A Friend in Deed

by G D Harper

  He called me on my spare phone the next day.

  ‘Okay, we’ve found the school. And I’m pretty sure it’s her. My detective confirmed she started working there a few months ago.’

  I was impressed that he was able to find a reliable private detective in Ukraine at the drop of a hat, but I supposed that was bread and butter stuff for someone in his line of work.

  ‘I’ve sent him a photo of Tanya, and he’ll stake out the school, find out where she lives. We should have a photo of her back from him in the next twenty-four hours to make sure it’s the right person. Then he can pick you up at the airport and take you to her. That just leaves the issue of getting you into Ukraine without anyone noticing.’

  ‘And how are you planning to do that?’

  ‘It’s going to require you taking a little risk, I’m afraid. I have a contact – who I’ll deny ever knowing if anyone asks me – in the business of supplying false passports. All my dealings with him are off the books. News Today can’t be seen to be involved in something illegal. With a week’s notice, he can get one for you that will get you in and out of Ukraine. But if you’re caught, it’s go to jail time, there or in the UK. Act Now! would love to send you down for a genuine crime, so we’d need to make sure that no one knows when you are heading to the airport, or picks up that you’re out of the country while you’re in Ukraine. If you’re happy to take that risk, I can vouch for the fact that the passport itself won’t let you down. What do you say?’

  I thought long and hard about it. It was a risk, that was for sure. But it was nothing compared to the risk I would be asking Tanya to take. I said yes.

  Alex sent me the photo to confirm it was Tanya; a picture of her snatched in the street in her familiar balled-up sweater. I flew out of London City as soon as I got my fake passport; I reckoned it might be easier to spot someone following me in a small airport. I flew into Geneva, where I picked up a new ticket to Kiev and spent the next few hours dotting about the airport, checking every so often to see if anyone looked familiar.

  Finally, I boarded the plane to Kiev. The detective, Vitaly, would meet me at the airport and drive straight to the flat on the outskirts of Chernihiv where he had discovered Tanya to be living. Then all I had to do was persuade her to help.

  Vitaly was not what I expected. I wanted a detective to be craggy and middle-aged, wearing a raincoat and battered fedora. I got a skinny kid in ripped jeans and a Metallica T-shirt. He was standing on the other side of the barrier, peering at a photograph he was holding, glancing up every few seconds to look at the hordes of people pouring into the arrivals area. He spotted me almost immediately.

  ‘Malcolm!’ he yelled. ‘Over here.’

  For a second I ignored him, then I remembered. Malcolm Donaldson, Richard Foxe, Mark Jackson, Duncan Jones. Soon I’d be able to field a football team with my various identities.

  ‘You must be Vitaly,’ I said. ‘Pleased to meet you.’

  ‘So, we are off to doorstep this Tanya babe? Heavy. But no rough stuff, okay? That’s not my scene.’

  I had no idea what this guy had been told he was investigating. I reassured him that I only wanted to have a chat with her, on our own.

  ‘She has no idea that you tracked her down?’ I asked. ‘My visit will be a complete surprise?’

  ‘Totally. I do this stuff all the time, wives wanting to track down their husband’s mistresses, either to warn them off or get evidence for the divorce settlement. That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? I can always tell.’

  ‘You’re very perceptive, Vitaly. Yes, I’ve been sent from England to track her down. Just to warn you, she’ll recognise me as soon as she sees me, and will probably tell me to go away, but I’m going to try to persuade her to talk to me on my own. I promise you, no rough stuff.’

  We drove the rest of the way in silence. I was desperate to find out if Vitaly knew anything of Tanya’s new life here, but the risk of raising suspicions that there was more to this than a wronged wife dealing with her husband’s affair was too great. We arrived in Chernihiv around six in the evening. It looked a nice enough place. A tight cluster of Medieval churches on a green bluff overlooked the city’s historic core. I was pleased that Tanya had ended up somewhere as pleasant as this.

