She wanted to tell him that that was nonsense, she was not in the business of taking funny turns and that under normal circumstances, visiting two crime scenes in one day was certainly not out of the ordinary for her and was something that she could manage perfectly fine. Looking at his kind, concerned face and seeing the worry reflected in his lovely brown eyes, she left the words unsaid, not wanting to hurt him.
'I suppose that's it,' she agreed, smiling. All she really wanted now was some time to herself to try and process her thoughts, and attempt to make some sense of it all. Perhaps she was coming down with something? Maybe she picked up a bug on the plane or somewhere?
As though he had read her mind, Agni said, 'Look, why don't I leave you to yourself for a bit? It's getting on for six now, and I'll come back in an hour or so, and we can see about getting some dinner. What do you think? Will you be alright here on your own? I could call downstairs and ask for them to send a doctor if you think that might be helpful?'
‘A doctor? No, that won't be necessary, Agni. I do have a terrible headache, but I have some painkillers in my bag, and I'm sure that is all I need. Dinner sounds wonderful, thank you, and please don't worry about me. I will be fine.'
'I'm in room six on this floor. If you need anything, please call me.'
Once he had left, she locked the door and looked around her room. It was basic, nothing fancy, a very comfortable double bed, two side tables, and the armchair that Agni had been sitting in when she woke up. Mounted onto the wall opposite the foot of the bed was a small television set. In addition to the flower-patterned wallpaper, two framed prints hung opposite each other, one a forest scene, the other of a shipwreck. She looked closely at the one of the forest, to her, it looked very similar to Koptyaki, but she could not be sure whether it was. The bathroom was small but clean and tidy. She unpacked her suitcase, folding her clothes neatly into the chest of drawers and hanging her skirts and the one formal dress she had brought with her in the wardrobe. She placed the framed photo of Amy and Tara that she had brought with her on the bedside table, along with her Romanov book.
After unpacking and putting her toiletries into the bathroom cabinet, she ran a bath, sprinkling in a liberal amount of her favourite bath salts so that the water foamed and smelt comfortingly of rose and lavender. She lay eyes closed, enjoying the feel of the hot water relaxing the tenseness in her neck and back.
The mundane tasks of unpacking and placing her personal items around the room had distracted her thoughts, but now that she was relaxed, she felt able to revisit the sights and experiences of the day. The memory of the scene of the murders in the basement room, as shown to her by Olga, was fresh in her mind.
It was as though she had been watching a movie on a large screen in a theatre, except this was much more realistic than any movie; she could smell the blood and the gun-smoke, and her ears were ringing from the sound of screaming and gunfire. That didn't happen in any movie she had ever seen!
She went over and over it again, the images imprinted on her mind, from the moment Olga had got out of bed in the small cramped room she shared with her sisters, to the time that she fell, shot through the head in a spray of blood on a painted yellow floor. She sat up, suddenly shivering, and registering that the water had grown cold, heaved herself out of the bath and wrapped herself in a large towel.
She could not understand why these murders, in particular, were affecting her so much, both emotionally and physically. The feeling of closeness to Olga was getting stronger, and she felt such a bond with the dead woman. It frightened her while at the same time, intrigued her. Did she want to know more; could she handle it? She had always been a bit dubious about people who professed to hold psychic powers or to have an affinity with the dead, although she knew that the Met sometimes sought their help on cases that had gone cold and that they had been reasonably successful in helping to provide additional clues.
But, she reasoned with herself, I am not psychic and never have been. Today was simply my imagination working overtime in addition to travelling and being in a foreign country.
May put on a skirt and light blouse; it was a warm evening, and the hot bath had completely dispelled her chills from earlier in the afternoon, and as she had thought they would, the painkillers had taken her headache away.
While waiting for Agni to come to get her, she looked at the photograph in her book again, concentrating hard on the faces of the family, in particular, Olga's, and as before, felt a frisson of unbearable grief run through her, a total and utter sense of loss, and underlying that, the strong feeling that there was unfinished business, that the story was not complete.
