Private Moscow

Chapter 14

Leonid stepped on the accelerator and the Lada shot forward. Ostensibly a sensible family car, the former cop had opted for the top-of-the-range model, which he’d had modified at a police garage. The improved performance didn’t turn it into a Porsche, but it did give the car sufficient muscle to push Dinara into her seat as it accelerated. Leonid threaded his way past slower-moving vehicles, and when she checked the wing mirror, Dinara saw their tail was trying to keep up. Not very subtle, she thought.

They were heading clockwise around the Garden Ring and were near the Kalashnikov Monument.

“What’s your plan, detective?” Dinara asked.

“I’m no planner,” Leonid replied. “I prefer living in the moment.” He swung the wheel as he passed a truck, and the Lada jerked left and veered in front of the larger vehicle. The truck driver gave a prolonged blast of his horn and his brakes screeched as he stepped on them hard. The Lada SUV shot forward, narrowly missing a car in the other lane, and crossed the median, which was nothing more than a pair of painted white lines. Leonid pulled the wheel left again, and the car lurched onto the counterclockwise side of the busy highway. He swerved to avoid the westbound traffic, and earned more horn blasts and tire screeches from startled drivers. As they passed the Kalashnikov Monument and the sprawling gothic skyscraper that loomed behind it, suddenly all was calm. The Lada’s rear end gave a final little waggle as Leonid settled into the middle lane, and when Dinara looked back, she saw the pursuing vehicle had pulled into the median and stopped. The two men got out and looked in her direction. Both seemed frustrated and one was talking on a phone.

“Nicely done,” Dinara said.

“Thanks,” Leonid replied, without taking his eyes off the road.

“You nearly gave me a heart attack, of course.”

“Well, you can’t have everything,” he said flatly. “I used to do mini-moto when I was younger.”

Dinara gave him a blank look.

“Racing with small motorbikes. Before I got too old and fat.”

“You’re not fat,” Dinara told him truthfully. He was a lean, muscular man who kept himself fighting fit.

“But I am old,” he said. “Divorced, old and washed up.”

“I wish you’d told me all this in your job interview,” Dinara joked. “Where are we going?”

“Kolomenskoye Park,” Leonid replied.

“Take the long way. Go west.”

“Why?” he asked.

“I want to search the car for bugs. It’s unlikely given how desperate they were to keep up, but it pays to be cautious,” Dinara said.

If the men following them had managed to plant a bug on Leonid’s car, they wouldn’t have needed to break cover, which suggested the surveillance was a new and recent thing, probably last minute and possibly connected to their meeting with Maxim Yenen.