“When are you coming home?” Linda was asking.
“Not sure. A couple of hours maybe. Will you be OK?”
“Of course, I’ve got a bottle of wine to keep me company.”
“Oh dear, we are feeling sorry for ourselves.”
She laughed, a little too loud, and I suspected she’d already found company with the wine. “Just get your arse back here as soon as poss,” she said.
I spent almost five minutes keying Stubbing’s number into my phone then looked at the clinical audit report on my desk which Galbraith desperately wanted back. He seemed more exercised about it than the pearls, which, judging by Stubbing’s reaction, had more significance than I’d realised, but then he had the pearls in his possession and was unaware that the police knew about them. Had they found a pearl on or near Bogdana’s body and kept quiet about it? They sometimes keep certain things out of the public domain as a way of keeping one step ahead of a murderer but also to eliminate the people who feel compelled to confess to a crime they didn’t commit.
I put the report in an envelope and sealed it with brown tape, then wrote his name and hospital address on the front and stamped it “Private & Confidential” – I would drop it off at the hospital tomorrow. I had no desire to leave it in the office overnight, scanned or not scanned.
But as I locked up to go to Rhianna’s an idea started to percolate, something that would help Linda. The timing was critical though, as I needed to neutralise Badem. I rang Sandra as I walked up Lensfield Road.
“How’s it going?” I asked.
“Fine. We’re just having a break. Are you coming?”
“I just need to make a quick stop.”
* * *
Standing in Kamal’s kitchenette I watched Chris put a ready meal in the microwave and set the timer. It was an unpleasant reminder of my own efforts when I was alone for any period. Kamal was on an evening shift so we had the place to ourselves.
“I’m sorry about my tantrum last time,” he said. “I’ve been under a lot of stress. Kamal explained that you weren’t working for Galbraith in that way.”
“No worries. Any developments at work?”
“Not really. I mean, they returned our computers. But all the work the director had commissioned to get the medical notes transcribed has gone. Nobody will be doing that again – the time and cost make it prohibitive. So the report might as well no longer exist.”
“I’ve been thinking about what you said and making things right,” I said. “It’s a matter of how it’s done, though.”
“What are you proposing?” he asked.
“Well, I need to work out some of the details and timing but one of the things needed will be having someone who can explain the report when asked to. Like you did with me. You wouldn’t have to give your name or—”
“I’ll happily give my name.”
“Well, it’s your decision. You might want to think about how it will affect your career.”
“I don’t want a career if it means biting your tongue because you don’t want to upset the status quo. Does success have to come at the price of integrity?”
I smiled, loving his youthful idealism. Where did it go?
“OK, give me a personal email address and number.” As he wrote them down, I said, “I have another favour to ask which will enable all this.”
“Name it.”
“It’s not very ethical.”
He snorted and looked at me expectantly.
“I need you to check your operating theatre system to see who carried out an operation on someone. Not the named consultant, who is Galbraith, but the actual surgeon. And I’ll need proof in the form of a photo or screenshot or something.”
“That’s easy enough.”
“The thing is, I need it tonight.”
“No problem, I’ll pop back into work. Just give me a name, man.”
I took out my notebook, ripped out a sheet and wrote down Iskender Badem’s name as well as my email address and mobile number.
“If you’re going to the hospital can you take this and leave it at Reception?” He clocked the name on the front and frowned.
“You’re giving it back?”
“Don’t worry, it’ll give him a false sense of security before the shit hits the fan.”
He smiled as the microwave pinged.
From Kamal’s I walked back down Mill Road towards Parker’s Piece, intending to cross it to get to Rhianna’s office. I was about to cross Mortimer Road that led down to the university cricket grounds and glanced over my shoulder without breaking stride to check nobody was turning onto the road when a white transit van did just that, at speed. I glimpsed Derin was at the wheel. Stepping back onto the pavement as it came to a stop in front of me, the side-loading door slid open. I felt a hard shove at my back and stumbled forward as hands reached out from the dark interior of the van. I was pulled inside and someone pushed in behind me. The door slid closed as the van moved off. It smelled of stale sweat.
