Page 18 of Dead Ringer

Dimitri darted a look around. His tongue flicked over his lips. It looked like a nervous gesture to me.

“I don’t care about taking over the family,” he said and twisted to look over his shoulder, but even the bartender was doing his best not to pay attention to us. “Like I’d want to be in charge of this pit of vipers.”

Yeah, that was fair. “Why’d you take it, then?”

He mopped his forehead with his handkerchief. “Because my mother doesn’t give a crap about anything in this world but being head of the clan.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.” Although it wouldn’t have surprised me if it were.

Dimitri nodded. “It is true. She cares about me least of all. Just as long as I don’t ‘embarrass’ her.” He laughed, a harsh, bitter sound. “Well, the idol’s gone. No one can be head of the clan now so too bad for her.”

I wanted to bop him one in the nose so bad that my hand curled into a fist at my side. “Do you even understand what you’ve done? This could rip your whole family apart!”

“I don’t care.” He stuffed his handkerchief back into its pocket with harsh, jerky motions. “Good riddance. The money I got for the stupid thing will help me get out of town and away from all of them.”

“Yousoldit? To whom?”

“You won’t find it,” he answered, shaking his head. “It’s long gone by now.”

“Who did you sell it to?” I demanded again.

Dimitri cleared his throat and narrowed his eyes. “I first want to know who your witness was because as far as I knew, no one was in the room with me.”

Right. Hmm. That was a good point.

“You don’t have a witness do you?” he asked with a laugh.

“I do,” I insisted.

“Then who the hell is the witness?”

“I’m not going to tell you that.”

He chuckled. “Because you don’t have one.”

Yes, I could have told him it was a ghost who was the witness to his crime, but I didn’t think that was going to go over too well. Especially if this family couldn’t see ghosts, apparently. No, better to keep that card close to my chest.

“I’ve already said enough,” Dimitri started, shaking his head. “And now that I know you’ve got absolutely zilch to go on... I’m not saying anything more.”

Ah, applesauce. How the heck was I ever going to find the darn thing now? I gave the kid a look.

You should take this to Taliyah now,Cain said in my head.You’ve got a witness, and that’s enough. She could get the little brat to talk.

But I didn’t want to take it to Taliyah. I wanted to solve the mystery and get the idol back to Sophia.

Dimitri chuckled, appearing completely unconcerned. “So... what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to find the idol.”

Darla, go to Taliyah, dammit!

Dimitri chuckled. “Good luck with that.”

Oh, I’d show him luck, alright.

If you aren’t going to go to Taliyah, you should tell Sophia the truth,Cain continued.That her idiot son took the idol.

Thing was, I wasn’t sure the kid was wrong about it simply being my word against his. Sophia already didn’t think much of me. If I started pointing fingers at her little boy, no matter how much of a screw-up she might think he was, she might take it like I was trying to shift blame. Especially since I had no proof, other than hearsay from a ghost. And I was fairly sure Dimitri wasn’t going to admit anything if put in the hot seat. To either Taliyah or his mother. So, truly, I had nothing.

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