by Conrad Jones
“Oh, they were involved the moment you chose to tell Karpov where Marika was,” Ivor said flatly. “As for begging, do you think my Marika begged for her life?”
“Ivor, please! I didn’t know. Let them go, please, Ivor.”
“Did anyone offer my Marika mercy?”
“Please let them go, Ivor. This is my fault. They haven’t hurt you, Ivor, please!”
“Nobody gave my Marika mercy, did they?”
“I didn’t know what he was going to do, Ivor. Please let them go. They’re old. They can’t handle this at their age. Please, Ivor.” Gary turned slowly on the rope. His breath was becoming shorter. He wriggled to try to keep his eyes on his parents. They looked vulnerable and frail. As he watched them sobbing, frightened and in pain, his heart was being ripped to shreds. “Ivor, I’ll do anything you ask just let them go. I didn’t know, honestly. Please...”
“Please don’t insult my intelligence by denying that you didn’t know what Karpov would do, or I’ll have them dissected piece by piece for the next month.”
“I am not denying it, Ivor. I fucked up by trusting Victor. I didn’t know what he was going to do,” Gary was blubbering now. His eyes were screwed up and his chin trembled as he talked. “Victor said he wanted to know where you were. He wanted to set up a meeting,” Gary garbled. “Please Ivor, I didn’t know he would kill her. Please let them go.” He realised how weak his explanation sounded but he couldn’t bear to see his parents trussed up and he didn’t want to die. “I am begging you, Ivor. I didn’t know anything about this...”
“One more time. Where is Victor Karpov?” Ivor ignored his pleas.
“I’ll tell you anything that you want just let them go.” Ivor gestured towards the parents. One of his men stepped behind Gary’s father and struck him hard across the back of his head. Gary writhed on the rope, terror, anger and helplessness coursed through his brain. “Okay, okay! He flew to Europe this morning,” Gary gasped. Ivor waited for specifics. “Bratislava, I think. He has business there. Now let them go.”
“I don’t think so, Gary.” Ivor said shaking his head. He clapped his hands together and his men picked up two green canisters of petrol. They poured the stinging liquid over Gary’s elderly parents. Their eyes streamed and they began to choke on their gags as the fluid soaked into them and the fumes filled their airways. “This is on your own head,” Ivor said.
“Ivor, Ivor, Ivor! No, no, no, no,” Gary shouted at an increasing volume. “Stop it now, you bastard. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Please stop it!” He heard the whoosh as his parents were set ablaze and his heart broke into a million pieces. He watched in abstract horror as they twitched and jerked. Their grey hair flamed brightly and their mouths twisted into blackened holes as their gags burned away. They seemed to twitch and tremble for hours, all the time Gary couldn’t catch his breath. “You fucking bastard,” he whispered as he watched them turn black, their flesh turned to carbon in front of his eyes. “You fucking animal. I’ll kill you...”
“Your killing days are long behind you. Remember whose fault this is. Have a good hard think about it.” Ivor waved to the forklift driver. Gary felt the truck reverse and then it turned ninety degrees. The forks held them over the feed tray of an industrial wood chipping machine. A man started up the shredder’s diesel engine and the grinding wheels began to spin so fast that the jagged teeth became a silver blur. The driver dangled them over the spinning blades as it roared. They bucked and twisted and screamed and begged and pleaded, their words were nothing more than a collection of gurgling and sobs. They had plenty of time to think about what was about to happen. Ivor ignored Gary’s desperate pleas for forgiveness. He gave the signal and as the truck driver lowered them towards the whirring grinding wheels, Gary screamed louder than anyone that he had heard before.
Toni Barrat watched the nightmare unfold before her eyes. She couldn’t turn away. Fear and morbid fascination forced her to endure the horrific scene. As she watched the almost comedy moment when two pairs of kicking legs protruded from the feed tray and a stream of pink goo sprayed from the exit port, she wondered if she would be next.
CHAPTER 60
Alec walked through the MIT operations room. The feeling of gloom was oppressive. The usual chatter of voices was there but it was hushed. There was no laughter and the usual dark humoured banter was gone. Stirling’s empty desk was a stark reminder of the seriousness of the case. Annie’s office was in darkness, the blinds drawn and the door closed. The effect of their absence was profound. Alec looked around. The teams were hard at work despite working blind. Until the forensics came back, they were fishing for a break. Alec stared at the case review board, each picture linked to another with a thin red line. The man at the top was Ivor Markevica but his brother Andris was Alec’s prey. Alec wanted to bring him in and smash his head against the walls of a cell. There wasn’t a copper in the building that didn’t. Obviously, he couldn’t do that but there was no harm in feeling that way. He wasn’t bad, he was just human.
“Guv,” the familiar voice of Google called from across the room. “I was just about to call you.”
“What’s up?” Alec approached his desk. The other detectives at his workstation were frantically making calls and tapping at their keyboards like demented typists.
