Unfinished Business

by W. Soliman

  “There probably isn’t anything we can do to help her, but I thought you’d appreciate the opportunity to talk to her for a while without anyone else around.” I kept my tone deliberately offhand. “Who knows, perhaps there’s something she can tell us that’ll help us to—”

  “For Monk, you mean? You’re worried about those weapons.”

  “I don’t give a flying fuck about Monk. I’m more concerned about your sister.”

  “Thank you.” She kissed my lips and then paced the small cabin in a state of high agitation. Not easy, given the restricted space and Gil taking up most of it. “I think seeing her and yet not being able to be with her was worse than not seeing her at all.” She stopped in front of me and touched my shoulder. “You were right about that.”

  “Well, if you ask me, she needs our help, whether she realizes it or not. I shall be in that hotel room tomorrow, and if your sister shows up, there’s a few questions I want to ask her myself.”

  “You know I’ll be there with you,” she said with a flash of her old spirit. “But I don’t see what good it will do. You can hardly expect her to betray her own husband.”

  “Did you notice her expression when she said she thought her husband’s business associates might have been involved in your brother’s murder? My instinct tells me the only thing stopping her from shopping him is the thought of losing her children. If we can somehow convince her that Monk can extract her and the kids and keep them safe, then I reckon she’ll go for it.”

  Kara’s face lit up. “But what if she doesn’t know anything?”

  “She’s bound to. She must have heard stuff even if she doesn’t realize its significance.”

  “But is it safe for her? That man who was with her, can we trust him?”

  “Oh yes.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Come on, Kara. Didn’t you see the way he looked at your sister?”

  She shook her head. “No, I didn’t take much notice of him.”

  “Well, if you’d seen the way he looked at Jasmine, you’d know that he’s in love with her and will do anything to get her away from Kalashov.”

  “Oh.”

  The mobile rang, sounding unnaturally loud in the small cabin. I knew without checking the display that it would be Monk.

  “How did it go?” he asked.

  “We made contact but Kalashov appeared before we could say much.”

  “Kalashov? But that’s impossible. He’s in Russia.”

  “Not anymore he isn’t.”

  “But we had people watching him all the time. I had no idea he’d left.”

  “Well, he must have known he was being watched and given them the slip for reasons of his own. Anyway, he can’t have been in Russia for long so whatever he had to do there must have been pretty straightforward.”

  “I’ll check out how he got back. He couldn’t have travelled under his real name or we’d have been alerted.”

  Monk’s inability to keep one man under surveillance didn’t exactly fill me with confidence but I was in too deep now to turn back. “There’s a possibility, but no more than a possibility, that we might see Jasmine again tomorrow,” I said. “With Kalashov around, it won’t be so easy for her to get away.”

  “Where?”

  “In the shopping centre.”

  Don’t ask me why I didn’t tell him the truth. Perhaps, if he knew we were meeting in private, I suspected that he’d gate-crash and throw his weight around. My only interest was Kara, not world peace, and if Jasmine was frightened off then we’d probably never get another opportunity. Time enough to involve Monk if she confirmed she was looking for a safe out.

  “What time and where?”

  “Nothing definite. We only had a moment to suggest the plan before Kalashov appeared. We’ll hang around in the morning, and if she appears we’ll let you know what she has to say.”

  A long pause. We both knew I was lying but he decided not to push the issue. “All right. Fair enough.” He paused again. “What were your impressions of her?”

  “That she’s disillusioned with Kalashov. But she’s scared for herself and her kids. Leave it to us and we’ll be in touch.”

  I cut the connection before he could argue the toss and refilled our glasses for the third time.

  “Let’s eat out tonight,” I suggested. To hell with Monk’s over-elaborate precautions.

  The next morning we took Gil for an extra-long run. We couldn’t take him to the hotel with us, and I didn’t know how long he’d have to stay inside the small boat, so it only seemed fair to lavish some attention on the poor brute. At about ten o’clock we set off in the direction of the shopping centre.

