A Tangled Web

by A L Fraine

  The man turned his head and looked down at his shoulder, which was leaking blood.

  “Trippy, man,” he muttered and then collapsed in a heap.

  Stepping forward, Jon put his foot on the sword, and then kicked it away into a corner. “Bloody hell, what does he think this is? The Middle Ages?”

  “Watch him, and secure that bloody sword,” one of the lead officers ordered his team and pressed on. In the kitchen at the back of the house, Jon found Vassili sitting at the table, his hands already up, a roll-up hanging from his mouth. He looked unconcerned by the armed officers that were aiming their guns at him.

  Vassili noticed them suddenly, and his eyebrows rose up. “Aaah, I wonder when you’d be back.”

  “I know, I missed you too. I came as quick as I could.”

  “Ha! How generous of you, comrade.”

  Done with his remarks, Jon walked up to him, and stared down at him, while armed officers continued to point their MP5s at him.

  “Where is he?”

  “Where is who, Mr Detective man? Who you talk about?”

  “Jacob and his friends, Tyler and Zack.”

  “How I know that? I not know Jacob. I not know who you talk about.”

  “Oh, you don’t? Well, whatever, I think we’ll have enough here to put you away.” Jon eyed the bags of white power on the table, along with other drugs paraphernalia.

  “You can try, you can try.”

  “You doubt me?”

  “Always. You do not scare me.”

  “Hmm. Okay, what about Lily? You know Lily, right?”

  “Again, you talk silly, Mr Detective. I not know Lily. Who is Lily? There no Lily here.”

  “Oh, really?” Jon replied.

  “You crazy,” Vassili replied.

  Jon pulled his phone out, hunted for the contact, and then smiled. He showed the screen to Vassili. “What’s that say?”

  Vassili glanced at the screen, and then at him. He shrugged.

  “Lily, it says Lily, and that’s her number. Shall we call it? Hmm? She apparently left her phone here, you know? She dropped it when she ran. Let’s see, shall we?” He tapped call.

  Seconds later, a phone could be heard vibrating nearby. A few seconds worth of searching by the officers who were with him, revealed the phone dumped in a kitchen drawer, along with several others.

  Jon ended the call with a smile on his face. “I do find it odd that you say Lily was never here, and yet you somehow have her phone.”

  Vassili grimaced but said nothing.

  “Detectives?” a voice called out.

  “Sorry, duty calls,” Jon remarked and stepped away from Vassili. “Cuff him.”

  Jon moved through another door into an adjacent hallway, and as he reached the bottom of the stairway, the voice called out again from above. “Sir? This way, sir.” The armed offer at the top of the stairs waved them up. Jon gave Kate a brief look, and then made his way up, following the waiting officer.

  “What’s up?”

  “We’ve found something I think you should see.”

  “Okay,” he replied. The officer was walking quickly, and Jon nearly had to jog to keep up as they passed several empty rooms on either side. There was another man on the floor, cuffed and being watched. He’d need to find out if any of these men were Jacob. He realised he’d not seen Yana yet, either, but there was much of the sprawling house he’d not seen yet, so she could be anywhere.

  Further up, the officer stopped by an open door and ushered them in. Walking inside, Jon came up short as he took in the scene before him while a rank smell assaulted his senses. A female officer was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding the hand of a painfully thin young woman. She looked both malnourished and delirious. Her other hand was above her head, her wrist cuffed to the bed frame. Her clothes were little more than dirty rags and had likely been worn for days or weeks. He could see red-raw injection marks on her arm as her eyes rolled around in her head, not really focusing on anything.

  “Jesus,” he hissed, shocked and disgusted.

  “Oh my God,” Kate said, beside him.

  “We found her like this,” the woman holding the captive’s hand said. “She’s clearly high. We’ve got an ambulance on the way. Donovan, where are those bolt cutters?”

  “Let me look. Oh, here they come,” the officer who’d led them up said and grabbed them from another officer who’d brought them in from the van. Donovan cut the chain on the cuffs, freeing the girl.

