Suddenly, she stiffened and shrank back against the hard stone of the building. She’d caught sight of a familiar figure on the other side of the road. At least, she thought he was familiar. It had been a couple of years since she’d last seen him. She shook her head, telling herself she was mistaken. But as she waited, the man she’d been watching dodge in and out of the crowd came fully into view once more. And this time she was certain. Michael Hawkins was standing across the street, not fifty metres from where she was.
She looked around wildly again, but there was no sign of Walter. She’d need to text him. But that would have to wait. Hawkins was disappearing up the hill away from the square. If she didn’t act soon, she would lose him. And that was something she wasn’t going to let happen.
Chapter 56
By the time Charlie reached the villa at the top of the long steep hill out of Fatezh, she was sweating and puffing ever so slightly. You’re losing it, Charlie, she thought. The sarge wouldn’t be at all impressed. But she knew missing a night’s sleep had a lot to do with it. She was still in pretty good condition for a woman in her late forties. Just as well, considering I’m about to start eighteen years of parenthood, she mused.
The villa had been visible from the bottom of the hill, but as she climbed, it gradually disappeared behind a stand of trees and a high wall. The main gateway was flanked by two stone pillars, and the ornate metal gates were closed and locked. There was a call button and a communication box on one pillar, presumably connected to the house. Not that she wanted to go through the front door of course. Not this time anyway. That would be for later. She carried on walking past the gates, along the wall, and turned sharply left when it did. From this side of the property, the villa was even more hidden by trees. She guessed if she couldn’t see the property, then no-one from in there could see her either. Checking there was no-one watching from the road, she pulled herself up onto the top of the wall, swung her legs over and dropped down to the ground.
But what had been just a two-metre drop on the outside of the wall was more than twice that on the other side, the depth masked by closely growing rhododendrons. Charlie plunged through the bushes, feeling branches tearing at her clothes and the exposed skin on her arms and face. She landed with a jarring thump in the bottom of a deep trench that had been dug along the length of the wall.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to show up,” said a voice from above her head. She squinted up at the top of the trench to see a tall, African woman grinning down at her. “Although, if that’s your idea of quiet surveillance, I think you might need some retraining!”
“Shit, Mercy, you gave me a fright,” gasped Charlie. “How did you get here before me?”
“I hitched a lift with your friend Francine, of course. Where did you think I’d gone?”
“So Stefano knows you’re still alive and here in Russia?”
But Mercy shook her head.
“No, I didn’t say that. I guess it was more a case of stowing away than hitching a lift. When I realised we weren’t going to be able to overcome Stefano’s heavies on our own, I guessed they would try to get away with Francine. So I hopped into the boot of the car and waited for the inevitable to happen. And when we arrived, I waited until they’d taken Francine into the house to meet Stefano, then I jumped out and headed for cover.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“Yes, he’s got her tied up in the Big Bang store.”
“The what?”
“The Big Bang store. That’s what we used to call it when we were kids, growing up in Kharkiv. Stefano’s a real sucker for a firework party but he won’t have them in the house, obviously, so he always has a store in the garden where he keeps them. He’s planning a display later tonight, so the store’s pretty full. But there’s room for at least one prisoner at the moment.”
“Does she know you’re here?”
“No, not yet. But I guess it would be kind to let her know help’s at hand, wouldn’t it? Come on, I’ll show you where she is.” She paused and grinned once more at Charlie. “That’s unless you want to spend all afternoon lying there under a bush.”
“What about security? Isn’t the place crawling with guards?”
“There’s a couple in the house with Stefano, but most of them have gone into town to see the concert. We should be okay if we keep to the trees.”
Charlie climbed her way up through the bushes and grabbed Mercy’s arm to pull herself out onto the top of the trench. Then, skirting through the trees and around the side of the villa, they approached a small wooden hut at the back of the property. It was partially underground, and the door was reached down a short flight of steps.
Charlie checked there was no-one around and slipped down to the door, which was locked with a shiny new padlock. She rapped softly on the wooden panel.
“Francine! Francine, can you hear me?” There was no answer. “Francine, it’s Charlie. We’ve come to get you out of here.”
Once again, there was no response. Then suddenly there was a crash from inside the hut. Charlie looked around. Mercy had disappeared again. There was a tiny window high on the wall above the door. Charlie thought if she went back up the steps and leaned across, she might be able to reach it. In a matter of seconds she was there, and standing on tiptoe, she could just see through the window.
Francine Matheson was sitting on a chair in the middle of the room. Her hands were tied in front of her and her legs were roped to the chair legs. She was gagged, with tape across her mouth. But she was awake and signalling with her thumbs that she could see Charlie. A jar was lying smashed on the floor next to her chair. She’d obviously kicked this over as a way to make her presence known.
Charlie heard a step on the path behind her. “I wondered where you’d got to,” she whispered. “I can see her and she’s okay. But she’s tied up pretty tight.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear you approve of my knot skills,” said a voice behind her. But it wasn’t the voice she’d been expecting. She spun around and found herself looking up at Stefano Mladov. Nearly eighty, Mladov was looking good for his age. And the hand that pointed a gun directly at Charlie’s head was rock steady.
