'How are you going to get to Fes?'
'Drive to Algeciras. Ferry to Ceuta. I could be in Fes by this evening.'
'We'll book you a room in the Hotel du Commerce. It's quiet, out of the way, and you won't draw attention to yourself as you would if you were in the Palais Jamai or the Dar Batha. It's still in the old town, but in Fes El Djedid, rather than Fes El Bali, where Barakat has his shop and the Diouris have their house,' said Pablo. 'What about Yousra?'
'I'll call her. She'll meet me in Fes.'
'Leave your car in Meknes, meet her there. The Hotel Bab Mansour has a garage. We'll organize a room for you. Take a taxi from there,' said Pablo. 'Don't turn up in a Spanish-registered vehicle; Barakat will have his informers in Fes.'
'Consuelo will be coming with me.'
'Really?'
'There's no question of her staying here.'
'Why tell her?'
'I already have.'
'Call me from Ceuta,' said Pablo. 'Go to the Hotel Puerta de Africa and ask for Alfonso. Tell him you're a great admirer of Pablo Neruda and he'll look after your border crossing.' Falcon went down to the forensics lab, picked up some DNA swabs and continued to the observation room to see Ramirez's first interview with Nikita Sokolov. He was waiting for the right moment to interrupt, but was also fascinated to see how Ramirez would play the Russian. They were still working their way through the preliminaries. The translator sat well back from the table between the two men. Sokolov leaned forward, a large white bandage around his head. His huge bulk made him look like a figure from a cartoon. His face bent down was oddly sad, as if remorse could potentially take up residence. Occasionally, when he'd become a little stiff, he'd hook his arms over the back of the seat and sit up straight, then his face would lose that look of sadness and become devoid of any recognizable human emotion.
'I'm just going to summarize that for you,' said Ramirez, concluding a fairly long opening statement. 'There are five murders that we can charge you with today. There are no questions about any of them. We have witnesses and we have your weapon with your fingerprints on it. And in the case of the first two murders we also have your blood at the scene. These killings are: Miguel Estevez and Julia Valdes in the apartment of Roque Barba in Las Tres Mil Viviendas on Monday, 18th September. And Leonid Revnik…'
Ramirez paused as Sokolov spat a contemptuous globule of sputum at the floor.
'Leonid Revnik,' continued Ramirez, 'Isabel Sanchez and Viktor Belenki in the Hotel La Berenjena on Tuesday, 19th September. You will be charged with all these murders later this morning. Do you understand?'
The translator did her work. Sokolov turned his mouth down and nodded as if this was a reasonable summary of a couple of days' work. He did not look at the Cuban woman as she spoke. His eyes were fixed on Ramirez's forehead, as if this was where he was planning his first assault on his way out of the room. Ramirez was extraordinarily calm. His interview style normally tended towards the aggressive, but he'd decided on a different approach with Sokolov, although the Russian did look impervious to aggression.
'Given that these five murders will put you behind bars for the rest of your life, I was wondering if there were any other killings you'd like us to take into consideration at the same time?'
Sokolov's response was very surprising.
'I would like to help you, Inspector,' he said, 'but you must understand that this is my job. I was an "enforcer" for a number of years on the Costa del Sol with Leonid Revnik and his predecessor before I joined Yuri Donstov in the same capacity. I was given the names of people I was required to kill, but I did not always remember them. It was just business. If you can be specific and remind me of the circumstances, I might be able to help.'
Ramirez was momentarily wrong-footed by the tone of this reply. He'd been expecting a belligerent silence. It made him concentrate on his adversary. Falcon began to think that inside Sokolov's brutal frame there must be a young man with a briefcase, a set of pens and an eagerness to please. Then it occurred to him that the last thing this sort of work needed was craziness. What it demanded was discipline, calmness, attention to detail and a clear uncomplicated mind. Maybe weightlifting wasn't such bad training for the work.
'I was thinking of Marisa Moreno,' said Ramirez, jogging himself back into the interview. 'You knew her, of course.'
'Yes, I did.'
'She was cut up with a chain saw.'
