A Tangled Web

by A L Fraine

  “Yes?”

  “We’re here to see Vassili,” Jon began, noticing an accent.

  The woman narrowed her eyes. “Who?”

  “Vassili, the man who owns this house. Can you get him please?”

  “There’s no Vassili here,” she answered in a now clearly Russian accent and moved to shut the door, only for Jon to put his foot in the way.

  Pulling out his warrant card, he showed it to the woman. “I beg to differ,” he stated. “We’re with the Surrey Police, can you get him, please?”

  The woman frowned at the ID, and then up at Jon. She grunted and looked annoyed. “Vas?!” she called out.

  Jon looked over at Kate and smiled. “It’s all in how you ask.”

  “Your social skills continue to amaze me,” Kate replied.

  “I bet they do! They are quite astounding, I know.”

  Kate rolled her eyes as they waited.

  Meanwhile, inside, the woman called out a couple more times, eliciting an annoyed reply from deeper in the house. Before long, a man appeared sporting a buzz cut and wearing clothes that had seen better days.

  “What is it, Yana?” he asked the woman, unhappy with being called to the door.

  Yana nodded at the door. “Police.”

  Vassili looked up, his gaze cold and filled with daggers as he regarded them both. “What is it you want?” the man replied.

  “Just to talk,” Jon replied.

  “I have no time to talk,” Vassily replied.

  “Well, I think you should make time, Vassili,” John replied. “A girl that used to live here has gone missing, and I’d like to ask you about it.”

  “No girl from here has gone missing, as you say,” the man answered. “Girl here, look,” Vassili replied and pointed to Yana who’d answered the door. “No missing girl.”

  “What about Jacob?” Jon replied quickly.

  “He is not here.”

  “So you know him? Oh good,” Jon replied with a grin.

  “Er…” Vassili replied.

  “May we come in and talk to him?”

  “No, you may not. There is no one here for you to talk to. No girl, no Jacob. Now, you go.”

  “This would be much easier if you’d just allow us to come in and make sure what you’re saying is true.”

  “No. You go. You no come in,” Vassily replied and pushed the door against Jon’s foot. “Goodbye.”

  Jon relented and moved his foot. If the house's owner didn’t want them to come in, and the grounds for entry into the property were sketchy at best, he thought it best to relent, and see where the other aspects of the case took them first.

  “Well, they were friendly,” Kate remarked as they walked back down the driveway, threading their way through several cars parked up there.

  “I’d love to get in there,” Jon replied.

  “I know what you mean, but I’m not sure we have good enough grounds for that, yet.”

  “Nope.”

  “Shall we get a warrant? The chief will back us up.”

  “Perhaps, let’s see where this goes first. Everything we have is speculation, and it’s not the first time Olivia has disappeared, only to turn up later. So, I’d quite like to go and speak to Olivia’s parents, see if they know anything, and try to get a little more out of Lily too. We can always come back here.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  10

  “So tell me a little more about this case you had up north, with the Russians?” Kate asked as they drove north towards Croydon. “You mentioned it involved some trafficking?”

  “That was part of it, but that’s not how we got involved,” Jon replied, thinking back. It had been one of those times when his personal vendetta against a killer got him in trouble with his superiors. But he couldn’t see what he could have done better. He’d had to act. If he hadn’t, a young woman would have been killed, and she wouldn’t have been the last.

  “It began with a tip-off about a businessman laundering money. So, we looked into it, and we discovered a river of money running through his company. But it wasn’t clear where it was coming from exactly. So we started long-term surveillance on this guy. Fletcher Hughes was his name.”

  “Never heard of him,” Kate admitted.

  “No reason you should have. He was a wealthy man with an enviable family life who got in way over his head with these mob guys. He was living the high life and having a whale of a time. You know, drugs, girls, the usual.”

  “Oh, I see. A wife and kids weren’t enough for him, then?”

  “Apparently not,” Jon replied.

