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I kepthis every e, was Slava Kandinsky connected in any ith organized crime?”

“I found nothing in his background to suggest that”

“Did you ever cross paths with organized criht “Before you were incarcerated?”

“No” His tone was flat, his expression changing from an inquisitive squint to a scowl “I’ve done my time, and I don’t do business with crooks”

My questions see, I doubted that he would si down this road

“Let er at hter?”

I took a ht bark at hio” God knows, it felt like forever “I told you then, I’d devote three hours of my ti nment for you And, per our contract, I’ll send you a report of s by week’s end”

“OK, OK,” he said, waving a hand All debonnaire now “I’m just concerned about her Like any parent would be”

“Okay, then” I tried my best to sound conciliatory, but I still didn’t quite trust the man His responses seemed a bit too blasé

“So” Blaine spat the word out “Are we done here?”

“Yes, thank you We can talk later”

I turned and left before he could slam the door in my face

Chapter Eleven

The next day, I looked up Professor George Kirov in the university’s online directory I called his office and

In the interim, I searched online for David Kandinsky The name did not pop up in the usual phone directories Perhaps David relied on his cell phone Not unusual these days