I scanned it over his shoulder and saw picture after picture of a young blonde woman with a perfect figure posed on a yacht and rooftops, dressed in bathing suits and cocktail dresses. Sometimes she was alone, but just as often she was with a group of similarly hot, young rich kids doing rich kid things while they laughed, smiled, and drank.
I looked for pictures of Dimitri Kaprolov and didn’t find any, but every now and then Alina appeared in a cropped photo, an older man’s arm around her or on the table next to her, an expensive watch on his wrist.
I read one of the captions:Happy Birthday, Papa.
“She’s a fucking trust fund baby,” Bram said.
“An oligarch baby,” Aloha said. “But same difference.”
“And her mom’s last name is the one listed as Alina’s even on the birth records?” Poe asked.
“Yep,” Aloha said. “As far as I can tell, she’s never used Kaprolov a day in her life.”
“That’s weird for a Russian family.” Vigo reached for one of the buttons on a keyboard of another monitor.
I shook my head and was relieved when he pulled back his hand.
“Why do you say that?” Jagger asked.
“Russian surnames are derived from their ancestors, their patriarchy to be exact. Sometimes from a name, other times from an occupation or region.” Vigo sounded almost bored as he scanned the equipment, obviously itching for something to touch. “Kaprolov’s name probably originated from an ancestorin the military since a??????is a corporal. It would be a big deal to pass it on to his descendants, especially if he didn’t have a son, although in that case it wouldn’t have been Kaprolov but Kaprolova.”
Aloha stared at him like he was a freak of nature. “What the fuck, dude?”
“What?” Vigo asked.
Aloha shook his head in disbelief.
“He knew,” Bram said. “Kaprolov knew his dirt could hurt his daughter — or himself — from the beginning, so he gave Alina his wife’s last name.”
“But now we know for sure,” I said. “Dimitri is the one who sent the men at the paper mill.”
The texts on the dead guy’s phone made perfect sense if he’d been part of the Kaprolov family security detail.
“And now we know how to find him,” Jagger said.
I stared at the screen, at the beautiful life of Dimitri’s daughter, one she lived while Dimitri stole girls from their homes, sold them to be used by other men.
“Find Alina, find Dimitri.”
32
CASSIE
I wrappedmy cardigan more tightly around me and stared at my computer screen where Alina Volkova’s perfectly symmetrical, exquisitely made up face stared back at me.
I was on the patio, the outdoor fireplace crackling with the fire Jagger had started when I came outside to work, a cup of steaming tea next to my computer that Vigo had brought me along with four Oreos.
He was staunchly against eating Oreos without crumbling them into a cup and pouring milk over them, but according to him eating Oreos the wrong way was better than not eating them at all.
It was almost impossible to believe it was October. I so clearly remembered walking into the Orpheum for the Hunt, the summer breeze balmy on my skin, sweat pricking the back of my neck.
Now the air was crisp and cool, the leaves beginning to fall from the trees in preparation for their long sleep.
But not for Alina Volkova.
Her last picture had been uploaded to social media the day before: Alina in a black bikini, eyes hidden by Versacesunglasses, long blonde hair blowing in the wind as she stood on the bow of a luxury yacht off the coast of Greece.
I scrolled through her feed for the hundredth time since Aloha had found Alina Volkova a week earlier.