Chapter 57
Hawkins was already half way up the hill out of the square. Suzanne ran around a couple of groups of revellers and started following her former boss. He seemed too intent on reaching his destination to pay attention to what was going on around him. And he certainly wasn’t looking over his shoulder. But Suzanne kept to the shadow of cars and vans parked along the side of the street, peeking out every so often to make sure he was still ahead of her.
She’d once trusted this man, looked up to him, admired him even. He’d given her a job in the International Health Forum. She hadn’t even had to apply. He’d specifically requested her secondment from the European Medicines Agency. And she’d been so proud. But it just goes to show her mother was right: pride does come before a fall. From what Hawkins told Charlie on the boat in Brazil a few years later, he’d recruited Suzanne because he thought she’d be easy to manipulate, would make a good screen behind which he could carry on his counterfeiting and other schemes.
He’d set Francine up for blackmail. He was responsible for the deaths of countless children through contaminated drugs and at least one group of women through arson when the investigations got too close. And he’d sanctioned her kidnapping and imprisonment in a hut in the jungle in Zambia. He’d fooled a lot of people for a very long time.
And then, when it got too hot for him in the UK, he’d faked his own death and escaped to Brazil where she and Charlie had tracked him down three years later. At the time, very few people knew or believed Michael Hawkins was also Sir Fredrick Michaels, the eminent civil servant who took his own life ‘in a fit of madness’. But Charlie in particular had believed it and she’d been instrumental in keeping track of him.
Some people thought Charlie was obsessed with Hawkins and told her she should let it go, as her
sister had. But Suzanne had never really let it go either. She might be quieter about it. She might hide the fact well. But she still had nightmares about this man and his activities. She was as determined as Charlie he would be brought to justice one way or another.
Hawkins had stopped in front of a tall apartment block and as he walked up the steps, he pulled a bunch of keys from his pocket. He slipped through the front door and disappeared inside. Suzanne waited for a full two minutes, then followed him up the steps. She’d noted Hawkins didn’t use a key to open the front door and, sure enough, it was unlocked. Slipping inside, she saw a narrow staircase winding up through five or six storeys, wrapped around an ancient elevator. There was no sound of footsteps on the stairs and the lift was on the ground floor, unmoving. She’d no way of knowing which apartment Hawkins was in. There were two rows of post boxes on the wall opposite the elevator. They were numbered 1 to 12, but only a few of them had names, and none was labelled Hawkins or Michaels.
But at least she knew where he was staying. If he had keys, it implied he was more than a visitor. She would talk to Walter and Charlie and they would decide together what to do next.
Glancing at her watch, she saw it was approaching four-thirty. She had to get back to the centre, navigate the crowds in the square and reach their meeting place by five. She just hoped Walter would make his way back there as well.
Slipping out of the front door and down the steps, Suzanne turned right and headed downhill. As she passed a narrow alleyway between two buildings, she felt rather than saw someone step out behind her. Her arms were grabbed and pinned to her sides, and she was pulled back into the alleyway. Even on a September afternoon, when the rest of the street was bathed in golden sunshine, little or no light managed to make it through to this deep chasm. But even without looking, she knew who it was. Hawkins had tricked her once again.
She let herself go limp then when she felt her captor’s grip loosen, she kicked backwards against his shins. He swore and loosened his grip even more and she twisted herself free. She couldn’t get back to the street. He was blocking her path. So she turned and fled along the passageway, deeper into the darkness. She seemed to have taken him by surprise, and the sound of his pursuit was beginning to fade when she turned a corner and found herself facing a dead end. A brick wall spanned the whole of the passageway. There were no doors, and the wall was well over ten foot tall. Far too high to scale. She turned in desperation, looking for somewhere to hide. But there was nowhere. And now the footsteps were getting closer.
She slumped against the wall, gasping for breath. Michael Hawkins rounded the corner at a run, saw her sitting there and slid to a halt. A smirk crossed his face and he started slowly walking towards her.
“So very predictable, Suzanne, aren’t you?” He didn’t try to keep the sneer out of his voice. “When I saw you drive into town earlier today, I wondered how difficult it would be to lure you away from the rest of the posse. And then when I saw you in the square a while ago, I couldn’t believe my luck. There you were, all on your own!” He stepped closer and Suzanne shrank back trying to make herself into the smallest ball possible.
“But she’s not going to be stupid enough to follow me all on her own, I thought. But you were, weren’t you? You thought you were so clever, dodging between cars and acting like some private detective.” He shook his head. “Such an amateur! And then, you fell for the oldest trick in the book. In through the front door and out through the back. I bet you even checked the names on the post boxes to see if I was listed, didn’t you?”
Suzanne said nothing. Her mind was churning. She might have once admired this man, but now she knew he was a violent criminal, capable of doing anything to save his own skin. She needed to find a way to escape—and there was more chance of that if she could get him to take her back into the street. At least there would be other people around there. She took a deep breath and swallowed a sob that threatened to break through. She really didn’t want to die alone in a back alley in a little town in Russia.
