The Doves of Ohanavank (25 page)

But Carla is convinced that these accounts are only a small part of her father’s and Viktor’s assets. She expects that there are more real estate investments as well as cash lying around waiting to be discovered. She has already found a large briefcase in the study, which Yuri also knows nothing about. It contained a mixture of US dollars, drams and euros, close to a million dollar’s equivalent.

The bank accounts and the cash that she has access to exceed several million dollars, which is enough for Carla at the moment. She retains eight employees on her payroll engaged in the search for her father’s assets. She has recovered some sources of income, especially in Ayvazian’s operations in Vayots Dzor. For her, chasing the villa in Dubai is far less urgent than removing a major threat right here at home. LeFreak, left unchecked, could destroy everything.

Yuri can think of only one way to gain some control over the situation.

“We need to be better organized to handle LeFreak,” he says. “I need a team that I can trust. I need to spend a lot more money than what my salary is costing. I need to bribe, gather information, set up cells.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” Carla looks him in the eye. “I approve everything before you take a step. I will give you a couple of men to start with. You can trust them, they work for me,” she says, and the tone in her voice makes Yuri cringe. He takes the sarcasm to mean that she has seen through him. “You present me every expense before you incur it, and if I approve, I’ll give you what you need. You discuss with me every aspect of the strategy.” She waits a minute. “Are we clear on that, Yuri?”

“We’re clear.” He has to play along while he thinks of ways to sideline her, which he knows will not be easy. Carla knows more than he does, controls the money, and has the personality to run the business. There can be no short cuts to gaining control. But Yuri is determined that eventually he will take over the Ayvazian businesses.

“Good, I’ll work on getting the documents we need for Dubai. I’ve already contacted one of Papa’s lawyers. What I want you to do is learn everything about LeFreak. Everything. Start with what that girl is talking about, the operations he is supposed to have taken over in Lori, but don’t stop there. Focus on what he’s doing in Armenia first, but eventually we have to find out what that Abo character is up to, and what he and LeFreak agreed upon.”

“When can I meet the two people you have for me?”

“They’ll call you this afternoon.”

“We’ll need cash to buy information,” says Yuri. “We’ll have to bribe a lot of people.”

Carla stands up and goes to her desk. She unlocks a drawer, shuffles through a few things inside it, and returns with a stack of 20,000-dram bills, around one centimeter thick.

“There’s two million dram in there.” She tosses the stack on the coffee table. That’s around five thousand dollars, and Yuri knows that it won’t go very far.

“I can start with that, but you have to understand that we’ll be bribing people who are employed and probably paid well, and who know the punishment for betraying the boss. So that won’t be enough to buy the information we need.”

“There’ll be more when you need it,” says Carla curtly again. “Just use it wisely. Let me know when you need more. And I want to know details of how much is being spent on which sources.”

This has been a tense meeting for Yuri. Usually, after meetings like this, Carla wants sex. But Yuri is cold, and Carla does not seem to be having an easy time shifting moods either. It is not even clear to Yuri that she is trying. He looks at her for a moment, to make sure, and then stands up.

“I better get going then,” he says, taking the money from the coffee table. “I’ll expect a call from your men this afternoon.”

With that, Yuri leaves and shuts the door behind him.

Carla goes back to her desk and sits on her large chair, putting her feet on the desk. The framed photograph of their house in Martashen is still on the wall facing her. She either hasn’t gotten around to changing it or perhaps she has chosen not to get around to it. It is the only truly personal thing left from her father. The money and the businesses are not personal. She never thinks of her father when she spends his money. It’s all her money now. But the house, which he loved, is his. And Carla, who had no love lost for her father, wants him in this room as she takes over the business. She wants him to see everything that she does in this room. She herself has never thought of it that way, but that is what it is. That is why the only photograph that she has thought of replacing the picture of the house with has been one of her father. But maybe she subconsciously realizes that a photograph of her father would be less ‘him’ than that of the house;
he
hung this picture here;
he
loved that house.

