by Tony Jenkins
Her holiday visit was less than a month away and she hoped that Demeter and her Uncle Jack would be able to find some way of helping the Roma people, which did not conflict with government policy. As he switched off his phone, Demeter believed that Theresa was wishing for the impossible.
At the police station near Lake Pantelimon, the telephone call from the farmer Butaco was regarded as ramblings from an old fool by the policeman who took down his statement. He filed the report, but with few resources he did not expect that it would even justify a visit to the farm, since there was neither theft, nor injury. The affair would certainly have been quickly forgotten, except for another report regarding a burned-out car near the edge of the lake. Two policemen were sent to examine it and decided that it was arson. They made a note of the registration number and engine number to check ownership and reported back to the station. The registration number was traced to a Sergeant Dinescu at the Bucharest barracks.
When the barracks was contacted, the police were informed that the sergeant-major was off duty, but he would be informed when he returned. When he failed to report for duty the following day, his officer became concerned about Dinescu. After being told that his burned-out car had been found many miles away at Lake Pantelimon, he issued a request for a search to be carried out in the area. The newly appointed police officer in charge at Pantelimon station was Lieutenant Petru Bumbesco, who had recently been transferred from Bucharest HQ. He meticulously read all reports and was puzzled by the odd story told by the farmer Butaco.
Bumbesco arranged for a search of the lake area, but also telephoned the barracks to ask why Dinescu would have visited the remote neighbourhood. When he learned that the visit was to sell the car, the Lieutenant asked if the name of the buyer was known. A colleague remembered Dinescu complaining about having to drive so far to show the car to some farmer called Butaco. The name was familiar and linked with the odd report from the farmer. Bumbesco and another policeman drove to the farm to interview Butaco. After hearing his story, the two officers examined the ground near the farmhouse and found oil stains and car tracks. Since Butaco did not have a car, it could only have come from Dinescu’s Dacia.
It appeared that a bearded old man had overpowered and locked up Butaco. When Dinescu arrived at the farm, he would probably have pretended to be the farmer and then taken the car, probably after killing Dinescu to get it. He must have taken his body in the car to dispose of it, but why do all this and then burn the car and why drive it to the lake in the first place? Bumbesco realised that the target must have been the soldier and not the car. No body was found in the burned-out car, nor in the shallow lake itself. He would continue his search for the body, but inform the army authorities of the likely murder and ask them to investigate possible enemies who would want to kill the sergeant-major.
As he was standing outside the run-down farmhouse and neglected outbuildings with the farmer, he took a long look around the buildings and surrounding fields and noticed some newly dug earth near the barn. The area stood out, where none of the surrounding fields had been worked on for some time. It seemed odd and he asked Butaco what had been planted. The farmer told him he had just put in a crop of potatoes, but never thought to mention that the digging had been done by his bearded visitor, although he had thought it strange that the man needed the exercise.
Chapter 11
Destruction
Demeter spent a full day driving his Kawasaki quad bike across his land and covered all the likely places to try to discover where the Roma people had fled. As it grew dark, he was forced to give up, but had found no trace of them. As he was making his search, the train was used to move more rails to the end of the line, which would allow track-laying to extend to the outskirts of the deserted Roma village. As promised, there was extra security at the mine and the refinery in accordance with orders from Commissar Radics.
Two days passed with no sign of any of the Roma people after their mass exodus from their homes. There were no further incidents to cause disruption of the mining operation and everyone was beginning to think that the problem had solved itself. Nevertheless, Demeter was still concerned about the reasons for the theft of explosives and instructed his staff to remain on the alert.
In the early hours of the following morning, the noise of a loud explosion disturbed the sleep of the local population and the sound seemed to come from the direction of the deserted Roma village. Security staff piled into a lorry and drove towards the source of the noise. When they arrived at the railhead, they found that the stack of rails left alongside the line for installation had been turned into a heap of twisted metal by the explosion. As they were examining the damage and checking that there were no booby traps laid under the rail line itself, they heard the noise of two more explosions and this time they seemed to come from the refinery area. They later learned that half an hour after the team of security men drove off from their main base at the refinery, two guards who had remained behind to protect the area were overpowered and blindfolded before being tied up.
Guessing that they had been deliberately drawn away from the more important targets at the refinery, the security team hurried to climb into their lorry to investigate the new explosions. When they arrived back at the refinery, they saw that two steel towers, which had supported the conveyor belt and loading chutes had been toppled by the explosions. They would have to be rebuilt before any more ore could be fed into the refinery processing plant. Dynamite had been placed under their concrete bases to cause the damage.
As he looked at the jumbled mess and appreciated that his production had been brought to a standstill, Larjos Farkas could feel the cold sweat breaking out on his body. With the extra security men he had been given, he had unwisely told Commissar Radics that there was now no threat to his production operations. None of his workers, or the security staff had been injured, but Larjos was less concerned about them than he was about his own reputation and future.