  “The hotel’s in the other direction, Charlie.” Kara pointed over her shoulder.

  “Don’t look now but we’ve probably got company.”

  She giggled. “It’s like being in a spy film.”

  I took her hand as we sauntered along. “Come on,” I said when we reached the shops.

  “Let’s indulge in a spot of retail therapy with Monk’s money.”

  Call it childish, but we did something I’d seen in films and have always wanted to try for myself. We went into a department store, bought clothes in different colours and styles from the ones we’d walked in wearing, went to the toilets, changed into our purchases and strolled out individually through different doors.

  I watched Kara from across the road as she wandered into the Prince Regent and took a seat in the lounge. I let ten minutes pass by, during which time I saw nothing to excite my suspicions, and then entered the hotel myself. I registered, paid with more of Monk’s cash and took a key to a room on the second floor. Kara joined me at the lift. The second-floor corridor was empty and we made it to the room without anyone else observing us as far as I could tell.

  “And now we wait,” I said, putting the Do Not Disturb sign on the door.

  Kara giggled. “They probably think we’re here for a dirty afternoon.”

  I waggled my brows at her. “That’s not such a bad idea.”

  “You’re insatiable.”

  “You’re the one that started on the seduction routine,” I reminded her, not very gallantly.

  “Humph, you didn’t take much seducing.”

  Chuckling, I switched the television on and we both tried to concentrate on some inane daytime programme. Over two hours later our nerves were stretched to the breaking point. I was starting to think Jasmine wasn’t coming when there was a gentle knock at the door. A glance through the spy hole revealed the man who’d been with her the day before. He looked better-built and more menacing in the narrow corridor but didn’t have a monopoly on tough-guy attitudes.

  I went on the offensive, giving as good as I got when I opened the door by staring him down. I felt mildly satisfied when he looked away first and ushered Jasmine into the room ahead of him. She and Kara looked at one another for a protracted second before stepping forward at exactly the same time and hurtling into one another’s arms. I locked the door behind Anton and invited him to sit down.

  “Thanks for bringing her,” I said to him. “It means a lot to Kara.”

  “We can’t stay for long. It’s very dangerous.”

  “I didn’t think we’d be able to come at all,” Jasmine said, extricating herself from her sister’s arms but still holding her hand and smiling through her tears. “But my husband received a phone call and dashed off to London.”

  I open the minibar and found a couple of small bottles of wine. Anton refused but I reckoned the rest of us could use a little Dutch courage. I’d readdress the thorny question of my increased alcohol intake when this was all over.

  “All these years, Jas, and never a word from you.” Kara spoke with curiosity rather than accusation in her tone. “Can you imagine how that made us feel?”

  “I know, darling, and I’m sorry.” She patted Kara’s hand. “Brett said the same thing but, believe me, it was for the best.”

  “What ha
ppened? Why did you go? I’ve never been able to work that out.”

  “You don’t know?” She appeared surprised.

  “No, we know you argued with Dad but not what about.”

  Jasmine opened her mouth. I got the feeling she was about to bare her soul, which would be a seriously bad idea. Kara was too emotionally fragile to handle the truth. I caught Jasmine’s eye and shook my head. She nodded once and simultaneously took a sip of her drink.

  “I was just rebelling,” she said. “I’d met a man he didn’t approve of—”

  “We know about Ramsay.”

  She blinked back her surprise. “You do?”

  “Yes, Charlie’s very good at persuading people to tell what they know.”

  “I’m sure he is.” She transferred her attention to me for a moment, openly assessing me, before returning to her conversation with Kara. “Well, I just couldn’t stand it any more. I was getting pressure from all sides. From Dad to concentrate on my college work and get good grades, from Colin to move in with him.” She shrugged. “Everyone else seemed to think they knew what was best for me, and I was getting fed up with it. Things changed when I started crewing on the Laissez-Faire.”

