The Ignoranceof Blood

30

Jefatura, Seville – Wednesday, 20th September 2006, 10.10 hrs

The square reinforced-glass window set in the door of interview room number four perfectly framed Nikita Sokolov, who was considered sufficiently dangerous to be held in handcuffs, hands behind his back. Ramirez was waiting for the translator and was dismayed, several minutes later, to be shaking hands with a small middle-aged Cuban woman.

'Have you done this before?' he asked.

'Translate?' she said, giving him the eyebrow.

'For us,' he said, 'with criminals.'

'What's he done?'

'He's a particularly nasty murderer and you're going to hear some ugly stuff… to do with women.'

She had to stand on tiptoe to see through the glass.

'Thanks very much for being so considerate, Inspector,' she said. 'But I used to live in Miami. There the ugly stuff happened in your living room.'

'Did they cut women up with a chain saw there, too?'

'Only if they were feeling kind,' she said. 'Guess what?' said Ferrera, appearing on Falcon's shoulder.

'Comisario Elvira wants to see you.'

'When?' asked Falcon.

'Probably since he got a call from the Juez Decano de Sevilla at around two o'clock this morning,' she said. 'Ramirez is about to give Sokolov his first interview.'

'Is Inspector Jefe Tirado from GRUME in the building?'

'I'll find out,' said Ferrera. 'By the way, last night Juan Valverde gave me the name and address of the puti club where they're holding Marisa Moreno's sister, Margarita, or at least where he had sex with her.'

'You'd better get out there then,' said Falcon. 'Contact the local Guardia Civil and take Sub-Inspector Perez with you.'

'OK, Detectives Serrano and Baena are going through Alejandro Spinola's apartment looking for evidence of his involvement with the Russians and sending inside information to Horizonte.'

Falcon went up to Elvira's office. The secretary sent him through. Elvira looked barricaded behind his desk and didn't even let him sit down.

'I can't believe you mounted an operation like that without getting my approval.'

'Normally I would have done, but you told me I was not to have any contact with Alejandro Spinola on pain of being suspended,' said Falcon. 'Not only did I realize that Spinola himself was in danger, but I could also see that he was potentially drawing other people into a dangerous situation in the Hotel La Berenjena. I therefore had to act without your approval of the plan.'

'The plan?'

'The improvisation,' said Falcon, correcting himself. 'There hasn't been much time for planning.'

'Do you know what the Juez Decano told me last night?' said Elvira. 'That you'd hounded his son to his death.'

'His suicide, you mean,' said Falcon. 'Remember, Detectives Serrano and Baena were present and the truck driver was emphatic.'

'We'll see.'

'Alejandro Spinola told me he was into Belenki and Revnik for gambling debts and cocaine and that he'd leaked confidential information about competitors' bids for the Isla de la Cartuja development to Antonio Ramos, Horizonte's chief construction engineer. He'd also betrayed his own cousin by introducing him to Marisa Moreno, who was being coerced by the Russians,' said Falcon. 'That was a guy I didn't hound nearly enough.'

'I can only hope that with Belenki, Revnik and Marisa Moreno dead and Antonio Ramos keeping his mouth firmly shut, we can gather enough evidence to prove you right,' said Elvira, who looked at his watch. 'As it is, Inspector Jefe Falcon, I am going to have to suspend you from duty with immediate effect, pending a full inquiry. Inspector Ramirez will run the investigation from now on. You will leave the building by eleven o'clock. That is all.'

Falcon left the Comisario's office, went down to his own, where Inspector Jefe Tirado was waiting for him, chatting to Ferrera. Falcon told him the latest intelligence about Dario being held in Morocco and that it would probably be a matter for the CNI, working with the Moroccan authorities. He also told him about his own suspension from duty and that he would ensure that the CNI contacted Comisario Elvira with news of Dario. Tirado left. Ferrera looked at Falcon, shook her head in dismay. He went into his office, closed the door and called Pablo, who'd just arrived in the Jefatura and was on his way up the stairs to his office. He took out Yacoub's letter, reread it. This was going to be a hard sell.

Ferrera let Pablo in, said she was leaving for the Costa del Sol, pulled the door shut. Pablo put his briefcase down, sat. He was angry. Falcon decided to let him start.

'We've just heard from Saudi intelligence,' said Pablo. 'They've been in touch with the British, too, confirming that no members of the Saudi royal family were on board that vessel and there will be no press release for at least twenty-four hours on the matter. How much did you know?'

'Pretty well nothing, except that there was a Saudi connection. Yacoub didn't even tell me his real name.'

'That was a very dangerous game you were playing there, Javier,' said Pablo. 'He was an assistant to the Saudi Minister of Defence.'