'There is a dining room downstairs, the food is plain, but it is good. Are you happy to eat there?' Agni asked her with a smile when she opened the door to his knock at seven.
May was, she didn't want to venture out again today, and they chose a table by the window and settled down to read the menu. She chose soup and black bread, with lamb cutlets and fresh vegetables from the local market to follow. Agni ordered a beer, and May settled for chilled water.
'I hope you don't mind,' he said while they were waiting, 'but I have asked Katya Titova to join us for dinner. Remember I told you that she is one of the archaeologists on the team, and she was involved in the exhumation of the remains from the grave?' He took a sip of his beer. 'I think it will be useful for you to talk to her before you see the remains tomorrow.'
'Yes, of course, she replied,' I do remember. That will be very useful, thank you for arranging it, Agni. Is Katya staying here too?'
'Most of the team are staying here, except for the Americans who haven't arrived yet. We are expecting them later in the week.'
At that moment, May noticed a woman approaching their table. She looked to be in her mid-forties, and was tall, with long blond hair held up in an untidy bun. As she got closer, May saw that she had the most amazing slate grey eyes, and her skin while clear and flawless was tanned, as May would have expected from someone who spent a lot of time working outside. Agni stood up, greeting her with a kiss on her cheek. 'Katya, I am so glad that you could make it, I know that you have had a tiring day. Please sit, I will order you a drink, and I am happy to introduce you to May, from the London Police.'
Katya sat and reached across the table to shake May's hand. 'I am so pleased to meet you,' she said, smiling. 'I am sorry that you didn't make it out today to our investigation - I hesitate to call it a lab, but I suppose that technically that is what it is. I understand from Agni though that you had an eventful day anyway?'
'Yes,' agreed May, returning Katya's smile. 'It certainly was interesting.'
Katya ordered her meal, and as they waited, they exchanged small talk, avoiding for the moment the topic of the excavation and the work that was going on at the makeshift lab at the police firing range.
'We have a lot to talk about.' Katya finally said as they were eating their soup, 'and I have a lot that I want to catch you up on, but I don't want to discuss it here, in public.' She motioned around the dining room, which was beginning to fill up, and become noisy. 'This entire operation is being treated with the utmost secrecy, so I don't want anyone here overhearing our conversation and contributing to the gossip that is already swirling around Ekaterinburg.' She laughed bitterly and continued. 'After dinner, we shall go to your room, and we can talk properly then.'
'Yes, of course, that will be perfectly fine.' May replied.
They continued with their dinner, which May found to be enjoyable, the food was plain as Agni had said, but it was hot, delicious, and plentiful. She hadn't appreciated just how hungry she was and ate everything she was served. She was very tempted to try the gateau but declined dessert and sat back instead with a cup of coffee, beginning to feel more like herself than she had since leaving London.
Back in her room, she and Katya perched on her bed while Agni took the chair, placing it against the door before he sat. Agni produced a bottle of vodka and three small glasses from his
pocket, raising his eyebrow enquiringly at May before pouring them each a glass.
'I certainly am glad you are here May.' Katya said, smiling wearily. 'Not only because it will be nice to have another woman to work with, but because I have so many concerns about this, and no-one; apart from Agni here, of course, to discuss them with.'
'Tell me.' said May, taking a sip of her vodka. It was cold and potent and slid smoothly down her throat.
'Agni will have told you that I was at the excavation of the bodies in the forest, yes?' Katya rubbed her face with the back of her hand, and May noticed for the first time that she looked exhausted.
'I have been doing this type of work for many years, so have attended and supervised many exhumations, and I have never until now seen anything as strange or as disturbing as this one was.'
'In what way?' May asked.
