Holding On

Chapter 2.

She stood tall and lean over the body, after covering up. No matter how many times you do it, you never get used to it. Human being is indeed its own biggest enemy.

She put on her recorder. "Victim is identified as Maksim Sidorov, age thirty-six. No sign of struggle, from the position of the wound, it looks like he was hit from behind with a blunt object with some weight to it. That should do it or incapacitate him in the least, then the killer followed up with a bullet in the head."

"Brutal." She looked over at Lynch who also crouched over the body.

"Let's turn him over." They both shifted and turned him. He was a big man— hitting about 6'6 and 250 pounds. He had dark hair over a clean-shaven face with sharp cheekbones. His light brown eyes remained open in a deathly petrified way. "Didn't rough you up, did he? Just hit, shoot—wham! Bam! Thank you, ma'am." She threw Lynch a dry stare who was snickering. "Cause of death, gunshot to the head. ME to confirm. Time of death, to be concluded by the ME."

"How did he get to you Maksim? Did you know your killer or he snuck up on you?"

"No wallet on him and here's a wristwatch's mark but no watch. I suppose that's their attempt to make it a robbery gone wrong."

"Yeah."  She agreed with him. "If you were robbing someone, won't you want to take this real leather jacket—new too, no?"

"I'll take that and this real good boots as well." She nodded at him.

"So maksim—" she posed the question to him—"who did you offend and why did they want you dead?" She straightened up. "We'll leave you to the capable hands of the ME. Let's go do our part." As she walked away, the coroners on standby bagged and took the body away.

Even though she knew it was a futile end, they canvassed the area. They walked back towards her car.

"Let's do a run on the victim and see what he has to tell us." Lynch started the run while she drove.

"Maksim Sidorov, born May 5, 1988 to Igor Sidorov and Svetlana Sidorova in Moscow, Russia. He's the head security for Volkov Corp. He has two siblings, both sides. His brother, Viktor Sidorov, 41 works for the Volkov Organization back in Russia and the sister Maria now Bryant, 38 manages a restaurant at Madison Avenue owned by Volkov Corp." She looked at him when he paused. "The Volkov name is a big name around here—anywhere really. We'll have to tread carefully there as—" He trailed off at her blank look. "You know the Aleksei Volkov, right?"

"The man who owns heaven and earth combined—okay, maybe not that but you get my point, no?" He expatiated.

"I've heard of the name here and there but it means nothing to me really." She shrugged. "But now that it's come up in our case, we'll—I'll make sure I know what there is to know, since you all but worship the man, I'll take it you know him perhaps as much as he himself." She said with a glance to him.

"I won't go that far but I admire him. Did you know he founded his company when he was just eighteen—never mind, forgot who I was talking to for a moment." He grinned, shaking his head.

"We'll save your fan-girling for later but now we've got work to do." They got out of the car at central. This time, the elevator was crowded—filled with both cops, civilians and suspects.

"We have to do the notification. Since the next of kin is not within state, we'll do it virtually. You take the parents and I'll take the brother. We'll do the sister face to face."

"That's fine by me." They entered into their bullpen and went straight to work.

She ran the parents and the siblings and saw that they live in the Volkov estate in Russia. The dad was head security for the senior Volkov before his retirement and the mum still is the head housekeeper for the estate. The three siblings were born and bred in the estate before Maksim and the sister moved to New York some fifteen years ago.