  “What is it with these people? They get a little bit of money and power, and it just goes straight to their heads. I’ve seen it a few times now.”

  Jon nodded, agreeing with her. He’d seen the same thing too and felt just as bewildered by the depths some people would sink to for money and power. The thing was, these things usually came back to haunt them, and they just got deeper and deeper into trouble, until someone like himself came knocking on their door.

  “Well, it got worse for him,” Jon continued. “It seems he was into some kinky stuff because he ended up killing one of the girls he was sleeping with.”

  “Who were these girls?”

  “Russians mainly. Vulnerable girls who ended up in deep with the Mob. They were brought over to the UK and used by criminals to bribe people, get targets into compromising positions, that kind of thing. For Hughes, they were his reward for washing their money.”

  “And then he killed one?” Kate asked.

  “Aye. Strangled her. We didn’t know this until after the case had wrapped up, of course, but the Bratva bailed him out. They got rid of the body, putting him in even more debt to them.”

  “Nasty,” Kate replied. “You called them Bratva?”

  “It means ‘Brotherhood’, one of the names they use for themselves.”

  “These guys don’t sound like people you want to owe.”

  “No, indeed. Anyway, turns out, after he’d done it once, Hughes got a taste for it. The Mob, of course, was only too pleased to provide for him as long as he kept his end of the deal.”

  “So, he laundered the Mob’s money in return for them giving him girls to kill?”

  “I know, it’s sick. But we had no idea. We suspected something was up, but we were mainly looking into his financial crimes. Anyway, inevitably, someone found out. A woman discovered what Hughes was really doing, and threatened him with exposure. Furious, he told the Mob, who go after the threat. The woman came to me, scared, only for the Bratva to find and kidnap her. I managed to track her down, and find Hughes trying to kill her.”

  “I’m guessing you stopped it?”

  “Of course, and in the process, ruined months of surveillance into the Mob’s operations in the midlands. I only kept my job because I saved one, maybe two lives, and ended the reign of a vicious killer.”

  “Your mission,” Kate muttered, nodding. He’d explained to her about his personal vendetta to hunt down and stop the worst killers in the UK.

  “I told you I pissed off some of my superiors,” Jon replied. “They weren’t happy with me after that.”

  “You couldn’t have handled it in any other way, though,” she replied.

  “Hell no. I wasn’t going to walk away from someone in need,” he replied, thinking back to the case, and still feeling troubled about it.

  “I think you did the right thing,” she replied. She tapped his knee with her hand.

  He smiled, but it was an unconvincing one and replicated his own troubling memories of that case. “I did what I had to,” he agreed as they drove into South Croydon and eventually found the street where Olivia’s parents lived.

  They were well away from the wealthy areas and soon found the modest boxy house that the Cooks called home.

  “Do you think she’s here?” Kate asked as they parked up and got out.

  “No,” Jon replied. “If she hated her parents enough to run away a
nd stay away, I don’t see why she’d come back.”

  “Yeah, I agree,” Kate said, nodding as they wandered up the modest flagstone path and knocked on the door. It was answered a short time later by a woman who was perhaps in her fifties, with worry lines marking her face. She looked down at Jon with a world-weary expression, apparently singularly unimpressed with either of them.

  “Yeah?” she asked.

  “Mrs Sylvie Cook?” he began.

  “Who’s asking?”

  “I’m Detective Jon Pilgrim, and this is DS Kate—”

  “What do you want?” she cut in.

  “Just a few minutes of your time, if that’s okay? May we come in?”

  Sylvie sighed a long, heavy sigh, as if this was the biggest inconvenience she’d ever encountered, and then rolled her eyes. “Alright, sure, come in,” she replied and moved inside.

  Jon followed Kate into a house that was quite untidy. Shoes lay scattered beyond the door and the mud they’d trekked in had been trodden into the old, stained carpet in the hallway. Beside a pile of letters, a couple of old carrier bags stood against the wall, filled with who knew what, while coats, gloves, and even a set of keys lay discarded.

