Last Snow - Eric van Lustbader [159]
“There you have it,” Batchuk said, triumph creeping into his voice, “the anatomy of true evil.”
Annika put the machine pistol to the side of his head. “Move away, Jack,” she said.
“Annika.” Alli had moved from Gourdjiev’s side to Annika’s. “Don’t, he’s your father.”
“You don’t know what he did to me, the years I was with him.”
“I did what you wanted me to do, nothing more.”
“Liar! It was what you wanted.”
“You’re wrong, I kept you safe,” Batchuk said, “safe from him.” He glanced at Gourdjiev.
“I didn’t need you to keep me safe.”
“Annika, no matter what he did in the past, no matter what he is now, he helped bring you into the world,” Alli said. “Without him you wouldn’t exist.”
“At this moment,” Annika said, “I wish I didn’t exist.”
“You don’t mean that,” Alli said.
There were tears in Annika’s eyes. “I’m going to blast his goddamned skull open.”
“Don’t, Annika, don’t. You’ll never be able to live with yourself.”
“It doesn’t matter, I want to die, but before I do I will see his blood spattered all over this room.”
“I hate my father, too.” Alli was pleading with her. “But I couldn’t bear the thought of him dying.”
“Whatever he did, it couldn’t be anything like what this man—”
“Your father.”
“—did to me.”
“Crimes are crimes,” Alli said. “Whether they’re of cruelty or of neglect what matter does it make, they’ve changed us, and they can’t be taken back or absolved or forgotten, but the cycle has to end somewhere, so why not here, why not now, with you?”
“You’re right.” Annika smiled at her, a slow, sad, rueful smile. “It has to end.” Then she pulled the trigger. Batchuk’s blood, brains, and bits of bone flew outward in a hail of red and pink, an explosion so violent its human shrapnel covered them all, so massive it seemed as if he had detonated from the inside out.
BENEATH A gauzy and indistinct sky Dennis Paull stood with his daughter and grandson at Louise’s grave site just across the Chesapeake in Virginia. He and Claire had each dropped a shovelful of dirt onto the lowered coffin.
“Mom, why did you and Grandpa put earth in the hole with Grandma?”
Tears glittered in Claire’s eyes. “So part of us can stay with her and love her always.”
To Paull’s surprise and immense pleasure Aaron stepped forward, stooped down to grab a handful of earth, and dropped it on top of theirs.
Even though they had come here to bury his wife his thoughts weren’t diminished by her death and loss, rather they were filled with the return of his family. How, he wondered now, had he deserved this miracle? Had he been a good man, righteous, strong in his convictions, repentant for his sins? And what did the answers matter, the universe didn’t care, every event was random, chaos ruled, there was no answer for any question, large or small, only compromises and, perhaps, if one was as lucky as he was, sacrifices.
His arm was around Claire’s shoulders, his eyes were on Aaron, who was perhaps dreaming of the promised celebration later this afternoon, but for Dennis Paull the celebration had already begun.
_____
A DEAFENING silence now engulfed them all, made their legs numb, their hearts thud in their chests, numbed their minds. What remained of Oriel Jovovich Batchuk lay half in, half out of the drawing room, his blood was all over, but not a single drop of Vasily Andreyev’s had been spilled.
“So, it’s over at last,” Gourdjiev said, breaking the awkward silence. “Annika, I’m so terribly sorry you had to hear that.” He went to her, tried to put his arm around her, but she shrugged it off.
“Don’t,” she said, moving away from him.
Jack gingerly unwound Annika’s fingers from the machine pistol. When he took it from her she made no protest, instead she took Alli’s hand and