by Conrad Jones
“Killing a police officer is never collateral damage to them, you idiot. It is an act of war to them!”
“Either way, he silenced him,” Letva shrugged. “You’re missing the point.”
“What is the point?” Ivor frowned. “Enlighten me.”
“He took Grainger out because he didn’t want him spilling his guts. The police had arrested Grainger and he would have used any leverage he had to make a deal.”
“What do you mean?” Ivor asked quietly. He noticed some of his men shuffling uncomfortably as if they didn’t want to hear the conversation any longer. “What leverage did he have?”
Letva thought about his next words carefully. “You know that Andris and Grainger socialised didn’t you?” Letva nodded and held out his hand palm up in question. “You knew his name when she said it didn’t you?” Ivor gave a gentle nod. “They were more than just friends, Ivor. The information about the mill was pillow talk.”
“I think you should shut up,” Ivor held up his hand.
“It is the truth,” Letva sighed. “Andris killed him so that he couldn’t go blabbing about their relationship. He didn’t want everyone to know that he swung both ways. When he realised that Grainger had betrayed him by selling the information, he decided to shut him up permanently. The detective was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Ivor shook his head in disbelief. He turned and walked away. Shooting Letva dead would be very simple now but there was something in what he said. Part of it rang true. He looked into the eyes of some of his men and they didn’t look surprised. Some of them couldn’t make eye contact with him. They had obviously suspected that Andris was a bit too close to Grainger. He turned back to Letva. “You’re making a lot of assumptions.” He pointed his finger as he spoke. “You wouldn’t be trying to deflect the blame would you?”
“It is true,” Letva shrugged. “Ask her how she knows Grainger.”
“How do you know him?”
“I met him at a club a few years back. We got talking.”
Ivor raised his eyebrows, “A gay club?”
“Yes. I was there with my partner and we got talking. He was bisexual.”
“I told you,” Letva clapped his hands together. “I can’t prove it yet but I bet Grainger took the drugs from the switch.” Ivor was still shell-shocked. His mind wandered. Andris had always been awkward around women; awkward and aggressive. Ivor had seen him with hundreds of women but it didn’t mean he wasn’t bisexual. It was not like he would share such information with his older brother, who was also his hero and his boss. Letva coughed and repeated himself. “I said, I think he took the drugs from the switch too.”
Ivor ignored his comments. “Too many people have been killed in public, Letva,” Ivor changed the subject. He needed to compose himself. “You should have stopped him from making such a shambles.”
“It will die down.”
“It will die down! Are you fucking blind, or stupid?”
“The press will move onto something else next week.”
“No they won’t, Letva.”
“We have been here before.”
“No, no, no,” Ivor wagged his finger. “We have not been here before, not here, not like this.” He glared at Letva. “This is way beyond anything we have experienced before. Every rag across Europe will be digging up anything that they can connect to Three. We’re going to be front page news for a long time and you know what happens when the press get excited about something like this?”
“They make shit up...”
“No, Letva!” Ivor cut him dead. “Every fucking empty head on the planet calls them up with their true stories about the ‘Three gangsters’” Ivor reddened and picked up a newspaper. “Can you see the headlines?” he said angrily. “My father was killed by Three. My mother was killed by Three. Three robbed my bank. Three killed my dog. Three fathered my ten children.” He threw the paper onto the floor. “Can you see it, Letva?”
“Yes,” he agreed reluctantly.
“You and Andris have put us into the spotlight and every grass from here to Hong Kong will be pointing their fingers at us for cash.”
“I don’t see what else we could have done,” Letva shrugged sulkily. “We had to find out where the information came from didn’t we?”
“Who took her from police protection?”
“I did.”
“You hijacked an armed unit?”
“I did it with three other men. It was clean and simple. We were in and out in a few minutes.”
“You shot a detective and you think it was a clean operation?”
“He hampered the snatch. I had to neutralise him.”
