Crossing the Line (27 page)

“Good morning,” Katya popped her head round the door of the music department office.

Alice beckoned her in. “People to see you in room 401.”

Her heart jumped. “People?”

“One of them is Ethan,” she whispered.

Katya found him talking to a woman in a blue suit. At their side stood a young man in a t-shirt that said, “Jesus loves you but I’m his favorite”.

Ethan gave her a tight smile. “Come in. Close the door.”

She stepped inside.

He gestured toward the others. “My colleagues, Special Agents Lindy Toomey and Tom Davies.”

“Hello.” Lindy offered a smile.

“Come and sit down,” Tom said.

Katya didn’t move. She could still walk out, say nothing. Anxiety clawed at her throat.

“It’s okay,” Ethan said. “We just want to talk to you.”

Lindy pulled two chairs from under a long conference table and sat on one, gesturing for Katya to take a seat. Tom sat and started a recording machine.

Ethan spoke quietly. “We want you to work with us, Katya. We can help each other.”

She sat next to Lindy.

“We’re sorry for what’s happened to you,” Lindy said. “If we’re going to put things right, we need to know everything.”

What could they put right? Bring her family back? “I have to tell three of you?”

“Bureau policy more than one of us is present for your protection and ours.” Lindy glanced at Ethan. “I’ll come once a week for a thorough debriefing.”

Katya swallowed her horror. How long did they think this would take?

“Tom will be with me for the meeting but he’s also going to be posing as a student. You can pass information through him.” Lindy smiled at Tom.

“I can play the piano,” Tom said. “I’ll blend right in.”

He’s excited. This is a game to him.
Why was it acceptable for her to be alone with him and not Ethan? She spotted the ring on Tom’s finger. He was safe from her charms? Had Ethan said she tried to seduce him, told them about Paris? She shivered.

“We can put Petrenko in jail,” Lindy said. “Kusmin too with enough information about their business dealings.”

Katya opened her mouth to protest and closed it without speaking.

“We have an excellent witness protection program,” Lindy said. “We can relocate you anywhere, within reason. We’ll provide a new identity, a job, a home and ensure you stay safe. Best of all, you get citizenship. You don’t have to go back to Russia.”

Katya took a deep breath. This woman spoke as though they were doing her a favor, making her an American. Russia might not be perfect but she was proud of it and when she thought about what had happened to her since she arrived in America…

Lindy glanced at Ethan, her eyebrows raised.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Ethan said.

Lindy and Tom exchanged worried glances. Katya looked at Ethan and he held her gaze. He had no choice. Was that what he was telling her? Did she have a choice? She’d come here for revenge. This was her chance to take it.

“I don’t want you to touch Aleksei,” she said.

“We’ll do everything we can,” Lindy said.

Katya hesitated. That wasn’t a promise but she couldn’t trust them anyway. Was the price she had to pay for Petrenko going down was Aleksei falling too? A test of her resolve? Maybe she could warn Aleksei in time. Persuade him to leave the country. He wouldn’t want her anyway once this was done and he knew she’d turned informant.

She began to talk, starting the day they were told about Galya. She spoke quickly and quietly, and they didn’t interrupt. She didn’t lie, but didn’t tell what happened in Paris, nor of the deal she’d done in Moscow. She told them Aleksei was Petrenko’s son and saw they hadn’t known.

When she’d finished, Tom and Lindy asked questions, often the same one twice, worded differently. To confuse her, or see if she lied? Lindy tried to put her hand on Katya’s when she talked about her uncle, but she pulled away.

“Why did you hide the knives?” Lindy asked.

“Vasily frightened me.”

“You didn’t try to get one when the men dragged you back?” Tom asked.

“Difficult when I was tied up. Why are you asking me this? They’re dead.”

Katya felt Ethan’s gaze on her. Inside she shriveled like a plant deprived of water.

“Does Aleksei ever leave his computer switched on and unattended?” Tom asked.

“He has a degree in encryption and computer technology. He’d know if I breathed on it. He told me he has a duress code. Don’t touch Aleksei.” She knew it didn’t matter how many times she said it.

“Why are you sure Kirill murdered your sister?” Tom asked.

“Because of the way he kills. I saw him kill Anna, I’m sure he killed the men at my uncle’s house, he blinded Nik and killed Valentina, the friend of Natasha. When Petrenko came from Moscow, he brought Kirill with him. If you look maybe you’ll find the murders stopped there and started here. He might have killed my parents and grandparents too, but he likes to do things with a knife. Their deaths don’t fit.”

“How did you find out about Petrenko?” Lindy asked.

“Find out what?”

“That he was involved with your sister.”

“I gave an FSB colonel a blowjob.” She saw the tight expression on Tom’s face. “So maybe you’re thinking the rapes weren’t so bad for me. I wasn’t some innocent girl straight off the boat, is that how you say it?”

