"A Murder In Milburn", Book 3: Death In The Library (6 page)

“Of course I wasn’t,” Petyr said. “I didn’t care for my father much. I make no secret of that.”

“Yet you wanted me to come here and meet them before marrying me,” Katya said.

“I wanted you to meet my mother,” Petyr said.

“You wanted to show me off to your father,” Katya said. “That’s what it felt like.”

“You don’t understand! My father tried to forcibly get me engaged to some business partner of his,” Petyr said. “I didn’t want that. I didn’t want a marriage like Johann’s, where he married Lila only because of her father’s money. I wanted a wife of my own.”

“Johann did what?”

“Oh, everybody knows it,” Petyr said. “Lila’s a fool about him, but Johann? He married her because it was a good match. Of course he’s fond of her. But… it isn’t the same. It isn’t the way it is with us.”

“So, you brought me here to prove that you had the right idea?” Katya said.

“I did,” Petyr said. “Johann and Dad had both warned me about moving out of the house. When I rejected Dad’s choice, he told me that any girl I married would only want me for my money. Johann agreed that I’d only find gold-diggers out in the world. But me, I believed in love. I wanted someone who loved me for myself, and not my money, and I was determined to find her. When I did, I wanted to throw it in their face. I was right and they were wrong. I had a wonderful girl who I loved wholeheartedly and they had… their sad, ego-driven lives.”

“Petyr. Oh Petyr.”
 

Katya hugged him.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry I exposed you to all this.”

“It’s all right,” Katya said. “I love you. I do.”

“What did your mother think?” Nora asked.

“What?”

“Did she like Katya?”

“My mother?” Petyr shrugged. “Of course. She was never one to create any trouble. My father was always the problem. I knew he’d probably forbid her from talking to me if he didn’t like Katya, but I didn’t care. I was feeling a bit mad, and a bit reckless.”

Nora nodded.

In her mind, she wondered what it would be like to be the mother in a family like this, constantly forced to choose between the love of her boys and the ego of her husband. Would it eventually have driven her mad? Mad enough to kill?

*****

Chapter 7

“What are you thinking?” Katya asked Nora.

“Just that it’s all very strange,” Nora said. “Nothing seems to add up.”

“Maybe this was a bad idea,” Katya said. “I mean, you and me, we’re really not going to find anything out just by talking to people, are we? It’s the police with their fancy equipment who’ll figure out the truth.”

“Figure out the proof,” Nora corrected. “The police’s job is to work with no theories. To gather proof impartially until they stumble on the truth. Me, I prefer to go into the motives. If you can find out why. Not just the obvious,
surface
why, but the
hidden
why. The motive that nobody will admit to. Then you can find out who did it.”

“What are you two talking about?” Petyr looked confused.

“Never mind,” Katya said. “Petyr, we should go out and check on your mother.”

“She’s talking to Officer Shane,” Petyr said. “Johann and Lila are upstairs.”

They went out to the living room. Maria had tears flowing down her eyes, while the two officers talking to her looked grave. When Petyr entered, they moved swiftly.

“Petyr Von Kyburg, you are being arrested on suspicion of murder. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will--”

“What? No!” Petyr struggled, as they put handcuffs on him. “Mother, tell them that’s not true! Tell them!”

“You have to admit it,” Maria said, wiping her tears. “You did it, didn’t you?”

His eyes were wide. For a minute, he locked eyes with his mother.
 

“You don’t believe this?” he asked.

She didn’t reply.

His shoulders slumped.
 

“Yes,” he said. “I’ll confess. Take me out of here, and I’ll tell you everything.”

“Petyr!”

“No. Katya. Please,” Petyr said. “You don’t understand.”

“No. I don’t. There’s no way you did it! There isn’t!” Katya was hysterical as the officers led him out. “Don’t take him away from me! Please!”

“Ma’am. We have to do our job.”

“Let him go, Katya.” Nora held her friend back. “He’s arrested, and he’ll be soon cleared. You’ll see. Right, Petyr?”

Petyr didn’t answer. With a grim face, he let the policemen lead him away to their boat.
 

“I can’t believe this,” Katya said. “How could they do this? How could they!”

“We all changed clothes,” Maria said. “When we were done mushroom hunting.”

“So?”
 

“So Petyr had left his shorts lying around in the bathroom. They checked and found traces of poison mushrooms inside his pockets,” Maria said.

“Well that can’t be true!” Katya said. “That doesn’t mean anything! Someone planted it! Of course they did! Petyr wouldn’t have any motive to kill his father!”

“Petyr was… Petyr had some motive,” Maria said.

“Why would he? He had everything! He had me, and we were planning to get married. He had an amazing business which was earning millions of dollars- and--”

“Katya.” Maria was calm.

“And it just doesn’t fit. It just doesn’t!” Katya said. “Please, Nora, you have to figure it out. You do.”

“Katya,” Maria said again. “Did Petyr tell you his business was earning millions?”

Katya’s head snapped towards her.
 

“What? Yes. Of course it was.”

Maria sighed, and sank down on the sofa.

Lila climbed down the stairs.
 

“I heard some noise,” she said. “Johann’s still asleep. All that vodka knocked him right out.”

“Petyr’s been arrested!” Katya said hysterically. “Somebody tell me what’s wrong with the world because Petyr’s the sweetest man I know. He hasn’t done it! He hasn’t!”

Lila’s eyes grew wide.
 

“So it was him all along?”

“Did you suspect?” Nora asked.

“I… I didn’t want to,” Lila said. “I hoped it wasn’t Johann, and I didn’t want him to say something that the police would misunderstand. I’m just… I’m just glad that it wasn’t him.”

“Glad? You’re glad that my Petyr’s been arrested!” Katya tried to charge at Lila, and Nora held her back.

