The Alibi Man

Chapter 30

“Mr. Kulak.” Landry offered his hand, the Russian accepted.

He was a very neat man-neat suit, neat hair, tie perfectly knotted, as Landry’s had been twelve hours ago.

“Detective. I have come to see about Irina Markova,” he said.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

Kulak nodded and Landry showed him out the door. “We’ll take my car over to the morgue.”

Neither of them spoke as Landry drove from one parking lot to the next. He buzzed the front door, and the security guard let them in.

As long as he had been at this business, Landry had never quite shaken the creepy feeling of being in the morgue at night. It was too quiet in the halls; the lights were dim. Kulak walked beside him, staring straight ahead, his face blank. The tension in the man’s body was so strong Landry could feel it.

“You can view the body on closed-circuit television-” he started.

“No.”

“All right. Just to prepare you, your niece’s body was submerged in water for some time, and there is some… damage… to her face, from fish and so forth.”

A thick muscle pulsed in Kulak’s jaw, but his expression did not change.

“The medical examiner performed the autopsy last night. You’ll see stitches.”

The jaw muscle pulsed again.

The night attendant led them into the cold room, with its wall of drawers where bodies were filed away like old tax returns. Kulak stood square, his hands in front of him. If he’d had a blindfold and a cigarette, he would have looked like he was waiting for a firing quad. Landry nodded to the attendant.

Kulak jolted at the sight of Irina, as if he’d been hit with a powerful current of electricity. He caught the sound of pain in his throat. His entire body was trembling. Sweat popped on his fore-lead. His facial muscles began to contort.

When he finally pulled his eyes away, Kulak turned, and a terrible, wild animal sound of torment and grief tore out of his chest, -le fell to his knees and held his face in his hands.

The man was considered one of the most ruthless bosses in the south Florida Russian mob. The things he had seen, the things he gad allegedly ordered done to people, were horrific. All of it lone-guaranteed-without batting an eye. That man sat crumbled on the floor, crying silently into his hands.

Even Landry had to feel for him, regardless of how black and mite he preferred to see the world. Grief was a common denominator, crossing all boundaries.

He stood off to the side and left Kulak alone for a few minutes. When Kulak began to gather himself, Landry said, “You’ll have to all in the morning to make arrangements. The ME will release the body as soon as all the autopsy results have come back.”

They walked out of the room, and Kulak sat down on a fake leather chair in the viewing room. Landry took a seat perpendicular to him.

“I have some questions for you,” he said.

Kulak didn’t acknowledge him.

Landry pressed on. “When was the last time you heard from Irina?”

Kulak didn’t respond, just sat staring, devastated.

“Do you know anything about her personal life? Can you tell me about her friends, boyfriends?”

“I am going to kill the man who did this to her,” Kulak said quietly.

Landry didn’t bother to tell him that he would go to prison for it. Frankly, he didn’t blame the guy. If he ruled the world, that was how he would have set it up-so that the loved ones of the victim could go into a room with the perp and not come out until they were through with him.

“Mr. Kulak, do you have any idea who that might be?”

Kulak looked at him with an expression that could have cut through steel. “If I knew that, Detective, I would now be cutting his beating heart from his chest.”

With that, he stood and walked out.

Landry let him go.