Chasing the Dark

by Sam Hepburn

  ‘Strizhavka?’

  The word pinballed round my brain a couple of times and hit a memory. Lincoln’s insurance form. The first document I’d opened on his laptop.

  Name: Ivo Horatio Lincoln

  Place of theft: Oselya Guest House, Strizhavka, Ukraine

  Items stolen: Apple Mac laptop, Samsung camera, leather bag, books

  ‘You’re sure it was Strizhavka?’

  ‘Of course.’ Her voice turned bitter. ‘Kozek brothers have eyes and ears in all prisons in Ukraine. Why? You know this place?’

  ‘Ivo Lincoln was staying in Strizhavka just before he left Ukraine. And when he was there someone stole his laptop.’

  She frowned at me. ‘Was he visiting Yuri?’

  ‘Maybe. I don’t know. How did Yuri escape from jail?’

  ‘Vulture’s people got fake papers and took him.’

  ‘How did they swing that?’

  ‘Money. It can buy most things. ’Specially in Ukraine.’

  ‘How’d he get away from the Vulture’s people?’

  ‘He attacked driver, car crashed and he escaped.’

  I shot her a look. That was exactly how Yuri had told it. Any lingering suspicions I’d had about Nina or her story were fading fast.

  ‘Since that day, Vulture’s people look for him all over Ukraine,’ she said. ‘They have no idea where he is until today when you told Viktor he is in England.’

  I smashed my fist against the rickety framework of the stall. What had I done? If I hadn’t gone to Viktor, Yuri would have been all right. And now, thanks to me, he’d got no chance. It was all my fault.

  ‘Stop!’ she hissed. ‘Someone will hear you. I must go. Give me your phone.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I will need it.’

  ‘Oh. Right.’

  Wrestling with Oz’s scrabbling legs and flapping tail, I got out the phone, and while he was trying to scramble on to Nina’s lap I fumbled to cut the connection to Bailey. I shoved it into her hand. ‘I’m staying with Bailey on the Farm Street. Estate. His number’s in the contacts.’ I squeezed my fingers into my backpack. ‘Here, take the charger.’

  She took it, lifted Oz off her legs and parted the tarpaulin. I grabbed her wrist. She flinched. I remembered her bruises and let go.

  ‘Sorry . . . I didn’t mean …’

  ‘What? I must hurry.’

  I screwed up my eyes, trying to remember the sounds Yuri had shouted in his sleep. ‘Tee gneed-a-pag-a-na-ya, Ya-zamoo-cho tebya … what does it mean?’

  She pulled a face. ‘Why do you ask me this? It means, you filthy . . . scum. I will kill you.’

  ‘There’s something else. ‘My name’s not Erroll Potts. It’s Joe Slattery.’

  ‘I do not care what you are called. Just tell no one about me.’

  She sprinted into the darkness. I hunkered down in that cramped little hideaway, feeling like I’d been thrown off a torpedoed ship and left clinging to a scrap of burning wreckage.

  CHAPTER 14

  Bailey was hunched over his laptop when I walked in. He looked up. ‘You OK?’

  ‘’Course I’m not. Didn’t you hear what she said about the Vulture? Every time I think about giving Yuri away to that creep Kozek I want to throw up.’

  ‘Yeah. I heard everything Nina said. And it’s got to be the lead you’ve been looking for. Think about it. A Mafia boss who’s got a beef with Yuri is gonna have a pretty solid motive for silencing a journalist who’s been nosing into Yuri’s business.’

  I slumped down in the armchair. ‘Yeah, but what was his problem with Mum?’

  ‘That’s what we’re gonna find out.’

  ‘Then he’ll kill us, too.’ I looked at Bailey stuck on that couch with his tablets and inhaler lined up next him. If some crazy gangster burst in when he was on his own he wouldn’t stand a chance.

  ‘You’ve got to back out, Bailey. It’s too dangerous.’

  He snorted. ‘Once Jackson gets a whiff of where you’ve been, we’ll both be dead anyway.’

  If that was his way of cheering me up it wasn’t working.

  ‘So you agree Nina’s on the level?’

  He pulled a face. ‘Dunno. You’d have to be desperate or crazy to double-cross Viktor Kozek.’

  I wandered out into the kitchen, fetched a couple of Cokes and tossed him one. ‘I need another phone.’

