“Listen, I know I abandoned you, but suddenly, now that I see you, it’s important to me that you are my daughter and that you’re safe.”
“Safe? Do you have any idea what it was like for me in foster care?” Pia snarled. Burim was startled by the sound of her voice.
“Do you?”
“But you’re going to be a doctor, look how it all ended up!”
“
“I don’t know.”
“You’re a liar!” Pia turned and screamed the words. Buda opened the door-he must have been standing right outside.
“Everything okay?”
“Leave us, please,” Burim said. Silent tears were tracking down Pia’s face. She turned back around and faced the wall. Pia couldn’t make sense of what was happening. How was her father involved with the people who murdered Rothman, Yamamoto, and Will McKinley? They had been waiting for him to show up, which meant that he might be able to stop them killing her too. When she spoke again, Pia’s voice was quieter.
“That’s all I know about you. That you’re a liar.”
“I’m here now.”
“Are you here to finish the job they started?”
“I understand why you say these things, but you have to believe me, I am here to save you.”
“You and your white horse.”
“What?”
“Whatever.”
“What I am telling you is no lie. Those guys in the other room, they have been paid money to stop you because you were looking into some deaths. And they want you to stop looking.”
Pia said nothing.
“They know you have an Albanian name and they asked around if anyone knows you, and I said, ‘Yes, maybe.’ It’s the case that Albanian cannot kill Albanian: not in our business unless the killer wants to die too. If you weren’t Albanian, if you weren’t my daughter, you would be dead already. Do you understand?”
“That’s very nice of them.”
“Actually, it is, yes.”
“They murdered my teacher and another doctor by giving them typhoid fever and a massive dose of polonium. Tonight they murdered my friend by shooting him in the head because he was helping me. I should be grateful to them because they’re sparing me?”
“I can’t do anything about the other people. What I can do is save you.”
“And how will you do that?”
“I guarantee them that you will give up your investigation. And that you won’t mention their involvement to the authorities. Take a vacation. Something. We can work it out.”
“You? You haven’t seen me since I was six. They’ll take your word?”
“If I give it, yes. I have shaken their hand, and my family honor is at stake.”
“Or they’ll kill me.”
“Or they’ll kill you.”
“And you’ll take my word that I’ll give up?”
“If you give me your word, yes.”
Pia snorted. It seemed that the only person who could save her was her father, the least likely person on the planet, the person she trusted the least and hated the most, the man who was the cause of all her travails. In a situation that defied comprehension, Pia tried to think dispassionately. The drug wasn’t completely out of her system, she could tell; she was more fatigued than she could ever remember being, and frightened and upset and angry. Yet she had to think.
In order to live, Pia would have to promise to stop investigating, but could she do that? There was very little left to investigate. At the OCME, she had proved that polonium was involved in Rothman’s and Yamamoto’s deaths and she was certain the MEs would be looking into what she had found. The police would surely be all over Columbia, searching for Will’s killers and her kidnappers. There was nothing more she could contribute to the investigation, other than providing evidence, and he hadn’t mentioned anything about that. Her work was finished.
“As if you care about family honor,” she said.
“I do. But if you don’t believe it, take my word that I care about my honor.”
“And that’s all I have to do, stop investigating?”
“But you really have to stop-maybe go away for a while. You have to believe me, they will kill you otherwise. Whatever you think of me, you have to look at the alternative. You have to stay as quiet as you can. If you lead the police to Buda, there’s no chance that you would ever testify against him.”
Pia realized she had no choice. But perhaps there was something her father could do for her and right some of the wrongs she had suffered. Pia turned to face him.
“Okay. But you should know, not all these men have been exactly honorable with me.”
“I’m glad you agree, Pia. But what do you mean?”
“When I got here I was drugged. But I remember one of them at least forced himself on me, the young one for sure. Maybe all of them.”
Burim reacted the way Pia had hoped. He looked at her for a beat, with his face empurpling, then leaped up and threw open the door.
“Mr. Buda! I need to talk to you.”
Buda could see Burim was spoiling for a fight, flashing angry looks at Neri. The girl must have told him what had happened in the house. Everyone in the room stood and the tension was immediate. Buda took Burim by the arm into the kitchen. The packages of takeout sat unopened on the stovetop. Burim spoke quietly but with suppressed fury.
“She is indeed my daughter. And she says she was raped. By the youngest one for certain, maybe more of them. Did you know about this?”
“Listen, I was told that one man did lose control of himself briefly but there was no sex-”
“But-”
“I understand this is shocking to you, all of this, but there was so little chance she was your daughter-”
“That is no excuse. Perhaps it is better if she was killed rather than be shamed like this. I gave my handshake, but perhaps I have to take it back.”
Buda looked Burim in the eye. Was he serious or was he just shaking him down for more money? Ten minutes ago the guy didn’t even know he had a daughter, and now he was concerned about her honor? Some of these guys really were peasants.
“I will punish the men, you can be assured of that.”
Burim shook his head and pulled back his jacket, exposing his shoulder holster.
“It can only be put right if I get to do the punishing. Do you want me to call Berti?”
“No, of course not. The reason I called you was to avoid this kind of situation. A killing will only lead to more killing-that is always the way. Punishment, yes. Killing, no. I will apologize to her myself.”
“I doubt she is going to accept any apology. That’s how I knew it was her, she has the same temper as her mother.”
“Listen, I will apologize. I will pay money to her and to you, money I will take from the three men in there. But I will not have a blood feud over this. It shouldn’t have happened. I regret the situation. Ultimately, I am to blame. But I need you, Burim, to live up to your handshake and for her to give up her investigation.”
Burim paused to think. Buda wouldn’t allow a man from another crew to punish his own men. A blood feud was in no one’s best interests, and he didn’t want to be the cause of a dispute between Aleksander Buda and Berti Ristani.
“Okay. Let me talk to her.”
