Blood Trust - Eric van Lustbader [115]
She recited this litany of horror with an eerily detached voice, as if she were talking about a movie she had seen. But Alli was white-faced with rage. Jack could feel her trembling beside him.
“This happened to you?” Alli said in a hoarse voice.
“I was smarter than them,” Edon said. “I did what was asked of me, I ingratiated myself with them, just as Arjeta had done. I became a favorite, they fell in love with my face instead of my body. Oh, occasionally one of them would try to rape me, but Arian always stopped them. Once, he beat his own man to a bloody pulp and no one came near me again.”
Alli let out a long-held breath, but her fists were still tightly clenched and her eyes seemed to throw out sparks.
“Speaking of Xhafa,” Jack said, “when did you last see him?”
“Days ago,” Edon replied, “a week or more.”
“But one of his men said he’d left the school only a half hour or so before the attack.”
“He’s lying,” Edon said. “I saw him leave.”
There was no mistaking her certainty. Jack admired her core of inner strength. He wondered whether that was a trait all three sisters possessed. And that thought brought him to the question of whether or not this was the right moment to tell Edon that one of her sisters had been murdered. Deciding that there was no good time for that kind of news, he determined to tell her. But first he needed to ask her a question.
“Alli and I are friends of Annika’s.” He sensed Alli’s instant consternation, but she had the good sense to keep her mouth shut. “She’s mentioned your name.”
Edon’s face lit up. “You know Annika? That’s fantastic. My sisters and I love her.”
“How do you know her?”
Edon frowned. “Arjeta met her first, I think. Father has a terrible sickness—he can’t stop gambling. We were always in debt, sometimes horribly so. One time a representative of Xhafa’s came to him. He paid off his debt by selling Arjeta. Then it was my turn. By that time, Arjeta had become Dardan Xhafa’s favorite, and when Dardan was sent to America, Arjeta went with him.”
That explained a lot, Jack thought. More pieces of the puzzle falling into place, bringing with them a new and expanded view of the picture. Annika had been in Washington recently. A coincidence? He didn’t think so.
“Why did Annika contact Arjeta?”
“She wanted her to spy on Xhafa. If she did, Annika said, she’d make sure Arjeta would be free of Xhafa forever.”
And now Arjeta was, Jack thought, though not in the way Annika must have meant. And all at once, another possible piece slipped into place and he excused himself, went off alone, took out the cell phone Alli had taken from the locked drawer in Henry Holt Carson’s desk, and fired it up. Only two numbers in the directory, one marked A, the other D. Neither were U.S. numbers.
Could it be? he wondered. He pressed the key to dial the number attributed to A. After what seemed like an eternity, the connection went through and he heard it ring three, four, five times. No voice mail was engaged.
He was about to hang up when he heard her voice, and with his heart in his throat, said, “Hello, Annika.”
* * *
THE MOMENT Gunn left, Willowicz contacted O’Banion. He had finished brewing the coffee. It looked like sludge, but with six teaspoons of sugar, it tasted fine.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting laid,” O’Banion barked. “What the fuck d’you want?”
“Gunn.” He gulped down the coffee, savoring the intense sweetness along with the acid bite. “We have a job.”
“I told you.” O’Banion let out a series of rhythmic grunts. “I’m busy.”
Willowicz put the mug in the stainless-steel sink. The incriminating substances that had gone down its drain, he thought. “Triple our usual fee.”
“That should’ve been your lead.” O’Banion was breathing hard. “I’m in.”
“And now you need to get out.”
O’Banion wheezed a laugh, then let out a long, drawn-out groan. Willowicz heard a loud noise, then nothing.
“O’Banion?”
After a moment: “Yeah,