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sign of respect that she would offer one of them to me.
    I shook my head. ‘No, thanks. I have a ton of reading for school.’ I preferred reading on my slate, and I wasn’t much into fiction anyway.
    Imogen checked my grandmother’s machines one last time before she bid us goodnight.
    ‘I suppose you found Leonyd,’ Nana said after Imogen had left.
    ‘I did.’ I paused, uncertain whether to trouble Nana with the story of where (and with whom) Leo had been.
    ‘He was at the Pool with Pirozhki and Fats,’ Nana said. ‘I asked him this morning.’
    ‘Well, what’s your opinion?’
    Nana shrugged her shoulders, which made her cough. ‘Maybe it’s a good thing. It’s nice that the family has taken an interest in your brother. Leo’s too much among us women. He could stand for some male companionship in his life.’
    I shook my head. ‘I don’t have a good feeling about this, Nana. Jakov Pirozhki is not exactly trustworthy.’
    ‘Still, he’s family, Anya. And family takes care of family. That’s how it’s done. That’s how it’s always been done. Besides, Fats, at least, seems a decent enough sort.’ Nana coughed again, and I poured her some water from a pitcher on the nightstand. ‘Thank you, devochka .’
    ‘Leo said something about getting a job at the Pool.’
    Nana’s eyes widened for a moment and then she nodded. ‘He didn’t tell me that part. Well, there have certainly been made men that were far more simple-minded than Leo.’
    ‘Like who?’
    ‘Like . . . Like . . . Like . . . I’ve got it!’ She smiled triumphantly. ‘Like Viktor Popov. He was of my generation. Six feet ten inches, three hundred and fifty pounds. Would have been one hell of a football player, if he could have remembered the rules. The other guys called him Viktor the Mule to his face and the Donkey behind his back. When they needed someone to move the stuff from the back of the truck, they’d call the Mule every time. It doesn’t matter how high-tech things get, sometimes you need a guy who’s good with manual labour.’
    I nodded. Nana was making some sense. For the first time since Leo had gone missing, I felt my stomach muscles unclench a little. ‘What happened to Viktor the Mule anyway?’
    ‘That’s not the important part.’
    ‘Nana.’
    ‘He got shot in the head. Bled to death. A real shame.’ Nana shook her head.
    ‘Not exactly a good end, Nana. And Leo’s not exactly the Mule’s body type,’ I said. My brother was tall, but he was thin as paper.
    ‘My point is, devochka, that it takes all kinds to run the business. And your brother’s a big boy now.’
    I gritted my teeth.
    ‘Anyaschka, you’re too much like your father. You want to control the whole world and everyone in it, but you can’t. Let whatever this is – and it’s likely nothing – play out. If we need to intervene later, we will. Besides, Leo would never leave the clinic. He loves the animals too much.’
    ‘So we do nothing?’
    ‘Sometimes that’s the only thing to do,’ Nana said. ‘Although . . .’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘Get yourself a bar of chocolate from the closet,’ she ordered.
    ‘Chocolate doesn’t solve everything, Nana.’
    ‘It solves a whole heck of a lot, though,’ she said.
    I walked into her closet. I pushed past the coats to open the safe. I moved the gun out of the way. I took a chocolate bar: Balanchine Special Dark. I put the gun back. I closed the safe.
    Something wasn’t right.
    One of the guns was missing. My father’s Smith & Wesson.
    ‘Nana?’ I called.
    She didn’t answer. I went back into her bedroom. She was already fast asleep.
    ‘Nana,’ I repeated, shaking her shoulder.
    ‘What?’ she sputtered. ‘What?’
    ‘One of the guns is missing,’ I said. ‘From the safe. Daddy’s gun.’
    ‘Were you planning to use it tonight? Take the Colt instead.’ Nana chuckled and that turned into a choke, so I gave her water. ‘Imogen probably moved it. I think she mentioned something about