The Mallorcan Bookseller (The 3R International Series Book 1)

by PETE DAVIES

  “That’s great. Right, we’ll see you later,” said Sam.

  *****

  As Terri, Greg and Sam arrived at the finca, they saw Simon sitting in the porch area.

  “I’ve been having a little chat with our friends and they’ve been very helpful about what they know about Sonny, so I have a list of addresses and businesses for your police lady friend Greg,” said Simon.

  Greg ignored Simon’s little jibe about Lori and smiled instead. A little chat from Simon could well have left the two Armenians traumatised, but nicely warmed up for some more questions about Sergei Grigoryan.

  “Sam, do you want to take this and see what they can tell us about Sergei?” said Greg.

  “Sure, let’s see what they know.”

  Sam went into the finca bedroom where he could see the two Armenians sitting on the two single beds.

  “Guys, just so you know, it was my mother that was kidnapped and so I’d like you to tell me something about Sergei Grigoryan.”

  As soon as the two men heard the name they flinched.

  “So you know who I’m talking about. Good,” said Sam.

  “We can’t help you. We told your friend everything we know about Sonny,” said Davit.

  “And you’ve done a great job with that, but before we decide what to do with you, I need you to answer some simple questions,” said Sam.

  “Mister, we can’t tell you anything about Sergei. He would kill all of our families if he ever found out we had said anything,” said Davit.

  Vardan just looked at Sam and nodded. Sam could see the fear in their eyes. He tried the sympathetic approach, to get them engaged.

  “Look, I’m not after his secrets. I just want to know what he’s like. I gather from what you are saying, that he can be very threatening. Is that right?”

  “Yes mister. If you step out of line, even once, he might kill you and he does it himself if he feels he needs to show everyone that he is still the boss,” said Davit.

  It was good that he had at least got Davit talking. An old trick, but it had worked. Ask a simple non-threatening question that was pretty obvious, but if it meant that the person spoke, then it might mean they would continue to talk if you were clever in how you asked your questions.

  “Well, I don’t want to put your families at risk guys. So where do they live back in Armenia?” said Sam.

  Davit said “Artashat” and Vardan mumbled “Aragatsotn.”

  “Are they anywhere near Yerevan?”

  Davit said, “About twenty five kilometres.”

  “About the same, almost thirty kilometres,” said Vardan.

  “And Sergei operates out of the Yerevan area doesn’t he?”

  “Yes mister,” said Davit. “But, honestly I can’t tell you anymore.”

  “No, that’s fine. I understand. So while you’re working over here, does he provide any help to your families?”

  This time Vardan spoke. They had given him some painkillers for his broken arm and he was feeling more comfortable.

  “Yes, he’s very good to them. We get paid an allowance for being away from home and he sends food hampers and flowers for our wives and mothers. He’s a very good family man.”

  “Sounds like a good, fair man. So does Sergei have any regular coffee places he enjoys going to?”

  “Why do you want to know that mister?” asked Davit warily.

  Davit clearly didn’t like where that line of questioning was going, so Sam eased back.

  “Just interested. Our argument is with Sonny you see, not Sergei. So I just want to know what sort of boss he is.”

  “A very good boss mister. Like you said, a very fair man and a family man,” said Davit.

  “Does he have children then?” said Sam.

  Before Davit could stop him, Vardan said, “Yes, he has a daughter who he dotes on. She’s eleven and he tries to meet her every day from school and take her for an ice cream or a drink in the main square.”

  Davit punched Vardan on his injured arm and shouted something in Armenian, presumably something to shut him up.

  “Davit, you don’t have to worry. You haven’t told us anything Sergei would be unhappy with have you?” said Sam.

  Neither man was necessarily sure how to answer that question. They both realised they should have just kept their mouths firmly shut and taken anything the Englishman might have threatened them with, but in the event, he had managed to get them to talk through some simple interrogation techniques.

  Sam left the room, locking the door behind him.

  “Impressive mate, very impressive,” said Terri who had been listening at the door.

  “Thanks. I’ve had a few years' practice and these two aren’t the brightest spanners in the box are they?”

  “No, think you’re right there,” she laughed.

  Greg was sitting in the kitchen looking at the file Anna had sent.

  “John MacDonald is going to be keen to know about all of this stuff, so what’s our plan?”

  Sam smiled. He had come to Mallorca to get away from a job that was weighing him down with the pressure and stress and yet, here he was talking about how to deal with an Armenian OCG with a man who he had found out was his biological father and a beautiful looking Aussie woman who was his half-sister.

  “What are you smiling for Sam?” said Greg.

  “Fate and the circumstances that brought me to be here with you guys.”

  “In a good way?” said Terri.