  “Have you ever seen anything like this before?” Kate asked in hushed tones.

  “Unfortunately, yes.” He sighed. “He must have known we’d find her up here.”

  “Vassili? Yeah. Maybe he doesn’t care, though.”

  “Donovan, is it? Was this the only captive you found?”

  “Yes, sir. Although, we did find several empty bedrooms just like this one. I think he had more in here not too long ago.”

  “Shit. Well, saving one’s better than none.”

  “Why didn’t he move her?” Kate asked.

  “Maybe we were watching him by then? I don’t know. Okay, let’s have a look around and make sure we’ve not missed anything.”

  25

  Walking into his office, Jon slapped the file down on his desk, placed his fists on his hips, and sighed. He closed his eyes in frustration and took a moment to calm himself.

  “No luck?”

  Jon turned to see Kate, a sympathetic and friendly, if slightly sheepish smile on her face.

  “Nope. Not really,” he replied. “Tyler said basically nothing.”

  “Zack was the same,” she replied. To speed things up, she’d interviewed Zack at the same time, and it sounded like she’d not got much further with him. Kate perched on the edge of his desk beside him. “He didn’t say a word to me, apart from his name and ‘no comment.’ We’ll get them, though.”

  “I hope so,” he said smiling at her. He’d spent the last hour or so in a small interview room with Jacob’s accomplice, and frankly, he might as well have been talking to a brick wall. He’d probably have got more out of the wall, too. Tyler had refused to answer most of the questions put to him, saying only, ‘no comment’.

  His lawyer, who’d delayed the interview by being late, and then by taking his time in deliberations, had sat beside him. The Solicitor had a smug grin on his face half the time that Jon wanted to punch clean off his face and into next week.

  Tyler had confirmed his name, age, and other personal details, and about one of the only questions he had answered was that he didn’t know where Jacob was. He’d not seen him in days and wasn’t actually that friendly with him, apparently.

  It all sounded far too much like these were scripted answers given to him by his representation. The solicitor wasn’t one of the random duty ones, like Ana, either. No, Tyler knew the name and details of the person he wanted representing him, which was all the more suspicious when it became clear that his, Zack’s, and Vassili’s solicitors were all from the same company.

  Jon had eventually just given up for the time being and would delegate the interview to someone else for the moment.

  “Any news?” Jon asked.

  “Nothing yet,” Kate admitted. “We don’t know where Jacob or Olivia are, Nathan’s not come back with anything incriminating, Vassili’s still talking to his lawyer, and there’s no news on Russell, either.”

  That worried him. “We have embarrassingly few leads on this one,” Jon stated. “Or, that’s what it feels like.”

  “We’ve got a few,” Kate replied.

  “Nothing concrete, yet.”

  “No. But who knows? Maybe Vassili will have something to say.”

  “I doubt it, but we can hope, I suppose,” Jon replied as he turned and looked out into the office.

  “Maybe you just need to go home and have a good night’s sleep,” Kate suggested. “Come at it fresh in the morning.”

  “A full and restful night’s sleep would be lovely about now, tha
t’s for sure. I rarely sleep all the way through these days. My mind’s always racing with thoughts about the day's events, and trying to figure out the best way forward on the case.”

  “I’m the same. I think most of us are, to be honest.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’m very grateful to you all. I think I’ve really landed on my feet with this team.”

  “Wait! Hold on a cotton-picking minute there. Is that a compliment, Pilgrim?”

  “Well, maybe just a small one.”

  “Who are you, and what have you done with Jon!?”

  “I’m just being nice, Barry.”

  “My comment still stands. I don’t think I know who you are.”

  “Shut it, Finger-Girl.”

  “That’s Finger-Woman, to you!”

  “Finger who?” said a voice from the door.

  Jon turned to see Debby Constable, one of the civilian office workers employed at the station at the door, looking a little bewildered. “We’re just discussing superhero names. You know, serious police work.”