  Bailey groaned. ‘What do you think I am, Phones-RUs?’

  But he stood up anyway and let me help myself from the stash under the couch.

  ‘Once this is over I’ll put it back, Jackson won’t even notice,’ I said.

  ‘Yeah right. Just like you did with the last one.’

  I turned on the phone, flinched when I saw Jackson’s name in the contacts, and punched in Bailey and Nina’s numbers.

  Bailey was back on his laptop, scanning the screen. ‘I’ve been going over what Shauna told you. She said Lincoln gave Sadie something and she thought she put it in her bag. Right?’

  I nodded.

  ‘So where is it?’

  ‘Not in her bag. I checked already.’

  ‘Check it again.’

  I fetched Mum’s bag from the carrier I’d left in Bailey’s room, and tipped her things on to the floor. ‘Told you, there’s nothing here,’ I said. ‘Not unless Lincoln gave her a load of make-up, or a slushy romance.’

  Oz came scampering over and started pawing Mum’s stuff. I pushed him away. ‘Get off. What’s the matter with you?’

  He wagged his tail, letting out excited little yaps. Then it hit me. He could smell Mum, too. He thought she was around somewhere, just out of sight. If she had been I bet she’d have been rolling her eyes and folding her arms, telling me I was missing something really obvious, like she did when she was watching one of her cop shows. I re-checked the pockets of her bag and went through her things again, opening all the tubes and bottles and laying them out in a row. The glittery cover of Love Me Do glinted as I snatched it up. I shook it open. A folded square of paper fluttered to the floor.

  I was sure my whole body had stopped working till I saw my hands reach for the paper. I sat down next to Bailey and slowly unfolded it. It was a printout of a low-res photo, taken on a cheap camera or maybe a phone. But the image was clear enough: a sheet of lined, brownish paper with two black and white snapshots fastened to it with rusty staples.

  The first one was a picture from way back of Norma Craig, looking very young in a white lacy mini-dress and gazing up at Greville Clairmont. He wasn’t that much taller than her and he had a thin face, dark hair curling on to his collar and the kind of smile you don’t expect a murderer to have. The second was a shot of a bit of neatly mowed lawn going down to a big fancy greenhouse full of plants. Just behind the greenhouse was a flower bed with an ivy-covered statue in the middle of it.

  Bailey frowned. ‘OK, so that’s Norma and Clairmont – but what’s with the greenhouse?’

  My thoughts were churning. ‘It’s the one in the garden at Elysium. I recognise that statue. And you see the little door in the wall just behind it? That’s the door Yuri had the key to.’

  I peered closer at the picture of Clairmont. He was wearing the diamond tie-clip I’d just given to Nina. That was a shock. But it wasn’t the tie-clip that was stopping me breathing. It was the number written along the top of the photo doing that. It took me a couple of seconds to find the list of numbers that I’d jotted down from Ivo’s notebook and compare the two. But I already knew what I’d find. My hands shook and I struggled to keep my voice steady as I showed it to Bailey.

  ‘This is a page from one of the files Lincoln found in the KGB archive. See, the numbers match. He must have taken this shot of it on his phone while he was in the archive.’

  Bailey tapped the picture of Norma and Clairmont, took a swig of Coke and said very quietly, ‘You ever wondered what really happened to Clairmont?’

  ‘’Course but—’

  ‘Suppose he was working for the KGB. Suppose he ra
n off to Russia after the murder and ended up as a crime boss . . .’

  I could feel this weird sensation. It was blood draining out of my face. ‘You think Clairmont’s the Vulture?’

  He shrugged. ‘Just sayin’.’

  We spent most of that night picking over Bailey’s theory. OK, so it sort of explained what the KGB had been doing with a photo of Norma and Clairmont but without the rest of the file we still didn’t have a clue why Lincoln had come haring back to England to tell Mum about it. I mean, according to Doreen, Mum hadn’t even been born when Clairmont disappeared, so it wasn’t like she’d ever met him. The only thing I could think of was that for some reason my nan’s name had been in the file. Maybe some Russian bigwig had visited Elysium and she’d mixed him one of her famous Martinis. But another search of her scrapbook scored a big fat zero on that front.