  Jon briefly considered asking if he should remove his shoes, and then guessed that it wouldn’t make much difference to the carpet if he did walk some mud in, and just followed the woman inside.

  She’d already taken a seat in the front room when he got there. She used the remote to put the daytime TV program on mute before she sat back, and gave him another long, annoyed sigh.

  “What’s she done this time?” Sylvie asked. “She’s nothing but trouble, that one.”

  “Olivia?” Jon asked as he took a seat beside Kate.

  Sylvie gave him a look, her eyes looking away briefly. “Err, yeah,” she said, sounding like she was talking to a child. “That’s who you’re here to talk to me about, isn’t it?”

  Jon frowned, bristling at her attitude.

  “Yes,” Kate replied, her voice sweetness and light. “Have you seen her recently?”

  “Nope,” Sylvie answered, apparently unconcerned. “I’ve not heard from her in months. Why, should I have?”

  “A friend of hers she was living with has reported her missing,” Kate replied.

  “So what else is new?”

  “We suspect some criminality, maybe some abuse?”

  “And I should care, because?”

  Jon went to answer, but Kate cut him off. Good thing too, he guessed, given how he would have spoken to her.

  “Because she’s your daughter?” Kate replied, her voice calm and even.

  The woman rolled her eyes and sighed again. “I gave up worrying about her a long time ago,” Sylvie replied. “She’s been nothing but a pain in my arse for years now, so as far as I’m concerned, good riddance to her.”

  “Even if she’s been kidnapped?”

  “I…” For a brief moment, her mask cracked, and a hint of emotion flashed across her face. She reined it in quickly though and took a moment to bring herself under control.

  Jon eyed her, spotting this momentary lapse in her self-control, and wondered if he’d judged her wrong. She wasn’t as uncaring as she made out, perhaps just the opposite. But it seemed to be something she kept hidden.

  “Look, I don’t want her to get hurt, but she’s caused this family enough pain over the years. We can’t take it anymore. I can’t live my life waiting for her to come back to us. All I can say, is that she’s not been back here in months. I’ve not seen her in ages, but if she does show up, I can let you know. Okay?”

  “That would be great,” Kate replied.

  “Is your husband home?” Jon asked.

  “No, Geoff’s at work. He’ll be back later on this afternoon though. Do you need to talk to him?”

  It was Jon’s turn to sigh. “We should touch base, at least.”

  “Fair enough. There was one thing though. One of Olivia’s friends came by here yesterday evening. She was looking for her too.”

  “Lily,” Jon replied.

  “That’s her. Someone else Livy has led astray, no doubt,” she muttered and slowly shook her head.

  “So, you have no idea where she might go?” Jon pressed.

  “Nah,” Sylvie answered. “Sorry.”

  “Or do you know anyone who might want to hurt her?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know anyone in her life, and nor do I care to.”

  Jon found himself beginning to feel quite sorry for her. She looked broken, like someone who’d been dragged through the last few years by her daughter, showing the scars of caring for someone who didn’t return those feelings.

  She said she didn’t care. She said she’d moved on, but Jon could see the lie of that now. It was a lie she’d probably told herself a million times in order to just get through the day, in order to function.

  She could say she didn’t care until she was blue in the face, but Jon felt sure he knew different. That brief show of emotion was enough for him to know that deep down, she did care for her daughter. She probably longed for her on a deep, primal level, but had done her best to cut herself off from that pain.

  What was left, sat opposite them. A cold husk of a woman, waiting to allow herself to feel again.

  He wondered if they’d be able to find Olivia and bring her back to her parents.

  He hoped so.

  “Thank you for your time,” Kate said, finishing up the interview. “We will keep you informed of anything we discover, and let you know if we find her, okay?”

  “Sure,” Sylvie answered, and showed them out after they’d left their details behind should she remember anything, or if Olivia should show up.

  “That is one broken parent,” Kate commented as they sat in the car.