As he was looking at the damage, he heard the distant sound of yet another explosion and this time it appeared to come from the mine itself. Determined to show that he was in control and to regain the initiative, he first organised a team of men to begin clearing the fallen steel structures and then set off to see for himself the damage, which had probably been carried out at the mine. When he arrived, everything appeared to be normal, except that the massive digger on its caterpillar treads was missing. Seeing a group of men at the far side of the open cast mine, he hurried over to speak with them.
The foreman explained that the digger had been tearing ore out of the steep sides of the opencast mine and loading it into a large truck alongside. Suddenly, the steep side of the mine above the digger exploded and tons of ore and earth cascaded down and buried both the digger and the lorry. Since the digger and lorry drivers were both inside their steel cabs, he hoped that they would soon be able to dig them out unharmed, but it would be some time before extraction could be resumed. Tons of earth would have to be cleared and then the digger and lorry would have to be hosed down and any mechanical damage repaired. Larjos estimated that ore production could be stopped for at least a week and more rail track would be needed.
Demeter arrived and received an account of the situation from the foreman. He was already aware of the damage at the railhead and refinery when he approached Larjos and saw that the man was looking shocked and dejected.
“This was a well-planned operation Larjos, to show us that the mining operation is vulnerable and could be brought to a permanent standstill at any time. At least they made sure that your workers were not harmed. Your foreman thinks the drivers should be safe inside their cabs.”
“I always knew that those damned Roma would cause us trouble and they are going to have to pay for doing all this damage. Commissar Radics will arrest the lot of them.”
“I doubt that Larjos, since I spent all day yesterday looking for them and there were no Roma anywhere in the area. You can’t arrest people who are not here, or charge
them. If they are responsible, then they are also pretty smart. Or perhaps, they have a cunning leader to direct them and it cannot be Boldo.”
Listening to Demeter, Larjos paled as he realised that with no one else to blame, the commissar would vent his full fury on him and he would be very lucky to keep his position as manager. Demeter was thinking about the silent Romanian who had been with Boldo at their meetings and whom he suspected was orchestrating the campaign against the mine. It might be cheaper to compensate the Roma for destroying their homes, instead of paying for a large security team and repairing the damage already done, which could become far greater. Radics had dismissed his suggestions at the Board Meeting because, like most Hungarians, he considered the Roma people inferior and incapable of fighting back. They should call an emergency Board Meeting as soon as possible, since this was certainly not the case with the Roma in Dunakeszi.
It would be half term break at Durham University in just two weeks and Theresa had already booked her flight to Budapest. If the situation at the mine worsened, possibly because of the hard-line attitude that he anticipated from Commissar Radics, he would have to insist that Theresa should cancel the visit to keep her away from danger.
Chapter 12
Preparation
Joe Devine watched two young men make their way to his gymnasium and spend their usual two hours working out on the weights and fitness machines. He sat down in the café where they were bound to pass him and drank a coffee from his usual pint-sized mug whilst reading the evening edition of the Liverpool Echo. One of the men stopped alongside his table with a friendly grin on his face.
“Hello Joe, the coffee must be really good if you can drink it from a mug that size.”
“Now, now lads, you know it’s one of the best brews in the city, which is why you come here. Sit down. Would you like coffee, or anything else?”
Both men sat down and asked for coffee, as they continued to wipe the sweat from their faces after their workout. Pointing at the opened newspaper, one of the men asked if there was anything special that Joe was reading. Joe told him that he was looking to see if there was any more information about the big Russian guy killed in the city centre. Seeing the sudden interest in the man’s eyes, Joe explained that his pal Jack Randil suspected that the Russian Mafia was responsible for attacks on his security men. He went on to tell them that Jack was concerned that they might be trying to operate in Liverpool by targeting his security business. In the meantime, he was keeping his eyes and ears open to help his friend.
“What makes Jack Randil think they are Russian Mafia Joe?”
“He and his men caught four foreigners who were trying to ambush them at one of their customer sites and handed them over to the police. None of them have spoken a word yet, but then this Russian flies in from Cyprus and causes trouble and you know how the Russians have taken over drugs, prostitution and gambling in Cyprus. Jack thinks they now want to start operating in Liverpool.”
The two men looked at each other and slowly drank their coffee as they asked if Joe had any other information about Russians in the city. He told them he was putting the word around and if he heard anything, he would let them know and perhaps they would do the same for him. They promised they would let him know if they heard anything about foreigners and one of the men said he had to visit the loo. As he was walking back, Joe saw that he was using his mobile phone to have a long conversation. Joe guessed that his information was being passed on. After finishing their coffee, the two men wasted no time in getting back to their car. Watching the car race out of his car park, Joe made a phone call to Jack Randil to tell him about his chat with two of the Young Guns gang and that the message had probably been passed on.
Kirill Lopatin had been a serving officer in the KGB when the USSR broke up and along with many others, he had decided it was time to leave and use his skills in the many burgeoning criminal organisations where there were rich rewards. Having served in the USA, Spain and the UK, he spoke fluent English and Spanish and had learned to blend in with his surroundings with ease. He had been told to set up a new operation in Liverpool and for three months had studied the area, before asking for four trained enforcers to join him in building the new operation.