No one spoke for a moment. Ethan looked pale.

“Rape is still rape, Katya. It’s never right,” Lindy said.

“Aleksei isn’t raping me.”

“Will Nik tell us what he told you?” Tom changed the subject.

“I don’t know.”

“Would Natasha testify?” Tom asked.

“No. She’d say yes to keep you happy and then change her mind. She’d lie to save her skin. Assuming it hasn’t been peeled off her by now and she has no tongue with which to speak.”

After an uncomfortable silence, Ethan spoke. “Would you lie to save your life?”

Katya stared at him. “I think most people would which makes it sad that telling the truth isn’t enough.”

“You understand why we’re asking?” Lindy said.

“Yes, I could be lying. You need solid evidence to take before jury. You must do things correctly, legally, but that’s why criminals succeed. You’re tied at wrist and feet by the law. It hampers as much as helps you. People like Petrenko live by different code. He could have picked any of us on boat. He had no proof who called Hastings. He just decided on Anna. As lesson. Petrenko turn to Kirill and nodded head. It was his order. I watched Kirill sink hook into Anna. He and Colombians threw her into water and laughed while shark ate her. I saw this. I am proof.”

“If we went to court, the others on the boat, assuming we could find them, would deny it,” Lindy said. “It would be your word against theirs. We have no body and by now little chance of collecting forensic evidence. You admitted you helped clean—”

“So it’s my fault?” Katya snapped. “Maybe I miss a spot. Check.”

“Assuming we got a warrant, we’d have shown our hand and might end up with nothing,” Tom said.

“The man that took out Nik’s eyes fits with Kirill,” Katya insisted.

“But we need Nik to tell us that,” Lindy said.

“Maybe there are other murders, similar.”

“Of course we’ll check,” Lindy said. “In the meantime we have to explore other avenues to build up a case. Names of people, places and businesses connected to Kusmin are all useful.”

“I understand money laundering is a serious crime, but why doesn’t it matter people have been murdered? I told you I want Aleksei kept out of this.”

“That can’t happen, unless he agrees to cooperate with us,” Lindy said. “The cash he launders comes from drug trafficking and prostitution. Much of it is used to fund terrorism. Cutting off the funds that allow terrorists to buy arms and make bombs is one of the most important ways we can fight them. With your help and the help of others like you we can prevent tragedies like 9/11.”

Katya sat with her lips pressed together. It was like listening to a television documentary, an impassioned plea by a politician to the people. Finally Lindy faltered.

“So, my fault if another building blows up, my fault if they choose shopping mall next time or sports stadium. Don’t ask me to save the world.” She stood. “I have to go. I have students to teach.”

Lindy rose too. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Feeling? If you cared you wouldn’t need to ask. How do you think I feel? Satisfied I killed my uncle, happy I’ve been raped, enjoying being treated like a whore by American government.”

“We’re trying to help you,” Lindy said. “We understand what happened with your uncle was self-defense. The lawyers can sort that out.”

“I’d have to go to court for killing him?” she asked in horror.

“Well, it probably wouldn’t come to that,” Lindy said. “We know this is a lot to deal with. We want to be sure you can cope with what we’re asking you to do.”

Katya gave a short laugh. “I can cope. Don’t worry.” She opened the door and then turned back. “By the way, it’s my birthday today. Did you not even notice that in your file?”

Ethan was glad Tom drove them back to the office. No way could he have concentrated on the road.

“I like her,” Tom said.

“She’s headstrong and stubborn,” Lindy added. “And angry.”

Of course she was angry. Ethan admired her passion, her single-minded desire to do what she believed to be right. He wished he didn’t still want her, but he did. He wished he could stop thinking about what she’d felt like in his arms and he couldn’t. He said nothing as Lindy and Tom discussed surveillance, wire-taps, warrants and attacks on Kusmin’s computer, but he wasn’t happy.

“You’re going too fast,” he said. “For now we have to handle the surveillance ourselves. Work out the details and we’ll discuss it. I won’t compromise her safety. As far as getting Kusmin to launder money for us, that’s veering too close to entrapment. Remember Katya’s trying to protect him. We could lose everything because of that. I’m concerned that Kusmin is Petrenko’s son. We need to know more about them. And forget the phone tap. Without probable cause no judge will give us a warrant.”

Lindy and Tom fell silent, deflated by Ethan’s outburst.

“Kusmin is very bright.” He modified his tone. “It’s likely he has every protection there is for his computer. Look into it, Tom. But don’t get your hopes up.”

“She seems fragile,” Lindy said. “I’m not sure how long she can do this.”

“Neither am I,” Ethan admitted.

“If she’s telling the truth about having seduced an FSB officer, she had a good idea of what she was letting herself in for,” Tom said.