“What the fuck?” was the first and only thing I managed to say.
The answer was a punch to the side of the head that lit up the darkness briefly, but then my brain went dark.
48
COLD WATER SPLASHED MY FACE AND I WAS PANICKED INTO taking in gasps of air. Someone laughed behind me. The back of my scalp stung. I opened my eyes to see Badem sunk into my sofa like before except this time he was engrossed in his Sudoku. Somebody was holding my head up by my hair, which explained the pain. I tried to move but was tied to a kitchen chair with cargo straps, like before. My left temple throbbed where I’d been punched in the van. The hand released my hair and I looked round to see Derin. He showed me his bad teeth. He was in a red weightlifter’s tank-top with “No Pain, No Gain” on the front. I felt woozy and couldn’t remember coming into the house. Why had I been out so long? Not from just a punch, surely?
“There you are,” Badem said, putting down his magazine and pen. He rested his hands on his stomach, fingers drumming. Unlike last time the curtains were closed and the overhead light on. Half a bottle of wine and an empty glass with the pink imprint of Linda’s lips on the rim sat on the coffee table. Was she still here? I silently prayed that she’d got bored and gone home before they’d arrived.
“She’s in the kitchen,” Badem said, smiling. “With Leonard.”
With superhuman effort fuelled by adrenalin and rage I managed to get to my feet, chair and all, before being yanked back down by Derin, who pressed his hands down on my shoulders. I felt dizzy.
“Don’t worry, Mr Kocharyan,” Badem said. “We just need her for insurance. We’ll have a little chat first. You tell me what’s what and she won’t be harmed unless absolutely necessary. If and when that happens she’ll be brought in so you can watch.” He squirmed into the sofa. “It was rather fortuitous that she was here, really. An added bonus if you will.”
“What do you want?” I asked, trying to keep my tone civil; my ear still remembered Derin’s previous clouts. My arms were pressed against my sides but my hands could grasp the seat of the chair. My attempt to get up did at least give me hope that movement might be possible if unchecked. What I could usefully do once on my feet and hunched over with a chair strapped to me was another matter, but a straw is a boat to a drowning man. As Linda had reminded me, the Taser was in a drawer in the hall, but might as well have been at the bottom of the Bosphorus. I tried to focus on Badem, but my vision was off.
“What do you want?” I repeated.
“You know what I want,” he said. Before he could expand Leonard came into the room, sleeves rolled up, carrying Linda’s large smartphone, which he put next to mine on the table.
“She’s a handful but not going anywhere,” Leonard said as he sat in an armchair. I noticed a fresh scratch next to his left eye. A scratch Linda had the nails for. In a film my character would yell some clichéd macho bullshit about how I’d kill Leonard if I discovered that he’d laid a finger on her, then get slapped around for my
trouble. I needed to use my words carefully; they were all I had right now.
“This is kidnapping, at the very least,” I said to Badem. “Not something the police take lightly, especially since your boy here is out on bail.”
“They don’t take blackmail lightly, either,” he said.
I said nothing and he smiled.
“Yes, I know about that. Incidentally, was that your doing, Leonard’s arrest?” Badem asked. “Didn’t I warn you to keep away from the police?”
“I had nothing to do with it.”
“To be fair,” Leonard said, touching his scratch, “from what the cops said it was Derin’s fault, driving over the railway crossing when the lights were flashing. We were caught on CCTV.” He made a face at Derin, who snorted and removed his hands from my shoulders.
“You told me to hurry,” he said, like a reprimanded twelve-year-old.
Badem raised a hand in warning then looked at me.
“So, what have you done with Aurora?”
“What do you mean?”
