Shadow WIngs (Skeleton Key) (20 page)

Ilana nodded, keeping her face calm, borderline disinterested. “Well, thank you, Doctor. We were just here to ensure that the task had been completed. I hope you understand.”

“Of course... of course,” he said hastily. “We will be much more careful about how such things are recorded in the future, just as I told Karkoff. I just thought... with him here to see his dying father, that there was little political motive there.”

Ilana again glanced at Raguel, before looking back at the doctor. “Comrade Karkoff’s father, you mean?”

The doctor looked distressed again. “Was I not supposed to tell you that?”

Ilana held up a hand. “No, no... it is fine. We were told only about Golunsky. I am sorry to hear about his father dying, but it has no relevance to our task here.”

“Of course.” The doctor rose to his feet, relief expanding off him as he smiled. “Is there anything else that Commander Karkoff would like me to see to in this matter?”

“Just one thing,” Ilana said casually. “He asked me to double-check with you. Prior to his escape, did anyone
else
come to visit Golunsky... apart from Commander Karkoff himself?”

The man turned, giving her a faintly surprised look. “No. No, of course not, comrade. We had him completely isolated. Karkoff’s orders.”

“Remind me... were those orders given after his father’s death?”

The doctor looked faintly confused as he thought. Then his brow cleared. “Yes. The same day in fact. I remember now, because the topic came up when we were discussing internment options for his father. I had forgotten until now.”

“And you are sure those orders were never violated?” Ilana bit her lip, keeping her voice stern, as if those other imaginary people were her concern. “No one else got in his room? Only those handful of visits by Commander Karkoff?”

“Never! Never did this happen... he is the only one, I told him that! And it is only the
two
visits that I am aware of...” A worried tremor touched his voice. “Did he tell you there were more visits than this? Because as far as I know, Golunsky has never been seen by
anyone
apart from him. His own mother refused to have any contact with him––”

“No, no... it is fine. Calm yourself, doctor.” Ilana raised a hand, smiling at him. “It is my mistake. I apologize. And you are correct... it is only the two visits that I meant. Truthfully, I was more concerned with insuring that no one
else
had come to see him prior to his escape.”

“No,” the doctor said, looking both relieved and determined. “Absolutely not! I told Karkoff this. There was no one! No one besides him ever came here!”

“Ah. Well, that is certainly a relief.” Ilana glanced at Raguel, giving him a flat-eyed stare without lessening the smile that curved her lips. She upped the wattage of that smile even more before she swung it back in the doctor’s direction. “Thank you so much, doctor. If that is so, then I believe our work is finished here.”

The doctor smiled nervously back, once more shoving the glasses up his nose.

“God bless the Motherland!” he said, smiling wider, more nervously.

She bowed her head, smiling again.

“Indeed,” she said. “...God bless us all.”

HUMANS SOMETIMES LIE

“KARKOFF DID THIS?” Raguel said, his voice taut. “Did you suspect him, Ilana? Did you know his father was institutionalized in the same place as Golunsky?”

“No,” she said only.

Rubbing her face with a gloved hand, she fought the sick feeling that rose in her gut as she tried to think through what they’d just learned.

Raguel didn’t speak either, not at first. He only frowned, staring at the flashing headlights of cars as they passed on the other side of the street. The weather had turned foul again, bringing a spring thunderstorm and rain. Her windshield wipers squeaked across the front of her windshield, clearing a space for her to see.

“It is likely your boss Karkoff was recruited by Lahash while Lahash inhabited his father’s body,” he said finally. “Lahash probably had Karkoff arrange to put his father’s body next to Golunsky’s when he died.”

“Are you saying Karkoff is possessed too?” she said, frowning.

He shook his head, his eyes still on the road. “No,” he said. “But he is likely under the demon’s influence regardless. They recruit willing helpers too, Ilana.”

Ilana knew there was probably more to his thoughts just then, but decided she would wait to ask until she got them back to her apartment. Grimly, she found herself thinking it might be her last night as a free woman. Worse, she would spend most of that night trying to solve a murder case that would never be officially solved.

They had gone to see Golunsky’s mother, too, in part to buy Ilana time in case Karkoff checked out where she had been. The mother had not been particularly helpful. Ilana definitely got the impression she carried a great deal of guilt for how her son turned out. Perhaps she had even suspected what he was and what he’d been doing––or what he was capable of doing, at least. She had twisted those emotions into blame and anger, talking about her son as if he were an animal, something entirely foreign to her that needed to be put down.

Sometimes people did this out of fear of the government, Ilana knew.

