She gave a wan smile. "It was a long time ago. It is part of life."

An amazing woman.

"Can I ask you another question about something different?"

She nodded.

"Did you ever hear from them something about eggs?"

Emil translated. She chuckled. The memories of the last few minutes tucked away.

"The eggs. I had forgotten about the eggs. The man from the other country and one of the four were very interested in eggs. They found them with the gold."

"Do you know what happened to them?"

"Not for sure. But I am guessing Mikey took them back to America."

Eva was getting tired.

"Can we ask you one more question?"

"Yes, then I must rest."

Sabrina pulled out her cell and brought up the picture. "Does this house look familiar?"

"Yes, I remember the gravestone. It was there for many years, but fell down in a storm a long time ago." She said something else to Emil, hopefully directions. They were.

"She told me where to look," he said. "It's not far from here."

*****

"So what's the deal with eggs?" asked Emil on our quest to dig up some gold.

"That's the other half of the equation," I answered. As we walked, we gave him the story of the eggs and the Russians. Along the way, he enlisted the aid of two men with shovels.

"Have you actually seen these Russians?" he asked.

"No," I replied, "but we know they exist. I have bullets in the side of my house to prove it, and we almost died getting here."

"I'm not questioning whether the men exist, just whether or not they are Russians."

"Based on Vlad, and the fact that he was working for another Russian, as well as Russia being the source of the eggs, we just assumed," said Sabrina.

"Also the fact that the Russian mob is known for its viciousness—at least in the movies they are," I added. Sounded kind of lame.

"Seems farfetched to me," said Emil. "Sort of like protectors of the Holy Grail being passed down from one generation to the next."

When he put it that way …

"So what are you thinking?" asked Sabrina.

"Something more modern. Closer to home."

"But who?" I asked. "Almost everyone who has come in contact with this case has been affected by these guys."

"Almost?"

"Us, Mario's men, Izzy, Russ Simpson …"

"How about the Flynns?" said Sabrina. "Izzy went to see them early on, but they gave no indication of having been threatened."

Our conversation was brought to an abrupt halt by the appearance of Mario and his men from inside a factory building we were passing.

"Shovels. That's a good sign," he said, sidling up to us. "Look," he said before we could respond, "I'm not going anywhere. I'll just keep following you. Let's just call a truce. If we find the gold, we can discuss the options then. If we don't, we'll all at least have a little more protection against those you call the Russians."