Egorshin eased back in his seat.
Jamison’s jaw lowered. “Wait a minute. Are you saying?”
Decker said, “ItwasMitzi’s DNA under those nails, but it wouldn’t show that she was Meryl’s daughter, because she wasn’t.You’reher father. You got Lisa pregnant in college. Did she have the baby when you were still there?”
“Damn,” muttered Mars.
Egorshin said in a subdued tone, “The day after she was born, I was recalled to my country.”
“So you just left, without a word?”
“I loved Lisa. I…wanted to be with her. Raise the child. We named her after my paternal grandmother, Maria. But I told Lisa about the name Mitzi.”
“Well, it seems to have stuck around. More than you did.”
“I could not stay. It was impossible.”
“So, she met Meryl, they got married. He adopted Mitzi. They probably never told her about it, she just thought Meryl was her real father, and they moved eventually to Burlington.” Decker paused. “And that’s why you chosethistown for your operation when the time came.”
Egorshin looked at his men and then stood and paced. “I wanted…to see what had become of her. When I arrived here to do my…work, she was…”
“A drug addict.”
“It was terrible to think that she was that way. And my dear Lisa.”
“Had cancer.”
“Yes. There was no hope.”
“What did you do then?”
“I arranged to meet Mitzi through someone.”
“Her dealer, Karl Stevens?”
“Yes. I told her that I had known her mother a long time ago and I wanted to help them. I got her mother medicine and gave it to Mitzi.”
“But you also set her father up for murder, with her help.”
Egorshin suddenly stopped pacing and roared, “He was not her father!Iwas!”
This outburst didn’t faze Decker. “You left, he didn’t. He raised her. You didn’t. He did his best to help her. You didn’t. That’s what I call a father.”
Egorshin started to pace again, rubbing the back of his head in his anxiety.
Decker watched him. “You needed to get rid of David Katz. Why?”
“He was like this one,” said Egorshin, motioning to the dead Gardiner. “Whatever we gave him was not enough.”
“But why kill the Richardses?”
“You think we didn’t have Donald Richards in our pocket too?”
“He was helping you launder funds through the bank and he wanted more?”
“It became untenable. So we acted.”
“How did you get Mitzi to go along?”