Chapter 5 - WHAT ANYA KNEW
Irina Volkov gave her statement in a room with three cameras, two attorneys, Detective Reyes, and no Petrov men.
Alexei watched from an adjacent room because Irina refused to sit across from him at first.
That hurt him more than he admitted.
I watched too because Irina had asked for me.
Not Sophie.
Me.
“She trusts you,” Reyes said.
“She doesn’t know me.”
“She knows you told Petrov no.”
Apparently that qualified as character evidence in their world.
Irina wore no red coat today.
Gray sweater. Dark pants. Hair tied back.
Without the coat and necklace, she looked less like Anya.
Still enough to understand Sophie’s mistake.
Reyes began.
“Why did you enter the Petrov estate?”
“To preserve the chocolate.”
“How did you know it was dangerous?”
“I knew Viktor had ordered the same brand.”
“Your cousin?”
“Yes.”
“Why would that matter?”
“Because five years ago Anya found a note in his office listing Alexei’s allergy beside a contingency plan.”
Alexei moved behind the glass.
I saw his reflection.
Still.
Irina continued.
“Anya did not know what the plan meant. She thought Viktor was preparing emergency information.”
Reyes asked, “Then what changed?”
“She found insurance documents.”
“What kind?”
“Key-person policies tied to several Petrov businesses.”
Alexei exhaled.
I knew enough about business insurance to understand the concept.
If Alexei died, companies received money.
Control could shift.
“Viktor was beneficiary?” Reyes asked.
“Not directly. Trusts and holding companies.”
“So motive is financial?”
“Partly.”
“What else?”
Irina looked at the camera.
“Control.”
There it was.
The oldest motive in rooms full of powerful men.
“Viktor believed Alexei was making the family soft.”
Alexei laughed once behind the glass.
Not amusement.
Irina continued.
“Anya discovered Viktor and Dr. Markov had been discussing how to make a death look medical.”
My stomach turned.
Reyes leaned forward.
“Do you have proof Markov was involved?”
“I had a copy of a message.”
“Had?”
“Anya carried it the day she died.”
“Gone after crash.”
“Yes.”
“Did you see the message yourself?”
“Yes.”
“What did it say?”
Irina did not quote it dramatically.
Good.
She described it.
Medical information about allergen exposure.
Questions about how quickly symptoms might progress.
Anya interpreted it as planning.
Maybe it was.
Maybe someone could argue otherwise.
Reyes asked, “Why didn’t she go to police?”
Irina smiled sadly.
“She was married to Alexei Petrov.”
Behind the glass, Alexei looked down.
Everyone in his life had the same answer.
Private problems stayed private because the name around them made public systems feel dangerous.
“What did Anya do?”
“She confronted Viktor.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She loved him.”
Her brother.
That complicated everything.
Irina continued.
“Viktor denied it. Said Markov was discussing emergency preparedness. Said the insurance structure was routine.”
“Did she believe him?”
“At first.”
“Then?”
“She found money transfers.”
“To Markov?”
“Yes.”
“From Viktor?”
“Through a company.”
“Proof?”
“I have copies now.”
Reyes stopped.
“Now?”
Irina nodded.
“That is why I came back.”
She had spent five years collecting fragments.
Not continuously.
Surviving.
Moving.
Working under another name.
She believed Viktor knew she had seen Anya’s files.
After the crash, a man followed her for three days.
She left Chicago.
Changed her name informally.
Waited.
Then six weeks ago, she learned Viktor had contacted Markov again.
“How?” Reyes asked.
“Markov’s former office manager contacted me.”
“Why?”
“She had found old invoices after he fired her.”
“What invoices?”
“Consulting payments from Orlov Holdings.”
Alexei’s jaw tightened behind the glass.
Irina continued.
“I thought Viktor was planning another attempt.”
“Why not contact police then?”
“I did.”
Reyes paused.
“With who?”
“Detective Paul Ramsey.”
Reyes’ expression changed.
I noticed.
“Who is Ramsey?” I whispered.
Alexei answered quietly.
“Retired.”
Reyes looked toward the glass as if she heard him.
“He worked organized crime.”
Irina nodded.
“He told me I had no evidence of an active threat.”
“Did he document your call?”
“No.”
Reyes’ jaw tightened.
Another private leak? Another lazy decision? Too early.
“What happened next?”
“I started watching Viktor myself.”
“Dangerous.”
“Yes.”
“Illegal in places.”
“Yes.”
“Why enter the estate?”
“I saw the chocolate delivery being prepared at a hotel kitchen Viktor uses.”
“Which hotel?”
“Lake Crown.”
Alexei owned part of it.
Of course.
“I followed the courier.”
“You created a vendor badge through Markov’s account.”
“No.”
Reyes looked at her.
“Then who did?”
Irina’s face changed.
“Markov.”
Silence.
“He helped you enter?”
