Caught the metro home and slept like I didn't know nothing else. Woke up. Dara handed me my mug. I topped it off with some bourbon. Told her Viktor was after George cause George got his sister pregnant some twenty years ago. Sat there, tapping my finger cause there was still something wrong. Didn't know what, though. Just got caught in the middle of some high school love story. I wished they coulda let go, but I knew what it was like to not let go of a dame. Still working on it today.
We knew why Viktor was mad, so how were we gonna get him to stop? From what we'd seen, he didn't want money. Already had power. Hid himself real well. Had a wife, a family. He just wanted to take the guy got his sister pregnant and buy up his theater.
Thing was, it wasn't even revenge. They were giving him above market value for a rundown theater. Sure, in 15 years, if it laster that long, mighta been worth a fortune. Right now, it looked like it was dragging George down. Then again, what if George really had been talking about this theater since high school, and Viktor knew it was his dream? People paid a lot more than Viktor was talking about to ruin someone's dreams.
We drove over to the Vanguard, talked to George. Told him about Tanya. He didn't remember her. He rattled off on his fingers a list of names, said none of them got pregnant. He made sure, made them all stand up after to keep them from getting pregnant, and none of them ever told him they had kids, at least, not where he was the dad. What a slob.
I told him it was Viktor's sister, asked if he had a yearbook somewhere. He grabbed 4 from his bookshelf right behind him, and the 3 of us started flipping through everything. Found Tanya Lubchenko and Viktor Lubchenko side by side in the junior year yearbook. After, looking at the pics, I asked if he remembered Viktor. He said he did now, just couldn't remember Viktor's last name. Scrawny guy, big eyebrows. He sat there, then snapped his fingers, remembered Tanya. Cute, but quiet. That one took a while to warm up to him. Then he kept on talking, said that he bullied Viktor. Locked the kid in a locker once.
George got a real sour look. He raised his eyebrow, said he wasn't gonna apologize to the guy, that it was high school, he needed to move on. Everyone did stupid stuff, and it wasn't really his fault that the Lubchenkos sent Tanya to the nun house. He woulda paid for the abortion if she stuck around.
Classiest slob I ever met. I hadta put my hand on Dara's shoulder and clamp down a little, cause I could tell she was about to go full-on dame on him. At the same time, if I didn't put my hand on her shoulder, then I'd put my fist through his face.
I put it to him real simple. He was gonna lose the Vanguard if he didn't figure a way to get Viktor off his back. Far as we knew, Viktor was still mad about high school. George's best chance was to go over and apologize. Told him we were gonna go to George's business, Dara was gonna tell him to knock off the funny stuff. George could also come along, at least ask for forgiveness, or get ready to sign over his theater.
On the way over, George's jaw was real set. He was working his jaw over like there was some old beef jerky in there. Maybe it wasn't the best idea we had, making the 2 of them meet, but we didn't have much else.
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