  “Yes, we know about that too.”

  “Well then, I guess you’ve been able to piece the rest together for yourselves.” Her eyes roamed ’round the anonymous hotel room. “Igor saw me on his boat and invited me to dinner. I’d been warned by some of the others that he probably would. He was charming and rich and exceedingly well-mannered but…”

  “But it didn’t happen?” suggested Kara when her sister’s words trailed off.

  Jasmine sighed. “No, not at once. I knew I wouldn’t be able to wangle it because of Dad. I would have died if he’d seen us together and started laying down the law, so I thought it better just to decline.” A half smile illuminated her face. “What I didn’t know at the time was that nobody says no to Igor. By turning him down I’d inadvertently increased his interest in me. And the more I rebuffed him, the more determined he became to get me to change my mind.”

  “And when you still held out against him, he resorted to threatening you?” I said.

  “Yes. I knew he was dangerous but that wasn’t an issue then. To a seventeen-year-old it seemed glamorous that he always had minders with him. It kind of added to his attraction. He kept sending me gifts, which I returned unopened.” She giggled. “By all accounts he was furious. Anyway, eventually he made veiled threats against you, Kara—”

  “Me!” Kara looked stunned. “But I’d never met him.”

  “No, but he found out about me, about my family, and knew where my weaknesses lay. He’s very good at that sort of thing. Anyway, I agreed eventually to have dinner with him, just to get him off my back.” She smiled. “He was charming and attentive, took me somewhere exclusive and ruinously expensive. Everyone there rushed to do his bidding and, well, I admit he made me feel special.”

  Kara smiled. “I can imagine.”

  “Anyway, my capitulation coincided with my argument with Dad, and when Igor offered me a job it seemed like the ideal solution to my problems. Ramsay was pushing me for commitment, my home life was a mess, and I was being offered the opportunity to do what I loved the most.”

  “Working on a boat.”

  “Yes, even if it was a gin palace without sails.”

  “But you could have said, Jas.” Kara’s expression was a combination of understanding and condemnation. “Just leaving us like that. It was cruel.”

  “I’m sorry, Kara.” Jasmine squeezed her sister’s hand. “I can see that now and, believe me, if I had my time over again—”

  “Did you actually go to London when you first left?” I asked.

  “Yes. Igor has a woman who runs his office in London. She was responsible for taking me under her wing, giving me somewhere to live and so on. I wouldn’t have gone otherwise. I didn’t want to be seen as Igor’s bit on the side. Which I wasn’t, by the way. I knew he’d soon lose interest in me, like he did all the others, now he had me where he wanted me. But I refused to get on in his organisation through any means other than my own skill.”

  “But he didn’t lose interest?”

  “No. I wouldn’t go to bed with him, you see. He was a married man with a daughter who watched him like a hawk and reported all his activities to her mother. I might have gone with Igor just to spite Monika, but I have this thing about not breaking up families.”

  “But his wife died and he wore you down.”

  She looked down at her hands. “Yes.”

  “Were you aware what he did for a living?” I asked.

  She shot me an exasperated look. “Well, I knew he was no Boy Scout, if that’s what you mean. You have to bear in mind he’s ex-KGB. When I met him the whole Soviet bloc was falling apart and it was every man for himself. And I was still only eighteen when we got married. I was swept along with it all, and I’m not ashamed to say I was seduced as much by the glamorous lifestyle as I was by Igor.” She looked off into the distance, a reflective expression on her face. “I gradually found out a few things, but he protected me from it as much as possible. As I didn’t really want to know, it was easier just to pretend that I didn’t.”

  “Is that why you changed your name?” Kara asked.

  “Yes, he said it would help to protect my family.”

  “I don’t understand why he’s so paranoid about you seeing us,” Kara said.