It is one thing if LeFreak is trying to take over the orphaned Ayvazian businesses, and an entirely different thing if he orphaned those businesses in the first place. If he had been plotting before the killings, as the Galian girl claims, then he could very well be behind the killings. Why would she make any of that up? Why would Anastasia care? How could she possibly make up the conversation that she overheard in Istanbul? Carla knows that she was in fact in Istanbul.

Carla has enough money to buy many of LeFreak’s men. She is not so sure about her own men. Can Yuri kill? She needs killers, not just men who beat and rape the girls, to subdue them. A killer is a different animal. A killer kills without anger or emotion; a rapist has both. A killer is not intent on changing his victim’s behavior; men who beat and rape the girls are. Surely her father had some killers on his staff. Who are they? Did they die with him last fall? Was Hamo, Yuri’s brother, one of them?

Then a thought hits Carla like a lighting bolt. She could kill LeFreak herself. She could stand in front of him and, looking him in the eye, pull the trigger. Bang. Blood, brains on the carpet, and LeFreak is no more. She definitely can kill. No second thoughts, no regrets, no afterthoughts.

And then, as an exercise, she imagines herself shooting Yuri in cold blood. Just to see how it would be. She first imagines him betraying her, to make the scene more realistic—Yuri has changed sides and sold secrets to LeFreak, instead of buying secrets from his men, and he has used her money to build his own team to overthrow her. That scenario has been brewing
in her mind for a while anyway, so it is not that difficult to imagine. Yuri deserves to die. Bang. More blood and brains on the carpet; Yuri is no more. This is nothing, she thinks. I can do this.

It occurs to Carla that she has rarely been out of the house. Yuri and the other henchmen that she employs control the streets. All she has is what they report back, which is second hand, filtered information. That is when her first major crisis of confidence hits her. She is not used to this. Doubt is alien to her. She knows infallible, boundless confidence. Doubt, self-doubt, is the ugliest feeling she has ever experienced. It leaves a rotten, bitter taste in her mouth.

That evening Carla calls Yuri and asks him to come over. Yuri arrives half an hour later ready to perform any sexual fantasy that she may have dreamt of. But Carla greets him in a pantsuit.

“Have you ever killed anyone?” she asks.

“What kind of question is that?” he snaps.

“Yuri, it is the question that I’m asking, and I expect an honest answer.” Yuri, who has come prepared to satisfy a nymphomaniac, is taken aback by her seriousness.

“I am sorry to disappoint you Carla, but I will not answer your question. And I will go further and tell you that you have no right to ask that question in the first place. Now, if there is nothing more, I have to go. You made me waste valuable time.” And Yuri heads for the door. He is still seething from their last meeting. He knows that she needs him, and he is not going to put up with her whims to this extent.

“Stop!” Carla’s is so abrupt that Yuri freezes. He turns around and faces her.

“Sit down, please.” Her voice is calmer and Yuri marvels at her self-control. He takes a seat on the chair facing the sofa where Carla is sitting, and stares at her with deliberate defiance.

“Now,” she says, maintaining the calmer tone, “tell me what’s bothering you.”

“We need to modify a few things.” He runs his fingers through his hair. He has a bright blue silk shirt on with the top three buttons undone, light brown corduroy pants, and a suede jacket. He is wearing cologne. He feels awkward; he is painfully aware that he is not dressed for a business negotiation.

“Go on,” she says, in a patronizing tone that adds to his discomfort.

“This is not the relationship that I had with your father. He trusted me more. I had a cut in the revenue that I generated, aside from the fixed salary. I ran things on my own for him, he did not check every detail. If we cannot work like that, then this is not going to work.”

“How long did you work for him?” asks Carla.

“Eight years.”

“Don’t you think that the trust between us will come? I’ve only known you for a few months.”

“Maybe. But we’re no longer talking about running routine errands. We’re talking about recovering millions and getting rid of the LeFreak threat. You cannot treat me as a salaried employee.” Yuri is happy with himself. In spite of his not so businesslike attire, he comes across as serious, balanced and calm. Most of all, he feels he’s regaining a measure of control, no matter how Carla chooses to respond.

