Page 56 of Gone Before Goodbye

“Yes, but I’ll be asleep for it,” Oleg says.

“True.”

He stares down at his guests. “Greed isn’t what you think it is.”

His voice is thick with drink, or maybe that’s just sadness.

“What do you mean?”

“The problem is, you can’t go back. You can try. But human naturenever lets you. Wherever you are, that becomes ground zero. Greed is not ‘I need more’—it’s the fear of losing what you already have. Of going back. So you hold on tighter and keep trying to climb up. Because that’s the only way you can go. Life won’t let you stand still. You are either on your way up or you’re on your way down. And you’ll do anything not to go down.”

“That,” Maggie says, “sounds like the very definition of greed.”

He chuckles without humor. “Or a wonderful rationalization for it.”

“That too. Are you all right, Mr. Ragoravich?”

“I’m fine,” he says. “We all have our moments of melancholy.”

Maggie thinks about what Nadia said, about the rich not having real problems and how their melancholy is a luxury. What must her reaction be when her oligarch gets gloomy?

“When did I first come on your radar?” she asks.

“You mean as a physician?”

“I mean in any way.”

“I don’t know. I leave these affairs to Ivan.”

“I was his choice, then?”

“Why are you asking me this?”

“Have you heard of WorldCures Alliance?”

He frowns. “That was the charitable foundation you ran before… before your troubles?”

“Yes. Did you donate to it?”

“No. I don’t think I ever heard of it until Ivan gave me your résumé.”

“Have you heard of the Kasselton Foundation?”

“No, should I have?”

“You’re not connected to it?”

“No.” He turns back to her. “Did someone at the ball tell you I was?”

Maggie isn’t sure of the right move here. She could lie, of course, or try to back away, but there is a good chance Oleg Ragoravich wouldfigure out where she heard this. He told her already that he’d been watching her at the ball. He may have even seen her talking to Charles Lockwood. Even if he hadn’t, the entire ballroom is probably under CCTV surveillance. He could search the footage for it.

Taking all of that into account, Maggie settles for a half-truth. “Someone hinted it, yes.”

“Who?”

“An American. I didn’t catch his name.”

“From the ball?”