In a croaky voice, I told her the numbers. One by one.
Just reciting the number was all I could do.
Drowsiness pulled on my soul.
Gravity urged me to sit, then slump, onto a bench.
The bum held the phone to my ear as I lay back.
Closing my eyes, with the cooing pigeons in the background as the call rang, I prayed that help was a normal thing that I could deserve out here in the real world.
Blackness came too quickly, robbing me of ever finding out as I fainted.
5
ALEXSEI
Even though Misha and I had a penthouse apartment not far from the mansion that Luka and Gabriella called home, he wanted to visit often. Particularly when Lev would be there too.
I wasn’t in the mood to be there when I could run into Raisa because I didn’t have any news for her about Kalina yet.
Still, I couldn’t blame my son. Itwasnice to be surrounded by family, by people who’d have our backs.
When I brought him there after school, I couldn’t help but wonder if Kalina was alone or surrounded by others.
If she was with her brother and Yusef. If she was out on her own.
Raisa had disappeared with Lev for almost eight years. Maybe her cousin was simply doing the same thing.
We entered the mansion, and the questions clung to me.
Is she dead?
Alive?
It was my job to find out, no matter how challenging it would be to search for her. The noises of the children meeting up in the living room was the soundtrack to happy times, but these questions about Kalina’s whereabouts dragged me down into a funk that I couldn’t shake.
Misha didn’t notice. He ran off to find Andre and to check on what the babies were doing today.
Before I could track where, exactly, he dashed off to in the big house, my phone rang.
Please, please don’t be Raisa.I didn’t want to let her down with a negative answer about the progress of finding Kalina.
It wasn’t her, though.
Simon’s name showed on the notification bar. I didn’t hesitate to answer.
“A call just came in to Raisa’s old number.” He didn’t bother with greetings, ever.
I perked up immediately, eager to see this as a good thing. A positive lead. Something.
“The number to the old cell phone she had before she came to be with Ivan?” I asked.
“The very one. We tracked it when she arrived, but it’s been in the background all the time. I only happened to charge it and turn it back on recently, since you’ve put me on this case.”
“Where did the call come from?”
“I’m texting you the coordinates now,” he replied.