'Think how you and the British would have behaved if you'd known that last week,' said Falcon. 'And if the Americans had been informed?'

'I'm not sure that blowing a ship up on the high seas is what I would call a contained intelligence operation,' said Pablo.

'Did Saudi intelligence come directly to you, or higher?'

'What do you think?' said Pablo. 'I've been made to look an arsehole on my own territory. As soon as Yacoub got off the plane in Malaga I had a man on his tail. After you met him in Osuna I had two agents, front and back of the hotel. And still a GICM logistics cell can put a power boat, packed with high explosives, at the disposal of an amateur, to complete a fucking impossible mission. We were nowhere…'

'How could I have helped you?' said Falcon. 'I didn't know about the power boat or the Princess Bouchra.'

Pablo grunted, looked out the window into the hot car park.

'I've got a problem,' said Falcon, 'and I'm going to need your help.'

'I don't know why. It seems that amateurs have just as good a chance as the professionals,' said Pablo. 'Is this about Dario?'

'Partly,' said Falcon. 'But in order to get to Dario I have to kill someone first.'

Silence. Pablo's brain ticked over.

'The problem is,' said Falcon, continuing, 'this person is someone that both you and the Moroccans would very much like to interrogate, but Yacoub's last request was that, while he wants this person killed, he does not want him tortured to death.'

'This isn't what you talked about in Osuna,' said Pablo. 'It couldn't have been. He'd have had to tell you he was going to die. So, somehow you've heard from Yacoub, but not by email. Did he write you a letter?'

'You can read it in a minute.'

'In the meantime, you want me to agree to facilitating a mission in a foreign country in which you assassinate an anonymous but valuable intelligence source,' said Pablo. 'Fuck off, Javier. That's all I can say.'

'I thought that might be your attitude.'

'You're in no position,' said Pablo. 'Let me read the letter.'

Falcon handed over the letter, sat back while Pablo read it.

'I want a copy of this and I'm going to have to make a call,' said Pablo. 'Would you mind waiting in the outer office?'

Falcon left the room. Ten minutes later Pablo called him back in.

'It seems that assurances were given to the Saudis from higher up,' said Pablo. 'Ministers of Defence and those close to them are very powerful people, especially when they buy military equipment. I have been instructed to make the necessary arrangements for you. But are you, the Inspector Jefe del Grupo de Homicidios, really going to do this?'

'Not that it makes any difference, but I've been suspended from duty, pending an inquiry into the events of last night.'

'I won't ask.'

'I have to admit it's not my preferred method of meting out justice, but not only is it my friend's last request, it's also the only way to rescue Dario. With Barakat alive on the outside we wouldn't get near the boy,' said Falcon. 'And I know you used to run agents in Morocco before you were given the Madrid job and you can help me.'

'I can arrange a firearm for you, give you some men on the ground, and I can clear it with the Moroccans after the event,' said Pablo. 'Or I can get a professional to do it.'

'As you can tell from the letter, there's something personal about this. I have no idea what it is, but I don't think Yacoub would ask me to do it unless he had good reason.'

'And what about the boy?'

'First of all, you have to contact Comisario Elvira and tell him that you believe Dario is in Morocco and he will relieve Inspector Jefe Tirado from the search for him here,' said Falcon. 'As soon as I've dealt with Barakat your men have to seal off the information that he's dead until I've rescued Dario. I'm not sure how I'm going to get into the house in Fes unless Yousra, Yacoub's wife, or Abdullah maybe, could help me get in there.'

'How are you going to get to Fes?'

'Drive to Algeciras. Ferry to Ceuta. I could be in Fes by this evening.'

'We'll book you a room in the Hotel du Commerce. It's quiet, out of the way, and you won't draw attention to yourself as you would if you were in the Palais Jamai or the Dar Batha. It's still in the old town, but in Fes El Djedid, rather than Fes El Bali, where Barakat has his shop and the Diouris have their house,' said Pablo. 'What about Yousra?'

'I'll call her. She'll meet me in Fes.'

'Leave your car in Meknes, meet her there. The Hotel Bab Mansour has a garage. We'll organize a room for you. Take a taxi from there,' said Pablo. 'Don't turn up in a Spanish-registered vehicle; Barakat will have his informers in Fes.'

'Consuelo will be coming with me.'

'Really?'

'There's no question of her staying here.'

'Why tell her?'

'I already have.'