“Subtle, Letva. Very subtle.” Ivor shook his head. “Who killed Karpov?”
“That was Oleg. We didn’t know anything about it until he had him at the house and by then it was too late. Oleg hated the Russians; you know how much he hated them. He was a lunatic.”
Ivor thought about it for a moment. Oleg did hate the Russians but he was too shrewd to snatch one of the Karpovs and dispose of the corpse in plain sight. He had been around the block with the soviet gangs a dozen times or more and he knew what would happen if he kidnapped, tortured and killed one of them for sport. Something wasn’t right. There was a lot that wasn’t right. He changed tack while he mulled things over.
“Have you seen the headlines about her?” Ivor pointed to the block print.
“Not all of them. Why should that matter?”
“Tragic Liverpool reporter?” Ivor read it out. “Every bleeding heart in the country will be waiting for news about her. She’s a poor orphan snatched from the protection of the police on the way to see her dying girlfriend. Do you know how much focus that will bring?”
“Well, it will be bad for a while but they’ll forget her when another story comes along.”
“Wrong!” Ivor shouted. He pointed to Toni. “They will never stop looking for her, not in our lifetime, you idiot!” Toni watched them arguing. Ivor looked at her curiously. Letva followed his gaze. “Have you seen these headlines?” Ivor held the paper closer to her and turned the pages as she scanned them. She shook her head, the colour draining from her face. “You didn’t help to write this before this idiot kidnapped you, did you?”
“No,” Toni answered with a tremor in her voice. She shook her head vehemently. “I deleted those pictures. They must have recovered them. I certainly wouldn’t have written that about my family history, not ever.”
“Who could have recovered them?” Ivor asked politely. “I am sure that you think it doesn’t matter now that they’re out in the public domain, but it does matter to me.”
“Why would it matter now?” Toni was baffled. She was going to die anyway, why not ask the question? She had nothing left to lose. “I don’t understand.”
“Untie her hands and give her some water,” Ivor ordered.
“Are you mad, Ivor?” Letva complained. “This bitch started all this. If it wasn’t for her, none of this would have happened...”
“Shut up,” Ivor said bitterly. His eyes drilled into Letva challenging him to defy him. Letva didn’t dare. “Do it now!”
One of the men moved and cut the ties and another handed her a bottle of water. Antonia rubbed her wrists and frowned. She wiped at the vomit on her jeans, embarrassed. “Thank you.”
“It is important to me. I am interested in whoever authored the article about us.”
“Doesn’t it say a name next to the article?” Toni asked. She gulped at the water thirstily.
“No,” Ivor looked again. “The name Julia Fox is next to the main article but not the one about us.”
“Good old Julia. When that happens, the article has been written by a team of journalists but Julia is claiming credit for it all,” Toni said bitterly. She was nervous and rambling. “She had access to my deleted files. It is to stop sour grapes when an employee leaves just in case they try to delete all the photographs they uploaded.”
“I see,” Ivor nodded.
“So she works for the locals?”
“She is the editor of The Echo and The Daily Post.”
“And she sold your pictures to the nationals? That is criminal,” he shook his head not realising the irony. Toni looked at him as he spoke. His eyes moved left to right reading the words again. “Here,” Ivor handed her the newspaper. “There’s something to read. I have some business to attend to. Maybe we can talk later.” Toni took the newspaper and nodded. She heard Letva calling him Ivor. The men at the handover had used the same name. It was obvious that he was in charge. “Letva, come with me. We need to sort our problems away from the press. No offence,” he said smiling thinly at Toni. He turned and walked across the warehouse. Letva followed him flanked by six others. “You two stay with Miss Barrat,” he called as they left. Two men hovered behind her. Toni didn’t know how to feel. Letva said that she would be taken to the forest and shot but now she had a newspaper and water. Relief, fear and confusion battled for a place in her mind. She took a sip of the water and read the newspaper. Tears filled her eyes and blurred her vision and her mind drifted to Kayla.
