Page 138 of Mile High Ruin

“Not long.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s the answer I have.”

Marek glances at me. “He has been out of hospital for six hours and you are already bullying him.”

“I was admitted for observation, not resurrected,” Iosef sniffs.

“You fainted.”

“I didn’t faint.”

Anton looks at him. “You slid down a wall.”

“My blood pressure dropped,” Iosef says. He ignores Anton and looks back at me. “The payment matters because it was changed after she was assigned to your aircraft. Whoever did this knew she was going to be there.”

That silences the table.

I look at the authorization time again. He’s right.

“It’s likely she’s being set up,” I say.

“Or there’s something else we can consider, something that makes her obviously guilty,” Anton says. “Which is the fact that she had inside help.” I look at him. He doesn’t back away from it. “We have to consider that.”

“I know,” I say, slightly irritated.

Iosef watches me for a second too long. “You slept with her.”

Marek turns toward him immediately.

Anton closes his eyes.

I stare at Iosef. “That has nothing to do with this.”

“It has everything to do with how you interpret it.”

“I’m interpreting evidence.”

“You’re trying to,” Anton says. “And failing spectacularly.”

“Careful now,” Marek says. “You’re still talking to the Pakhan.”

I can tell he wants to argue against that. But he says, “I apologize, sir.”

I hate when they do that.

I turn back to him. “You have something else to say? Speak freely.”

“Yes. You are walking into dangerous territory, and I don’t mean because she might be involved,” Anton says.

“Then what do you mean?” I say.

“You want her to be innocent,” Iosef says. “If this were anyone else, you would already have them separated, questioned, and monitored by people who were not emotionally involved. Instead, she’s sleeping upstairs in your room,” he says.

“She’s not a prisoner.”

“That’s not the point,” he says, shaking his head.