He had decided to start by establishing a protection service, which required potential customers to be made aware of the violent repercussions which would follow if they refused to pay. He considered that the Liverpool police were too thinly spread to be a serious problem and had studied the Randil security service, which used trained ex-servicemen and could be a threat to his plans. He decided to deal with Randil security men first to show that they were unable to protect properties against his own men. The security business was controlled by an ex-army sergeant and his boss, who was an ex-army corporal and Kirill did not anticipate too much trouble from them. He was not aware that the ex-army sergeant had served with Jack in the paratroops during the Falklands conflict and both had later been involved in training troops in unarmed combat and infiltration. He realised after the early success that he would now have to step up his activities with four of his men overpowered and handed over to the police.
Ahtoh Kovalik was surplus to requirements in the Cyprus operation, which was now well established and required subtlety instead of muscle. The man was a tough and experienced enforcer and when it was suggested that he was available, Kirill had asked for him to be sent to Liverpool. Unfortunately, Ahtoh had grown used to his comfortable Cyprus lifestyle and considered that his past contributions entitled him to refuse the move. When it was made clear that his choice was Liverpool, or a return to Moscow, he had grudgingly chosen Liverpool.
Carrying a big chip on his shoulder, on arriving in Liverpool, he stupidly drank too much, started a brawl in a bar and was killed. Things were not going to plan and Kirill knew that he must very quickly show that he could succeed. He must choose between continuing to attack the Randil men, or punish those responsible for killing Ahtoh and show that he was the toughest operator in the city. Since his man had been very publicly killed by local gang members, he decided to take revenge on the killers. First, he would have to learn all he could about those responsible for Ahtoh’s killing. Past experience had taught him that asking too many questions amongst the locals raised unwelcome interest. Instead, he steered conversations so that he gathered snippets of information, which he then pieced together. After visiting coffee bars, cafés and pubs and sharing drinks, cigarettes, or newspapers, his friendly and unassuming style had brought him the details he wanted.
He had been told that Ahtoh had been killed by the Young Guns and he even learned the names of the gang members roughed up by Ahtoh in the Tropicana Bistro. The gang was involved in providing protection, prostitution and drugs. If he could destroy them, he would have his revenge and be in a strong position to take over their established criminal activities.
The letter sent to customers by Jack Randil had been picked up by an alert Liverpool Echo reporter. In an editorial titled ‘Foreign Criminals Invade City’, he linked the attacks on Randil security staff by foreign thugs with the fight in the city centre bar started by a newly arrived Russian Mafia member, who was later killed. Reading this, Kirill was sure that the police would be checking on Russians arriving in Liverpool and when asking for more men to be sent, he specified that they should arrive separately and at varied entry points. As soon as they all reached Liverpool, he would begin his attacks on the locals who had killed Ahtoh.
During the next two weeks, the Randil Security team experienced no problems and although they continued to operate in two-man teams, their general routine had slowly returned to normal. Alerted to the possible threat to their city operations, the Young Guns gang had warned their members to be on the lookout for newly arrived Russians. They also offered a reward to any of their customers who provided them with information on the presence of the unwelcome intruders.
Moving slowly, but cautiously Kirill found accommodation for his steadily increasing team mem
bers in pairs in apartment blocks in the many run-down areas on the outskirts of the city. Two of the six men he was being sent were able to speak reasonable English, but with a pronounced accent. As he waited for his men to arrive, Kirill began building up information on the regular movements of the two Young Gang members who were manhandled by Ahtoh in the Tropicana Bistro bar. He also used the time to plan his revenge attacks on the Young Guns.
At Pantelimon in Romania, after making no progress in finding the body of the missing soldier Dinescu, Lieutenant Bumbesco drove to the army base at Bucharest to speak to the man’s commanding officer and colleagues. When he heard that Dinescu had been promoted for successfully carrying out a raid on a Roma village ordered by Commissar Dalca, he immediately recognised the link between their deaths. It was common knowledge that the commissar despised the Roma people. It seemed likely that both men had been killed by Roma in revenge for the raid. A young boy and an old woman had been shot and because of inter marriages, many Roma were related and were likely to have blood ties with the victims.
Bumbesco had been stationed in Bucharest when Dalca had been rescued from the forest after his horrific experience. Someone wanted the commissar to suffer a long and painful death, but he survived, only to be stabbed when his wife was working in the garden nearby. If Dinescu had been killed by the same people, it was likely that he too would have been made to suffer a lingering death. The murderer, or murderers must be from the village of Budestin, which was destroyed by Dinescu and his men. Unfortunately, the inhabitants were now scattered amongst many other Roma villages and would be difficult to trace. Perhaps, he could persuade his superiors to send someone to the Budestin area to investigate and preferably the man chosen should have Roma roots.
A report and recommendations were sent to Bucharest Police HQ and Bumbesco was waiting for a response. Meantime, he decided to pay another visit to the farm and have another interview with the farmer Butaco. The farm had to be the crime scene because of all the trouble the bearded man had gone to. Dinescu could have been killed anywhere, but this particular farm had been chosen. During his visit he had checked the buildings and surrounding areas, but perhaps he was missing something.