the priority, so I could wait on the whys until later.
When I finally found a phone in his left inside pocket, I stood up, then brought the device to life. Anger raced down my spine at the continued obstacles. “It’s locked.”
“Of course, it fucking is,” Maksim sighed.
Dropping back down on my haunches, I searched his pockets again, and that’s when I found another phone, and this one wasn’t a smartphone. It was an old-modeled flip phone, and after opening it, I checked the call logs, and there were only three numbers in the history.
“What did you find?” Akim asked.
“Three numbers,” I answered.
“What are you waiting for?” Melor squawked. “Call them-ow.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Maksim scolded. “We don’t want to tip anyone off without a plan just yet.”
Ignoring them both, I said, “We’re going to have to get rid of Manziel’s body now that I’ve touched it, and our DNA is everywhere in this goddamn place.”
“It’s not anything that a match won’t fix,” Melor muttered.
“I don’t care how it’s taken care of as long as it gets done,” I told him.
“Yes, Pakhan,” he replied evenly.
“Quiet,” I ordered. “I am going to call the numbers.”
With no one making a sound, I dialed the first number, letting it ring until the voice mail picked up. As predicted, there was no personal instruction for the recording, and so I moved on to the next number. When the same thing happened, I could feel the blood in my veins turning hot with anger and frustration. We were getting nowhere, and Samara could be hurt or worse.
Finally dialing the third number, my heart started racing with hope when someone answered. However, credit to the person on the other end, they knew well enough not to speak. This wasn’t amateur hour, and both of us knew it. Nonetheless, unlike the person on the other end of the line, I wasn’t scared of giving my identity away. It also didn’t matter if he/she/they knew who I was because the rules had changed the second that they had decided to use Samara as a pawn.
“This is Avgust Kotov,” I announced, finally speaking. “If you are smart, then I do not have to explain why I am calling you from this number. If you are smart, I also do not have to explain who I am to you.”
Silence.
“I’ll be seeing you soon, Mr. Ovchinnikov,” I remarked evenly before hanging up.
“What now?” Melor asked as soon as I hung up.
“I need to get this phone to Nero Sartori,” I said, making both Akim and Melor choke on their shock.