“We crosschecked all the well known tax havens like you suggested and came up with a few Latvian directors with property registered here, Guv,” Google said pushing his thick glasses up his nose. He blinked. “I discarded the smaller properties and we found one company that owns a recycling plant on the outskirts of town. The place went bankrupt when the recession hit. It hasn’t traded for five years yet when I checked with the local uniforms they said that there has been activity there recently.”
“How recently?”
“All week, Guv.” Google pulled up an aerial shot of the site. “See these bales of tin stacked here and here,” Alec nodded yes, “There are hundreds of them. They were valueless when the place was sold but they’re worth a small fortune now yet the new owners haven’t sold them on. It makes me think that they act as a good sightscreen and they like them where they are.”
“You have a suspicious mind, Google,” Alec said sarcastically.
“Don’t you agree?”
“Of course I do.”
“Oh! Good!” Google said without smiling. “I have taken a liberty and alerted uniform to place marked vehicles on the motorway here and here. That way we can observe comings and goings and seal the exit and entry slip roads if we need to.”
“That is good work, Google.”
“What do you think?”
“I think that you could be on to something. They have to have a hole to retreat to and that place is perfect.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I’ll speak to Area Command and commandeer a chopper to take a silent fly over and see what is going on there now. If we like the look of it, we need to surround the property. If they’re in there we can’t just knock and the door and ask them to come out. We need armed units here, here and here, and more on the gates here and we’ll need boats on the river. It’s time to call the cavalry in.”
“What about us, Guv?”
“I want every man and his dog vested up and ready to go in an hour.”
“Yes, Guv,” Google looked genuinely excited, which was rare. “Do you think the DI is in there, Guv?”
“I hope so, Google. I really do.” His stomach tightened as he spoke. He looked at Annie’s abandoned office and felt drained.
CHAPTER 61
Toni was sitting in awe of the cleanup process that was going on around her. She was in complete shock. The Latvians had cremated an elderly couple alive in front of their son, ripped out a man’s tongue with pliers and then fed two men through an industrial shredding machine. It was more than anyone could bear to watch and remain sane. Now they were cleaning the place as if the Environmental Health Office were on their way to do an audit. The shredder and th
e floor of the recycling warehouse were hosed and steamed and bleached for what seemed like hours although in reality it was less than half an hour. They used a JCB to cover the pinkish remains of the men with wood chippings. It took a few passes but they were soon buried.
Everything went like clockwork until it was time for Andris to leave. He kicked up a fuss and began screaming and shouting abuse at Ivor. Eventually, he was overpowered by five men and bound and gagged. Ivor had him thrown into the back of a van where he was left while they finished their cleanup. She listened intently to what they were saying. From the bits and pieces she could hear in English, Andris was destined to go to a lorry park in the North East where he would be transferred into a heavy goods vehicle and taken by ferry across the North Sea to Holland. None of the men had much sympathy for him. She didn’t know what would happen to him from Rotterdam onwards and she didn’t care. They were getting ready to leave and she knew that she was a loose end. It wouldn’t be long now. Toni thought about her children. She would miss them terribly but they would be safe with their father. That thought gave her a little comfort. She wondered if Kayla was still alive and decided that she would find out soon enough when she crossed to the other side.
Ivor walked towards her, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. He looked almost apologetic as he approached. His face was dark, deep lines were etched around the corners of his eyes. He had aged dramatically in the space of one day. Maybe the strain of losing his partner was too much for him or maybe orchestrating the horrific deaths of other human beings had taken its toll. Toni was beyond caring. She was anaesthetised to it all. Her brain could only process so much horror and then it stopped functioning at the same level. After that, reality became fiction. What was happening took on a surreal quality. Ivor Markevica was the most dangerous individual that she had ever encountered and he was approaching her, yet she felt nothing. Nothing could surpass the horror that she had witnessed, not even her own demise. Waiting around knowing that she was going to be murdered had become tedious. Her mind just wanted the anxious wait over. ‘Kill me and let me rest!’ her mind screamed. Ivor grabbed a chair and sat down opposite her.
“I’m sorry that you had to witness that, Antonia,” he sounded genuine. “They murdered my partner and so I had to claim justice on her behalf. It was brutal I know, but some things have to be balanced. Life is all about balance.” Toni didn’t speak. She didn’t nod, she didn’t even blink. There was no response to what the psychopath in front of her was saying, no matter how emotionally disturbed he was. She stared blankly at him. “You know all about loss, don’t you?” Ivor leaned forward and picked up the newspaper. He opened it at the headlines about her. “You know how it feels to lose your loved ones, don’t you?” This time his expression demanded an answer.
“Yes,” Toni said quietly. Her loss wasn’t like his. Anger bubbled away in her guts but she daren’t tell him that his loss was his own fault. Marika was murdered because he was a killer. “I know how it feels to lose someone.”
Ivor leaned closer to her. He grimaced and touched her knee gently with his fingertips. His touch felt strangely reassuring. “I have debated telling you this but somehow I feel as if I owe you.”
“Tell me what?” Toni asked with a sigh. What on earth could he tell her that she would want to hear?
“I knew your father, Antonia.”
“What?”
“Yes. I realised when I read the article about you and your family,” he nodded and half smiled. “I knew him.”