A big mistake. I was never sure whether it was better to try and relax into a blow or not, but if you know it’s coming you instinctively tense, and if you’re sucker-punched it always seems worse. But this time Derin, rather than clout me, caught hold of my sideburns and was attempting to lift me and the chair up by them. This is a lot more painful than I’d imagined and my whole body tensed in an effort to rise up and relieve the pressure and to avoid giving Derin the satisfaction of crying out. Just as I thought the hair would be ripped from my face he let go. I grunted in relief, my eyes watering.
“Leonard found a message from the family you stole her from when he was released tonight. They want a refund, believe it or not.”
“She’s in police custody,” I said.
He smiled. “Really?”
“She’s in the country illegally,” I said.
“And you just handed her over,” he said, demonstrating with his hands.
I didn’t have an answer to that.
“She’s not with the police,” he said. He nodded to Derin who gave me the sideburn treatment. This time I couldn’t help but cry out. Tears were running down my face. I took in deep breaths.
“Why do you want her so badly, this maid?” he asked.
“Her daughter is sick, dying, and she wants to go home to see her.”
“Ah, so you’re a humanitarian as well as a blackmailer? You didn’t want to use Aurora against Bill, threaten to go to the tabloids and expose his affair. Earn yourself a little tax-free cash?”
“I don’t know what Kristina or Bill have told you but they both lie.” It was the wrong thing to say as I was rewarded with a cuff round the head, but it was actually preferable to the hair pulling.
“What do you mean they lie?” he asked. How much to tell him? He probably supplied Bogdana to Kristina, but did he know she’d been at the house? Was this all about protecting himself from his association with the Galbraiths?
My phone rang and Leonard picked it up.
“Someone called Sandra,” he said to Badem. It stopped ringing.
“Does Linda know about this Sandra?” Badem asked me with a little smile. The three of them had a chuckle but it was reassuring to learn that they didn’t know who Sandra was. He tapped Leonard’s knee. “Why don’t you bring her in and we’ll find out,” he said. “I haven’t got all evening to spend on this nonsense.” Leonard grinned and winked at me and disappeared. My heart sank.
“Look, she doesn’t know anything,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Badem said. “You know where Aurora is so we’ll find out which of them you’re more loyal to.”
“I thought you were more cultured than this.”
“Culture doesn’t work with you people. Aha, here she is.”
Linda staggered in, staring at Badem and Derin but seeming unable to acknowledge me. She was in my bathrobe. Her mouth was gagged and her hands tied behind her. Her pallid face looked momentarily relieved when she did see me but then clocked the cargo straps round my middle. Leonard gave her a push into the room and followed, dragging another kitchen chair.
My phone rang.
“It’s that woman again,” Badem said, looking down at it. Leonard placed the chair at right angles to mine and pushed Linda onto it. She looked at me, a question in her eyes. I tried to look reassuring – difficult under the circumstances. The bathrobe had fallen open to expose her thighs. We were both sweating.
“Remove that thing from her mouth,” Badem ordered. Leonard obeyed, also pulling a balled sock from her mouth. She worked her dry lips.
“Water,” she said.
“Here,” Derin said, throwing some water in her face. He laughed.
“Pig,” she shouted. Derin stepped over and slapped her hard. She came off the chair and Leonard had to pick her up and sit her back down. Badem said something curt to Derin in Turkish but he was in a world of his own, looking bright-eyed and dangerous, like he was excited to be hurting Linda. He stood close behind her, pushing the bathrobe aside to rest his hands on her bare shoulders. I gritted my teeth.
“I thought you were better than this,” I said to Badem.
My phone buzzed with a text.
Leonard picked it up and read, “Where the hell are you? We’re tired of waiting.” I prayed that Sandra didn’t mention Aurora. “We’re tired of waiting?” he repeated. “Do you think she has the maid with her?”
“Maybe. Ask her,” Badem said, looking at me. “Wait, don’t ask her, he would already know that, it’ll make her suspicious. Tell her to bring the maid here.” Leonard tapped away on the phone.