“Katya.” It was Maria again.

“What?” Katya snapped.

“It has to be Petyr,” she said, and her voice was like broken glass. “He needed money. His father refused to give it. So Petyr killed him, likely thinking he’d inherit something.”

“What kind of mother are you!” Katya screamed. “How can you accuse your own son of this!”

“What kind of mother am I?” Maria laughed. “The kind who’s not afraid of telling the truth.”

*****

Chapter 8

“What
is
the truth?”
 

“Petyr’s business was a flop,” Maria said. “He’d made it work initially. He was raking in money hand over fist. But then the operational expenses began. He got struck by two lawsuits by competitors. He had a major client refuse to pay him. He told me that he began to grow desperate to keep it afloat.”

“Is that when he came to you?” Katya asked. “No. He was far too proud to take money from you or his father. He’s often said he’d rather die than give his father the chance to crow in front of him. There’s no way he came to you.”
 

“He didn’t come to us,” Maria said. “He used money that you’d set aside for your Yoga Studio.”
 

“What?
” Katya looked like someone had struck her between the eyes.

“38,675 dollars,” Maria said. “Am I right about the sum?”

“Yes… but… Petyr..”

“The two of you had a joint bank account, didn’t you?” Maria asked. “He found it easy to take the money. He thought he’d have it back to you in a week, with interest.”

“He didn’t ask me,” Katya said, tears in her eyes.

“No,” Maria said. “He didn’t. He was a secretive boy. Even as a child, you could never really tell what he was thinking.”

There was a huge boom. The sky turned red, and then purple as fireworks began.
 

“Happy Fourth of July,” Katya mumbled. She fell onto a chair and closed her eyes. “So he came to you for the money after he realized he couldn’t repay me?”

“Exactly,” Maria said. “For us, 40,000 dollars is a relatively small amount. It’s what Lila spends on shopping each month, I think. But for Petyr to come back took immense courage. He told me it was a loan, not a gift. He said he’d pay it back as soon as he could. I believed him, of course I did. But his father… his father forbade me to give him the money.”

“What then?”

“They had a huge fight,” Maria said. “Reynold was an egotistic man. He forced Petyr to grovel. I could see Petyr hated each second that he had to ask his father for money. It was like everything he was came crumbling down.”

“Poor Petyr,” Katya whispered. “His worst nightmare come true.”

Nora marvelled that even now, when Petyr had betrayed her, Katya could still feel bad for him.

“Well, finally, Reynold told Petyr that he’d lend him the money, if and only if Petyr brought you down here for Fourth of July.” Maria said. “Petyr made him promise that he wouldn’t breathe a word of it to you. But… but Reynold kept hinting about it, didn’t he?”

“He did,” Katya said. “He kept bringing up money, but I imagined that he was boasting about how much richer he was than Petyr, and I didn’t care.”

“No. But I could see how Petyr was affected,” Maria said. “His eyes would grow cold. He’d act as if he was being poisoned. Soon, I think he snapped. He killed Reynold.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” Katya said. “That’s not the kind of man Petyr is. That’s not the man I know him to be.”

“We hide the things we are most ashamed about from the ones we love the most,” Maria said. “That’s part of being in love.”

“No,” Katya said. “Maybe in your twisted family you taught them to hide your innermost self in love, but for me, it’s when you love someone that you show them all the parts of yourself, even the ones you don’t usually bring out in the light. I wish Petyr had told me. If he’d just owned up to taking the money, I would have forgiven him. I wouldn’t have asked him to go to you. I know what it must have cost him.”

“He couldn’t bear the thought of losing you,” Maria said. “I can see why. Poor Petyr.”

Another firework went up in the air, and through the window, Nora could see its fiery tail. It flashed, and for a minute the whole world seemed to be on fire, then darkness once more spread its wings.

There was a thud on the stairs, and Johann gave a curse. He made his way downstairs, holding his head in his hands.
 

“Ouch. That hurts,” he said, sitting on the chair. “I’ve had the worst dreams. What’s up with you ladies? Who died?”

At the sight of their horrified faces, he paled.
 

“So it wasn’t a dream,” he said. Tears filled his eyes. “Father’s really gone.”

Maria moved to him, and gave him a hug.

“Where’s Petyr?” he asked.
 

“He’s been arrested by the police,” Lila said.

“Arrested?” Johann shook his head as if to clear it. “What are you talking about? Petyr… Petyr did it?”

“I’m afraid so,” Maria said.

“But I don’t understand!” Johann exclaimed. “Petyr is… there’s no way Petyr’s done it. He isn’t that kind of guy.”

“There’s evidence against him.” Maria said.

“He left his shorts on the bathroom floor.” Lila said. “The police found mushrooms in it.”

“But that’s impossible!” Johann said. “Petyr never even used the bathroom!”

“What?”

“It’s true!” Johann said. “Petyr was irritable, and he decided to go to his room instead of taking a shower. Don’t you remember that father commented on it, Mother?”

“He and I were wearing identical shorts today,” Johann said. “
I’m
the one who left the shorts on the bathroom floor.”

Outside, the world was rocked by blast after blast as more firecrackers were set off.

*****

Chapter 9

“What’s happening?” Maria sounded scared and low. “Johann, what are you saying?”

“Mother, Petyr can’t have killed father. He simply can’t. You know him. He had no motive.”

“He
did
have a motive,” Maria said. “Reynold was refusing to give him money.”

“Father?
I
had already given Petyr the money,” Johann said. “Father gave me grief about it, but I didn’t care. I kind of liked it, my first act of rebellion against him. My second was going to be when I quit my job at Von Kyburg and Co. Petyr’s my brother. When he knew you weren’t going to give in, he asked me to loan him the money. I fully believe that he’ll return it to me, and that he doesn’t need to. I love the guy.”