CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Pay attention, Gregorie,” Stefan hissed to his fourteen-year-old son. “Mornings are the best time for us. Mothers take their babies outside before it gets too hot, before they start their other chores.”
Gregorie Radko, sitting in the backseat, peered through a side window of his father’s Mercedes at his aunt, Rumiah, climbing down from the back of a horse-drawn wagon parked forty meters up the street. A man in the back of the wagon handed down several colorful fabrics to her. Gregorie’s breath steamed the glass again, and he wiped it with his shirtsleeve.
“Are you looking?” Stefan demanded.
“Ye . . . yes, O Babo,” Gregorie said.
Vanja, sitting in the front with Stefan, looked at the boy, then at Stefan. “Why get the boy involved with this business?” she said.
“Don’t interfere. He’s my son, not yours,” Stefan growled, his face reddening.
Gregorie hated when his father got angry. It scared him. It always had. He wished his father had left him with Mama in Yugoslavia. He turned back to the window and watched the wagon roll around the corner toward the rear of a two-story, corner house. When the wagon disappeared from view, he turned his attention to Aunt Rumiah standing in front of the house, her arms draped with colorful scarves and shawls. She pushed the doorbell. A young woman opened the door. Gregorie stared open-mouthed at them, until his father’s voice broke the silence in the car.
“The job’s been done,” Stefan said, while he started the Mercedes.
They drove to a point several blocks away and waited there in the idling Mercedes. Five minutes later, the Gypsy wagon drove up and stopped next to the car. A man stepped from the wagon, walked to the Mercedes’ passenger side door, handed a small bundle wrapped in a pink blanket through the window to Vanja, and climbed back into the already moving wagon. Stefan hit the gas and sped away. Vanja inspected the bundle.
Gregorie leaned forward and looked over the front seat. Vanja turned and their eyes met. He saw what he thought was shame in hers.
“What is it?” Stefan demanded.
“A little girl.”
Gregorie shrank back in the corner of the backseat. He felt frightened. This is a sin, he thought. Every part of his being ached with a tremendous desire to scream at his father, to curse him, to tell him how he felt. But the ache grew until he thought his head would explode. He knew he could never stand up to his father.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Are you crazy, Janos?” Demetria said, pacing the floor of the small apartment. “Your uncle will get us sent to prison.”
“You don’t understand, Demetria,” Janos said, slumped on the couch, head in hands. “We have no choice. He’ll kill us if we don’t cooperate.”
She took a deep breath and softened her voice. “What do you mean we have no choice? Of course we have a choice. We should go to the police now, before your uncle gets you in even deeper.” She walked to the telephone and lifted the receiver. “Here,” she said in a pleading tone, “call them.”
Janos’ head came up and his eyes shot open. He leaped off the couch, snatched the receiver from her hand, and slammed it onto the cradle. “Don’t even think such a thing,” he rasped, as though Stefan were within earshot. “You must not ask me any questions,” Janos said, forlornly. His shoulders slumped and he turned away.
“How can you say that? I’m your wife.”
Janos opened and closed his mouth three times, like a fish gasping for oxygen. He turned and walked out of the apartment.
YOU ARE READING
EVIL DEEDS
Mystery / ThrillerEvil Deeds is the first in a 4-book series that follows the Danforth family from the kidnapping of their 2-year-old son in Greece in 1971 to present day. The book (and series) is a roller coaster ride of action and suspense. This book, as with all o...
