Chapter Three
While Irinanda spent her evening in the dubious pleasure of Danil Dubin’s company, Konrad walked home alone, his mind busy with a difficult decision that he had to make.
If he was to enact vengeance for the deaths of Orlov and Ivan in the usual manner, he required some piece of their physical bodies with which to do it. Typically, he took a bone from the rib cage. The process was messy and invasive, and he wouldn’t do it lightly.
Did he have enough evidence to justify the taking of a rib from each of the two men? He had to be certain that their deaths were unnatural, and he still wasn’t, quite. But the ceremonial burning of Pietr Orlov’s body would probably take place on the morrow, and Ivan’s funeral soon afterwards. If he was going to do it, it would have to be tonight.