  “He’s obsessive about me.” Jasmine’s modest tone made it apparent that she couldn’t understand why. As a man I only had to look at her and his reasons were immediately obvious. Kara was good-looking but her older sister was in another league. “Even now, after all this time, he’s still like that about me, and his enemies, of whom he has any number, are aware of it. That’s why I can’t ever go anywhere alone, in case they get to him through me. If they knew my true identity, then my family would also become a target.”

  “A target for his enemies, not for him,” Kara said, a tremble in her voice.

  “Yes, I don’t understand that myself.”

  I did. Brett Webb had, just like us, been acting for Monk. With all his connections, Kalashov would have known that. How long would it be before he rumbled us? If he hadn’t already.

  “Is your husband aware that you know of his involvement in your brother’s death?” I asked.

  “No, but I did question him about it and ever since then he’s been feeding me pills that make me drowsy.”

  Kara bridled. “Why on earth would he do that?”

  “Presumably so I don’t ask him any more awkward questions. And he’s guarding me more closely than ever.”

  Kara peered closely at her sister’s face. “You don’t look drowsy.”

  “No, because I realized what he was doing and stopped taking the pills. I’m all right during the day. He makes sure I’m escorted everywhere and his men won’t tell me anything. But he feeds me the pills at night—”

  “So that when you’re alone with him you can’t force the issue.”

  She shrugged. “I guess. And now I have to pretend to be drugged up even though I’m not.”

  “That’s awful.” Kara regarded her sister with a genuine expression of sympathy. “Why on earth is he doing it?”

  “I’m not sure.” She wrinkled her brow. “But something’s going on, that much I do know. He’s never usually away as much as he has been recently. I think he wants to keep me quiet until it’s all over so that I don’t distract him.”

  “Something to do with supplying arms to terrorists?” I suggested mildly.

  She didn’t bat an eyelid. “I don’t know anything about that.” But the suggestion clearly didn’t surprise her.

  “No.” The sound of Anton’s voice startled us all. It was the first time he’d spoken since entering the room, and I’d almost forgotten he was there. “It has nothing to do with arms.”

  “Then what?” I asked.

  “Have you ever heard of the Russian
Business Network?”

  “Can’t say that I have.”

  “They are a multifaceted cybercrime organisation.”

  “Ah, I see.” And I was beginning to. “Identity theft for resale, hosting illegal or dubious businesses, that sort of thing.”

  “Yes, and child pornography, spam, even phishing.”

  “Phishing?” Kara looked baffled.

  “Yes, you know, e-mails from far-flung African countries offering you a percentage of millions of dollars if you give them your bank details so they can transfer the money to you.” I rolled my eyes. “You’d be astonished how many people fall for it.”

  “Why would Jas’s husband get involved in that sort of thing?” Kara asked.

  “Yes, why?” But far from looking as confused as she sounded, Jasmine appeared to be struggling to contain a smile, as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Her reaction wasn’t what I’d been expecting, and it got me wondering.

  “If he’s involved, I’d say it’s because it’s almost impossible to trace the hosts.” I looked at Anton and he nodded. “It can all be controlled through obscure locations and there’s no hardware involved. Not like with the supply of weapons or drugs.”

  “Mr. Kalashov has gradually been giving up all his other activities in order to concentrate on this. He sees more profit for less risk.”

  “Anton, why didn’t you say something about this before now?” Jasmine looked at him in bewilderment but her eyes were sparkling, as though a lot of things she’d been unable to fathom suddenly made sense.

  “It was better you didn’t know.”

  “Why did he go to Russia this week then?” I asked Anton. “And why did he return sooner than planned?”

  “This I don’t know. I merely look after his legal business affairs and don’t concern myself with anything else. It’s better to know as little as possible about what he does.”

  “Where does he run his cybercrime organisation from? Do you know that?”

  “I think his daughter controls it.”

  “Monika.” Jasmine opened her eyes wide. “But she just runs an escort agency.”

  Anton smiled acidly. “She’s a very intelligent woman, more than capable of doing two things at once.”