  In the end Bailey messaged Treadwell’s website, asking if he’d ever come across any hint of a KGB connection to Clairmont. Then we looked up loads of stuff about Brits spying for the Soviets back in the 60s and 70s. You’d be amazed how many toffs had been at it.

  We’d stayed up talking till nearly four in the morning and I couldn’t believe it when Bailey’s ringtone woke us up again just before six. He thumped his hand around in the dark and switched it off. Ten seconds later it rang again. This time he answered it, talking in a thick, groggy voice like his mouth was stuffed with socks.

  ‘Yeah . . . Yeah . . . how did you . . . What?’ He sprang out of bed. ‘OK. Keep your hair on. We’re coming.’

  He yanked the pillow off my head. ‘Get up. That Nina girl’s downstairs going mental.’

  We scrambled into the hall, tiptoeing past Jackson’s room and cringing when the front door clicked. Oz had followed us out and started tucking into a half eaten burger and chips he found on the walkway. I left him there and kept running till I spotted Nina crouched behind the wheelie bins near the bottom of the stairs, her hair stuffed into that beanie hat, and her scarf wrapped round her mouth. The minute I reached her she shoved the phone and tie-clip in my face.

  ‘Take them,’ she hissed. ‘And never come near me again.’

  I’ve never seen anyone so angry. That included Doreen.

  ‘What have I done?’

  ‘I told you. If Viktor finds out I help you, my whole family will be dead or worse. But you do not care. You are stupid. You have no idea what you are doing or who you are fighting. But you let your friend listen to everything I said.’

  I shifted around, wondering how she’d guessed and whether it’d be worth trying to bluff it out.

  ‘Do not think about denying this! I checked the phone. You ring this Bailey from 9.55 to 10.32 last night. This is exact time you are with me.’

  Grovelling isn’t pretty but when you’re truly busted, believe me, it’s the only option.

  ‘Look,’ I said, ‘I’m really sorry, I . . . I was scared, I didn’t know if I could trust you. I swear Bailey won’t tell anybody anything. He’s just helping me find out who killed Mum.’

  If I hadn’t been standing there bleary-eyed and barefoot, in a washed-out I’m with stupid T-shirt, and track pants two sizes too small, I might have stood a chance of talking her round. As it was she just got angrier.

  ‘It is bad that you do this but worse that you are such big idiot you get caught. When you are fighting Viktor Kozek you cannot be stupid.’

  That’s when Bailey came wheezing down the stairs and stuck his oar in.

  ‘Yeah, Joe’s a jerk, he can’t help it.’

  That really helped and in his vest and baggy boxers he wasn’t looking that impressive either.

  ‘Thanks a lot,’ I said.

  He ignored me and took a puff on his inhaler. ‘Look, I know he screwed up, but you need money and we need help so maybe we can work this out.’

  She stared from him to me. Her anger had gone off the boil but it was still steaming. ‘If leaving your phone on is your idea of secret bugging, you will need all help you can get.’

  Bailey flicked me a glance, obviously more hopeful than I was that things were going our way. Oz came haring out of nowhere and bounded up to her.

  ‘How did he get those scars?’ she said, like she was accusing me of being a dog beater as well as a moron.

  ‘Fighting an Alsatian.’

  That did impress her. She patted his head. ‘He is very brave.’

  ‘No, very stupid. He has no idea what he’s doing or who he’s fighting.’

  I could have sworn her lips twitched but it wasn’t easy to tell if she was smiling or scowling.

  ‘So, can we give it another go?’ Bailey said.

  She shoved a bit of hair back in her hat and frowned. ‘Do you swear not to tell anyone I help you?’

  We nodded.

  ‘And when we find Yuri you make him pay me as much money as he can.’

  ‘OK.’

  I could see Bailey watching her, trying to suss her out. ‘Is Viktor hassling your dad to pay off his loan?’ he said.

  ‘No,’ she said, grimly. ‘Not now.’

  ‘So why are you so hung up about money?’

  ‘I have to stop Viktor destroying him.’

  ‘I don’t get it,’ Bailey said.

  She sagged against the wall. ‘Back in Kiev Viktor lent my father lot of money to set up security company. Company was not successful. Viktor made us come to UK to pay off debt.’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘No, it is not OK. Viktor makes him do terrible things.’

  ‘Like what?’

