The Virgin Master (51 page)

The drug cartels, while present, had a lower profile in Germany than in other countries. Somehow Jeremy felt that
Pleshenko
knew exactly where they were
. B
ut since he didn’t know that Jeremy had a hand in Frank’s demise and Jeremy and Evan no longer owned or controlled anything even approaching useful for the cartels, they were being left alone. If Evan hadn’t felt safe he would never have allowed Sandy to move her whole family here to help. Sandy was a full one-third partner in this business and Jeremy hoped it made buckets of money. Even if it didn’t, Evan would make sure that Sandy wanted for nothing.

And then the outsourcing contract from James Enterprises for mergers and acquisitions certainly meant that they wouldn’t be starving anytime soon.

Jeremy began stocking the bar, realizing that he was happier than he had ever been in his life. He didn’t notice the car parked across the street. Nor did he notice the camera with the telephoto lens tracking his every movement.

Ilya
sighed and packed up his camera. The James boy no longer had anything to offer the cartel, and to be honest, he had always thought that Frank handled the whole thing wrong. Nothing could
possibly be gained by harassing them or trying to “punish” Evan. He had watched them for a week. The two were deliriously happy and engrossed in making their little business a success. They had said nothing about
Pleshenko
to anyone, and Evan had fled when the FBI wanted to use Jeremy as physical evidence against Boris. Boris got convicted anyway and
Ilya
had to take care of that
. It was
always so difficult to commit a murder in prison
. B
oris just should have followed protocol and killed himself
.  H
e thought Yuri would be safe in letting it go now. He picked up his cell phone and called.

“No trace of them in Germany. I think they might be dead, Uncle.”

Ilya
heard
Yuri sigh heavily.
Ilya
waited. He had an idea that Yuri doubted
Ilya’s
ability to be objective on this one
.

“Even if I found them, Uncle,
I have heard nothing about
James  flaunting
some kind of victory over us
and
he certainly isn’t in
any kind of competition.
”

Yuri thought Uncle
could afford to be magnanimous.

“Okay,
Ilya
. Come home. I have another project for you.”

FIN

105