Two steps one direction and one and a half the other. She’d called the detectives named on the card and now awaited their arrival. She’d also told Simon about the note and immediately regretted it. Afterward it took a good thirty minutes trying to calm him down. The detective she spoke to was pleasant but wouldn’t say what they wanted over the phone, so there was nothing Magda could tell Simon to put him at ease. Back home, Magda had considered all police to be corrupt, either in one organization’s pocket or another’s. A well-placed contribution in Varna would make just about any problem go away. But here in America, she’d tried to avoid that which she didn’t understand, and that meant avoiding contact with the local authorities. She remembered talking to Long Beach Police detectives after her husband’s beating and the break-in at their home. They all seemed helpful, concerned, but she knew they could never get to Demitri before Demitri could assassinate her entire family, so she’d stayed quiet.
