Page 114 of Doubts of the Egoist
“Why didn’t he even try to defend himself? What am I missing?”
A movement behind him made him glance over his shoulder, then turn fully around, square his shoulders, and lower his chin.
“Don’t growl, Puppy. It’s just me.” With his hands in his pockets, Tobias took a few casual steps into the room, scanning the walls with his colorless eyes. His smile froze when he saw Milana’s face.
“You’re stubborn, aren’t you? And a fool to boot. What a terrible combination.” His gaze lingered on the dead face before settling on Kuon. “I warned you. I told you no one walks away from a Santelli. The only way to do that is to … PUFF.” He waved his fingers in the air and clarified, “Vanish. All you had to do was call. Now look what happened.”
Kuon tilted his head, wondering if this was a confession or a trap.
Seeing that Kuon wasn’t going to join the conversation, Tobias whispered ingratiatingly, “I can still help you. My offer stands, just say the word.”
That was exactly what Mio had offered Kuon years ago. Although part of him wanted to accept and see what would happen, he didn’t want to shoot himself in the foot again.
Is he aware there are cameras here? He must be, right?The silence stretched on. Automatically, Kuon folded his arms across his chest as Tobias’s pinpoint pupils swept over his scarred torso with clinical curiosity. Tobias scowled. His eyes flickered from one healing abrasion to the next, then stopped on the chafed skin at the base of Kuon’s palm.
He hummed, a brief downturn of his mouth suggesting he had come to some kind of conclusion, before his eyes locked with Kuon’s.
“I guess that’s a no…” The blond said with a snort, though it was unclear what amused him. He tilted his head from side to side, as if inspecting a strange animal, then grinned to himself and turned back to the crime board. “With such slow progress, you’ll never solve it.”
“Then why don’t you help me?” Kuon croaked without any hope of an agreement.
“I would, but it seems like a waste of time. By the way, this one is dead. He had nothing to do with it,” Tobias said as he removed a pinned picture of a silver-haired man and tossed it aside. Using the same pin, he attached some crumpled sheets of paper next to Milana’s face. “A present for you. You’re welcome.”
Kuon leaned in closer to the crime board to read the ballistics report he’d seen in Yugo’s office. He was about to ask why Tobias had put it there when something clicked in his head. He studied the bullet’s caliber, then compared it with the ballistics report from more than seventeen years ago.
“Is it…” He looked at the picture of the bullet removed from Rick’s shoulder, then at the aged, yellowish photo of the bullet that had hit Milana’s head. Although the deformation was different—one had hit the frontal bone, while the other had lodged in a muscle layer—the microscopic ridges on the sides looked too similar to ignore.
Yugo’s words emerged from the depths of his memory. “Very soon, the rumor will spread that you’re back with me. After what happened two years ago, people will assume you are my weakness. Some will want to use you to get to me. It’s good you don’t have a family, because it’s better if you don’t have anyone important at all. If you wish that woman and kid well, forget them.”
Kuon swallowed, his throat bone-dry. “The same?”
“Now, you’re getting it.”
Kuon blinked as the missing piece of the puzzle snapped into place, bringing clarity to everything.Yugo would never use the weapon that killed his sister to commit murder, but destroying evidence for his own vendetta would be in his spirit. But why the hell didn’t he tell me? Does he think I can’t handleit? Or does he not trust me?
“Why are you doing this, and why are Rick’s dogs in your car?” Kuon asked, baffled.
“Didn’t I say I was a Good Samaritan? I save everyone—children, adults, even little puppies. Or would you rather I leave them where I found them, all alone?” Tobias grinned and turned to the door but froze as if he had hit an invisible wall. His colorless eyes settled on Mio’s photo, pinned under his and Milana’s connection line. A mischievous expression sharpened his eyes and mouth as he spoke in a low voice, “Be careful, Puppy. Your assumptions may inadvertently offend someone. Take some good-natured advice and keep it to yourself.”
With a rough hand, he moved Mio’s picture beneath the Scarci family on the board.
Looking extremely pleased with himself, he strode out of the room. Only then did Kuon notice the large figure standing in front of the door. Greg watched Tobias with a scowl and shook his head as the blond walked past him. “I hope you’re done fooling around because the pups are trashing your car.”
“Fuck!” The shout rent the air, and loud footsteps echoed through the mansion.
Kuon turned back to the crime board. “I see… He doesn’t trust me.”
CHAPTER 32
A long chainof vehicles stretched from the garage to the gate. Their departure seemed to pause the day. The sun hung frozen at its zenith, and even the wind stilled, turning the somnolent day into a timeless, spaceless void.
All the familiar sounds in Yugo’s home faded into the gloom of the unlit corridors. Even the starched, crisp pinafores of the housekeepers, always rustling like distant mice somewhere behind a wall, faded away, leaving the mansion silent and desolate. Abandoned.
No one came to explain anything to Kuon, making him feel insignificant, as if he weren’t even worthy of a simple heads-up. Had he been forgotten and left behind in the midst of this hasty evacuation? He didn’t know because he didn’t ask. The oppressive atmosphere corroded Kuon’s soul. In that deafening silence, he could only hear the mute reproach nurturing the maddening guilt swelling inside him.
A sinking migraine pressed against his temples as he realized Yugo felt no need to tell him anything or justify himself.
The more he thought, the more he understood Yugo’s sudden alienation. It wasn’t intense mutual resentment over recent events, but Yugo’s certainty that Kuon wouldn’t believe him no matter what he said.