'As you've probably already gathered, that is not my method,' said Sokolov. 'Sometimes I have to satisfy the needs of others. The two who did that were animals, but they were brought up on brutality. They know nothing else.'
'Where are they now?'
'They are dead. They were captured by Revnik's men on Monday night and taken away to be… processed.'
'Was that why you and Yuri Donstov were in the Hotel La Berenjena last night?' asked Ramirez. 'Was that just revenge?'
'I will tell you things, Inspector, but I would like you to guarantee me one thing.'
'I'm not sure I can offer you any guarantees.'
'Just this one,' said Sokolov. 'I want everything I tell you to come out in court.'
'Any reason?'
'There are people in Moscow who should know the sort of a man Leonid Revnik was.'
'I think that can be arranged.'
'Leonid Revnik had the backing of the Supreme Council of vory-v-zakone in Moscow to terminate Yuri Donstov's operations in Seville. He was given this because he'd told them that Donstov had killed two directors on the Costa del Sol. This was not true. Revnik had executed them himself. You do not kill a vor-v-zakone without repercussions,' said Sokolov. 'Very quickly our supply lines of heroin from Uzbekistan were cut. Then Vasili Lukyanov died in a car accident last Thursday on his way to Seville.'
'So, it was revenge in the Hotel La Berenjena last night?'
'I did you a favour, killing Revnik.'
'Why's that?'
'He had agreements with people. Politicians,' said Sokolov. 'He'd keep Seville clean in return for big favours on the Costa del Sol.'
'Why did you have to kill Marisa Moreno?'
'She was at breaking point. She could not be relied upon to keep her mouth shut.'
'What did she know?'
'She knew people by face and name. If she found out that I was not working for Revnik any more, she might have felt that her sister was safe enough and would start talking to you,' said Sokolov. 'She would also reveal that she'd been forced to have a relationship with the judge.'
'Esteban Calderon?'
'Him.'
'Why did she have to do that?'
'Information.'
'I thought it was so that she could provide you with a key to the judge's apartment.'
'You might be right.'
'Did she supply you with the key?'
'Yes.'
'What was done with that key on the night of June 7th/June 8th this year?'
'It was used to get into the judge's apartment.'
'But the judge wasn't there, was he?'
Sokolov glanced over at the observation panel.
'His wife was there,' he said.
'Were you the person who gained access to the judge's apartment that night?'
'Yes.'
'Did you murder the judge's wife, Ines Conde de Tejada?'
'If that was her name, yes.'
'Why did you do that?'
'Because I was instructed to do so by Leonid Revnik.'
'Did you know why you were instructed to kill her?'
'Of course. I had to make it look as if the judge had murdered his wife, so that he would be removed from the investigation of the Seville bombing,' said Sokolov. 'One thing we didn't expect was for him to try to get rid of the body. Fortunately, I'd left a man watching the apartment and he was able to report the judge to the police… otherwise he might have got away with it. And that would not have been fair, would it, Inspector?'
Ramirez and Sokolov looked at each other across the table. The translator
stared, mesmerized.
'No, that wouldn't have been fair,' said Ramirez, and his next question came out with his heart in his throat. 'Do you know who was responsible for placing the bomb in the mosque on Calle Romeros, in the barrio of El Cerezo, in Seville on 5th June 2006, which exploded the following morning?'
'I know that it was organized by Leonid Revnik, but I don't know who put the bomb there.'
'What about the building inspectors?'
'I don't know anything about that,' said Sokolov. 'That was not my work.'
'What about the murders of Lucrecio Arenas and Cesar Benito?'
'I killed Cesar Benito in the Holiday Inn, near the Real Madrid football stadium,' said Sokolov. 'Another of Revnik's men shot Lucrecio Arenas at his home in Marbella.'
'Name and where can we find him?'
'I don't know who did it, but you'll probably find him in the puti club near Estepona, which was run by Vasili Lukyanov,' said Sokolov.
