Keep the Wolf from the Door

Chapter 11 - Truth in Sight

11.

Truth in Sight

            The strong odor in the warehouse was familiar. Kate had called it bleach. She used it to kill the family of cockroaches underneath the kitchen sink in the apartment. "This will get rid of 'em, not a trace of them will be left behind..."

            Michael's fourteenth birthday and he couldn't wait to leave work.  Aunt Therese had a surprise for him and told him to hurry home. He rushed with the rest of the caviar that he'd been unloading all day. Ten more minutes and he would punch out.

            "Hey Mee-kha-eel?" Kristos called from across the warehouse. Kristos was a middle-aged, Greek man who did the same job as Michael. He often grumbled about how he hated this country and would one day win the lottery and move back to Greece. "I just come from Aleksey. Truck come in, have to be unloaded tonight. He told me this very important." Michael was disappointed but he wouldn't dare argue with Aleksey's orders. "You sure you understand? You know how he gets when people do not listen?"  Michael went back to work.

            Everyone had gone home in the yard except for Michael. The skids in this shipment were heavier than what he was used to and heavier in the bleach ridden warehouse. But Michael managed to get through them.

            Before he made the long bus ride across town, he went to the bathroom to wash his blistered hands. When he went back into the warehouse, he was no longer alone. A conversation taking place in Russian, he listened carefully through the empty crates in the corner.

            "Did you think you could run from me Kiril?" Aleksey stood over the man whose hands and feet were tied together with rope.      Duct tape covered Kiril's mouth and his face was soaked in sweat. He stared up at Aleksey, his eyes wide with fear. Kostya reached down and ripped the duct tape from his face. "Please Aleksey, I was not running from you I swear-"

            Aleksey knelt down beside Kiril pulling a gun from his jacket scratching his head with the barrel. "Kostya said he found you just miles from the Mexican border. Are you saying he's a liar?"

            "No- I."          

            "He does not like to be called a liar."

            "I-I do not call him a liar-"

            "So now you call me a liar?" Aleksey laughed.

            "No Lyosha please, okay, you are not a liar, he is not a liar and I was not running from you-"

            "Your babbling makes me sick Kiril. Tell me who you pay, if not me?"

            Kiril began to sob.

            Vitali, spoke calmly. "Kiril, last month you were short ten thousand dollars, this month another five. The money is going somewhere, we want to know where."

            Konstantin pulled a switchblade out of his jacket and tore through Kiril's shirt sleeve. "No, No please!" Kiril choked. Kostya placed the blade to Kiril's skin, above the tattoo of a star, and Kiril let out a terrible scream. Michael so badly wanted to blink but he couldn't, wanted to turn away but he didn't.

            "Tell me who Kiril!" Aleksey shouted over the loud screams.

             "Ivan Pravdin!"

            The three men looked at one another.

            "I told you." Vitali said to Aleksey, eyes focused on Kiril.