the garments and shoes out of the space and flung them all over. Undershirts, crisp and laundered littered the floor. Yuri’s clothing was piled in the corner. Jeans and pants ripped as if there were secret compartments sewed-in on the insides.
I considered the mess. “It was small. Something that could be hidden in a pocket.”
There were another small color photograph in a brass frame. The photograph was of Yuri’s mother next to what I assumed was his father. They had opened the frame and looked inside of it.
Wait a minute. The other framed photographs were messed with.
“Okay.” I set the frame down. “Whatever it is, I think it can be hidden behind a picture too. But I’m not sure. We’re talking about something small and thin.”
“Maybe an article or letter.”
“Or a photo too. A page from something. Whatever it is, the person wouldn’t want Kaz or me to see it. I’m sure this deals with the dead gorilla and decapitated monkey heads.”
“Yuri found something that would point to somebody—”
“And the person killed him because of it.”
A tiny shelf had been toppled over on the other side of the bedroom. A collection of books were scattered around, all in Russian, all with pages torn out and ripped.
I rummaged through one pile. There were twenty paperbacks and ten big hardcovers. I ran my finger along the paperbacks. Due to the Russian, I didn't recognize any of the titles or any of the authors. They all had cracked spines and yellow-edged pages. They all seemed to be religious texts. Inside them, I spotted holy crosses and black and white images of people with saint halos above their heads.
“Yo, this is becoming a busy day.” Max entered. “What are we looking for?”
“No idea.”
Sarcasm coated his voice. “Oh goodie. My favorite thing to look for.”
I lowered myself to the ground and looked under a chair. “It might be small and thin like a letter, page, news clipping, picture. But we really don’t know what it is.”
There was a chair next to the bookcase. It must’ve been her reading space. I lifted the chair cushion and checked under it. Nothing.
“Check the bathroom, Max.” I went through some of the clothes on the floor. “Check the toilet tank and under the sink.”
“Bathroom duty. Awesome.” Max headed that way.
I ran my fingers through my hair. “Boris, if Yuri was hiding something, where do you think he would put it? You knew him well.”
“I was thinking that too. There’s one place he would hide things, when we were kids.” Boris walked over to the mattress, placed it back on the frame, and did the other one.
“He used to hide cigarettes and porno mags in his mother’s bedroom. She was really religious and was always checking up on him, going through his things. So he would hide the stuff right above her because that would be the last place she would look.”
“How did he get the stuff?”
“Any time she took a bath or left to go grocery shopping.”
“Make sense.
“Later, when he started selling drugs, he would place some of it up here.” Once the bed was put back in order, he climbed on top of it, pushed up the ceiling tile, and dug his hands through the space. “Maybe, he did it again. He had this box that he used for small items.”
“I’m sorry about Yuri and his mother. I’ll fix this, Boris.”
“No. We’ll fix this together.”
“Yeah. We will.”
“Here it is.” He pulled out a wooden box from the ceiling and then left the bed. “Maybe, he put whatever it is inside of this”
“God, I hope so.”
Boris brought it over to me.
Kaz’s men were about to walk into the bedroom.
I shook my head. “Stay out there.”
I didn’t know who I could trust anymore. At this moment, I would only have faith in Kaz and my people. Others would be guilty until proven innocent.
Boris opened the wooden box. “I’ve never seen this photo before.”
I looked.
A black and white picture sat inside of it. Six men stood in suits. A few had tattoos peeking out of the suit jackets from their wrists and near their collars, suggesting they were Bratva. That was the tame part of the image. The horror came on the ride of the picture. One of the men held a chained leash. On the other end of the leash, a naked black man sat on all fours on the floor like a dog.
I swallowed. “You’ve never seen this before?”
“No. I would have remembered.”
Boris pointed to the naked black man.