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Jon replied.

  11

  “So, how’d it go?” Nathan asked. “I can’t imagine Vassili being very forthcoming.”

  “Aye, he wasn’t. He really didn’t want to speak to us. We didn’t get in the house at all.”

  “We met him, and a girl called Yana,” Kate added.

  “Lily mentioned her,” Jon remarked.

  “Sounded like she was one of Jacob’s friends,” Kate said. “I can’t imagine how another woman would want to be a party to abuse like that though.”

  “Money and power,” Nathan replied as they walked through the office. “Money and power. Right, well, I figured this was starting to develop into something, so I set up an incident room.”

  “Good job,” Jon replied, and followed Nathan through to the side room, complete with a meeting table and a large whiteboard with a photo of Olivia pinned to it.

  Jon walked over to it and scanned the items that were pinned up. “Where did you get these from?” Jon asked.

  “Dion got them from her Google photo account.”

  “That lad will go far,” Jon remarked. There were pictures of Lily alongside Olivia, but nothing of Jacob, Vassili, or Yana. Olivia was a good-looking girl, with a striking face framed with dyed blonde hair and sapphire eyes that sparkled with life as she smiled for the camera.

  Jon shook his head, finding the contrast between these happier times, and the dire straits Olivia possibly found herself in, troubling.

  “She’s a looker,” Jon commented, nodding to Olivia’s picture.

  “That’s probably one reason why Jacob targeted her,” Kate replied. “If they were trafficking her, I’d guess that looks count for a lot.”

  “Makes sense,” Jon answered.

  “So what do you want to do with this Vassili?” Nathan asked.

  “Right now, I’m not sure,” Jon replied and chewed on his lip for a moment. “Let’s get the team in and go through this,” he said, and within moments, they were all sitting in the room around the table.

  “So the visit to Vassili wasn’t terribly productive. We know he’s a criminal from his record, and there’s nothing to suggest he’s gone straight. In
fact, if Lily is right, at the very least, he’s letting abuse happen under his roof, possibly with his knowledge, or even encouragement. But he didn’t let us in, so I have no idea who else, apart from Vassili and Yana, is in that house. Do we have any update on Jacob, or where he might be?”

  “Nothing, no,” Rachel replied. “We don’t have a phone number for him or anything.”

  “He’s probably using burner phones,” Kate suggested.

  Jon nodded. “Most likely. He’s also our number one suspect, so we need to find him, and the most likely place for that is Vassili’s house.”

  “So, we need a warrant,” Nathan replied.

  Jon nodded. “I think so. In the meantime, can we get a car outside Vassili’s house? I want to know who comes in and who goes out, especially if Jacob turns up.”

  “I’ll get that sorted,” Dion replied, making a note.

  “Good, thank you.”

  “Who’s this Yana?” Rachel asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jon replied. “She seemed like she was working with or for Vassili, and she had a Russian accent too.”

  “Do you think she’s with the Mob?”

  Jon shrugged. “Anything’s possible.”

  “Money and power,” Kate muttered.

  “Aye,” Jon replied.

  Dion raised his hand.

  “This isn’t a school classroom, Dion,” Jon said.

  Dion drew back his hand, with a look of embarrassment.

  “Don’t scare the lad,” Nathan commented to Jon, before looking over at Dion. “Don’t let the big northern gorilla intimidate you, alright?”

  “Word to the wise,” Kate added. “Chips and gravy tend to calm him down.”

  “Gravy? On chips?” Nathan asked, scandalised. “That’s wrong on like, so many levels.”

  “It’s wrong on all the levels,” Rachel added. “Probably on some levels we don’t even know about.”

  “Surely that just turns them into a sloppy mess?” Nathan asked.

  “Guys, guys. While I’d love to share this ambrosia of the gods with you sometime,” Jon replied, raising his hands, “I’m going to have to insist that my demonstration of northern superiority waits for another day, okay? Now, Dion, you had something to say?”