'You were a friend of Vasili Lukyanov,' said Ramirez. 'He was coming to join Donstov when he was involved in an accident. He had money and some disks with him…'
'It was all stolen from Revnik,' said Sokolov. 'We were having cash-flow problems, so the money was to get us through the next few months. The disks: Vasili thought we could use them to get involved in the building project here in Seville.'
'Was that all?' asked Ramirez. 'There were a lot of people on those disks, more than sixty. There were also a couple of encrypted disks, which we haven't been able to unlock.'
'With the disks that Vasili was bringing, Yuri said we'd be able to force Revnik out into the open so that we could kill him. I don't know the people who were filmed,' said Sokolov. 'The encrypted disks contain the real accounts of all Revnik's businesses on the Costa del Sol. They were very important to him. That was valuable information for the tax authorities.'
'I'd like to thank you for being so co-operative in our first interview,' said Ramirez.
'As you say, Inspector, it's all over for me now.'
'But normally you people don't talk to the police.'
'Those two directors that Revnik shot were vory-v-zakone. They should have been paid off, not killed. Once Revnik had done that, and put the blame on Yuri Donstov, in my eyes he forfeited the right to the terms of vory-v-zakone. I will tell you anything you need to know about him.'
Falcon left the observation room and knocked on the door of the interview room. Ramirez came out with the translator, who excused herself.
'Great interview, Jose Luis,' said Falcon. 'Not your usual style.'
'Pure luck, Javier. I was going to go in hard about cutting women up with chain saws and shooting them in the face but, you know, the translator. So… I was gentle.'
'He could have been mistaken for civilized, if he hadn't confessed to seven murders,' said Falcon.
'What else do we want from him?' said Ramirez. 'He seems keen to talk.'
'Don't look at me, this is your investigation now, Jose Luis. I have to be out of the building in three minutes,' said Falcon, telling him about his suspension. 'What you should do is go through all those faces on Vasili Lukyanov's disks with Cortes and Diaz and get them to identify all the building inspectors. Then look into the backgrounds of all the other men and see if any of them were trained electricians, possibly even army trained. Interview them and see if they crack. I think that was one of the things Lukyanov was bringing with those disks. The answers to the Seville bombing conspiracy.'
They shook hands, clapped each other on the shoulder. Falcon went to the bottom of the staircase.
'And one other thing, Jose Luis: Ferrera and Perez are on their way to Lukyanov's puti club to pick up Marisa Moreno's sister,' he said. 'From what Sokolov's just said, they're dangerous people out there. They should have full back-up before they go in.'
'You'll be reinstated, Javier,' said Ramirez. 'They're not going to be able to -'
'Not this time, Jose Luis,' said Falcon, and with a quick salute he went up the stairs.
31
Ceuta – Wednesday, 20th September 2006, 15.30 hrs
The Hotel Puerta de Africa was a new four-star hotel in the Gran Via of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, a short taxi ride from the ferry terminal. Under a later instruction from Pablo, Falcon had left his car in Algeciras on the Spanish mainland, which meant they could take the quickest hydrofoil across the Straits of Gibraltar. On the way over he had told Consuelo almost everything of the contents of Yacoub's letter, but had not let her read it. There were things that weren't for her eyes. He left her in the taxi and went into the gleaming white hotel atrium, which looked as far from Africa as you could get. He asked for Alfonso and was pointed across the marble floor to the concierge's desk. He hit the bell. A man in his forties with a heavy moustache and matching eyebrows came out. Falcon told him he was a great admirer of Pablo Neruda and was taken into his office.
'You didn't bring your car?' said Alfonso, making a call.
'We're in a cab.'
'Good. It's less complicated. I'll get you through the border in a few minutes. There'll be a car waiting for you on the other side. Don't worry. They'll find you. There's another cab outside. Transfer your bags and get going.'
That was it. There was a five-minute drive to the Moroccan border. The cab went straight through to the Moroccan side without stopping. The driver took their passports, got them stamped, came back and told them to go to the Customs guy with their bags. At Customs they were taken to a Peugeot 307 and given the keys. Not a word was spoken. They got in, eased through the crowds and drove along the coast to Tetuan. He called Yousra from there, and asked her to meet him in the Hotel Bab Mansour in Meknes. Abdullah had already flown in from London. He would drive her there.
