Russian Law (Law Series ) (Volume 1) (9 page)

Lucas
stepped forward into the light of the corridor. His hair was covered with a
dark beanie, his scarf hanging down at an odd angle, his clothes that were
rumpled yesterday now sported dirt and blood and he thought he smelt worse than
any locker room he had ever been in. He looked like he had had a rough night
and not from having a good time. It had taken some time to locate a phone booth
at least one with a phone book. It had taken forever for him to match Elena’s
name with an appropriate address and even longer to get an English translation
and when he did he find her, she had not come home and he had spent the entire
night sitting in the dark crevice opposite her doorway.

“You’re
my liaison,” he said simply.

Elena
shook her head, “I think it’s a deal breaker when you shoot an SVR agent. They
have witnesses Special Agent Gates. The SVR are looking at this as a direct hit
on Russia. Director Mishkin has been ranting on all night about you. I’m afraid
he has informed Special Agent in Charge Fitzgibbon about your circumstances.”

Lucas
shook his head, the night was getting worse. “The agent shot Alvin Pochenchov.
I only shot him to defend myself. He never identified himself as an SVR agent.”

Elena
sighed heavily, her voice weary. “Alvin Pochenchov is a known criminal. The
agent could have a number of reasons for shooting him. If he indeed did.”

“He
did,” Lucas interrupted. He wanted to make that point very clear.

“Very
well he didn’t identify himself.” Elena agreed, reasonably. “Still you should
have allowed yourself to be brought in, asked them to contact me instead of
running. It looks like you’re as guilty as sin.”

“Shit
Elena, surely you don’t believe that? I’m being set up.”

“Of
course I don’t believe that. You’re a very honest man Lucas. If I known
anything at all it is that.” She rubbed her brow in frustration and wariness. “What
a mess.” She looked at him, resigned. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you never
to piss in someone else’s pool?”

He
smiled, somehow he had not expected such a phrase to come from Elena’s mouth
and to him sounded downright hilarious. He realized that that was the first
time since he had first left her office that he had smiled.

“She
did but it never stuck. I’m sorry Elena I hate to involve you but I really need
your help, please,” he added for good measure. He was desperate and if she
didn’t help him, he didn’t have a clue what his next move would be.

Elena
stared at him for a long while, just enough for his heart to sink before she let
out a deep sigh and a whispered expletive. He didn’t need to know the
translation to understand it was directed at him – or his situation.

“Come
on,” she said as she unlocked her apartment door and led him inside.

The
apartment was cozy. The heater had taken the chill out of the air. Her
furniture was sparse, not over-crowding the small space, but completely
feminine. The room was done in pink flowers and white lace, Lucas wondered if
Nikolai had felt emasculated here or if it was just him. It took a very secure
man to live here, he thought. There were a few paintings on the wall and several
photographs over the fireplace adding life to the room. He noticed Elena had no
time for plants and flowers.

Elena
hung her coat up in the closet and turned to face him, he looked terrible. The
lack of sleep was taking its toll on him, the lines on his face had deepened
and his eyes were bloodshot. He was holding his hand gingerly and she could see
the knife mark and the resulting dried blood.

“You’re
hurt,” she told him, shaking her head, admonishing him like a little boy who
was dirty. “I’ll get something to clean you up with.”

She
walked down the hall to where he supposed her bathroom was. He took another
look about the room. The apartment was everything his was not. It was the type
of place you wanted to come home to after a long day’s work. Warm and inviting,
altogether homey of course the fact that Elena was also there could also be
attributed to that. The photos on the fireplace mantle drew his attention. He
walked towards them. He could see a smiling Elena clearly standing next to a
handsome strapping man.

Lucas
assumed this was her husband Nikolai. Lucas reached out and picked up the
wedding photo, his curiosity peaked. In the photo Elena was decked out in a
fashionable white, simply designed but perfectly rendered wedding dress. The
sunlight from the day hitting her wedding ring, causing multiple colors to
shine through the diamond rock.

Nikolai
looked as dashing as any man could in his black suit, his dark hair and eyes
adding to the allure of the tall, dark and handsome stereotype. His arm
possessively around Elena’s waist. Two men stood on either side of Elena and
Nikolai, the one standing by Elena had her eyes – a relative he assumed, the
other standing beside Nikolai was roughly the same age as Nagregor, his dark
hair gelled down, his eyes cold and hard. His hand rested on Nikolai’s
shoulder, they were all smiling happily into the camera. He felt a pang of
sympathy for Elena, she clearly loved the man very much and must have been
devastated when he died.

He
was replacing the photo when Elena returned carrying a bowl of steaming hot
water and some gauze and white bandage.

“Nikolai,”
she said simply when she saw what photo he was looking at.

He
nodded as he turned to face her as she sat down at the table. He sat beside her
and she took his hand in hers and gently started cleaning it.

It
stung like a son of a bitch and to take his mind off the pain he started
talking. “Who’s the other man, the one beside Nikolai?”

“Nikolai’s
best man Alexei Dimitrovich - another agent. They were great friends.”

Lucas
was starting to get used to the pain. He watched her beautiful face as she kept
her head bowed, concentrating completely on his wound.

“How
long were you two married?”

“Three
years. He was my supervisor straight out of the academy.”

“He
was murdered?” he asked gently, already knowing the answer but wanted to keep
open the discussion, immediately regretting the words when her hand tightened
on his. He was about to apologize when she spoke.

“Yes,
he was murdered. I was working late one night and when I came home to our
apartment there Nikolai was lying in a pool of his own blood. The place had
been ransacked. The official statement was a robbery interrupted.”

He
caught something in her tone. “But you don’t believe that?”