  We parked on a tree-lined street, the houses a mixture of dilapidated wooden buildings and some anonymous-looking new builds. Vitaly pointed to one of the newer houses, its broken iron gate giving onto a small path, the paint on the front door peeling away. A bag of compost lay split open on a bench next to the door, a row of potato plants in full flower. Gone back to planting potatoes, I thought, fighting back a sudden wave of tears. I pulled myself together and knocked on the door.

  I saw a face flash at the window, the shadows too dark to make out who it was. The door remained closed. I looked around. Vitaly had driven off as agreed. I walked over to the window and peered inside. Nothing.

  ‘Tanya, I know you’re in there. Can we talk? I’ve come all the way from London to speak to you, so I’m not going to go away until you open the door. It will only take five minutes.’

  The door opened, and there she was.

  ‘Duncan, nice to see you.’ The weary sadness in her tone belied her words. ‘I’m impressed. Impressed but not surprised.’

  Her flat was simply furnished; I recognised a suitcase-worth of knick-knacks from her place in London. She sat down and beckoned me to do likewise.

  ‘So, what are you doing here?’

  ‘I was in the neighbourhood and thought I’d drop by.’

  My remark landed with a thud on the carpet.

  ‘Okay, you probably know what happened to me after you left. Act Now! had me put in prison and were attempting to throw away the key. They got put under a lot of political pressure and eventually had me released, but if anything, that’s made them more popular with the voters, not less. They’ve survived the scandal and called a general election. If the polls are to be believed, they are heading for an even bigger majority. If they get that, and five more years in power, I don’t know what sort of country we’ll be then.’

  ‘A shitty mess. And you end up in jail for this. I cry when I hear.’

  I saw a photograph of a young man on the mantelpiece, one I’d not seen before. The resemblance to Tanya was striking.

  ‘Your brother?’

  Tanya smiled. ‘Da. Now I am in Ukraine, he can come out of hiding in box under bed. Handsome, wasn’t he?’ She started to choke up a little. ‘You were good to me, Duncan,’ she said in a flat, monotone voice. ‘You did not tell the world my name or that I told you my spy story was true. MI5 say to me, my job is done; they let me come back to Ukraine to lead simple life, to be a teacher. I need to thank you for that.’

  ‘I was going to tell. The first version of the story I wrote was very angry. But I knew once I wrote it, it would leave you horribly exposed. Then I thought about what you said, how I wasn’t complaining about being made into a famous blogger. How you promised yourself you’d tell no more lies if I ever confronted you, and confirmed everything was true, knowing you’d then have to trust me to be discreet. That showed me that our time together was not a total sham, that there were genuine feelings. I wrote a second version, one that told the truth but also protected you.’

  Tanya offered a pained smile. ‘You’ve got to believe me, it wasn’t all an act. It wasn’t just me doing my job.’

  ‘That’s okay. But it will all have been for nothing if Act Now! wins this election. And it looks like they will, unless something changes.’

  ‘Like what?’ She paused for a second, then gave a gasp of comprehension. ‘That’s why you’ve come here, isn’t it? You need to tell my story, to get people to see who Act Now! really are. You think it’s the only way the story will have enough impact to damage them.’

  ‘Yes. I’m sorry. But that’s not all. I still have a court
order hanging over me; I can’t risk writing another inflammatory article about Act Now! and the Russians. If I did, I’d be straight back to jail for contempt of court and my story would be silenced again. It needs someone else to tell the story. And the person the story would have the most impact coming from … is you, Tanya.’

  ‘I’m big yellow coward. I can’t face thought of jail.’

  ‘I couldn’t face the thought of it either. But you’ve got the power to make a difference. If you speak out, it could be the turning point for people to start seeing Act Now! for what they really are.’

  Tanya remained silent. I walked over to the mantelpiece and picked up the photo of her brother.

  ‘How old was he when he died?’

  ‘Nineteen. Only kid.’

  ‘Tragic. I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten. What was his name again?’ I knew the answer but wanted her to say it.

  ‘Taras.’ Now it was Tanya’s turn to stare at the photo.