  “Riiight.”

  “She’s Finger-Girl—”

  “Finger-Woman, Jon, Finger-Woman.”

  “Whatever. And I’m…” Jon pondered the idea, tapping his chin with his finger.

  “Gravy-Boy,” Kate cut in, grinning.

  “Gravy-Man, actually.”

  “Glad to see you’re taking things seriously,” Debby said.

  “This is grave and important work, Constable. I wouldn’t have slept tonight if this hadn’t been resolved.”

  “Well, I have a little more work for you caped crusaders. Vassili has finished talking to his solicitor, and is ready to see you.”

  “Oh, how wonderful, I’m sure this will be just as fulfilling and rewarding an experience as it was talking to Tyler.”

  “And Zack,” Kate added.

  “Want to tackle it together?” Jon suggested to Kate.

  “Sure, why not? He’ll never be able to resist the tag team of Gravy-Man and Finger-Woman!”

  “I think you need a new name, Kate,” Debby said. “That one raises far too many questions.”

  “Nonsense, I won’t hear of it,” Jon remarked. “Come, Finger-Woman, adventure awaits. Ne'er-do-wells and criminal masterminds will quake in their boots at the sound of our names. They’ll whisper about us in the shadows, fearing that we’ll come for them this night.”

  “I think you’ve taken this analogy about as far as it can go,” Debby commented.

  “Do not underestimate my power, woman! I can drag this out for weeks yet.”

  “Oh, I believe it. I’ll leave you to it. I have actual work to be getting on with,” Debby replied and walked away.

  “I don’t think she appreciated our humour,” Kate remarked.

  “Those weak-of-mind, rarely do, ol’ buddy, ol’ chum.”

  Kate merely stared at him, blinking a couple of times. “You’re suggesting I’m your sidekick, right? And yet you know I’m clearly superior.”

  “Don’t make me pull rank, Barry. Come on, let’s get this over with,” he replied and set off for the interview rooms with Kate beside him.

  Sure enough, they found Vassili in interview room three, sitting alongside an older man in a prim business suit with little hint of a personality. Jon ran through the basics, introducing himself and Kate, and reading Vassili his rights, before getting him to confirm his name.

  “Vassili Syomin,” he replied in his thick Russian accent.

  “Good. We’ve brought you here on suspicion of kidnapping, human trafficking, possession with intent to supply drugs, as well as having several illegal weapons within your house. How do you explain yourself?”

  “No comment.”

  Jon’s heart sank, feeling sure he knew how this was going to go, but there really was nothing for it. They had to proceed, but for now, he decided to take a different route and focus on the main issue they wanted resolving.

  “When did Olivia Cook leave the house?”

  “Who’s that?”

  Jon resisted a grimace, as Vassili dodged the trap. “Olivia Cook. She’s been living in your house for the best part of a year. She was brought in by Jacob.”

  “I not know this girl.”

  “You’re saying you have no knowledge of Olivia Cook?”

  “No.”

  “What about Lily Austin?”

  Vassili shook his head.

  “You had her phone in your kitchen,” Jon stated.

  “I not know where that come from. Nothing to do with me.”

  Jon narrowed his eyes. “Both these young women state categorically that they’ve been living in your house for the best part of a year, and you’re saying you have no knowledge of them?”

  “I rent out rooms to people who can afford them. What they do in rooms is up to them. I not interfere as long as they pay. I not ask questions, I not go snooping around their rooms, I leave them to it. If they bring girl back to room, it not my business.”

  “Given it’s your house, I’d say it’s very much your business,” Jon remarked.

  “I disagree.”

  “So, you’re saying that Jacob was your tenant?”

  “I not know him well. He was tenant for a while, but that all, and I not see him in days. Besides, he late with rent, so I throw him out, anyway.”

  “You’ve not seen Jacob in days?”

  “No.”

  “How well do you know Tyler Lee and Zack Porter?”

