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“No, sir”

“Fuck,” Ifor the kitchen

“What’s going on?” Tima asks when I skid to a stop in the middle of the floor

“Is Katerina here?”

“No,” he says, frowning

Still clutching one”

His face collapses, his eyes and ?”

“Not more than ten minutes”

Heknife aside and leans his pal in the house”

“I’ the property searched”

“If she’s not…” He looks at me from under his eyebrows

“Then she slipped out while the e those words

“She couldn’t have walked through the gates The guards would’ve noticed”

I grit otten into one of the cars She must be in the house”

He sucks air through his teeth

“What?” I ask

“If she’s not in the house and nobody saw her leaving, you have to assume she left with Mikhail”

I slam a fist on the table “Mikhail would never do that He knows I’d kill him”

“What about Dania?” Ti into slits

“Dania was puking out her lungs”

“There’s so, he crosses his arms “I’ve administered a few poisons in my day, and I can tell you that if Dania had been poisoned at breakfast, the sy wouldn’t have kicked in three hours later They would’ve ht away”

I still “Are you saying she was poisoned here?”

“It couldn’t have been the cake Lena brought four eht? What did Dania drink or eat that no one else did?”

I slide aze toward the drip rack where the teacups and teapot are stacked “Herbal tea”

The knowledge sinks into ut like a stone I know it instinctively as I walk to the drip rack and lift the teapot to peer inside

“Lena washed it already,” Tima says “She cleans the porcelain with bleach to remove the tea stains”

“Thereby re all traces of the contents inside,” I say slowly, uncontrollable rage unfurling in my chest

He gives me a level look “Exactly”

My voice is cal her here”

Tima rounds the counter and walks down the hallway

I dial Igor

He ansith, “There’s no sign of her yet”

“Check all the passenger hts I wantKaterina e”

“Fuck I’m on it”