  ‘Tell me about him.’

  ‘All my best memories of him are from out in the country,’ Tanya said. Her eyes had a dreamy glaze of recollection. ‘He loved to go fishing, but our parents would not let him go to the little lakes near our house on his own when he was young. He would wake me very early, six, sometimes five in the morning, and we would cycle to the lakes with home-made fishing rods and try to catch fish in early morning, that was best time. Then we would take the fish to Grandma; she would dry them, make taranaka. Typical Ukrainian snack, which we would eat on our next adventure.’

  ‘So, you were close in age?’

  ‘Two years. Da, I was his best friend, no other kids around. He made me tomboy; we were always playing boys’ games together. Guns made from sticks, we played capture the Germans. I always had to be German; he was patriotic Ukrainian. Always defending homeland. One day he played game for real.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Tanya. I really am. You still played fighting the Germans in the 1990s? That’s a long time after the war.’

  ‘Homeland War is still big deal in Ukraine. You call it World War II, for us it was all about protecting our country. Terrible things happened then. Ukrainian people never forget.’

  I thought it best to lighten the mood.

  ‘But it sounds like you had an idyllic childhood, growing up in the countryside.’

  ‘Da, it was. We would climb trees for cherries, collect wild strawberries in forest for Grandma to make jam. Taras was super-competitive, he always made me count how many we had found, so he could be the winner. If he had less, he would not come home till he had bigger number.’ She laughed. ‘He never realised I always let him win.’

  Finally, I brought the conversation back to what we both knew we had to talk about.

  ‘Do you remember I told you the story of my childhood friend, Bobbie, and how she ran away from that gangster? Because she feared for her life in a blackmail plot she got mixed up in?’

  Tanya nodded.

  ‘She spent the next four years of her life running away from what happened, instead of going to the police. Took the risk that she could be implicated in the money laundering crimes she had become involved in, that the guy would track her down and silence her. Finally, she did the right thing, the brave thing, went to the police and told them everything, and after that, she was finally able to be at peace with herself. She could look herself in the mirror and get on with the rest of her life.’

  ‘Very brave. And I remember you tell me that now she has good life, in Scotland?’

  Then the sudden realisation of what I was driving at sparked a flash of anger in her. ‘And that is what you think I am doing? Running away from what is happening?’

  I saw her face redden. She stood up and paced around the room.

  ‘Do you know what happens to someone who works for MI5 and breaks the Official Secrets Act? They go to jail and it’s a real sentence, not game they played with you, using crazy law to keep you behind bars. I don’t have courage to do that, Duncan. I would like to help. But I can’t.’

  ‘Then Act Now! will win the next election. They will kick out the dissidents in their party, making themselves even more powerful. I will have gone to jail for nothing and all of the media people who have risked their careers, their livelihood, even their freedom, will all have done so in vain. I wouldn’t ask you to do this if there was any other choice, Tanya. I protected you even when I felt angry and betrayed. Come back to Britain, tell your story, prove what I’ve been saying is true. I know it’s a risk, but if we don’t do something, all that we’ve both been through will have been for nothing.’

  Tanya clenched both fists and waved them at the ceiling.

  ‘Duncan, Duncan, why do you have to ask me this?’

  She calmed down and glanced around the room, as her mind searched for what to say next. Her eyes alighted on the photo of Taras, and she walked over and picked it up. She stared at it for a long moment and then gently, lovingly, placed it back on the mantelpiece.

  ‘I still have British visa,’ she said, her voice barely audible. ‘What time is flight?’

  I felt ashamed at the thrill of victory running through my body.

  chapter nineteen

  I was woken in the morning by the sound of Tanya bustling away in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. I forced myself to sit up on the sofa. Pins and needles shot down my leg. A muscle tightened as a spasm of pain shot through my body.

  ‘Ay-ay-ay! Bloody cramp!’

  I stretched the leg for a few seconds until the pain went away. Tanya was standing in the doorway holding two mugs of coffee, watching my discomfort with unsympathetic glee.