  “Very much so. Okay, so first things first. I definitely think we should go to Armenia,” said Sam.

  “And do what?” said Greg.

  “With Sonny going to ground, it’s going to take a long time for us to find him and we’ve already been through the fact that there may not be sufficient evidence for Lori to put a charge on him. Therefore, let’s go about things differently and go and speak to his boss.”

  “What, just walk up and ask him for a chat? I don’t think he’s the sort of guy to go for that,” said Terri.

  “But if we can get his attention, he might be willing to listen. Terri, can you get hold of your charter plane guy again and see if he’s available to take us to, which airport Sam?” said Greg.

  “Zvartnots,” said Sam.

  “I think I might be all out of favours with pilot boy though. He can take us, but we might have to pay.”

  “I thought you had a thing going with him?” said Greg.

  “A while ago, but it sort of fizzled out.”

  “Well confirm with him how much and let’s talk to John MacDonald about a war kitty,” said Greg.

  Terri said, “What about these guys? What shall we do with them? They’ve about exhausted their usefulness to us haven’t they?”

  “Yes, I think so. With what they’ve told us about Sergei, together with the list Simon got from them with all the clubs and businesses they are involved in across the Balearics, they’ve given up a lot more than we could have hoped for, especially with the details of all the nightclubs, brothels, taxi companies and drug dealers the Armenians are running. I think that will be more than enough for Lori and she won’t have to answer any difficult questions about how they came into police custody,” said Sam.

  “I’ll take a run out with Simon and we’ll drop them off somewhere near the hospital, so Vardan can get his arm reset if he wants,” said Terri.

  She walked back into the finca to the bedroom where the Armenians were.

  “Time to go amigos,” she said.

  Both men cowered down when they saw her holding blindfolds.

  “Guys, look, it’s okay. We’re the good guys and so we’re going to let you go.”

  She saw the look of confusion on their faces.

  “Don’t worry, these are just so you don’t know where you are. We’ll even drop you off near a hospital, so you can get your arm fixed Vardan. Now you can’t ask fairer than that can you?” said Terri.

  They still weren’t sure, but there wasn’t much else they could do but comp
ly. She secured them with plasti-cuffs on their wrists and ankles and flipped them both into the boot area of the hatch and added the blindfolds. Vardan couldn’t stop shaking, convinced he was going to be taken somewhere and shot and he started muttering something that sounded like prayers.

  “If you don’t stop with your whining I’ll shoot both of you. Do you understand?” said Simon, who was quickly losing patience with Vardan. Knowing from his interrogation methods that Simon was not someone to be messed with, Davit gave Vardan a sharp jab with his elbow that successfully shut him up.

  “We’ll be back with ice creams,” said Terri, leaving Greg and Sam smiling as she set off down the drive.

  TWENTY FOUR

  Anna was walking around her garden, making a mental note of what she needed to be doing over the coming weeks to keep it all looking nice over the summer when her phone rang.

  It was a blocked number, so she answered it cautiously with “Hello?”

  “Hello, is that Mrs Anna Martínez?” said a young female voice.

  “Yes, who is this?” said Anna.

  “Are you free to take a call from Sir John?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Hello Anna, I was concerned to hear you had been involved in a little bit of trouble and wanted to check that you are alright?” said Sir John Woodward.

  “Yes, I’m fine thank you John. There was a little bit of excitement, but I’m back safe now. Thank you for getting the wheels turning. I’ve had a very able young man tell me all about the people responsible for the scam,” said Anna.

  “Good, good. I think you are understating your ‘little bit of excitement’ my dear, but then, you always did play things down and keep calm in a crisis.”

  “Thank you for calling John, but can I assume that you aren’t just ringing to check on my well-being?”

  “Astute as ever Anna. This business, it’s raised some eyebrows with our old company. They know that Greg is there with you and they’re wondering what you have in mind to do next?”

  “They aren’t looking to interfere are they John? These people have murdered one British subject, beaten up another and kidnapped me. John MacDonald for one, is not going to be happy if he finds out HMG are trying to curtail any, shall we say, reasonable response to these attacks on British subjects,” said Anna.

  “Nothing could be further from the truth Anna.”

  “Well I’m very pleased to hear that John, so why are you asking?”

  “Well as you probably realise, Her Majesty’s Government cannot necessarily be seen to be engaging with individual crimes by organised gangs, however, they want to let you know that they can offer support which could come in the shape of many forms. So, please use Martin Carruthers as your contact.”

  “Goodness, I don’t know what to say John,” said Anna.

