A Longer Fall (Gunnie Rose #2)(27)

Eli made a little noise expressing scorn. A snort sounded funny coming from his high-bridged Russian nose.

“If you won’t be truthful, we’re wasting our time,” I said, though I had no idea what else we were going to do. I had finished my ice cream and so had Eli. He left some money on the table for payment, and we slid out of the booth. I looked up at him. “Let’s go do some work.”





CHAPTER TEN


What work did you have in mind?” Eli said, once we were out on the sidewalk.

“First, I got to send a telegram to Jake’s boyfriend.”

I found the Western Union shop easily thanks to Nurse Mayhew. I had enough money (from Jake’s pockets) to tell Burke Printer the bad news, but I had to be economical. I finally wrote, So sorry Jake and Charlie killed train wreck at Sally. Bodies Hutchison Funeral. Who is employer? I signed it, though I wasn’t sure Printer would recognize my name. I put our hotel on the form so any reply could be delivered there.

The telegraph office was busy, but I stayed until the operator sent the message. I hoped Jake’s boyfriend would notify Charlie’s family.

“I think we better have a talk,” I told Eli when I was back on the sidewalk.

“I figured,” Eli said, gloomy all over. Men never look happy when you say that.

It was hard to find a place in the crowded town where we could have some privacy and shade. We went back to our hotel, though I had misgivings about being in a room with a bed and Eli when we needed to say things rather than do things.

But those things had to be said, no matter how much I enjoyed his company—which I did, especially when we were naked. I didn’t want us to be at the same cross-purposes we’d been at the last time we’d worked together.

Maybe we were already there.

As we went up the stairs to our room, I glanced over the bannister to see the waiter we’d had that morning and the night before. He was looking up at me curiously, and when he saw me looking back, he shot out of sight like a bullet. I wondered what was on his mind, but not for long. I had other fish to fry.

When the door was locked behind us, Eli pulled off his grigori vest and his hat, and I shed the shoes and stockings I’d hated all morning. I sat cross-legged on the bed while Eli took the easy chair. “Tell me how you came to be here,” I said. “You know why I’m here. And I swear you know everything I know.”

Eli took a deep breath, and he let his unhappiness show. “I am not in favor at the court anymore,” he said, as if he were confessing to torturing cats. “My father was a traitor. So no matter how faithful I have been, I’ve been regarded with doubt ever since the plot against the tsar was uncovered.”

“But the grand duke begged off, the guy your dad was backing as the next tsar, right? If the grand duke got pardoned, why didn’t his followers? And their families?” If you forgave the head of the snake, you had to forgive the body, too, seemed to me.

“The grand duke said he was ignorant of this plot to do away with Alexei. He wept with grief that he could be considered guilty, when he loved his nephew so much. My father could not have said that believably; there was too much proof against him. It was a relief to the tsar when Father didn’t have to go to trial, though his death was a great puzzle to everyone.”

Eli’s father had died in a little hotel in Segundo Mexia. Yep, that had been mysterious to everyone but me, Eli, and Eli’s younger brother Peter.

“Even though your father is dead, and he was the plotter, you and your family are in the doghouse?”

Eli looked confused.

“Your whole family is tainted?”

Eli nodded grimly. “Even after my service to my tsar. Even after I have had the privilege of tending to him personally when he was ill.”

“Your older brothers?” His half brothers. They’d had another mother.

“My oldest brother denounced my father, swore his loyalty to the rightful tsar, and gave the tsar an ancient icon, one we brought with us when we escaped, as earnest of his devotion.”

I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I got the gist.

“Alexei has a son now, and he wants to protect that son’s path to the throne more than anything else. Nothing else is as important as that.”

I could see that other things were more important to Eli. I had a lot of other questions about his family and how they would manage, but it wasn’t the time. “I can tell your family’s in big trouble. And I’m sorry. Maybe everything depends on how you do here, huh? And what you have to do here is find the chest stolen from my crew and make sure it gets to the right people.” I paused. He nodded. “So what was in the chest?”

Eli hesitated. Finally, he said, “That is a long story. I want to tell you, and I will, but not at this moment. Too many lives are hanging on it. Let me think.”

I took a minute to recite the alphabet in my head. When I was able to speak without cursing, I said, “Take all the time you need. Who do you believe stole it?”

“First thought? Someone who had no idea what was inside. Someone who happened upon Jake, saw through the splintered crate to the carved chest, decided it was valuable… and saw Jake could not defend it.”

Eli had said that not like it was a thought, but like it was a hope. Whatever was in the chest was powerful. Eli very much hoped it was not in the hands of the enemy, whoever that enemy was.