  ‘And you can wipe that grin off your face,’ I said. ‘I haven’t spent the night sleeping on a sofa for about twenty years. This is no laughing matter.’

  Tanya took this as her cue to burst out laughing. ‘I’m sorry, Duncan, I shouldn’t laugh. But you do look ridiculous. Here, I make coffee. You want I leave you five minutes to get ready?’

  I took the coffee, and Tanya disappeared into her bedroom.

  The phone call to Vitaly informing him of this change of plan had left him thoroughly bemused.

  ‘You are spending the night with Tanya babe?’ he had said, incredulity dripping from his voice.

  ‘Yes. Surveillance requirement, I’m sure you can see why. She’s agreed to go back to England with me; that’s what I came here to do. I don’t want to give her a chance to disappear again. Can you pick us up at ten and drive us to Kiev?’

  ‘And you are spending the night there?’ he said again. ‘Just the two of you?’

  ‘Yep. All in the line of duty. Goodnight, Vitaly. See you in the morning.’

  The conversation had brought a smile to my face. Vitaly would have to be a bloody good detective to figure this out. I looked at my watch. Half an hour until he turned up.

  ‘I’m decent,’ I shouted through to Tanya.

  She lugged a huge Louis Vuitton suitcase into the living room.

  ‘Travelling light, are we?’ I said. ‘I brought a toothbrush and a change of underwear.’

  ‘More information than I needed, Duncan.’

  We were both working hard to keep the banter light-hearted, anything to avoid having to think about the trauma looming ahead when we got back to London.

  ‘By the way, do you think we need to say anything to the detective I used to find you? He’ll be here in a few minutes, and I think he’s totally confused by what’s going on. He thought I was hired by some wronged wife wanting to confront her husband’s Ukrainian mistress. Me spending the night here has left him pretty perplexed.’

  ‘Let him think what he wants. No problem for you, I think?’

  There was a knock at the door and Tanya looked out the window. ‘Is that him?’

  I looked out and nodded. Vitaly spotted us and waved a greeting. Tanya waved back and drew the curtain
.

  She laughed. ‘His eyes are on stalks. Very funny.’

  Tanya called in sick to her school and we drove the two hours to Kiev in complete silence. I was tempted to try to wind Vitaly up a bit more, but decided it would be unprofessional. At the airport, I thanked him for his help. Off he went, still in a stupor of bemusement.

  ‘Well, that was fun,’ I said. ‘Let’s get your plane ticket and I’ll check with my contacts in London.’

  Tanya stood in line at the ticket desk, while I called Alex to find out the arrangements for when we got to London.

  ‘You’re booked into a hotel near the airport,’ I told Tanya when I joined her. ‘The show’s editor, Alex Richards, and Simon Green, the guy who will be interviewing you – they’ll meet you for dinner this evening, to run through everything. The plan is that first you’ll be interviewed by my old editor at the Chronicle, and afterwards you go to the studio to film your TV interview. Then you disappear back to Ukraine, and the story will run in the paper the day after the interview, with the TV programme that evening.’

  ‘And we hope that no one in Chernihiv watches British news stories. But if Act Now! win election, what then?’

  The laughter of the morning was forgotten now. There was a tremor in her voice.

  ‘Then you may be in trouble,’ I replied. ‘There’s no sugar-coating this, Tanya. If Act Now! win the election, I’m not sure what will happen. And don’t forget, they are still the party of government until the election. There have been extradition arrangements between the UK and Ukraine since 1999.’

  ‘At least you are honest,’ Tanya said. ‘But I have already decided, this is what I must do. You don’t do things because you are sure you will win. You do things because you know them to be right.’

  Her courage made me blink back some tears.

  ‘It’s not too late to say no, Tanya. If you don’t feel okay after talking to Alex and Simon, you can still change your mind. Think about it.’

  It was a full flight, and we were sitting in different parts of the plane so didn’t get a chance to talk again until we arrived at Heathrow.