Chapter Twenty-Five

With James following close behind her, Lily walked into the conference room where the family of Ms. Linda Bernardo and Mr. Klaus Gusev sat opposite each other across a small table. Katia Gusev squeezed a tissue in her right hand while the other hand cradled her stomach. Stuart Bernardo had been Linda Bernardo’s husband. His wrinkled face remained expressionless as Lily and James took their seats. 

Lily kept her clammy hands on her thighs. She never had to give bad news to families. In her line of work the bad news had already been given to the family and her job was to give them peace as well as a final resting place for their loved one. But James had to deal with the bad news all the time. Another aspect of law enforcement she did not love.

“Thank you for coming. Let me first say I’m so sorry for what’s taken place. The circumstances that occurred have never happened in this funeral home before and it never will happen again.” 

Lily watched for Stuart and Katia’s expressions. Katia had been wiping away tears since she sat down while Stuart’s expression remained stoic. 

“What happened to my poor Klaus?” Katia said in between sniffles.

“It seems we had an infiltration into our family business by someone who called themselves a friend.”

“Oh, that’s terrible,” Katia remarked. “What a betrayal.”

“That’s exactly right. It was completely unexpected. We were blind-sided.”

James cleared his throat and added. “But luckily, Lily had some suspicions and she pursued him until she could prove his guilt.” 

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to him fast enough,” Lily added. 

James stood and walked around the table to give Lily’s shoulders a squeeze. She swallowed. Her heart sank to her knees. She’d been ruthless in getting Rick to pay the piper, but it hadn’t been fast enough for these families.

“Rick Drakon came to Manorview with a plan. He’d been invited to stay here to help us out. Since he was a detective, we thought he would be an asset to us.”

“A detective?” Stuart Bernardo blurted out. “So you had a crooked cop?”

“It appears so.”

“That’s a pretty good cover.” 

Lily nodded at him. “It’s a very good one. Until he began behaving suspiciously and infiltrating my staff. Eventually, I found out what he was doing with my clients.”

Katia’s eyes went wide. She gripped the tissue to her chest. 

Lily continued. “Rick Drakon was a con artist. All he wanted was to be seen as powerful and cunning. He tricked many people out of their hard-earned cash. He decided my funeral home would be perfect for his next scheme.”

Stuart leaned forward while his knee bounced up and down. “What did he do with the bodies?”

Rhythmic thundering in Lily’s chest made her want to faint. She took in several deep breaths. “The evidence suggests that he burned them in a ritualistic type of sacrifice.”

Katia cried out first. James moved in close to console her. “My poor Klaus. How could this happen?” 

Stuart rubbed his eyes. “What kind of evil person would do this?” 

“Someone who didn’t care about anyone but himself. Someone who was raised in an atmosphere of criminal behavior,” Lily replied.

The veins in Stuart’s neck visibly pulsed. “Why would he do that? That sounds like something an insane person would do.”

“It is insane. He was charging people money to be part of the ritual while he exalted himself as their leader. He was basically running a cult.”

Stuart shook his head. “This is unbelievable.” 

Lily turned to face Katia. “I want you to know we would not have caught him without your help.”

Katia looked up from her tissue.

“The list of names you gave me is what led us down the right path.” 

Katia cracked a small smile. “That was Klaus working through me. He would never want this guy to go unpunished. He wanted me to give you the list.”

Lily smiled in return. “I believe it. This was a terrible tragedy.”

Katia sniffed. “At least no one else was affected.” She smiled. “I like the idea that Klaus had one more task to perform in this world. It suits his personality. Now he can rest in peace.”

James chuckled. “That’s one way to look at it. He was a brave soul.”

“Indeed,” Katia replied.

Stuart pursued his lips and looked at James. “You say Rick was a friend? How can you have missed this behavior? You’re a detective, are you not?”

James nodded. “Fair enough. We weren’t that close. He lived in The City, so we didn’t see each other all that often.”

Stuart’s eyebrows went up. 

James slapped his thigh. “In full disclosure I may not have wanted to believe he was doing those things. I met Rick when we both worked at NYPD. He was introduced to me as the schmoozer because he had a way of getting people to like him. It worked on me. I liked him. There was no reason to suspect anything. Whatever he was doing behind everyone’s back he was getting away with right under everyone’s nose.”

“He never said anything about wanting easy money?” Lily asked. “Or was it the power he loved?”

“What man doesn’t want more money or more clout? His upbringing wasn’t great.”

Lily’s ears perked up. “Wasn’t great?”

“I don’t know the details, but I know his parents exposed him to crime as a child. I assumed that’s why he went the other way into law enforcement to try and stay away from trouble” 

“Sick people.” Katia added. 

James looked at Lily. “I’m the last person who would judge someone’s past.”

“You’re a detective. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?” Stuart asked.

James slumped in his chair, looking defeated. “You’re right. Maybe I should retire.” 

Lily turned to him. “You are good. But you were blinded by your friendship.”

“I’m sorry for both of you,” James said to Katia and Stuart. 

“I’d like to have a small memorial for Linda and Klaus here if you’d allow it, a gathering to remember them,” Lily said.

“That sounds lovely,” Katia replied.

Stuart nodded. “Yes, that would be nice.”

“Perfect. Thank you for coming and being so understanding.”

Katia and Stuart stood up and made their way to the front door as Lily hoped they had renewed confidence in her and the Reynolds Funeral Home. Katia’s tears seemed to have dried up for the moment. Lily took that as a positive sign.

“Thanks for coming,” she said as the two walked to their cars. “We’ll talk soon.” She waved and hated the awkwardness in the setting of overwhelming guilt. 

“I think that went well,” James said. 

“It went as well as this horrible mess could have but it’s incredibly embarrassing.”

He shut the door after she walked back inside. “It’s over. We can move on to the next embarrassing thing.”

Lily turned and shot him the death stare. 

“Oh, come on. You’re now going to host weddings here. From experience I know they’re nothing but trouble.”

She cocked her head. “We’ll see about that.”

“And now you have to plan a memorial for Klaus and Linda. I’m sure there won’t be anything awkward about that.”

Lily chuckled. “It gets worse.” She led him into her office and closed the door. 

James sat in one of the chairs. “How so?”

Lily made her way to her seat behind her desk. “Marcia admitted that it was Rick who slashed my tires.” She gave him an I-told-you-so smirk. 

James bowed. “I stand corrected.”

“There’s more.”

“I don’t think I can stand more.”

Her smile faded. “Antonio was in on it, too.”

“No.”

Lily nodded. “Rick paid him to transport the bodies out of here without detection.” 

James covered his face with his hands. “Wow. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“I wasn't expecting any of it.”

“We need to do a better job hiring.”

Lily slapped the table. “I mean, who could possibly predict this?” 

“Does he know we know?”

“Chris said he hasn’t come to work for the last two days, and Zachary has been covering for him. Antonio was either tipped off or started feeling the heat.”

James rubbed his eyes. “I’ll have to bring him in.”

Lily sat back in her chair, exhausted from the day. Having to explain why your business lost bodies to someone like Rick was terrible enough but losing good employees to the same person had infuriated her. “Will it finally be over then?”

“I wish I had a crystal ball to know for certain but since I don’t, keep your eyes peeled.”

Lily sighed. “Sure thing, detective.”