  “Tenants, like Jacob. I not know well.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “Very sure.”

  “What about Yana?” Kate asked.

  “Who Yana?”

  “The young woman who answered your door when we visited you the first time? That Yana?” Kate clarified

  “Just another tenant.”

  “And where is she?”

  Vassili smiled. “I not know.” He looked very pleased by the fact that they had not arrested Yana.

  “You seemed very friendly with her when we stopped by the other day,” Jon joined in.

  “I friendly with everyone, when they nice to me.”

  “Are we not being nice to you, Vassili?”

  You try to make me think I do bad things, but I only do good things. I help, I rent rooms at cheap price. I not bad.”

  “I think I beg to differ, there, Vassili,” Jon replied.

  “Tell us about the girl we found upstairs,” Kate asked. “She was chained to the bed, malnourished, bruised, and hurt. You’re saying you didn’t have any idea about her?”

  Vassili shrugged, and Jon rolled his eyes. He knew where this interview was going, and it felt incredibly draining knowing how much trouble they’d clearly have with him. Right now, he was walking pretty much in lockstep with Tyler and Zack, trying to frustrate the process.

  But they did have Lily’s statement, and once she was well enough, they’d have the statement from the girl they’d found too. But none of these would bring them any closer to finding Olivia, Jon’s ultimate goal.

  Jon shifted in his seat, settling in for what seemed would be a long and annoying interview.

  26

  It was late by the time Jon got back to the hotel, his current home until he could finally buy one of his own. He’d considered getting a flat to rent, but the force was still happy to contribute to the hotel. So, until that changed, and it likely would very soon, he was happy where he was. Walking in, he checked his messages and saw he’d missed some calls from the estate agents, and vowed to call them back tomorrow.

  The owners of the house he liked were negotiating hard, which had led to an offer and counter-offer situation that was draining to think about.

  Stuffing his phone back in his pocket, Jon wondered where this case would end up going. Vassili was steadfastly denying any knowledge of the stuff that was going on in his house, which was to Jon’s mind, patently ridiculous, but who knew how these things would play out in court. It would be the word of two young ladies who’d be
en victimised, versus the powerful, well-funded lawyers who were backed by a criminal organisation.

  Things did not look great. But if they could add Olivia in too, then that was three against them. The more they could bring in, the better.

  Still, the process of going over all the details and having Vassili just throw it back in his face had left him drained, and he was looking forward to a good night’s rest.

  As he walked up to his door, his phone buzzed, alerting him to a message. Unlocking the door, he checked the screen as he walked in, reading a short text from Rachel.

  ‘I’ve booked the Ivy Cobham Brasserie at 8 pm on Friday. Let me know if that’s okay.”

  The Ivy? It certainly sounded nice.

  “Important message?”

  Jon looked up to see Sydney sat at the small table in his hotel room. She held a glass of wine in her hand, the half-drunk bottle beside her, its fruity aroma filling the room.

  “What the hell?” Jon remarked, looking around his room and then back to her. “What are you doing? How did you get in here?”

  “Shush, Jon. You’ll wake the neighbours. Come, have a drink with me.”

  “Like hell, I will. Get out!”

  “Now, that’s just rude, Jon. But, I’ll let it slide. I understand that this might have come as something of a shock, and that’s fine. But I found that I just had to come and see you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I like you, Jon.”

  “You don’t know me.”

  “Oh, I’m not so sure. You became a detective at a young age and rose through the ranks, becoming one of the youngest officers to ever become a DCI. That’s impressive, Jon. Very impressive.”

  “You’ve been investigating me?”

  She shrugged. “What can I say? I like to know about the men I take an interest in. And you’ve led an interesting life. For instance, I must express my condolences for your girlfriend, Charlotte. That must have been difficult.”

  Jon narrowed his eyes at her, but didn’t reply.

  “A sensitive subject, I understand. Let’s move on to your hunt for serial killers, shall we? Because that is really, very interesting.”