Page 52 of The Unseen (Echoes from the Past #5)

After enough time had elapsed, Valentina made her way upstairs and slipped into Dmitri’s bedroom.

The door to the bathroom was slightly ajar, and she could clearly see his profile, peaceful in repose.

The empty snifter stood on the table and a half-smoked cigar was suspended between Dmitri’s fingers, ashes falling to the tile floor as it smoldered.

“Dmitri,” Valentina called as she advanced into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. “Dmitri.”

There was no response. Dmitri appeared to be in a deep sleep.

His head lolled to the side, resting against the back of the tub, his mouth was slack, and his dark lashes fanned against his flushed cheeks.

Steam rose from the bathwater, filling the air with stifling heat and fogging the mirror.

No wonder Dmitri preferred to leave the door slightly ajar when he bathed.

Valentina leaned against the door and considered her options.

Pushing him under might prove too difficult.

He could wake up and struggle. She needed to render him helpless in order to make her task easier.

Valentina walked to the other side of the tub and stared down at Dmitri’s naked form.

Would he feel vulnerable if he knew she was looking at him, or would he enjoy the experience and find a way to make her feel uncomfortable instead?

She thought the latter. Dmitri was in good shape for a man his age.

His waist was still trim, his arms were well defined, and his legs were long and well-muscled.

He went to a boxing club three times a week.

Perhaps that was where he’d met Ian Murdoch.

Valentina wrinkled her nose in distaste at the sight of his penis, flaccid and wrinkled in the warm water.

How many women had there been, and had they been forced to submit to him as payment of some debt?

A year ago, she would not have believed Dmitri capable of such malice, but now she knew better.

Valentina shook her head in annoyance. She had to focus, not speculate about Dmitri’s secret life. The laudanum was at work, but Dmitri was a big man, and the dose, diluted by the cognac, might begin to wear off sooner rather than later. It was time to act.

Dmitri’s legs were stretched out, crossed at the ankles, his elegant feet rising above the water, since the tub wasn’t long enough to accommodate him.

Most people would have bent their legs at the knees, but he hadn’t.

Perhaps this would make it easier for her to do what had to be done.

Valentina grabbed Dmitri by the ankles and pulled upward as hard as she could.

His upper body jerked as he began to slide beneath the water.

It took only a few seconds for his head to dip below the surface.

Dmitri’s hair floated around his head, moving gently like seaweed in the ocean. It was an unsettling sight.

Valentina let out a frightened squeak and nearly let go of his ankles when Dmitri’s eyes flew open.

They appeared larger than normal, magnified by the water, and his brown stare was blank with confusion and then dawning panic.

He began to struggle, trying to grab the sides of the tub, but his hands were wet and couldn’t get a firm hold on the smooth porcelain.

Valentina’s arms trembled with effort as Dmitri thrashed, but his senses were dulled by the laudanum and his reflexes too slow.

Air bubbles rushed to the surface in furious succession as Dmitri’s mouth opened in a silent scream.

He fought to get his head above the water, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t break the surface to gulp a lifesaving breath of air.

He almost managed to yank his slippery ankles from Valentina’s grasp, but she held on for dear life, knowing that if he survived, all was lost.

Dmitri flapped like a landed fish deprived of oxygen, his eyes growing huge with terror as soapy water filled his lungs.

Water splashed over the sides of the tub and pooled on the tiled floor, but thankfully, the spot where Valentina stood remained dry, allowing her to put all her weight on her feet without losing purchase as she continued to grasp Dmitri’s ankles.

It felt like an hour had elapsed since she’d entered the bathroom, but it had probably been no more than ten minutes.

Eventually, Dmitri stopped struggling and went quiet and still. His eyes were still open, but they stared straight up at the white-painted ceiling, and his arms dropped to his sides, the hands relaxing once they stopped clawing at the tub.

Valentina held on for another few minutes, terrified that Dmitri would somehow rally and rise from the tub like some otherworldly leviathan, very much alive and intent on punishing her for what she’d tried to do.

At last, she let go of his ankles and rested her hands on the rim of the tub, desperate for support.

She was trembling and the muscles in her arms and legs ached and throbbed, unaccustomed to such strain.

She gulped in mouthfuls of air until her heart rate began to slow down and the queasiness that made her stomach feel as if it had been turned inside out finally passed.

Valentina eventually relinquished her grip on the tub and inched toward Dmitri’s torso.

He looked like some mythical merman as his hair continued to float around his head.

Valentina gingerly reached into the tub and grabbed hold of his wrist. There was no pulse, no sign of life. He was gone, really and truly gone.

She sank to the floor and leaned her forehead against the cold porcelain of the tub.

Her skirt and stockings soaked up the water that had spilled to the floor, but she hardly noticed.

Now that the deed was done, she felt as if every ounce of energy had seeped from her body.

A crushing heaviness settled on her chest, making it difficult to breathe.

She wished she could have some cognac to fortify her but remembered that it was laced with laudanum.

A glass of water would have been nice, but fetching one would require getting to her feet and she simply couldn’t find the strength to rise.

She’d thought once Dmitri was dead she’d feel a sense of euphoria.

She’d be free of him at last, but the only thing Valentina felt was an overwhelming dread that seeped into her bones along with the damp from the cooling water.

Initially, she’d planned to tell the authorities that Dmitri’s death was an accident.

Surely a person could drown in the bath if they were intoxicated, but in order to report the death to the police she’d have to erase any trace of laudanum and signs of struggle.

She wasn’t well versed in British law, but she knew that in cases of suspicious death, an inquest was held, and sometimes there was a postmortem.

Dmitri had read to them from the paper when there was an interesting case a few months back.

Ground glass had been discovered in the stomach of the victim, who’d bled to death internally, compliments of his long-suffering wife. The woman was hanged.

If a postmortem were performed, would traces of laudanum be discovered?

How long did it remain in the body? No one in their right mind would take laudanum before a bath, especially a person who didn’t use it on a regular basis.

Dmitri had been in good health, anyone would attest to that, especially his doctor, who’d prescribed the laudanum for Elena’s nerves and would know exactly where it’d come from.

Perhaps the authorities would even uncover signs of a struggle.

To Valentina, the only thing out of place was the spilled bathwater, but an experienced policeman might notice something that wasn’t obvious to her. What could she do to hide her crime?

She looked around wildly. Her body had been nearly inert a few moments ago but now once again thrummed with tension.

There was no way she could dispose of Dmitri’s body.

He was too heavy, and even if she managed to get him out of the house, which was a very big if, what then?

She could hardly bury him in the back garden.

The motorcar was parked in front of the house, but she didn’t know how to drive, and dragging a grown man’s body from the house to the car would surely attract attention, even in the middle of the night.

Besides, where would she take him if she could figure out how to drive?

Dump him in the Thames and watch him get carried away by the current?

Corpses float , she thought grimly. His body would be discovered and an inquest would still be held.

She’d be implicated one way or another, having been the last person to see him alive.

No, the body had to remain in the house, at least for now .

She had to stop panicking and think. What she did in the next few minutes could mean the difference between life and death for her.

Valentina used all her resolve to pull herself up off the floor and began to wipe the wet floor with the towels so the moisture wouldn’t seep between the tiles and stain the ceiling of the room below.

At least she didn’t have to worry about Mrs. Stern, who would have discovered Dmitri’s corpse as soon as she arrived in the morning and came up to bring him his cup of tea. The new housekeeper wasn’t due to start for two days, so no one would enter Dmitri’s room until then.