“Yes.”
My stomach dropped.
“So Markov is not working with Viktor?”
“I don’t know.”
There it was.
Messy truth.
“Explain.”
Irina said Markov had contacted her two weeks earlier.
He claimed Viktor had pressured him years ago for medical information.
He admitted taking money.
Denied agreeing to murder.
Said he wanted out.
He gave Irina access so she could retrieve a chocolate and preserve evidence before Alexei ate any.
“Why not warn Alexei directly?” Reyes asked.
“Markov said Alexei would confront Viktor before police could prove anything.”
Behind the glass, Alexei muttered, “Probably.”
I looked at him.
He shrugged.
At least he knew himself.
Reyes continued. “Then why did Alexei eat one?”
Irina’s eyes filled.
“I was too late.”
She had entered after the tray had already left the hotel but before the study service cart went upstairs. She took one piece. Tried to find me because she had seen Sophie following me through the staff hall before.
Then Sophie appeared first.
“Why give it to a child?” Reyes asked.
“I panicked.”
No noble answer.
“I knew guards might search me. I thought nobody would search a four-year-old’s doctor bag.”
I felt anger rise.
“You used my daughter.”
Irina looked toward the glass.
Not at Alexei. At me.
“Yes.”
“Do you understand what that did?”
“Yes.”
“Do not say you were protecting her.”
“I wasn’t.”
That stopped me.
“I was protecting evidence. It was wrong.”
No excuse.
Good.
I still did not forgive her.
Reyes asked about Anya’s crash.
Irina’s face changed.
“She was bringing copies of the transfers and the medical message to Alexei.”
“Was Viktor aware?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was Markov?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why suspect the crash was intentional?”
“Because Anya called me twenty minutes before.”
Irina’s eyes filled.
“She said a car was following her.”
Alexei stood behind the glass.
Reyes stopped him with a look he could not even see clearly.
“What kind?”
“Black sedan. She gave me part of the plate.”
“Did you keep it?”
“Yes.”
Five years.
A piece of plate number in an old message archive.
Reyes already had someone searching vehicle history.
At the end of the interview, Irina asked to speak to Alexei.
He entered alone.
I stayed behind the glass.
They stared at each other.
Five years of grief between two people who had each believed the other had failed Anya somehow.
Alexei spoke first.
“You should have told me.”
Irina laughed through tears.
“You were exactly the reason she was afraid to tell you too early.”
He flinched.
“She loved you.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Irina’s voice hardened.
“She loved you enough to be afraid of what grief would turn you into.”
Alexei sat.
For once, no answer.
Irina took off the gold bird necklace.
Placed it on the table.
“Anya gave me this the week before she died.”
Alexei stared.
“She said if anything happened, I should keep one thing Viktor could not claim as family property.”
His mouth tightened.
“She knew him better than I did.”
“Yes.”
Then Irina said something that changed the investigation again.
“Viktor did not know about Alexei’s allergy because Anya told him.”
Alexei looked up.
“How did he know?”
Irina’s eyes moved toward the glass.
Toward Dmitri.
Then back.
“Your medical file was copied from the estate clinic.”
Silence.
“And the person who accessed it used Dmitri’s credentials.”
Behind the glass, Dmitri went pale.
Not angry.
Afraid.
For the first time, the man who had stood beside Alexei for fifteen years looked like a suspect.
After the interview, Irina asked me to stay for two minutes.
I almost refused.
Then I did not.
She stood by the window, holding the gold bird necklace in one hand.
“I am sorry about Sophie.”
“You said that in there.”
“I know.”
“That doesn’t make me less angry.”
“I know.”
Good.
No demand for forgiveness.
I looked at the necklace.
“Why did Anya give you that?”
Irina smiled through tears.
“When we were girls, our grandmother had two. One gold. One silver. She said birds were stupid symbols because they spend half their lives trying not to fall.”
“That sounds comforting.”
“It was not meant to be.”
I almost laughed.
Irina’s face softened.
“Anya gave me hers because she thought Viktor would take every personal thing after her death and call it family property.”
“She planned for death?”
“She planned for danger.”
There was a difference.
Irina looked toward the interview room where Alexei sat alone.
“She also planned around him.”
“Because she feared him?”
“Because she loved him and feared what he did when love became panic.”
That sentence stayed with me.
Before leaving, Irina said, “Your daughter saw what adults missed.”
“Please don’t make that heroic.”
She blinked.
“She is four. She noticed swelling because she has an allergy too. She should not become the reason grown people forgive themselves for failing.”
Irina nodded slowly.
“You’re right.”
I appreciated that more than praise.
When I picked Sophie up from my mother’s house, she asked if the red lady was nice.
I said, “She did something wrong and also tried to stop something worse.”
Sophie frowned.
“Both?”
May you like
“Yes.”
She accepted that faster than most adults I knew.