The silence was ripped apart by a shrill ringing sound. Hawkins stepped away from Suzanne, but still blocking her exit from the alley, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He listened to the speaker at the other end, then checked his watch.
“Okay,” he said, “I’ll be there in about twenty minutes. And I’ll be bringing you a present.” Pushing his phone into his pocket, he moved across towards Suzanne once more. “Come on,” he said, “I’m taking you to visit an old friend of mine. Apparently, it’s going to be quite a reunion. Both Francine Matheson and that annoying sister of yours are waiting for us. But don’t worry. Stefano’s keeping them company.” As he reached down to grab her arm, she saw a knife glinting in his other hand. He followed her gaze and nodded. “Yes, let’s be sensible, shall we? Who knows? You might even get out of this alive.” But Suzanne knew he was lying. There was no way either Michael Hawkins or Stefano Mladov would let them go free, knowing what they did about their operations.
Chapter 58
Stefano Mladov gestured with his gun and Charlie walked across the garden in front of him and entered the villa.
“You’ll have to excuse the poor hospitality,” he said. “My son and the rest of the family have gone into town to see the concert. They’ll be back here later, in time for my firework party tonight. Such a pity you and your friends won’t be able to stick around and enjoy it.”
He pushed her into a chair and then sat across from her, still pointing the gun.
“Now, you obviously weren’t expecting it to be me behind you, so you aren’t working on your own. Is Anatoly Vladimirovich with you? I particularly want to talk to him. He appears to hold the key to the success or failure of one of my major projects.”
Charlie realised Stefano still didn’t know Mercy was here. That information could be useful. She shook her head.
“Well, I’m afraid you’ll have to do it by phone. Anton’s still in St Petersburg.”
He tutted, looking disappointed. Although Charlie wondered just how much this old man really did know.
“Well that’s a pity. But I must say I’m surprised. I would have thought his sister and his house guest would have meant more to him than that. So just who did you think was standing behind you?”
Before Charlie could think up a response, a shrill beeping noise began, getting steadily louder. Stefano looked around in surprise.
“That sounds like a fire alarm to me,” said Charlie. She sniffed and detected the acrid smell of smoke. “And, if my sense of smell isn’t mistaken, it’s not a false alarm. Something’s definitely burning.”
“But that’s nonsense,” said Stefano. “No-one’s been lighting any fire this morning.” He stood and moved towards the door, raising his voice, but keeping his gun trained on Charlie. “Alexis, Philip; what’s going on?”
“I’m afraid they’re otherwise engaged, Stefano,” said a cool voice, “and are likely to be so from now on.” Mercy stepped through the doorway and strolled into the centre of the room. Stefano staggered backwards and sat down suddenly. The gun began to waver.
“Mercy!” he gasped. “But I thought you were dead!”
“Oh, far from it, Stefano,” she replied with a lazy smile. “I’m alive and kicking and have a few things I need to discuss with you. A few things you neglected to tell me!” She walked across the room, seemingly not at all concerned about the gun. Stopping at the table, she picked up a bunch of keys and threw them to Charlie. “Here you go. I guess the one you need is the brand new padlock key. Go and free your friend.”
“But what about you?”
“Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m a big girl. And if I can’t handle one old man, he won’t have trained me as well as he thinks he has. Now go.” As Charlie got up and ran from the room, she heard Mercy say to Stefano, “now let’s get rid of that silly little gun and we can have a proper chat. We haven’t got long. Someone seems to have left something over long on the stove. The kitchen appears to be on f
ire.”
And as Charlie ran across the lawn towards the Big Bang store, the smell of smoke was stronger still and she saw, out of the corner of her eye, flames leaping from the roof of the single-storey extension at the back of the villa. She turned back to look at the house, expecting to see Mercy and Stefano running out. But there was no sign of them. She did, however, spot two bodies at the back of the house. Presumably the ‘otherwise engaged’ Alexis and Philip.
As she got close, she saw sparks were drifting across the garden, straight towards the exposed wooden roof of the store. She remembered Francine was sharing her prison with a large quantity of explosives in the form of fireworks. She had to get her out before the whole thing went up.
Hurtling down the steps, she found the right key, inserted it into the padlock on the third attempt and wrenched the door open. Francine was sitting wide-eyed staring up at the corner of the roof which was starting to smoulder.
Charlie ripped the tape off her mouth and looked around wildly. She found a small knife on a window ledge and managed to slit the ties holding Francine’s wrists, then released her legs from the chair. Together, the two women fled from the building. Francine stumbled as she tried to climb the steps out of the cellar. Charlie grabbed her arm and half dragged, half carried her across the lawn. When she judged them to be a safe distance from the burning buildings they stopped, turning to look at what was happening.
The main villa was well alight now, as was the roof of the store. Smoke was pouring out of several of the windows, reaching upwards and clouding the brilliant blue of the autumn sky. At the front of the house there was a balcony on the second floor, opening out from one of the bedrooms. Suddenly the French doors flew open and Stefano staggered out. He had smudges of soot on his face and across the front of his white shirt, but he appeared otherwise unhurt.
Corruption! Page 21