  She dropped her eyes. ‘Today he is disconnecting alarms in big warehouse so that Viktor can send people to steal everything stored in there.’

  ‘What about you?’

  ‘At first me and my mother worked on farm. I did not mind this too much. Sometimes I even drive tractors. But now we live over garage at back of Besedka. We have one small room that is damp and dark.’ Her face scrunched up. ‘Sometimes Viktor makes me help my father do these bad things and sometimes he makes me clean kitchens and office at Besedka.’

  ‘What about your mum?’

  ‘She works in kitchen also. She is very unhappy. Viktor does not care. He thinks he owns us and we cannot get away.’

  ‘Can’t you go back to Ukraine?’

  ‘We have no passports and no money. But even if we get home how can we hide from Viktor’s brothers? No. We must buy our freedom. I must go now. I start to work at eight.’ I held out the phone and tie-clip. She nodded and took them. ‘Remember, both of you, tell no one that I help you find Yuri. Viktor Kozek is very bad man but compare him to Vulture and he is saint.’

  Although Jackson was a late riser and a heavy sleeper, Rikki wasn’t and we got back to the flat to find Danielle shuffling round the kitchen in her dressing gown, warming his bottle and demanding to know where we’d been. But as soon as Bailey offered to feed him she shut up and went back to bed, which was kind of the plan. Then he dumped me with Rikki and went straight back to his laptop. I’d never have kept a two-year-old quiet for ten seconds without Oz, who turned out to be surprisingly cool about having his tail pulled and his eyes poked. But even he drew the line at getting whacked round the head with a rubber giraffe. Bailey kept up a running commentary the whole time on the stuff he was looking at. He was showing me an old newspaper article about the Clairmont emeralds and getting me to confirm that they were definitely the ones in Yuri’s Oxo tin when a message pinged into his inbox. You’d have thought he’d won the lottery when he realised it was from Treadwell. He read it out over Rikki’s babbling.

  Dear Bailey,

  Thanks for your inquiry. It’s good to know that a new generation is taking an interest in this old but continually mystifying case. Given the political climate of the 1960s and 70s I did consider the possibility that Clairmont had been spying for the Russian KGB and escaped from the UK with their help. However, no evidence has ever come to light to support this theory. That said, so many powerful people visited Elysium at one time or ano
ther it would have been a perfect cover for such activity and in the murky world of Cold War espionage no theory, however far-fetched, can ever be discounted. Please let me know if you come across any evidence you think might be relevant to the investigation. I once made a pledge to see this case solved before I die and time is ticking on!

  Keith Treadwell

  Bailey carefully filed the email. ‘Like he says, Elysium would have been a great place for spies to hang out. All those ministers and army types getting drunk and spilling their secrets.’ His face lit up. ‘Yeah. How about this for a theory? Norma found out Clairmont was running a spy ring and that’s why he tried to murder her!’

  I turned and stared at him, trying the idea out, seeing if it held up against everything we knew. The more I thought about it, the more questions it started to answer.

  ‘That could be what Ivo Lincoln discovered in the KGB archive.’ I said, slowly

  He stared down at his laptop. The screen was reflected in his glasses as if his eyes were connecting directly to the drives.

  ‘And maybe your nan caught Clairmont doing something dodgy without realising exactly what he was up to. So he sent the KGB a report about it, just in case she worked it out.’ Bailey grinned, dead pleased with himself, and for a second I felt this soaring rush of excitement. Then it stalled and crashed.

  ‘It’s all just theories,’ I said. ‘If we’re going to prove any of it we’ve still got to find out exactly what Lincoln discovered in those KGB files and then we’ve got to find Yuri.’

  I got out the envelope that Yuri had sent me the tie-clip in and rechecked the smudged postmark.

  ‘You got a magnifying glass,’ I said, snatching Bailey’s inhaler away from Rikki.

  All Bailey could come up with was a glass paperweight that his mum had won in a church tombola. It wasn’t easy seeing round the purple plastic flower in the middle and even when I managed to find a clear bit of glass it made everything go squiffy. But it was better than nothing. I laid it over the postmark, tilting and rolling the glass. The curve of fuzzy letters at the top started with a C or a G and almost definitely ended with a D and the blobs round the bottom were maybe SE or SW and then a 5 or it could have been a 6 or an 8.