'Call me from Ceuta,' said Pablo. 'Go to the Hotel Puerta de Africa and ask for Alfonso. Tell him you're a great admirer of Pablo Neruda and he'll look after your border crossing.' Falcon went down to the forensics lab, picked up some DNA swabs and continued to the observation room to see Ramirez's first interview with Nikita Sokolov. He was waiting for the right moment to interrupt, but was also fascinated to see how Ramirez would play the Russian. They were still working their way through the preliminaries. The translator sat well back from the table between the two men. Sokolov leaned forward, a large white bandage around his head. His huge bulk made him look like a figure from a cartoon. His face bent down was oddly sad, as if remorse could potentially take up residence. Occasionally, when he'd become a little stiff, he'd hook his arms over the back of the seat and sit up straight, then his face would lose that look of sadness and become devoid of any recognizable human emotion.

'I'm just going to summarize that for you,' said Ramirez, concluding a fairly long opening statement. 'There are five murders that we can charge you with today. There are no questions about any of them. We have witnesses and we have your weapon with your fingerprints on it. And in the case of the first two murders we also have your blood at the scene. These killings are: Miguel Estevez and Julia Valdes in the apartment of Roque Barba in Las Tres Mil Viviendas on Monday, 18th September. And Leonid Revnik…'

Ramirez paused as Sokolov spat a contemptuous globule of sputum at the floor.

'Leonid Revnik,' continued Ramirez, 'Isabel Sanchez and Viktor Belenki in the Hotel La Berenjena on Tuesday, 19th September. You will be charged with all these murders later this morning. Do you understand?'

The translator did her work. Sokolov turned his mouth down and nodded as if this was a reasonable summary of a couple of days' work. He did not look at the Cuban woman as she spoke. His eyes were fixed on Ramirez's forehead, as if this was where he was planning his first assault on his way out of the room. Ramirez was extraordinarily calm. His interview style normally tended towards the aggressive, but he'd decided on a different approach with Sokolov, although the Russian did look impervious to aggression.

'Given that these five murders will put you behind bars for the rest of your life, I was wondering if there were any other killings you'd like us to take into consideration at the same time?'

Sokolov's response was very surprising.

'I would like to help you, Inspector,' he said, 'but you must understand that this is my job. I was an "enforcer" for a number of years on the Costa del Sol with Leonid Revnik and his predecessor before I joined Yuri Donstov in the same capacity. I was given the names of people I was required to kill, but I did not always remember them. It was just business. If you can be specific and remind me of the circumstances, I might be able to help.'

Ramirez was momentarily wrong-footed by the tone of this reply. He'd been expecting a belligerent silence. It made him concentrate on his adversary. Falcon began to think that inside Sokolov's brutal frame there must be a young man with a briefcase, a set of pens and an eagerness to please. Then it occurred to him that the last thing this sort of work needed was craziness. What it demanded was discipline, calmness, attention to detail and a clear uncomplicated mind. Maybe weightlifting wasn't such bad training for the work.

'I was thinking of Marisa Moreno,' said Ramirez, jogging himself back into the interview. 'You knew her, of course.'

'Yes, I did.'

'She was cut up with a chain saw.'

'As you've probably already gathered, that is not my method,' said Sokolov. 'Sometimes I have to satisfy the needs of others. The two who did that were animals, but they were brought up on brutality. They know nothing else.'

'Where are they now?'

'They are dead. They were captured by Revnik's men on Monday night and taken away to be… processed.'

'Was that why you and Yuri Donstov were in the Hotel La Berenjena last night?' asked Ramirez. 'Was that just revenge?'

'I will tell you things, Inspector, but I would like you to guarantee me one thing.'

'I'm not sure I can offer you any guarantees.'

'Just this one,' said Sokolov. 'I want everything I tell you to come out in court.'

'Any reason?'

'There are people in Moscow who should know the sort of a man Leonid Revnik was.'

'I think that can be arranged.'

'Leonid Revnik had the backing of the Supreme Council of vory-v-zakone in Moscow to terminate Yuri Donstov's operations in Seville. He was given this because he'd told them that Donstov had killed two directors on the Costa del Sol. This was not true. Revnik had executed them himself. You do not kill a vor-v-zakone without repercussions,' said Sokolov. 'Very quickly our supply lines of heroin from Uzbekistan were cut. Then Vasili Lukyanov died in a car accident last Thursday on his way to Seville.'

'So, it was revenge in the Hotel La Berenjena last night?'

'I did you a favour, killing Revnik.'

'Why's that?'

'He had agreements with people. Politicians,' said Sokolov. 'He'd keep Seville clean in return for big favours on the Costa del Sol.'

'Why did you have to kill Marisa Moreno?'

'She was at breaking point. She could not be relied upon to keep her mouth shut.'

'What did she know?'

'She knew people by face and name. If she found out that I was not working for Revnik any more, she might have felt that her sister was safe enough and would start talking to you,' said Sokolov. 'She would also reveal that she'd been forced to have a relationship with the judge.'

'Esteban Calderon?'

'Him.'

'Why did she have to do that?'

