A Tale Of Three Brothers

Chapter 3

Dmitry and Alexei reached their apartment well past midnight. The older Markov immediately made his way to his room, wanting to settle for the night. Alexei followed him.

"Dim," he said. "Why can't we tell Nick?"

Dmitry sighed and gave his brother his back then pulled his jacket and shirt off. He kicked his shoes off then sat on the bed. His room was small just like the rest of the apartment.

"Alexei I'm sorry that I forced you into such a situation."

"You didn't force me. I followed you and didn't leave in time."

"Still. I should have told you to run." He paused. "I should have listened to you."

"Nonsense Dmitry," Alexei said softly. "If we had run away, we wouldn't have seen those men and that man would have been found in the morning and no one would have any idea as to what his murderers look like."

"I'm really sorry," Dmitry repeated as he pushed off the bed to go look out the window. "The reason I told you not to tell Nick is because I don't want to involve another one of my brothers in this mess. The men we saw, Alexei, are dangerous."

"I think it was pretty obvious when we saw them put a bullet through Vitaly's brain," he said trying to lighten the mood.

"You don't get it. The way they were dressed. The way the blonde spoke. Even the way they carried themselves. They're what you call sophisticated killers. Men with the brains, wealth, power."

"What are you trying to say?" Alexei asked suddenly feeling queasy.

Dmitry whispered, "The mafia."

"You can't be serious."

"You can't tell me the thought never crossed you mind. And everyone knows that the only mafia found in Moscow is-"

Alexei paled, "The Black Forest."

Dmitry nodded, "I have a friend that told me that the group has connections with people in high places. That includes the police. Which is why I told you not to tell everything to the cop. And it is why I don't want you to tell Nick or mum anything."

Alexei took a seat. "They're gonna come after us, aren't they?"

"I wouldn't let anything happen to you brat, " Dmitry said fiercely. "As long as I am here, nobody will lay a hand on you."

"You say that like I am a five year old and not a twenty two year old man."

Dmitry rolled his eyes and smiled at his brother's attempt to lighten the mood. "With the way you act half the time, it's a wonder you even call yourself a man."

+++

Viktor had wanted what was best for his sons. He didn't have the money to go buy them the world or the riches to make a dead man rise but he did hand out advice that he thought was best.

"Curiosity may have killed the cat but it is a Markov's best friend." He said to them. "However you must always remember that even friends turn on friends."

Dmitry, being the oldest, was the most sensible. But curiosity is, well, a curious thing. It preys on the mind and whispers to your subconscious until you have no choice but to investigate.

And that was what Dmitry did.

With the name Vitaly Sergei in mind, he found his way at an Internet café a few days after the incident. As he sat at the back by one of the computers, he twirled the business card he had snagged from Vitaly's wallet. He wasn't sure what had compelled him there but if he had to narrow it down, it had to do with finding Vitaly's family.

He typed in the name in the search engine and the first link that popped up was an article that had appeared in the newspaper the day after the murder. He click on it even though he had read it more times than he could count.

Last Saturday night, a man was shot dead in the alley of the abandoned Benson's Bar. The man, identified as Vitaly Sergei, a 46 year old computer technician, was allegedly shot by two men who witnesses claim had earlier dined at the Better Bites Restaurant. The two men have not been identified. Police have confirmed that the murder had nothing to do with The Black Forest unlike recent killings as Mr Sergei was unbranded with the mark of the wolf.

There was more in the article about his life work and comments by people who knew him. But it was the last part that held his attention.

Mr Sergei's wife is being kept under watch as she is distraught over her husband's death. Her daughter has also been missing since Saturday afternoon. She was last seen at Krypton Shopping Mall and police have reason to believe that she had something to do with the murder.

Dmitry rubbed a hand over his face and he sighed. The blond had held on to his promise long before he had made it. Dmitry had warned Samuil about what he had heard concerning Vitaly's wife and daughter but clearly, the officer had ignored him. He found himself thinking that his theory about Samuil being involved with the mafia was true.

He clicked in the next link which was a police wanted post.

Wanted.
Sophia Sergei.
Aged 21.
Last seen at Krypton Shopping Mall.
Wanted for the possible murder if her father Vitaly Sergei.

There was a contact number. He looked at the picture of the young woman and he again found himself thinking she was beautiful. He wondered what had happened to her and prayed that she was okay.

His next search was on the recent murders that had occurred in the last two weeks and twelve names appeared, including Vitaly's. Seven of those victims were branded. He deduced that from the remaining five, at least two had to be murders by The Black Forest. He searched for them all to see if there was something they had in common with Vitaly.

Each one brought different results. A woman killed by her husband in a lover's spat. A man shot by his brother over a lottery ticket. And then one caught his eye: Man stabbed to death in nightclub. He clicked on it.

The article talked about a man named Peter who was stabbed to death in the middle of the dance floor by an unknown assailant. Nobody witnessed it as the strobe lights made it hard to. Even when he fell to the ground, people thought he had just had one too many to drink. It was only when his friend looked for him that they found him. And by then it had been too late.

Dmitry found the story interesting and thought that this was something that the mafia would do. Kill someone in front of a crowd. Perhaps to send a message to someone. Or to show that they were untouchable, that they could get away with murder right in the open. Then he thought that neither this man nor Vitaly had been branded. There had to be a reason for that too.

He looked up the man to see if he could find something that linked he and Vitaly together. And he found it. Peter had been a computer engineer. That detail seemed silly but when he thought about the conversation he had overheard that night, he felt it was true. The blonde had asked Vitaly to look for something. And what better place to find it than through computers? It was amazing what could be done and found on the Internet.

Dmitry then decided that the best thing to do then was find out more about The Black Forest. Know thy enemy, he believed was the saying.

The Black Forest was the Russian mafia. If you thought Russian mafia, you thought The Black Forest. There was nothing else. The leader was man that was only known as Wolf, or the Big Bad Wolf as the media had dubbed him. They say that he was ruthless and cold and could blow you to bits when he was angry- or just for the fun of it. He loved to devour people and everybody shuddered at the thought of meeting their fate with him. Parents scared their children with stories of him. He had connections in the government and with leaders around the world. Nobody knew his identity except for a select few. The few members that had been apprehended before chose to hold their silence or be killed as anything was better than what their leader would have in store for them if they ever betrayed him. That was the Big Bad Wolf, the man who could huff and puff and blow your houses down.

As dangerous as Dmitry knew it was to investigate, he couldn't help it. Curiosity was, after all, a Markov's best friend