Last to Fold

by David Duffy

  “He lies,” Polina said. “His whole life is one big lie. Don’t believe a word.”

  “I deceived Polina years ago—about myself, an act of omission, not commission, born of love mixed with fear. I’ve been paying for my sin ever since, and my transgressions will never be erased in her mind. I can’t do anything about that. She can tell you that story, too, or I will, but right now we’re talking about Rislyakov.”

  “Bastard,” Polina hissed.

  “Go on,” Mulholland said.

  “Rislyakov learned a great deal from his phishing expedition—he had access to all your computers for weeks. One of the things he picked up was Eva’s drug use and stay in rehab. Rislyakov had a gambling problem—he used that to get himself checked into the same place, where he struck up a relationship. Eva claims he loved her. Little doubt she loved him. My money says he was using her for other purposes.”

  “You’d know,” Polina said.

  “Rislyakov stole a large file from one of your computers. It belonged to your wife, I’m almost certain of that. Polina doesn’t panic often. She did then.”

  “What’s this Polina business?”

  “Sorry. That’s how I know her. Something else she can explain. You might want to start a list.”

  She was up again, hand flying. This time I caught it in midair. “Lachko already did enough damage.”

  She said, “I don’t have to put up with this.” She tried to pull away, but I held her wrist.

  “We’re just getting to the good part.”

  “Sit down, Felix,” Mulholland said in a voice that more ordinarily gave orders to subordinates. She heard it, too, and she hadn’t heard it before. She tensed for a moment, then relaxed. I let go of her arm, and she took her seat, perched on the edge.

  “This is going to be embarrassing,” I said to Mulholland. “I’m sorry. But that ransom note and photograph you received were both created right here in this apartment on your computer.”

  “WHAT?” Mulholland jumped out of his chair. Polina sat ice-sculpture still.

  “No question about it. The picture was created on Photoshop. I have the components.”

  “But how…”

  “Rislyakov had access to your computers, like I said. I had access to his, I could see where everything came from.”

  I turned toward Polina. For the first time I saw fear behind the ice.

  “Rislyakov was blackmailing you. Somehow he knew about your income stream, probably because the money was moving through the laundry he’d designed for Lachko. So he proposed a partnership, clipping you for fifty percent, and you accepted. Don’t object. I have his notes, the instructions, the account numbers, the whole deal. He knew who you were, who you’d become. But my question is this—how did he find you in the first place?”

  “I have nothing to say to you—EVER!”

  “You’ll find that a hard position to stick to. Back to the story. This is conjecture, now—Rislyakov needed money, faster than your partnership could provide it. His gambling debts were mounting. He hit on you again. Hundred thousand, cash, small bills, instructions to be issued in a week.”

  The ice started to melt. I pulled myself up in my chair.

  “You didn’t have it. Not enough in the accounts yet, or you didn’t want to risk accessing them, for whatever reason. You were desperate. We’ll come back to why. You had the idea of the kidnap scheme, and the even better idea that whoever delivered the payoff could also lead you to the blackmailer. Kill two birds with one stone, maybe literally. That whoever turned out to be me. Bad luck.”

  Mulholland said, “That means the men you paid off were expecting…”

  “They were expecting someone with a hundred thousand dollars in a red backpack. That’s what Rislyakov told them. That’s all they knew.”

  “Then how…”

  “I tracked the pickup men back to Rislyakov’s place. That’s where I found Eva, drugged. I also found Rislyakov—dead.”

  “My God! Why didn’t you call the police?”

  “The question everyone asks—and I’m still asking myself.”

  Polina shifted in her chair. I sat forward in mine. Everything felt sore.

  “Too many unanswered questions, I guess. I had no idea what was going on then. I have a better idea now, but not a complete one. For example, what did Rislyakov lift from your computer, Polya?”

  The ice was melting faster.

  “The other question is, again, Polina had done such a good job of hiding herself, not the least part of which was marrying you. How did Rislyakov find her?”

  Her hand darted under the cushion. I dove for the floor as she leapt forward. I heard the knife puncture the leather.

  I rolled, trying to ignore screaming ribs, until I hit a table leg. I found my knees and came up to see Mulholland behind Polina, his arms wrapped around her. She was pulling and kicking, but he held on. The knife had cut a four-inch slice in the back of my chair.

  I got to my feet, setting off more pain, and pulled out the blade. Steak knife, but long enough to do damage. I tossed it into the oversized fireplace. Steel rattled against stone, echoing around the bookshelves. I pulled up the cushion of the chair I’d been sitting in, then the others around us. There was a matching knife under each one. Set of six.

  “Looks like you were expecting trouble from someone, sooner or later,” I said.

  “You evil fucking bastard. You want to destroy me, that’s all you’ve ever wanted to do.”

  “I think you should leave,” Mulholland said.

  “I intend to, while I can. But we still have the murder issue. Someone else was at Rislyakov’s place Wednesday night. Polina had your driver follow me when I went to pay off the supposed kidnappers. I led him to Rislyakov’s, without knowing it.”