'Information.'

'I thought it was so that she could provide you with a key to the judge's apartment.'

'You might be right.'

'Did she supply you with the key?'

'Yes.'

'What was done with that key on the night of June 7th/June 8th this year?'

'It was used to get into the judge's apartment.'

'But the judge wasn't there, was he?'

Sokolov glanced over at the observation panel.

'His wife was there,' he said.

'Were you the person who gained access to the judge's apartment that night?'

'Yes.'

'Did you murder the judge's wife, Ines Conde de Tejada?'

'If that was her name, yes.'

'Why did you do that?'

'Because I was instructed to do so by Leonid Revnik.'

'Did you know why you were instructed to kill her?'

'Of course. I had to make it look as if the judge had murdered his wife, so that he would be removed from the investigation of the Seville bombing,' said Sokolov. 'One thing we didn't expect was for him to try to get rid of the body. Fortunately, I'd left a man watching the apartment and he was able to report the judge to the police… otherwise he might have got away with it. And that would not have been fair, would it, Inspector?'

Ramirez and Sokolov looked at each other across the table. The translator stared, mesmerized.

'No, that wouldn't have been fair,' said Ramirez, and his next question came out with his heart in his throat. 'Do you know who was responsible for placing the bomb in the mosque on Calle Romeros, in the barrio of El Cerezo, in Seville on 5th June 2006, which exploded the following morning?'

'I know that it was organized by Leonid Revnik, but I don't know who put the bomb there.'

'What about the building inspectors?'

'I don't know anything about that,' said Sokolov. 'That was not my work.'

'What about the murders of Lucrecio Arenas and Cesar Benito?'

'I killed Cesar Benito in the Holiday Inn, near the Real Madrid football stadium,' said Sokolov. 'Another of Revnik's men shot Lucrecio Arenas at his home in Marbella.'

'Name and where can we find him?'

'I don't know who did it, but you'll probably find him in the puti club near Estepona, which was run by Vasili Lukyanov,' said Sokolov.

'You were a friend of Vasili Lukyanov,' said Ramirez. 'He was coming to join Donstov when he was involved in an accident. He had money and some disks with him…'

'It was all stolen from Revnik,' said Sokolov. 'We were having cash-flow problems, so the money was to get us through the next few months. The disks: Vasili thought we could use them to get involved in the building project here in Seville.'

'Was that all?' asked Ramirez. 'There were a lot of people on those disks, more than sixty. There were also a couple of encrypted disks, which we haven't been able to unlock.'

'With the disks that Vasili was bringing, Yuri said we'd be able to force Revnik out into the open so that we could kill him. I don't know the people who were filmed,' said Sokolov. 'The encrypted disks contain the real accounts of all Revnik's businesses on the Costa del Sol. They were very important to him. That was valuable information for the tax authorities.'

'I'd like to thank you for being so co-operative in our first interview,' said Ramirez.

'As you say, Inspector, it's all over for me now.'

'But normally you people don't talk to the police.'

'Those two directors that Revnik shot were vory-v-zakone. They should have been paid off, not killed. Once Revnik had done that, and put the blame on Yuri Donstov, in my eyes he forfeited the right to the terms of vory-v-zakone. I will tell you anything you need to know about him.'

Falcon left the observation room and knocked on the door of the interview room. Ramirez came out with the translator, who excused herself.

'Great interview, Jose Luis,' said Falcon. 'Not your usual style.'

'Pure luck, Javier. I was going to go in hard about cutting women up with chain saws and shooting them in the face but, you know, the translator. So… I was gentle.'

'He could have been mistaken for civilized, if he hadn't confessed to seven murders,' said Falcon.

'What else do we want from him?' said Ramirez. 'He seems keen to talk.'

'Don't look at me, this is your investigation now, Jose Luis. I have to be out of the building in three minutes,' said Falcon, telling him about his suspension. 'What you should do is go through all those faces on Vasili Lukyanov's disks with Cortes and Diaz and get them to identify all the building inspectors. Then look into the backgrounds of all the other men and see if any of them were trained electricians, possibly even army trained. Interview them and see if they crack. I think that was one of the things Lukyanov was bringing with those disks. The answers to the Seville bombing conspiracy.'

They shook hands, clapped each other on the shoulder. Falcon went to the bottom of the staircase.

'And one other thing, Jose Luis: Ferrera and Perez are on their way to Lukyanov's puti club to pick up Marisa Moreno's sister,' he said. 'From what Sokolov's just said, they're dangerous people out there. They should have full back-up before they go in.'

'You'll be reinstated, Javier,' said Ramirez. 'They're not going to be able to -'

'Not this time, Jose Luis,' said Falcon, and with a quick salute he went up the stairs.