Elena
shook her head. “Let’s just say ‘red flags went up’. Nikolai was a trained SVR
agent, and to be taken by a common burglar? No. I don’t believe that.”

Lucas
was intrigued. “Signs of struggle?”

Elena
shrugged. “They thought so.”

He
looked at her face as she cleaned his wound. “Who is ‘they’?”

Elena’s
grey eyes found his. “The investigators.” She looked about the room. “It was
too organized, you know - random chaos. Just one big mess, nothing was taken -
at least nothing that I could determine.”

He
followed her eyes as they moved around the room. Nikolai was murdered here, in
this very apartment. He shivered as a chill went down his back.

“Do
you have the report they made?” he asked.

She
nodded.

“Can
I see it?”

She
frowned, trying to decide why he wanted it. Finally she gave up and went to the
writing desk nearby and opened the drawer. She shifted through some files
before pulling one out and handing it to him. He assumed the Russian letters on
the front read
Nikolai Nagregor
.

He
opened the manila folder and took a second to glance at the information before
moving on. Elena had found him. The thought sickened him as he saw the color
photographs of her husband lying on the floor. He could only imagine what
finding a loved one like that would do to a person. He immediately admired the
woman for continuing with her life. She didn’t seem affected too much because
of it. It couldn’t have been easy. He took in what Elena had called the mess
‘random chaos’ and she was right. It was plain to anyone to see. The apartment
hadn’t been burglarized but it certainly had been tossed. Someone had been
looking for something in particular. He doubted they found whatever it was.
Nikolai was by all accounts a great agent. There was no way in hell he left
something worth his life out in the open for anyone to find.

“You’re
right. I think they were looking for something. You know Pochenchov said
Nagregor found a mole inside Russian Intelligence.”

Elena’s
head jerked up from looking at his hand, she pinned him with her cool gaze. “You
asked about Nikolai?”

Lucas
nodded. “Yes. I had a hunch. I’m not much into coincidence and Nikolai’s murder
just didn’t sit right. I believe he learnt something someone wanted to keep
secret.”

Elena
mulled that over. “Did Pochenchov say who?”

He
looked into those grey depths, losing himself for a moment before moving his
attention back to the conversation.

“No.
But I’m going to find the son-of-a-bitch. He has a lot to answer for. I just
have to lay low for a while.”

Elena
wrapped the white bandage around Lucas’s palm. He could tell she had done this
before. The bandage was tight enough to stop the bleeding and keep the wound
clean but loose enough that he didn’t lose any feeling in his fingers. With a
husband like Nikolai he assumed he would have taught her how to correctly clean
and bandage wounds.

Elena
stood and started gathering up the used cloths. Lucas looked up from admiring
her handy-work.

“You’re
really good at that, thanks.”

Elena
nodded, her lips pressed into a tight line. He caught hold of her wrist,
effectively stopping her.

“Elena,
what is it?”

She
sat heavily in her chair and looked over at him. She looked like she was about
to give a cancer patient bad news.

“You
should know I have no standing with SVR. I was only reinstated to my status as active
liaison officer yesterday so that I could work on your case.”

“Why?”

She
frowned. “Because no one else wanted the job.”

Lucas
shook his head. She was either evasive or hadn’t understood what he was asking.
He was hoping for the latter. He didn’t like thinking that she was lying to him
or purposely being ambiguous. He acknowledged the unreasonable thought. He
barely knew her and she had no loyalty to him and knew it was stupid to think
she owed him any. But still he would like to think she was being honest with
him
.

“No,
I meant why were you on probation?”

She
looked over at him and sighed.

“Nikolai,
I kicked up a stink. Wouldn’t leave it alone, I’ve been chained to my desk for
the past six months buried and forgotten under paperwork.”

Lucas
heard heavy footsteps stop outside her door, followed by a large fist knocking.

A
man’s voice came at them through the door, his Russian thick, his voice
gravelly. “Elena Ivanova? Please open the door!”

“
Govno
,”
Elena cussed, jumping up from her seat. Lucas didn’t have to know the language
to recognize the four letter expletive.

She
looked down at him and whispered, “SVR.”

“Fuck,”
no time for niceties, he needed to get out of there now. “Look do you want to
find out what happened to Nikolai?”

Elena’s
eyes widened, “Of course I do.”

“Then
we’ll have to make a break for it.”

Elena
gave him an ‘are you kidding?’ look. They were two storey’s up, that fact and
other things stood in her way. The SVR agent began pounding on the door,
repeating his warning. Lucas was quickly running out of time.

“Are
you serious? I could lose my job if I ally myself with a wanted man. Not to
mention that Russian’s don’t exactly have a good reputation for treating
traitors.”

He
understood her position and concern, she was stuck between a rock and a hard
place and he felt like an ass asking her for help. He knew he was desperate
enough to play the Nikolai card. “We know that someone is playing on both sides
within the agency.”

Elena
nodded, her eyes going from her door then back to him. “A tip from a known
weapon’s dealer, that won’t stand. And not to mention you don’t have a name or
even a suspect.”

Lucas
was beyond desperate. There was no one else that could help him. He was alone
in a foreign country, a wanted man and he didn’t speak the language. He was far
from home and in a shit load of trouble. It would take Jim weeks to get him out
alive – if he even survived the day which at the moment wasn’t looking too
promising.

“Elena
please,” he implored. “I can’t do this myself. I need your help.”

Her
brow furrowed and a look of surrender passed onto her face.

“
Sraka
,”
she muttered under breath. He didn’t think he wanted to know what that meant
and didn’t ask. He had a feeling it was about him. He gave her a huge grin, her
eyes narrowed. He certainly wasn’t as charming as he thought or she was just
immune to his gift.