Finlay Donovan Is Killing It(Finlay Donovan #1)(93)

The wheel of a lighter rasped once. Twice.

I lowered my arm, blinking against the headlights as the flame ignited and extinguished. The red cherry of Nick’s cigarette glowed brighter with his long, thoughtful drag.

“I didn’t know Nick smoked,” Vero whispered.

“He doesn’t,” I said in a choked voice.

Vero tucked herself closer to my side. The man exhaled a long white stream that melted into the bright glow of the headlights and the blowing exhaust. A puffy jacket distorted the outline of his upper body. But it was his legs that drew my attention, spread shoulder width against the light. They were sturdier than Nick’s, two solid tree trunks rising from the ground. My eyes climbed them, pausing at the disconcerting length of his right arm, which was suspiciously longer than the one his cigarette dangled from.

“Finlay—?” Vero grabbed my hand as the barrel of a gun caught the light. My heart stopped as he pointed it at me.

“I can explain…” I said, hoping whichever cop I was staring at knew my sister, or maybe could be bribed with an autograph. The weapon issued a soft click and I shut up. He approached the hole, his gun aimed at us, his backlit face indecipherable in the dark.

“Get out.” His voice was low and rough, clipped at the edges like the rasp of his lighter.

“Aren’t you supposed to read us our rights?”

“I said, get out!”

Vero clung to my arm. On shaking legs, we climbed out of the hole, holding each other for balance.

“Turn around,” he demanded.

Vero and I turned toward the field. The officer’s headlights cast our shapes over the piles of dirt we’d dug up. Over the dim ghosts of a pair of filth-covered sneakers and the hazy outlines of rotting faces in the dark. My pulse raced as the officer’s shadow stretched closer.

“We didn’t know these bodies were here,” I sputtered. “My sister works for Fairfax PD. If we could just call—”

“Get on your knees,” he barked. This was it. He was going to cuff us.

“Look, I think there’s been a big misunderstanding. If I could just talk to—”

“I said, get on your knees!” He shoved the gun against the back of my head. I lurched forward, nearly tripping into the hole. Vero caught my arm, steadying me as I followed his orders and lowered myself to the ground. Resisting arrest was a charge we didn’t need right now.

Vero knelt beside me, her hand clutching mine, both of us shaking, waiting for the clink of his cuffs.

Instead, the cold steel of his gun pressed against the back of my skull.

My breath hitched. I squeezed my eyes shut, voice trembling as I asked, “Aren’t you going to arrest us?”

His gun shook with his deep, throaty laugh. It started low, then rose, climbing up the rough terrain of his throat and echoing back at us from the hole. He muttered something I couldn’t understand. Something that sounded a lot like Russian.

Vero’s nails dug into my skin.

Andrei Borovkov.

I looked down at the tips of the white sneakers in the hole. These were his bodies. This was his mess Feliks had been hiding. And we were going to be next.

“Wh … what are you doing here?” Were there more bodies in the trunk of his car? Was he here to bury someone else?

“You don’t listen so well. Feliks told you he would be keeping a close eye on you. Your policeman—the one parked near your house … he was not such a good bodyguard.”

Officer Roddy … Andrei had been watching my house. “You followed us here?”

I felt his shrug in the small movement of his gun. “I was curious to see what you were up to. And now I know. We were all surprised when Harris Mickler disappeared so suddenly. When he hadn’t returned the safety deposit box key after making the usual deposits, Feliks was sure Harris had fled the country with his money.” The small key from Harris’s key ring … Patricia had taken it the day she’d met me in Panera. She must have used the money to escape with Aaron.

Andrei sucked in a thoughtful drag. “Me? I had my money on my wife. Irina never liked Patricia’s husband. She said he was a disgusting piece of filth who deserved to die.” I held my breath through a long pause as he blew smoke past my head. “Maybe I won’t bother telling Feliks what you were doing here. I don’t like losing bets.”

My breath rushed out of me as he lowered the gun. Was he going to let us go? Was he going to blackmail us to keep us quiet?

I didn’t dare move as Andrei’s legs appeared beside me. He propped a foot on the mound of dirt at the edge of the hole, smok ing as he peered down into it. A sinister smile curled his lip around the long ribbon he exhaled. “Looks like you’ve already done most of the work. That will make burying you much easier.”

Vero made a strangled sound and my stomach fell away. Andrei was going to kill us. Right here. Execution-style in the back of the head. I was going to fall into that hole on top of all those other bodies. On top of Harris Mickler. Nick’s boss would come with a warrant tomorrow and dig me up. My sister would have to ID my remains.

My head shook in silent protest. I’d had all I could take of Harris Mickler. There was no freaking way I was going in that grave without a fight.

Andrei took a last drag before flinging his cigarette butt in the hole, his shoe sending loose clumps of dirt cascading toward me as he turned away from it.