In this case, however, Ilana saw only grief and rage.

She left the woman’s drab apartment complex feeling even more depressed than she had when they’d left the mental hospital.

Now, she found herself thinking about her own predicament again.

Really, only two options remained for her.

She could stick around and do her job until Karkoff had her arrested and framed her for his involvement in whatever Golunsky had been part of.

Or she could make a run for it.

That meant letting the demon finish his plans without her.

If she decided to run, she wondered if Raguel would come with her. She strongly suspected he would not. He wouldn’t flee for his own safety before. Why would he flee for hers? No, if she ran, he would stay and try to figure out his demon problem on his own.

She wasn’t sure if she could let him do that.

“You know,” she said, her voice casual. “It is really not safe to stay with me now, comrade Archangel. To be known as an associate of mine.” She gave him a bare glance and a smile, not pausing long enough to assess his expression. She returned her eyes back to the road. “You are perhaps smarter if you stay with someone else tonight... or in a hotel, perhaps. I think anyone staying with me is putting themselves in view of a firing squad...”

Raguel didn’t speak.

Even so, his silence was loud.

Eventually, Ilana exhaled again.

“I can give you money for such a thing,” she offered. “...For a hotel. Food. Enough money to tide you over here until you find a job. As much as you need.” Letting out a grunt, she added in a lower mutter, “Somehow I have my doubts I will need money where I am going. So you might as well take it. Put it to good use.”

“Ilana.” His voice bordered on cold.

Her jaw firmed. She did not turn.

“Ilana!”

Exhaling louder, letting him hear her exasperation, she did not take her eyes off the road.
“What,
comrade?”

“I am not going to leave you.” For the first time, he sounded genuinely angry. “I will not leave you in this alone. Understand? Not now. Not ever. So do not talk to me of hotels and giving me your money again, Ilana Kopovich. Yes?”

Shaking her head, she gave him an exasperated look. “Don’t be a fool. I told you what Karkoff said on the phone. You also heard that doctor. Karkoff is in this... he is in this up to his eyeballs. He likely has someone waiting for me outside my apartment right now. And clearly he intends to pin his involvement on me. You would be foolish not to distance yourself from that, and from me––”

“Ilana,” Raguel growled. “You are not hearing me.”

“My hearing is perfectly fine!” she snapped, turning. “If you do not care about yourself, then think about your case... about stopping your demon! I cannot help you from prison. Nor from a work camp... nor from your heaven!”

His expression grew hard as stone.

“Ilana,” he said. “I am the
reason
you are in this mess. I am not going anywhere... not willingly. So if you want to be rid of me, you’re going to have to arrest me.”

She let out a laugh. “Arrest you?”

“Arrest me, yes. Or stop talking about it.”

She fell silent, staring at the road. Then she shook her head, slowly.

“No,” she said. “No. You are
not
the reason for this. This has been going on with Karkoff for weeks, at the very least. The doctor said––”

“I will not discuss this any further,” Raguel growled. “Drop it, Ilana. I mean it.”

Scowling, she gripped the steering wheel tighter.

She glared at him, but those crystal gray eyes only glared right back. As she continued to look at him, he folded his arms, his long jaw clenched.

In the end, she looked back at the road.

“Fine,” she said, unable to keep the anger from her voice. “Then I suppose we must stay in a hotel together. We will have to take a lot of precautions to avoid being followed... but at least it will be easier to debug the room.” Turning, she glared at him. “It is your funeral, Raguel! Or I guess Russia’s, or perhaps humanity’s... since I guess it does not matter to you anymore, if you stop your demon or not. As long as you can play stupid with me,
da?”

“Don’t guilt me, Ilana,” he warned. “It won’t work. And I don’t just want your help, I
need
your help, as you amply proved today. You know as well as I do that I have no way to figure this out on my own. Not as a human. Not even as an angel... I’ve learned more with you today than I had on my own in weeks. I will only end up in a jail cell of my own without you.”

“With me, you will only end up dead.”

He didn’t blink.
 

“Then we will end up dead together,” he said.

She shook her head, about to argue more. When she glanced at him however, he scowled at her in warning, as if daring her to speak. When she saw the sheer stubbornness there, she shook her head again, more angrily that time, but only looked away.

“Fine,” she muttered.

“Fine,” he growled in return. “It is settled.”

Neither of them spoke again for the remainder of the drive.

WHEN THEY REACHED the tenth floor of the Hotel Ukraina, where she and Raguel had procured a room for the night, all Ilana could think about was a shower.