  “No need to thank me. We have long memories within the Service and you were very much valued for your contribution to national security. My secretary will text you his private number and Anna, you need only ask if you want anything and I mean anything from Martin. If it is within his gift, he will make it happen. Give my best to Chambers too, I liked him, he was a damn fine field agent because of your training Anna. Now you take care of yourself.”

  She thanked him and thought for a few moments about what Sir John had just said. She had known him when he was just a young entrant to the Service. They then worked together on a number of operations and she had seen in him the characteristics required to reach the highest levels of the Service. Did he know about her and Greg? Maybe, as it wouldn’t take any great deduction to realise she had to resign almost nine months from the end of Greg’s training, but he had returned her calls when she had phoned to congratulate him, first for his knighthood and then his retirement, so she knew he meant every word of what he said about her reputation within the Service and that felt good. She then phoned Greg and explained about the call. He put her on speaker phone so that Sam could hear what the former Deputy Head of MI6 had told her.

  “So he said we just need to ask?” said Greg.

  “Yes, that was pretty much the gist of it. Ask and if they can, we will get,” said Anna.

  “What are you thinking then Greg?” said Sam.

  “I think we may have just solved the issue of how we get the equipment into Armenia.”

  *****

  When Greg called Lori, he could tell from her voice that she’d had a long day, no doubt having to explain how she came upon the information to raid the finca for a British woman who had been kidnapped.

  “It’s okay. It’s just procedure Greg, but it can be so tiring when you have had such a successful outcome and then we all have to jump through hoops, especially poor Fernando Pérez who has been going through the usual post incident investigation for a police shooting. I feel for him but it’s the same in many countries when a police officer shoots someone and yes, I know why, but for God’s sake, the man had a Škorpion machine pistol and had kidnapped a woman. What the hell else was Pérez expected to do?”

  He let her have her rant. She had no doubt been keeping it together for her team throughout the day and this was her chance to get things off her chest out of earshot of the team. He heard the out rush of emotion in her voice coming to a close.

  “Thank you. I feel better for that.”

  “It sounded as though it helped,” said Greg. “So how about dinner tonight? I can fill you in on some thoughts we’ve had to progress this forward.”

  “Yes, I’d love that. Oh and can I ask, when did you part company with those friends you were keeping company?”

  She meant, of course, the two Armenians and he thought to tease her for a moment, but no, she was tired and she needed to know they weren’t an issue for her.

  “Yes, they left today. They were very helpful and you should have got some useful data from them via email,” said Greg.

  “Had one of them broken his arm?” said Lori.

  “Yes, he had an accident, so we dropped them off at the hospital, the one north of the city, just off the ring road. Why do you ask Lori?”

  “I got the email and it is very interesting. Unfortunately, it looks like your two friends were later involved in a road traffic accident and the car burst into flames, although they were both sitting in the back seat and there was no sign of the driver. However, early examination of the bodies suggests one of the men had a broken arm.”

  “Looks like Sonny didn’t believe them when they said they hadn’t told us anything,” said Greg.

  “No, but unfortunately it’s just added to the concerns of the local authorities that we have bodies mounting up on their island paradise,” said Lori.

  “Guess you really need that dinner then.”

  “I do,” said Lori.

  *****

  Anna hadn’t seen John MacDonald for a couple of years. Sheila had been on the island and had come to Luis’s funeral, but John had been away on business and wasn’t able to get back. They had always got on well as couples, even though they came from completely different backgrounds, so Anna wasn’t surprised when the first thing John did was to apologise for not getting to Luis’s funeral.

  “John, I understand. Sheila told me you couldn’t get away, but now tell me, how are you? I’m so sorry about what happened to dear Sheila,” said Anna.

  John was still managing to hold things together quite well. He would find himself crying in his bedroom when he was alone and whilst he wasn’t afraid to cry in front of his boys, it was more about not being able to stop once he started. However, Anna’s kind and soothing voice reminded him so much of Sheila and he felt the tears spilling down his cheeks.

  “It’s okay John, let it out,” said Anna gently.

  She held him in her arms and then his boys both came and gave him a hug too.

  “Thank you,” he said softly before turning to Sam. “Well my boy, I haven’t seen you in such a long time. It’s a shame we are meeting in such circumstances, but I hope to see more of you and you
r mother in the future, as I’ve decided to spend more time out here.”

  “It’s nice to see you again Mr MacDonald and I’m so sorry to hear about what happened to Mrs Mac,” said Sam.

  John smiled hearing Sam call Sheila ‘Mrs Mac’. It was something he first called her when they got married. He knew Sam had heard him calling her ‘Mrs Mac’ one day, when he was round playing with the boys and so it was after that he would hear Sam using ‘Mrs Mac’ whenever he spoke to Sheila. Sam must have only been six or seven then and now, just like his boys, he was all grown up.