Shadow WIngs (Skeleton Key) (18 page)

Ilana felt her sense of unreality worsen. “Two hours?
Obnizov only now finds out he is gone, and Golunsky is already dead maybe two hours... again outside the Kremlin?”

Karkoff exhaled, sounding frustrated. “Someone is playing games with us, Ilana. You think?”

She slowly shook her head, but not in a no.

“Games are your specialty, Karkoff,” she said finally.

He grunted, then his voice grew more official-sounding. He
asked her opinions of the murders themselves, from what the
militsiya
had uncovered so far. He also asked her whether she had seen or heard anything more that might give them some clue as to the exact political motive, and which foreign powers were likely to be involved. After a long pause where she only thought, she exhaled another sigh.

“I do not think there are any foreign powers involved,” she said truthfully. “I did not think it political at all, not at first. Now, with him gone, it seems likely.”

“You did not think it was political before?” Karkoff sounded surprised. “You were there for the interview,
da?
Yet you do not think there are foreign powers involved?”

Puzzled, she shook her head, although he wouldn’t see it of course. “Of course there is a chance.” Ilana grunted. “There is always a chance of such things.”

There was another silence, then Karkoff’s voice grew guarded.

“How did he sound to you? This Golunsky?”

“Truthfully? He sounded like a lunatic.” She glanced at Raguel. “He babbled about angels and demons. Nothing political that I heard... more like religious nonsense, mixed with a lot of aggression. He spoke to me about sex, trying to unsettle me. He said more nonsense about Obnizov, as well, trying to unsettle him. He spoke to people who were not in the room. Most of it was meaningless, Karkoff... just gibberish.”

The silence on the line deepened.

Unnerved by that silence for some reason, Ilana frowned, then shrugged.

“...He confessed to killing the children. He also confessed to abusing them sexually right in front of both of us.
Obnizov has it all recorded. I will bring you that recording of course, but if there is a political motive there, I did not––”

“I have heard the recordings, Ilana.”

His voice sounded cold.

“Oh?” she said. “How is that?”

“We had them sent here as soon as the interview was completed.”

Ilana heard the coldness in his voice even more clearly that time. She was still trying to decide what to say, when he let out an angry-sounding exhale.

“I am confused, Ilana.” Karkoff’s voice grew harder still. “In the recordings
I
heard, Golunsky is talking mostly about America. How America will destroy the Motherland. How America is the future and we are the past. How the plans are already in the works... how their followers are everywhere, how the end of the Soviet Empire is near. You are right, he sounds crazy. But it is
all
political, Ilana. And it is all about foreigners. I heard the talk about angels and demons too. But that was only in the very beginning of the tapes. Before you and Obnizov got him to talk.” Pausing, he added, “Did you intend to cut that part of the interview out, Ilana? Do you think me such a fool, that I wouldn’t discover the truth?”

She felt her skin grow colder and colder as he spoke.

“Could there have been a second interview?” she said.

She heard Karkoff let out an incredulous sound. “I heard your voice on the tape, Ilana. You asked him
questions
. You spoke to him... about where. About when.” His voice turned to a growl. “I had to send the recordings up the ladder. I
had
to. But this line is clear. Why don’t you tell me what really happened?”

Ilana fought to think, to wrap her mind around this. She needed to get ahold of the tapes. She needed to know what the hell Karkoff heard, or it would be very dangerous to answer.

“Golunsky’s death,” she said instead. “...was it suicide?”

“No.” Karkoff let out an annoyed sigh. “His body was chopped up, Ilana. Hands. Feet...” His voice held disgust. “...Genitals.”

Ilana hesitated, glancing at Raguel.

“I do not know what to think, comrade,” she said finally, sighing as she turned back to the phone. Again, she found herself speaking more or less truthfully. “I feel like this thing is bigger in some way, but I am not convinced it is political in the usual sense... or perhaps is more political internally than it is pretending to be.”
 

Still thinking, she again glanced at Raguel.
 

“...If you want my real opinion, I would look inside the Kremlin, Karkoff. Or perhaps in Lubyanka,” she added more carefully, referring to KGB headquarters. Frowning harder, knowing she might be digging the hole deeper for herself with every word, she added, “I would very much like to know how he came out of a police station in midday without anyone admitting to having seen him... and how he was chopped up and left in the middle of Red Square... also without anyone seeing this occur. To me this is highly problematic. That there could be another murder there, with no witnesses... it is beyond unlikely. I would have said it was totally impossible before today, no matter who did it.”

For a moment, Karkoff remained silent.

She could almost feel him thinking through the line.

“Where have you been, Ilana?” Karkoff said. “This morning. I tried to call before, when I first heard the recordings. They said you left.”

She felt her fear worsen.

Forcing a sigh, she combed a hand through her long hair.

“Yes. Following the interview, I wished to look over the evidence in more detail before I made my report. I opted not to do that here. I just now came back to follow up with Golunsky with more questions. That is how we found him missing.”

She hesitated, once more glancing at Raguel, whose face she could still not read at all.

She knew Karkoff trusted her. He used to, at least.

She also knew how bad this looked, and would continue to look, if she did not find some way to hear whatever it was Karkoff had heard.