“How did you know him?”
“He drove a lorry on the continent many years ago, didn’t he?”
“Yes,” Toni replied, suspicion in her eyes.
“He used to pick up some of our products and take them back to the UK. We became friends over the years.”
“What products?” Toni gasped. In her mind the scenarios ran riot. Had her father been mixed up with Three? Is that why he was murdered? Was he a drug runner? She felt stunned by the fact that it was even a possibility that he was an associate of Ivor. “What are you talking about, products?”
“All kinds of stuff,” Ivor shrugged.
“Illegal stuff?”
“Sometimes, but he didn’t realise what was in the trailer,” he brushed off the question. “I met you when you were a little girl once.”
“What?”
“We were in Austria. The snow was very deep that year. Do you remember being there?”
“Yes,” Toni frowned. She did remember the trip but she didn’t want her memories hijacked by Ivor. “I don’t remember you.”
“It was a long time ago, Antonia,” he smiled sadly. “I liked your father. He loved you very much. You were the apple of his eye, you say?” he frowned. “Is that the saying?”
“Yes.”
“I gave you a stuffed toy. A reindeer.”
“Oh my God!” Toni put her hands to her mouth. “You gave me Rudolph?”
“Yes. You loved it. I remember you hugged it and didn’t let it go, even when it was time to go. Your father had to lift you into the cab.”
“I still have him,” she said in a whisper.
“Wow,” Ivor shook his head. “You still have him?”
“Yes.”
“What a pleasure to meet you again, Antonia, although the circumstances are somewhat unusual.”
“It all makes sense now,” Toni said quietly. Everything clicked into place. All the whispering and interest from the police was because her father was working for Ivor Markevica. It all added up and the wheel had turned full circle. They had killed her father and her mother and now by a strange twist of fate she had stumbled into their clutches. “It all fits into place now.”
“What does?” Ivor frowned.
“My father.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t until now. You killed him. You burned him like you did to those people today, didn’t you?”
“No, Antonia,” Ivor said softly. “I liked your father. I didn’t have him killed.”
“What?” Toni was gobsmacked. “You said he carried your products in his lorry.”
“He did but he didn’t know that he was carrying them. Your father was an honest man. He wouldn’t have had anything to do with drugs. He thought he was carrying electrical goods.”
“You didn’t kill him?”
“No.”
“If you didn’t kill him, what happened?”
“There was a period of time where his lorry was never searched. Not once in months,” Ivor smiled. “Your father was a clever man. The odds of never being searched were too great. He grew suspicious and approached his employer with his suspicions and that was the last that I heard of him,” he paused. “Until we heard that he had burned to death in a fire.”
“His employers killed him?”
“Yes.”
“But I thought he worked for...” Toni was lost in deep thought, her face a mask of confusion.
“He worked for your aunt and uncle,” Ivor filled in the gaps. “Your aunt was quite a lady. She had your father killed because he realised that someone was bribing customs officers to allow her shipments into the country without challenge. The more trucks she got through, the bigger the shipments became. Your father thought someone in the company was using her lorries to smuggle drugs. He never thought for one minute that it was her. Other drivers had the same concerns but when your father was killed, nobody dared step forward.”
“My aunt did all that?” Toni was stunned.
“Yes. She arranged the importation of our products via her haulage company and she laundered the money through her accountancy firm where your mother worked.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Think about it,” Ivor said calmly. “Why would I make it up?”
“But my mother...”
“Your mother disappeared when she became suspicious. After your father died, she started digging and found that several million pounds had been redirected from the haula
ge company’s account.”
“What? Are you saying...”
“Your aunt had your mother killed. She was never sure how much your father had said to her,” Ivor nodded. Toni was stunned. “She embezzled a lot of money and went into hiding. The money belonged to my company. She stole my money. Every time that we got close to her, she packed up and moved again. It was much harder to find people back then, no internet, no mobiles, no easy access to credit card records. She vanished for years and years but was still in the city right under our noses. Of course we caught up with her eventually but she wouldn’t divulge where the money was hidden. She was a tough woman, your aunt.”
Toni looked deep into his eyes. He wasn’t lying. Why would he? “My aunt’s car crash?”
“That I am responsible for. She didn’t die in the crash, she was already dead,” he explained calmly. “You shouldn’t shed any tears for her. She was a murdering conniving bitch. She murdered your father and your mother and then came home and gave you a hug. How cold can you be?”
Toni opened her mouth to answer but decided not to. She had no idea what had just happened. Was he fucking with her head, or had he just answered all the questions that she had had for decades?
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked hoarsely. “Are you going to kill me anyway?”
“I feel like I owe you,” Ivor said. “I liked your father and I remember that beautiful little girl that I gave a stuffed toy to. You were such an innocent little girl. All your family were killed at some point and then by coincidence, I discover that my men may have killed your partner too. Enough is enough. I am not going to kill you, Antonia.”
“You’re going to let me go?” Toni thought it was a trick. How could he let her go?
“Yes, but we have a deal.”
“What deal?”
“If you breathe a word of what you have seen and heard here, you will be silenced.”