“Now then, dear lady reporter,” Badem said. “Tell me how close you are to Kevork here?” Linda, her left cheek crimson, just looked blankly at him as Derin stroked her hair.
“Kevork?” she asked. Leonard’s text whooshed off. Linda tried to shake Derin’s hands off.
“Kevork is Armenian for George,” Badem said. “Is he fond of you?”
“What a stupid question,” she said, with bravado. Derin reached into a pocket and pulled out a flick knife. Luckily Linda couldn’t see it but things were going bad quickly. My phone received another text.
“Mr Badem,” Leonard said. “You should see this.” He was holding my phone as he stepped over to the sofa. Shit, maybe Sandra had replied to say they were coming. Badem peered at the small screen and frowned.
“This isn’t from Sandra,” he said. He looked up at me. “What’s the meaning of this?” he asked, looking more bewildered than angry.
“What is it?” I asked, my mouth dry.
“It’s from someone called Chris. It says your hunch about Badem op was on the money.”
The landline in the hall started ringing.
49
“THAT’LL BE SANDRA,” I SAID, AS THE LANDLINE RANG. “AND if I don’t answer it she’ll get worried. I was supposed to meet her earlier.”
“She’s probably on her way with Aurora,” Leonard said.
“Did she reply to your text? What did you say, exactly?”
Impatiently he read it out. “‘I’m at home, bring the maid here.’”
“Then she’s definitely not coming. I would never call Aurora ‘the maid’. Most likely she’ll call the police if I don’t answer the phone.”
Leonard looked at Badem, who glanced at him.
“Idiot,” he muttered.
“Let me speak to her,” I said, “then I’ll explain about your operation. Bill’s been lying to you.” The landline stopped ringing but the mobile started to ring in Badem’s hand. Startled, he looked at it.
“Let me speak to her,” I repeated.
“Shut up,” Badem said, thinking. The phone went silent. “Let her do it,” he said, nodding at Linda. “I don’t trust what you might say to her.”
“It’ll look odd if she rings from his mobile,” Leonard said.
“She can use her phone, or better still, ring from the landline, that way this Sandra will see i
t’s his number,” Badem said. This could be a chance. I knew that Linda had self-defence training after her stalking experience but using it under pressure was another matter. But if she was going to the telephone table in the hall…
“What should she say? Why would she ring her?” Leonard asked Badem.
“Must I think of everything… Let’s see. George is in the bath and she’s seen that Sandra’s been calling. Oh, and she sent the text from his phone on his instruction – it might explain using the word ‘maid’. If this Sandra’s worried she probably works for George. Do you know this Sandra?” he asked Linda.
“I’ve never met her but she knows who I am,” Linda said, sounding confident. Was she thinking what I was thinking?
“Don’t tell him anything,” I said.
Derin grinned at me over her head. “It would be better if I did it,” I said to Badem.
“I don’t think so,” he replied. Sometimes reverse psychology worked.
“Will the phone reach in here?” Leonard asked.
“No, not in here,” Badem said. “George might decide to partake in the conversation.”
“How can we trust her not to say something, to warn her?”
“Because if she puts a word wrong George here will get hurt. It’ll be a test of her dedication.”
Derin clapped his hands.
“I’ll do it,” Linda said, “but not tied up like this.”
“Watch it, she’s vicious,” Leonard said, touching his scratch.
Derin laughed. “I can handle her.” Badem wrote down Sandra’s mobile number from my phone onto a page in his Sudoku book and ripped it out.
“Untie her,” Badem said, giving the sheet to Leonard. “You should go with Derin,” he said.
“I can handle her, Uncle, I don’t need him,” Derin said, annoyed. He opened his knife and cut through the duct tape around Linda’s wrists, then flicked the knife closed. With two of them she had no chance, even if she remembered the Taser in the drawer of the telephone table. She pulled the robe closed and rubbed her wrists.
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