CHAPTER 55
Ivor looked out of the window and watched Andris being marched into the building at gunpoint. He thought it was typical. The man wouldn’t do anything that he was asked without causing a fuss. It always had to go to the wire before he would capitulate. It was as if he constantly had a point to prove. Whatever Ivor asked him to do, Andris had an alternative method that was quicker and easier. He had to butt heads with him over the smallest issue and challenge his authority. It was this attitude that had forced Ivor to move him to the UK. He had burnt his bridges in Latvia. Every judge and bent detective that they had on the payroll had refused to help any more if Andris was involved. He had become a liability not only to himself but to Ivor and more importantly to Three. Enough was enough. He had sent him to London first but when things didn’t improve, he sent him north to Liverpool. He didn’t think that he could create too many problems there. How wrong he had been. There was a knock on the door and then it opened before he could speak.
“What the fuck are you playing at?” Andris burst in. His face was deep red with embarrassment and anger. He pointed to the two men behind him. They each held a Glock 17 on his back. “These fucking monkeys had the nerve to tell me that I was being summonsed immediately by the great Ivor Markevica,” Andris pointed to himself dramatically. “Me, summonsed by you!” He looked at everyone incredulously. “Who are you again?” he waved his arms theatrically. “Oh yes. You’re my fucking brother!”
“Sit down and stop being so dramatic,” Ivor pointed to a chair. Andris made to argue but Ivor gestured to one of the men behind him. He hit him on the side of the head with his gun. Andris dropped to his knees. “Do you have to make everything such a drama, Andris?”
“Fuck you,” Andris moaned. He rubbed the fast rising lump on his head. “I’m going to slit his throat,” he said looking at the man that hit him. “The minute he steps back onto an airplane, you’re fucking dead meat.” The man didn’t flinch. He didn’t look frightened at all.
“You will be leaving here for good, Andris,” Ivor said flatly.
“What are you talking about?”
“You are going from Hull to Rotterdam in the back of a lorry, today,” Ivor paused and stared at him. “Your face is all over the news. You are a liability now.”
“Fuck you. I’m going nowhere.”
“Drama, drama, drama, Andris,” Ivor shrugged. “You will go willingly or you will go bound and gagged like a hog. It is your choice.”
“Come on, Ivor!”
“You just do not understand how things work, do you?”
“I understand that you’re a fucking arsehole,” he snapped. “You turn up here like Dynamo the magician and start poking your nose into my business. You have the audacity to order my men to bring me here at gunpoint and tell me that I am being shipped out. Who the fuck do you think you are?”
Ivor sat down and sighed. He put his head in hands and sighed. His temper was beginning to fray. He counted to ten before looking around the room. “Your men brought you here at gunpoint?” he shrugged. “Your men put a gun to your head? That would tell any intelligent person that they are not your men.”
“I was busy sorting business out...”
“You were busy fucking things up for the next thirty years, you idiot!” Ivor snapped. Andris paled visibly. “You and your big mouth caused all this.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Richard Grainger,” Ivor glared at him.
“He’s not a problem anymore.”
“Just because he is dead doesn’t mean he isn’t a problem,” Ivor laughed gruffly. “You see that this is your problem all the time. You think that by killing him he has gone away but he hasn’t, has he?” Ivor asked the room. Most of the men shook their heads. “They all know that you were fucking Richard Grainger, killing him doesn’t change that. Is that your problem, Andris?” Andris changed colour. “Were you repressed all these years?” Ivor snorted. “Was hiding in the closet too much for you so you feel that you have to walk around like Johnny Concrete, so that we all think you’re a big macho man?” Andris glared at his brother. Ivor pushed him. “Is that it?”
“Fuck you!”
“Letva guessed it was you,” Ivor gestured to the seated figure on his left. “You can thank him for that.” Andris looked across at him and scowled. “You can put your differences aside for now. I don’t want to hear you blaming each other. You have destroyed our anonymity here and across Europe. It will take years for us to recover from this, if we can at all.”