Ethan bristled. “She gave him a blowjob, not seduced him. It shows how far she’d go to find her sister’s murderer. We need to bear that in mind.”

Tom shuffled uncomfortably in the driver’s seat. “What about this doctor that Kusmin took her to? She might be unlicensed, even be part of a health care fraud.”

“Speak to Rico,” Ethan said. “But we can’t risk alerting them to our interest.”

“How do we handle the different agendas?” Lindy asked. “Katya wants revenge on Petrenko, and we want to spread our net much wider.”

“If we’re lucky we can do both, but it may be she’s not going to get what she wants,” Ethan said.

“We can look for similar murders,” Tom added.

“We already have them,” Ethan said. “There’s a dossier in the office on two Eastern European women. One unidentified. Her mutilated body was found in a drainage ditch near Orlando. The other is Valentina Korchova, no doubt the Valentina Katya mentioned, discovered near the Arizona-Sonora desert museum.”

“A serial killer or a hitman? Can it be both?” Tom asked.

“Contract killings don’t usually have such a degree of involvement,” Lindy said. “People paid to kill do it fast, efficiently, and get out. This guy enjoys it.”

“Maybe he began as a contract killer and evolved,” Ethan said. “We’ve seen it before. They don’t need to be paid, love what they’re doing and can’t live without it. Tom, when we get back check with VICAP. Lindy, speak to Revnik, see what the Russian law enforcement agencies have to say. I’ll talk to Jack Bosman. Katya needs a name too.”

“How about Bach?” Tom suggested.

* * * * *

After logging into the VICAP database, Tom compiled a list of all murders in the last nine months where victims suffered some form of mutilation. Too many. The dossiers on Valentina Korchova and Jane Doe made grim reading and even worse viewing. He picked out three others where the MO seemed to fit. He couldn’t help but feel excited at the prospect of identifying a serial killer and looked forward to seeing what came out of Moscow.

Lindy popped in to show Tom what she’d pulled up on Kusmin. A good-looking guy, but little on him prior to his arrival in the US. He’d been to school in England and impressed his tutors at Harvard Business School. After he’d opened a travel agency in Sunny Isles, business had boomed, though he no longer owned it. He was on the board of several companies and privately owned even more. His official title was financial advisor. Separated from his wife, he’d bought her a house and that appeared to be the swan song of their relationship. No divorce pending. He paid his taxes, had no outstanding parking tickets, no debts, no black marks against his name.

A model immigrant.

Yeah right, Tom thought.

* * * * *

Katya was relieved when the morning session ended. She’d not given her full attention to her students. Her head pounded. The FBI agents were more interested in the money laundering activities of Aleksei than anything else. They even wanted her to look at photographs of Colombian drug dealers to try and pick out the two from the boat. How many thousands of pictures would there be?

Lindy had not talked specifically about risk, but fear entwined her like ivy. They’d use her and she’d be lucky to survive long enough to be tossed away. No matter what they promised about the future, she’d be on her own. But if Ethan brought down Petrenko and Kirill too, she’d forgive him every lie.

At lunchtime she sat by the lake trying to figure out what to do. She was sure Kirill had killed her sister on Petrenko’s orders. Maybe her family too but she couldn’t prove it. The FBI agents had tried to persuade her that helping the American government get evidence of illegal business operations would enable them to send Petrenko to jail for a long time, but how could she protect Aleksei?

The truth was, she couldn’t. The only way she could save him was to warn him before the end but how could she know when that was? What if she didn’t see it coming?

Aleksei picked her up outside the library. “Had a productive day?”

“Too many long boring meetings with stupid Americans.”

“Sounds like my day. So what can I do to make your birthday a happy one?”

Katya smiled. She should have guessed he’d know.

“I don’t want to remind you of…bad things,” he said. “But would you like to go to Phoenix? Go rafting on the Salt River?”

She gave him a sad smile. “Not anymore. Do you know how Nik is?”

Aleksei’s mouth tightened and her heart dropped to her stomach. “He jumped out of a window.”

She gasped. “He couldn’t see. How could he even find a window? How did he know he was high up?”

“He was blind. He couldn’t do what he loved anymore.”

It was her fault. She brushed tears from her face.

Aleksei slid his hand over hers. “Don’t cry. It makes me want to cry and I’m supposed to be this hard business man.”

Sometimes beneath his thick shell, he offered a glimpse of a man who wanted to be loved.

“What would you like for your birthday?

She took a deep breath. “Your father punished for killing my sister.”

“Okay.”

She stared at him in shock.

“I’m serious.”

Katya gulped.

“Would it make you cry if I died?” he asked.

She told the truth. “Yes.”

“Then I hope you don’t have to choose between punishing my father and keeping me alive.”

He couldn’t know but Katya’s heart tumbled in her chest.