“What do you want?”

“Ten percent of everything that I generate. A fixed amount of two million drams a month for expenses that I do not have to account for. And I want to hire a few men of my own.” Yuri’s gaze on Carla is as steady as his voice.

“Whoa! That is quite a list, Yuri. As I said, relationships like that are built over time. I don’t mind some modifications, as you put it, but we take it slower than that.”

“Depends on what you mean by slower.”

“I don’t mind paying you ten percent of any
new
business that you generate,” says Carla. She has thought about this before calling Yuri over. “Just to be very clear, so there is no misunderstanding later, that has to be both new business and business generated by your own efforts. If I give you leads and use my own sources to help you get the business, you do not get ten percent. If it is not a new source of income, just recovering an old asset that you did not build, you do not get ten percent. Are we clear on that?”

“What do I get in those cases?”

“It depends. It depends on the amount, and the nature of your role. It can range anywhere from two percent, if your role is relatively minor and the amount is large, to a maximum five percent if your role is significant and the amount is smaller. You have to trust me too as we figure this out.” Carla waits, eyes fixed on Yuri. After a few second, he nods. Yuri wants to ask what would be his share if he recovered the villa in Dubai, but decides
against it. It would be at least two percent, and possibly he can argue for a bit higher, given the significance of his role. Somewhere in the 60,000 to 75,000 euro range. Not bad; he can live with that.

“Let’s move to the two million dram in expenses,” says Carla. “I concede. I will trust you with that, but I have to see results. If the results are there, I will not question how you’re spending the money. If the results are not satisfactory, we revisit this issue, in fact we revisit everything.” She waits again. Yuri nods.

“Of course,” she adds, “you may consider giving me an accounting once in a while, even though I will not ask for it, as a confidence building measure. I leave that up to you.” She waits, looking at him, but he does not react.

“Now, let’s come to the most difficult item on your list of demands. You want to hire your own men. That, I am not ready to accept. We either function as one organization, run by me, or not at all. I’m paying for your time, for your expenses, a healthy percentage of the income you bring in, and I am paying the salaries of everyone who works for you. I want to know who they are and I want to approve them before they’re hired. You can identify and propose candidates that I do not know, but you have to discuss them with me first and, if I want to meet them, I will meet them first, and then you can hire them only if I give my approval. Depending on the person, I may approve even before meeting them. But that will be my decision. I cannot compromise any more than that on this issue.”

Carla knows that Yuri has improved his position considerably through this negotiation, and the last point is not going to be a deal breaker. She herself is happy with the outcome. This will buy Yuri’s loyalty for a while, she reckons six months or so, before he gets restless again. And then she’ll re-evaluate and decide what to do.

She looks at him quietly for a long moment, but does not wait for a nod. She stands up before he makes any noticeable gesture.

“If we’re done here,” she says, walking toward the bedroom door, “why don’t you pour us a drink and join me inside?”

Chapter Twenty-Three

E
dik returns from Saralandj late. He calls to say they now have a concrete plan to liquidate the pig farm, and in a few weeks that chapter in Avo’s life will be closed. They will sell everything very cheap, he says. They have already found some farmers who’ll buy the mothers as well as the piglets even before they are totally weaned, as long as they look healthy..

“How’s Avo taking it?” I ask.

“Not well. He is angry, disappointed, frustrated. The only good news from Avo is that he has reduced his drinking a lot. I’m not sure if he’s avoiding getting drunk only in front of us. Ask one of your sisters about that.”

“I will, Edik jan, thank you so much for all this,” I say, wondering for the hundredth time why, although I now see why what happened to me matters to him. “When will you return to Vardahovit?”

“I’ll leave in the morning. No particular time. Do you want to meet for a late breakfast?”

I hesitate for a minute. Breakfast isn’t really my thing.

“How late?” I ask.

“Don’t worry,” he says. “I’m exhausted. I won’t be ready to face the day until around eleven. Can you come to my hotel or shall I come pick you up?”