Page 16 of A Silent Reckoning

Bang, bang, bang.

Shaun jumped and looked around, still disoriented, tangled in a pile of blankets and wondering where Jozef was. The sound came again, and she realized that someone was knocking on the apartment door.

Kicking the blankets away, Shaun climbed off the bed and stood, swaying on the spot. She’d slept so hard she hadn’t woken up once, apparently not even when Jozef left. She was a little annoyed at his disappearance. He went straight from prison to an airport, flew to Canada to collect Shaun and flew all the way back home with her. One would think he would be interested in spending a little time with his reclaimed fiancé.

Then again, she was grumpy from spending the night sleeping like the dead and waking up to the brightest sunlight she’d ever experienced and banging on the door. Actually, now that she listed the issues, she was starting to realize that she felt hungover without the benefit of alcohol.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she mumbled.

A quick search produced a soft white bathrobe hanging from the back of the washroom door. She pulled it on and tied the belt around her waist. It swam on her, but it covered all the necessary bits. She headed for the apartment door.

She was about to jerk it open and blast whoever was standing on the other side, but hesitated. Jozef had enemies. She knew firsthand that there were people out there targeting both him and her. She’d been safe in Canada but suspected that she would no longer be protected by distance now that she was back in Prague.

Then again, what kind of murderer knocked on a door to announce their presence? Shaun didn’t really know. Jozef was the only murderer she could say for sure she’d met, and he almost never knocked.

Finally, she decided to open the door. It appeared to be the only way to stop the person on the other side from banging on it until it splintered. When Jozef got back, she would ask him why a career criminal hadn’t invested in a peephole.

Then she realized there was a panel next to the door with a screen on it. She tapped it and the screen immediately lit up with an image of the hallway. Of course. There were cameras.

She was able to see Saskia Koba clear as day, chatting animatedly with a man who looked familiar. Shaun opened the door, startling the two on the other side.

Saskia didn’t give her a chance to say anything but shoved the door all the way open and pushed her way inside, flinging her arms around a startled Shaun and hugging her tightly.

Shaun was so stunned it took her a moment to return the hug, gently squeezing the younger woman until she finally pulled back.

“I missed you,” Saskia announced, turning away from Shaun and tossing a purse stuffed to the seams on the kitchen island. She pulled a heavy backpack off her shoulders and let it thunk to the floor. It sounded like it had a bowling ball inside. “Have you seen your hair? It’s pretty special this morning.”

“I missed you too.” Shaun tried to smooth her hair down, but she could tell from touching it that she was experiencing a bad case of bed head.

Then she realized, as she looked Saskia over, that she really had missed the other woman. Saskia had been irrepressible, challenging and often annoying when Shaun had lived in the mansion, but she had also been Shaun’s only real friend and ally. Saskia told Shaun the truth, did her best to protect her and helped Shaun connect with her mother, something Shaun would be forever grateful for.

“How did you know I was back?” Shaun asked, peeking into the hallway. She was surprised to find a man she recognized standing stoic and staring forward. “Karl, how are you?”

He turned his head to look at her and though he didn’t smile she recognized the good-natured twinkle in his eye. “I’m doing well, thank you, Dr. Patterson.”

“Shaun, please.”

He nodded and returned his gaze to the opposite wall. Shaun closed the door to the apartment, frowning in thought. Karl seemed different. Why wasn’t he on the Koba estate?

As if reading her mind, Saskia answered, “He got fired after you were poisoned.” When Shaun continued to look blank, Saskia rolled her eyes and shook her head. “He was family security… he allowed someone in the family to get poisoned. He’s lucky dad didn’t have him killed.”

Saskia’s words were a stark reminder of how out of her depth Shaun felt around the Kobas. “But that makes no sense, he couldn’t have known someone would try to poison me.”

Saskia gave Shaun a sharp look as she opened the refrigerator and started digging. “It’s his job to protect the family. Not knowing about an attack isn’t an excuse. If he allows harm to fall to any member of the family, it’s his fault.”

Shaun’s lips twitched with amusement as Saskia took a container out of the fridge, opened it, sniffed, nodded and allowed the fridge to close. “Then why is he here?” Shaun asked, watching as Saskia went unerringly to a drawer and pulled a fork out.

Saskia shrugged, peeling the lid off her container and digging in. Shaun suspected it was cold spaghetti. She didn’t know why there were leftovers in the fridge, since Jozef hadn’t occupied the apartment prior to now. Perhaps he had a cook or a housekeeper who stocked up for him.

“I don’t know for sure since no one in this family tells me anything, but I think it’s because Jozef thinks someone in the family tried to poison you. He thinks that’s why Karl wasn’t able to prevent what happened. Jozef hired him from prison and asked him to work with the mercs and then take over family security once you arrived. Plus, Karl actually likes following family around, carrying bags, organizing security detail. That kind of stuff.” Saskia stared hard at Shaun. “I never asked… are you okay? Did the poisoning, you know, have any long-term effects?”

Shaun had questions, like what was a merc, but Saskia moved from topic to topic so fast it was difficult to keep up. Shaun smiled affectionately as she took a coffee pod from a basket on the counter and popped it into a single-cup coffee machine. She opened cupboards until she found a mug then hit the green button on the machine.

“No long-term effects,” Shaun confirmed. “The poison was ethylene glycol. It’s a slow acting poison that I would’ve ingested around 12 hours before I collapsed since it takes time to metabolize in the system. It’s a common poison, easily accessible.”

Saskia gaped at Shaun, a forkful of cold cheesy noodles halfway to her mouth. She let the fork drop and straightened on the couch. “But everyone said you were poisoned at the party. If you were poisoned earlier then it couldn’t have been a guest, which means…”

Shaun didn’t say it out loud. She didn’t need to. The perpetrator was either someone in the family or someone close to the family. It could’ve been one of the servants, but they wouldn’t have had a motive unless they were hired to slip Shaun the poison. If the poisoning had happened at the party, it could have been anyone, though the only people in attendance with a reason to want Shaun dead were the Kobas and Giselle, Jozef’s ex-girlfriend.

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