'Well, obviously the secrecy, but more than that, it was just the rushed way in which it took place. None of the normal protocols for a dig such as this were followed, people were coming and going, anyone who wanted to was digging and removing bones; there was just no control at all over the site.' Katya shook her head sadly. 'The dig was corrupted. I saw men yanking bones from the ground, dislocating body parts, scattering bones around the grave, manhandling the remains. It was unconscionable.' She took a large gulp of her vodka, grimaced and held her glass out to Agni for a refill. 'It was completely disordered, and experts should have done it in months, not days.'
'Tell me about the site. I've seen it, but I need to imagine what it looked like before the excavation.'
'Well, as you saw, it was a shallow grave. We began late in the morning on July 11, and after several hours, found the remains of what appeared to be rotted railway ties, along with branches, wood, and some stones, all as though some considerable attempt of concealment was made. We didn't find the first human remains until quite late that night, around eight or nine, I think. It was a pelvic bone. It was quite easy for us to see where the grave had been disturbed some years ago -'
'Agni told me about that.' May interrupted. 'I find it quite unbelievable.'
'I agree. We found the wooden box which contained the three skulls that had been removed in 1978. They had wrapped them in plastic bags before reburying them. Not long after that, we began discovering other human bones. We stopped at about eleven that first night, and were ordered to stay on-site, sleeping in tents, not even permitted to return here for fresh clothes, such was the secrecy. We started again at eight the following morning. The previous digging had caused significant damage to the original grave and its contents, and once we were able to widen and deepen it, we found that there were indeed multiple remains, most of which had been disturbed. We also found several ceramic fragments.'
'What would they have been from do you think?'
'We believe they are the remains of containers that possibly contained acid or petrol or some other substance that may have been thrown over the bodies to try to disfigure or destroy them. Some of the soil is stained, as you would expect if acid was used, but we will need to conduct tests to find out for sure.'
'Dear God.' May whispered.
'Yes, indeed. I have never seen a site containing so many bodies at one time, and particularly ones that were so damaged. It broke my heart.' Katya paused, gathering her thoughts before continuing. 'Because of the shallowness of the grave, the bodies had just been thrown in, one on top of each other, and we found that some had even been jammed sideways or bent to make them fit. This was not an attempt at a proper burial; it was a poorly carried out disposal, a truly terrible sight.
'And there were nine altogether?'
'Yes, nine.'
'Did you find anything else apart from the human remains?'
'Yes. Fragments of rope, the ceramic pots as I have already described, fragments of a hand grenade, bullets, which had obviously still been in the bodies when they were thrown in.'
'And Agni said that it only took three days to complete the dig?'
'Yes. We completed it on the 13th. Three days was all the time that we were allowed to excavate a grave that size, containing so many bodies and so much forensic evidence. I was, and am still shocked that everything happened so quickly and so badly. I tried to protest, but it was pointless.'
'Luckily for us, however, we have managed to have Katya retained as part of the investigation team,' said Agni, 'so we will have some continuity of care during the next phase.'
'And the remains are now being examined at the Police firing range?'
'Yes, and I also have grave concerns about that, too, but you will soon be able to judge that for yourself.' Katya replied.
'What are they thinking, Katya? Agni told me the early thinking is that it is the Romanov grave?'
'Everything points in that direction May. It is an old grave, at least sixty years by my estimation, the location according to talk of a mass killing at the time is consistent, and the number of bodies corresponds, although…….'
'There appear to be two missing?'
'Yes, by all accounts, there should be eleven.' Katya looked at her watch and stood up. 'It's getting late, I am sorry, but I need to rest. I will see you both in the morning.' She got up, and to May's surprise, gave her a quick hug. 'I am so glad you are here,' she said again, with a sad smile.
Agni made his farewells also, telling May that he would collect her from the lobby the following morning, and once he had gone, May managed to make a quick phone call home to let Matt know that she was safe and well. He told her that the girls were in bed and that everything was fine. He had treated them to McDonald's for tea.
'I might be here for longer than I thought, Matt,' she explained. 'Things seem to be quite chaotic. I'll find out more tomorrow.'
