Full Black

CHAPTER 47

The home of Yaroslav Yatsko, the ex-FSB agent, sat in the Hollywood Hills above Sunset Boulevard. It was pink stucco with a small, mosaic-studded swimming pool and hot tub that spilled its warm water into the pool like a waterfall. The landscaping was lush and thick. It was early evening and no one saw Luke Ralston when he magnetized an alarm contact point, jimmied a window in the back, and let himself in.

The house was empty, yet the smell of sour Russian cigarette smoke lingered in the air. Yatsko had been here and, judging by the packed bag sitting at the foot of the bed in the master bedroom, he was planning to come back.

Ralston searched the bag. It included some clothes and a few toiletry items, but that was all. Yatsko appeared to be getting ready to go to ground. There was probably a safe or a cache of some sort in the house with money, a weapon, and maybe even a few fake IDs with matching credit cards. Ralston was going to need some extra cash and he had no problem taking it from some two-bit Russian hood.

Lavrov had made some phone calls, trying to quietly pin down Yatsko’s whereabouts. The former FSB man had been seen briefly at several of his businesses, before disappearing for the rest of the afternoon. The man probably had a bunch of loose ends to tie up before falling off the grid. Ralston was glad he had managed to get to the house before the Russian disappeared for good. Now, all he had to do was wait.

After selecting an item from Yatsko’s impressive baseball memorabilia collection, Ralston found a seat and made himself comfortable. Less than two hours later, he heard a car enter the drive and pull around to the garage at the side of the house.

As the garage door went up, Ralston made his way to the window and watched as a black BMW turned around and backed into the garage. Yatsko was alone. That he was backing into his garage made no sense unless it was a security measure of some sort. Ralston stepped into the hallway off the kitchen near the door that led into the garage and made ready to welcome the Russian home.

The BMW rolled into the garage and its ignition was turned off as the garage door descended. Moments later, Ralston heard a door slam shut, followed by footfalls and then a code being punched into an alarm panel in the garage. When the door into the house opened, Ralston waited until the Russian had stepped all the way inside before swinging the bat.

It connected squarely with the Russian’s knees, and he screamed in agony as he collapsed to the floor.

Ralston pulled out a pair of plastic restraints from his pocket and quickly zip-tied the man’s hands behind his back.

“You’re dead,” Yatsko yelled through his clenched teeth. He had a thick accent. “I don’t know who you are, but you are dead!”

“That’s right,” Ralston said. “You don’t know who I am and you’re the one who’s going to be dead if you don’t shut your fucking mouth. Where’s the safe?”

“That’s what this is?” he groaned. “A robbery?”

Ralston kicked him hard in the side. “Where’s the safe, asshole?”

“Bedroom.”

Despite the man’s size, Ralston grabbed him by the collar and dragged him across the wooden floor to a hallway on the other side of the living room.

“Which one?”

“The last one,” said Yatsko. “On the left.”

Ralston dragged him into the bedroom and let go of him. The walls of the room were lined with fabric-covered panels. An ugly, overly large four-poster bed took up way too much space.

“Where?” demanded Ralston.

“Wherever you go, I’ll find you,” said the mobster. “I promise you.”

“The only thing I want to hear out of you,” said Ralston as he cranked the bat back and swung it hard at the man’s broken right kneecap, “is where the safe is and how to get into it.”

The Russian cried out once more and tears again poured out of his eyes and streamed down his face.

“How about the other knee? Should I hit that one again, too?”

“Behind the wardrobe,” the man stammered.

“What’s that?”

“The wardrobe,” he repeated, his voice quavering. “The safe is behind it.”

Ralston pushed the chest out of the way. All that was behind it was one of the ugly fabric panels. Gently, he pushed on it and it popped open upon a set of hidden hinges.

“What’s the combination?”

Yatsko gave it to him.

Inside, Ralston found multiple stacks of currency, passports, a portable computer drive, and some jewelry. Pulling a pillowcase off one of the pillows on the bed, he crossed back over to the safe and took everything but the jewelry.

Grabbing Yatsko by the collar again, he dragged him out of the bedroom.

“But I don’t have anything else worth stealing!” he implored.

“Shut up.”

Ralston dragged the Russian back across the house and into the hallway near the kitchen. He dropped him near the door to the garage.

“Do you want my car?” the mobster asked. “Take it. The keys are in it.”

He was trying to negotiate, to offer the intruder something, anything. He had to have sensed that the man had not come just for a robbery.

“Is there fuel in the car?” Ralston asked.

“Yes,” Yatsko replied, hopeful.

“Good,” replied Ralston as he pulled a roll of duct tape from his backpack, tore off a piece, and placed it over the Russian’s mouth. “Because we’re going to take a little ride.”

Ralston kicked open the garage door and dragged Yatsko over to the rear of the BMW. Popping the trunk, he noticed the mobster’s eyes widen. Then he figured out why. Inside was something wrapped in several garbage bags and taped up in the shape of a mummy.

Ralston looked at the Russian lying on the garage floor. “Yaroslav, you piece of shit. What did you do?”

Pulling a knife from his pocket, Ralston sliced through the tape and garbage bags. What he found was what appeared to be a homeless man around Yatsko’s height and age. Upon closer inspection, he saw that all of the man’s teeth had recently been pulled out and his fingertips had been cut off.

There were several gas cans in the trunk as well. Ralston lifted one and sloshed it around. Full.

“Yaroslav,” he said, “were you going to set your house or your car on fire with this poor guy’s body in it? With no teeth and no fingertips, no one could ever say it wasn’t you. In fact, it’d probably look like you got whacked by some competing faction, eh? You are one slippery motherfucker, aren’t you?”

Ralston bent over and wrapped the Russian’s ankles with duct tape. Pulling him to his feet, he pushed the mobster backward into the trunk, where Yatsko whacked his head against the lid and landed atop the corpse.

Ralston looked down at him and smiled. “At least you’ll have company for our ride out to the desert.”

After wiping the house clean of his fingerprints, Ralston returned to the garage, climbed into the BMW, and turned the key in the ignition. He’d have to work fast. He had only so many hours of darkness.