Chapter 50

“What happened next?” Luke seemed very interested. “Did the guy with the scars come back?”

“Not quite. I found a dead, half-eaten hare on my property several days after he left. It was a little too close to the house for it to have been the work of a lynx or a wild dog. I didn’t think much of it, I had other things to think about.”

Mirko raised his eyebrows, displeased:

“So it was because of that! You thought I did it, and you punished me for a week without comics. You’ve never punished me before.”

“Yes, I know. And I was wrong, son, I’m sorry.” Ivan looked at him patiently and caressed his face again. That time, you could see the deep regret in his eyes. “The hare had been in the snow for a few days and I no longer had a way of knowing who had killed it, it was decomposing. I assumed it was you because you were so eager for me to take you hunting. You didn’t want to wait for the holidays, remember?”

The boy nodded, and another urgent sentence came from