Through the Rif mountains was a beautiful drive but exhausting, so Falcon took the route via Larache and Sidi-Kacem. It took three and a half hours, but they gained a couple of hours in time difference so it was just 5 p.m. when they parked up in the garage of the Hotel Bab Mansour in Meknes. Yousra, Leila and Abdullah were waiting in the bar area, drinking Coke. The women were dressed in black, Abdullah in charcoal grey. Yousra looked composed until she saw Falcon. He went over, hugged the three of them to him. He introduced Consuelo, told Yousra he needed to speak to Abdullah alone for a while.
In the bland businessman's hotel room Falcon handed over Yacoub's last letter, which Abdullah read sitting on the edge of the bed. Until now Abdullah had been holding it together, playing the man of the family. The letter destroyed him. He went into the reading experience as an eighteen-year-old boy and its initial effect was to reduce him to a child. He lay on his side on the bed and bawled silently, with the face of a starving baby. Then he sat himself up, wiped his tears from his eyes and rebuilt himself into a twenty-five-year-old man there and then. Falcon burnt the letter in the hotel waste bin.
'We won't talk about that letter now,' said Falcon. 'Just let it sink in.'
'When I heard his name on the news in London, I couldn't believe it,' said Abdullah. 'I could not believe he'd done that. So that letter was terrible, but it was a relief, too.'
Abdullah stood up and embraced Falcon.
'You've been a good friend, Javier. My father would not have entrusted these things to you if you had been anything less,' he said. 'If ever you need me, you can count on me – and I mean that. Even in the same way as my father.'
'Don't even think about it, Abdullah.'
'That's not something I need to think about,' he said. 'I know. You can count on me.'
'I do need your help now,' said Falcon. 'Has your mother ever been to the Diouri house in Fes?'
'Of course. She goes there every month. She saw that as one of her duties as my father's wife,' said Abdullah. 'She mustn't know what you are going to do, though. She is very fond of Mustafa. As my father said, Mustafa was like a brother to him, and that was how she treated him.'
'And he was an uncle to you,' said Falcon.
'But an impostor,' said Abdullah, looking
Falcon in the eye. 'What my father didn't tell you in the letter is that Mustafa is very charismatic. Apart from anything else, he sells a lot of carpets. The tourists love him even as he despises them. My advice to you is not to engage.'
'I need Yousra to get me into the Diouri house afterwards.'
'That is perfectly possible. It will be quite natural for her, under these circumstances, to go to Fes and mourn with the other women there. They will expect it of her,' said Abdullah. 'The woman with you, Consuelo, is this boy her son?'
Falcon nodded, stunned by the transformation of Abdullah from the slack-limbed teenager he'd known on the family holiday a month ago, to this focused young man he'd become in the last half-hour.
'It's better that neither my mother nor Leila are told about the boy. These women in the Diouri house know each other very well and my mother is not an actress,' said Abdullah. 'She will have an audience with Mustafa's mother as soon as she arrives, and that woman is frightening. She might be mad, but she doesn't miss anything.'
'All right, so how will I get into the house?'
'I will be accompanying her, but I will not be party to their conversation. I will stay downstairs and let you in.'
'Do you know the house?'
'I know everything about that house. When Leila and I were children we were left to play – and you know what children are like. We discovered everything. All the secret passages and back staircases. Don't worry, Javier. Everything will be fine. I think it's best we go our separate ways now. We will arrive in Fes as the grieving family,' said Abdullah, writing down his mobile number. 'Call me when you are ready and I'll make sure everything goes smoothly in the house in Fes.'
They embraced again. Abdullah went to the door, fitted his feet into his barbouches. Falcon could see his mind still working.
'Nothing will change my mind, Javier,' he said.
'But remember, Abdullah: your father sacrificed his life so that you would not suffer what he went through,' said Falcon. 'You've just read his letter. He did not want to be a spy, and he did not want that life for you either.' As they set off for Fes the clouds in the western sky were aflame, with the reddening sun already low on the horizon. Falcon drove in silence.
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