'Don't worry about it, love, I am fine here, take as long as you need, providing, of course, that James lets you.' He laughed.
James, she thought as she hung up. He will be wondering what is happening. It was too late to ring him at the office now, and she decided that she must do so as soon as possible tomorrow.
Eight
Sverdlovsk Firing Range
August 1991
The following morning, they travelled in silence as Agni drove them to the police firing range at Sverdlovsk, each busy with their own thoughts. May barely took notice of her surroundings; she was tired, usually a heavy sleeper, last night had been disturbed with dreams, flashbacks to the visions she had seen yesterday. They were still vivid in her mind, loud and glaring, and frightening. She couldn't shake them, no amount of strong hot coffee at breakfast had helped. She dreaded the coming day, fully aware that she was never at her best when working tired, and that concerned her because she wanted to make an excellent first impression on the Russians. There was a lump of anxiety in her stomach, and a tightness in her chest, almost as though she was coming down with a cold, as she had wondered yesterday. She took a couple of deep breaths, exhaling slowly, clearing her mind and steadying her nerves. Although it was only a short drive, she was glad when they arrived, as she was starting to feel carsick.
Agni parked the car outside the station, a squat unattractive concrete building, and they went inside. He signed them in at the front desk; the policeman on duty appeared disinterested in them; however, Agni said quietly, 'I want to make sure that all of our visits are properly recorded, just in case.' May wasn't sure what he meant, but she followed him and Katya into a large room, obviously the firing range; new and used targets were still attached to the back wall.
May was astounded at the sight that met her. The cement floor was partially covered with nine large sheets of brown paper with piles of disordered bones placed on top of each sheet. They appeared to have been placed there at random. She turned and looked at Katya, aghast. 'What is happening here?'
'The bones were brought here in trunks, and a sheet of paper has been allocated for each partially intact skeleton. After the bones were washed and dried, we placed them on the corresponding sheet, and we are now in t
he process of matching each bone as we reassemble the skeletons for identification.' Katya explained tersely.
May saw that the nine exhumed skeletons were still partially intact and laid on tables and that two men were moving between them, placing bone fragments next to each one, as though trying to fit them into place. Some of the bones had a number between one and nine painted on them, apparently done when that particular bone had been identified as belonging to its corresponding skeleton.
Katya led May over to one of the men. 'Nikhil here is May, from England. Nikhil is our chief of forensics here and in charge of the investigation.' Katya explained.
He was an older man, perhaps in his early sixties, May guessed, the top of his head was bald, but he wore his hair long at the sides, she wondered if he grew it like that in an attempt to conceal his sticky-out ears. He had a kindly face, his skin pale, which accentuated the bright red spots on each cheek.
'May, I am pleased to meet you.' He spoke in heavily accented English. 'We are delighted that you have been able to come and assist us here, please forgive the conditions you find us in. It is nearly impossible to do this work here, but let me show you what we are doing.'
He led her around each table, explaining that when the remains had arrived, he had ordered them washed to remove the covering layers of mud, dirt, and other debris.
'Were they photographed before washing?' May asked and was surprised to hear that they hadn't been. 'It is something that I would have recommended doing,' she said carefully. 'To protect forensic evidence. Was the used water kept?'
'No, we did not think that was necessary.'
Although she had found his response to her question to be disturbing, she decided not to say anything; for whatever reason, they had decided to do things differently to anything she had seen or done before.
May continued to follow him from table to table as he went on,
'You can see what a huge task it is going to be, which is why we are very thankful that the London Police agreed for you to come here to assist us. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, not one skeleton was able to be recovered fully intact, and therefore, we have hundreds of bone fragments to sort through here and try to match to each skeleton. To make matters worse, the bones are badly damaged, either as a result of human intervention at the time of death or by time and the conditions in which they have been interred. The grave was in boggy ground, and they would have been in the water for most of the time. The skulls, in particular, have suffered intense damage.'
The Girl With the Crystal Soul Page 7