“I told him he had gone too far,” Letva sighed, “I cannot trust him again. Not now I know he is a fairy.”
Andris launched himself across the room. He covered the three metres between himself and Letva in a flash but Letva was quicker. He stood and stepped to the side, tripping Andris. Andris clattered to the floor and Letva was on him. He wrapped his arm around his neck, tucking his forearm under his jaw and squeezed. Andris struggled violently but the chokehold became tighter. When a gun was pressed against Letva’s temple, he released him. They stood up, three men between them.
“You and your fag boyfriend stole the shipment too, didn’t you?” Letva turned to face Ivor. “He must have taken the zombie from the switch,” Letva shouted. “Don’t trust him!”
“I didn’t take the drugs, you prick,” Andris replied angrily. “He is a liar!”
“Who else knew about it?” Letva pointed his finger. “Only you and your boyfriend. You make me sick!”
“I will kill you!”
“You can try, you queer.”
Andris launched himself again, but the men held him firm.
“Shut up both of you!” Ivor ordered. An uneasy silence fell across the room. “I arranged for the drugs to be taken,” he growled.
“What?” Letva asked confused.
“You fucked up a simple handover and I didn’t know who was responsible for the leak. I brought in an independent to make sure the shipment was safe.” All eyes fell on Ivor. His men exchanged uneasy glances. Letva and Andris relaxed a little and stared at Ivor with contempt.
“You arranged the snatch?” Letva said rolling his eyes.
“Who did you use?” Andris asked incredulous.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ivor snapped. “He did what he was paid to do and the zombie is at the press being converted into tablets. I finished what you should have done in the first place!”
“Who did you use?” Andris repeated.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Tell me you didn’t use that snake, Gary Powell.”
“What?” Ivor felt prickles of uncertainty touching him. “Why not? He has been a reliable asset.”
“He is a mercenary and he can’t be trusted...”
“Enough!” Ivor shouted. “He is good at his job.”
“Andris is right,” Letva said softly. “We haven’t used him for ne
arly a year. We found out that he has been working for the Karpovs too.”
“What?”
“We heard whispers and they turned out to be true.”
“The word is that he has been working directly for Victor Karpov,” Andris sneered. “You see you don’t know everything that goes on here. This city is full of snakes and he works for anyone who pays him. Did you use him to take the shipment?”
“Yes.”
“And then you arranged for him to hand it back?”
“Of course.”
“But none of our men knew that you were back in the country,” Andris frowned. “Did you do the handover with him?”
“No.”
Andris shook his head in disbelief. “Did you send Marika?”
Ivor realised what Andris was saying. If Powell had followed Marika back to the hotel, then the Karpovs would know where they were staying. He was in deep trouble. He reached for his mobile phone and dialled Marika. There was a feeling of dread in his guts.
CHAPTER 56
Marika put her iPod into a docking port and selected a Rihanna album. She opened her suitcase and emptied the contents onto the bed, then unzipped the liner and slipped out a panel from the base. Inside were two passports that identified them as Estonian newlyweds. A second pair said they were a Lithuanian couple, who dived a lot in the Red Sea and on the reefs off Australia. Living with Ivor was like being a character in a Bond movie. They were always changing identities, nationalities and appearance. It was part of the excitement for her. During the last twelve months her hair had been long, ridiculously long, short, auburn, blond and black and she loved every one of the styles. Ivor loved it too. It kept her fresh and attractive for him, not that it was hard to keep Ivor interested. He was fascinated with her from the first time he had set eyes on her. The animal magnetism and sexual chemistry between them never waned. As if reading her thoughts Rihanna and Eminem began to sing her favourite track. Marika smiled and sang along with them.
You ever love somebody so much you can barely breathe when you’re with ‘em? You meet and neither one of you even know what hit ‘em...