Karkoff would hear about Raguel now too, if he didn’t know about him already. Now that Golunsky was dead in such a way, Karkoff would be looking at everyone who went in and came out of Petrovka 38 that day. He would be looking at every single person Ilana had contact with, as well, and how she knew them.

He would hear how Ilana had brought Raguel back here.
 

He would hear how she took Raguel from the prison cell that morning, too.

“...I also followed up on a possible witness,” Ilana added after that pause, making a snap decision. “But I am thinking that is a dead-end now.”

“Why?” Karkoff said, sharper.

“He heard the guards talking about Golunsky and said his name to me,” she explained, again thinking fast. “He was picked up for drunkenness and one of the officers brought me to speak to him after he asked for me. He is a neighbor of mine, which is how he recognized me. I thought perhaps he might still be of use, but the man is sobering up now, and he admits to me he knows nothing. He was simply afraid his wife would find him in here. He wished to speak to me. And he wanted me to bring him home...”

“You know him?” A faint edge touched Karkoff’s voice.

“I had the misfortune of meeting him a few weeks ago, yes,” she said, wincing a little at the lie, but knowing it would be the only thing that fit all the information Karkoff would hear. “I did not know he was married back then. He is a womanizer, apparently. I broke it off. He has been somewhat... persistent since then.”

Karkoff again fell silent.

“Do you want me to detain him?” she said.

The silence stretched. Then, after another, longer pause, he exhaled.

“No. It does not sound like a good use of your time right now. If you think he might be helpful, put someone on him. Otherwise, cut him loose.”

“Yes.” She nodded. “I agree.”

She was almost afraid to ask the next question, but kept her voice blunt.

“Do you want me to come in, Karkoff?”

He grunted, but she heard the faintest tinge of that bleak humor of his again.

“No,” he said, his voice gruff. “No, I already told you. It is not a good time right now, Ilana. Let me do some checking of my own, first.”

She fought not to exhale in relief, nodding instead.
“Da,
okay.”

She could tell Karkoff wanted to believe her. She could also tell he definitely knew she wasn’t telling him something. He would likely assume it had to do with her comment about this being an internal job. That was something Karkoff could understand.

It might buy her and Raguel some time.

What apparently stumped him was whatever he’d heard on those interview tapes.

She remembered taking Raguel to buy shoes that day as well, wearing her ex-husband’s clothes, and felt that panic in her mind worsen.

She considering mentioning her intention to visit Kashchenko, meaning the mental institution where Golunsky had been kept prior to his arrest... but decided against it. She could not have said why precisely. Either way, she decided she would wait on sharing more with Karkoff until after she’d heard those tapes.

“...I’d planned to talk to Golunsky’s mother next,” she said, clearing her throat. “Find out more about his associations, if I can. They are... well, they
were
estranged... but I thought it best to try.” She paused. “Do you still wish me to do this?”

“Da.
What about his mental diagnosis?” he said. “Did you talk to his doctor? Is there any chance he was in Kashchenko for
vyalotekushchaya shizofreniya?”

Ilana shook her head.

She knew what Karkoff meant. The diagnostic category “sluggish schizophrenia” was one that Soviet doctors invented on the orders of the KGB. Political dissidents were held under such a diagnoses regularly.

“He was not there for that,” she said, shaking her head again. “He was there for paranoid delusions mixed with deviant sexual compulsion and violent tendencies. He got committed after he went after a neighborhood boy with a knife. Later they found he had been abusing that boy sexually, along with several other boys in the building. I checked this already, when we first got his name... but I will speak to his mother about these things again, of course. Golunsky lived with her when all of this happened.” She paused. “Do you want me to go back to Kashchenko, too? The
militsiya
have already been there, so––”

“No, no. Will Obnizov go with you? To the mother’s?”

Ilana hesitated, glancing at Raguel. “Should I bring him?”

“No,” Karkoff said at once. “I would strongly advise not. They will come to talk to him soon. It is better if you are not there.”

“KGB is coming for Obnizov?” She frowned, biting her lip. “Why?”

“No one has record of Golunsky leaving the police station, Ilana.”

Ilana shook her head. “It is not Obnizov, Karkoff. He was as surprised as us... and angry. He thought the Party had moved Golunsky without telling him. I don’t think he could have faked a reaction so well. He was angry with me, thinking I knew of this.”

“Did you?” Karkoff said.

The silence between them deepened.

Karkoff exhaled again.

“I am sorry, Ilana,” he said. “But maybe you should not share your feelings about Obnizov right now, my friend.”

“You think I would let an innocent detective take the blame, simply to protect myself?” Her voice was openly angry that time.

“Ilana... relax. I am saying maybe you do not have all the information. You were gone,
da?
So you do not really know what Obnizov was doing, do you? Golunsky was already gone when you got there. And Obnizov
could
have been acting, could he not? Going through the motions of acting surprised... of accusing you? Perhaps he saw an opportunity, given Golunsky’s earlier confessions. Perhaps he is a better actor than you think.” At her silence, Karkoff sighed. “I trust your instincts, Ilana. But you know how this works. It is out of my hands now. There are those here who are... nervous. I cannot tell them not to look at Obnizov.”

She heard the unspoken part of that, as well.