  “Lachlan?”

  Polina spat at me. It fell short.

  “Conjecture, I’ll admit—but I can place him in a rental car at Rislyakov’s Wednesday morning. He was treated for a gunshot wound at Beth Israel Wednesday night. Ask him where he got his limp. Eva shot him, in her stupor, through the door. I have the gun. But I’m still more interested in the two questions I asked before the hostilities started. What did Rislyakov phish from your computer, Polya, and how did he know to phish you in the first place?”

  Mulholland loosened his hold. Polina lunged, but he pulled her back.

  “You warned me about the past catching up,” he said. “I didn’t believe you.”

  He had the look of a man who was breaking under the accumulated weight.

  “I’m sorry. I’m afraid this is only the beginning.”

  CHAPTER 32

  Hazy sun baked the sidewalk outside. A scattered crowd soaked it up on the Metropolitan’s steps. I could just make out Gina among them. My phone buzzed.

  “You look like hell,” she said. “What happened?”

  “Everybody has a nice word to say. Lost weekend.”

  “Lost weekend? Turbo, you need someone to take care of you.”

  “That seems to be a growing opinion. Listen, I don’t know how long this is going to take. I’m going to send Mo up here to spell you with the Valdez. That’ll be your post. We’re going twenty-four/seven. Sheila will take over from her. You’re back on in the morning. Okay?”

  “Got it. But…”

  “What?”

  “Do we have to use the Valdez? That thing’s embarrassing.”

  “Nobody’s supposed to see you in it, remember?”

  * * *

  I should have caught a cab. Instead, I walked to Eighty-sixth Street and took the train. The walk aggravated the pain, but moving under my own steam felt good, despite the heat.

  The subway ride made everything hurt more, but it was the quickest way to pull myself out of Polina’s world and back into reality. I scanned the faces on the train. No one paid attention to my stitched-up face. Subway etiquette—see everything, acknowledge nothing. Ordinary people, going about ordinary lives. No violence. No intrigue. No black pasts a
nd mysterious presents all caught up with each other. Bullshit.

  “Eight million stories in the naked city,” Lawrence Dobkin told American TV audiences every week for five years. We know better. There are only eight. They just keep getting told over and over again.

  I hadn’t gotten an answer to my questions. Whatever/whoever Polina was scared of, she was more frightened of it/him than a murder rap. One more question burned—why had Ratko gone underground? He’d stiffed Lachko. He’d stiffed Iakov. Gambling debts were too simple an explanation. A hundred impassive faces on the subway car. None of them had an answer either.

  * * *

  The front door buzzer roused me from another netherworld, this one involving Pig Pen and Polina leering from opposite sides over my battered body. I was on the couch in my apartment, where I’d dozed off after lunch. My watch read 5:14. I’d slept almost three hours. Everything had stiffened. I almost needed a block and tackle to pull myself up. The buzzer buzzed again. Victoria, her patience intact. I hobbled to the intercom, pushed the button, opened my door, and waited. When the elevator arrived, Petrovin walked down the hall in his linen suit, grinning his relaxed grin—until he saw me.

  “Someone with your appearance might want to ask his visitors to identify themselves,” he said as he extended his hand.

  “My brain got rattled along with the rest of me.”

  “Are you all right? You look…”

  “I know. I feel just as bad, but I’ve had medical attention, and they tell me I’ll live. Lachko and I had an argument. He won.”

  “Perhaps you will achieve ex-Chekist status. You certainly appear to be trying.”

  “Thank you for the vote of confidence. Come in. Drink?”

  “I’ll join you, if you’re having.”

  “The first one’s purely medicinal.”

  He followed me inside, leaving his messenger bag by the door. “I have the information you requested. I thought I’d come by. I don’t like phones.”

  “You and every other Russian.”

  “Another Cheka legacy.”

  “Can’t argue.” I got the bottle from the freezer and poured two glasses. We took stools on opposite sides of the counter.

  “Your health,” he said. “Looks like you need it.”

  “Can’t argue that either. What did you find?”

  “Your information was good, in part. Someone did shoot out a window at CPS headquarters Saturday morning. It was Tiron’s office. But, as I told you, Tiron wasn’t there. No one was hurt.”

  “That’s good news. Thank you.”

  He looked at me over the glass. “Good news—to a point. Whoever fired the shot almost certainly knew the window he was shooting at.”

  “One more point beyond dispute.”

  “There’s more. The slug was from a Dragunov SVDS. An assassin’s weapon. Cheka assassin.”

  “I know. They were sending a message. I’ve read Ibansk.”

  He gave me a sheepish look as he put down his cup. “We all do what we have to do. The light of day—maybe I should say dusk—is one of the few defenses we have left in Russia.”

  “I’m not questioning motives, but I’ll be more careful what I tell you from here on. You’d better be careful, too. The Cheka will be looking into who’s feeding Ivanov, if it’s not already.”

  “Of course. Ivanov goes to great lengths … well, you can imagine.”

  “He—I’m assuming he—lives a lot more dangerously than most.”

  “I won’t comment on your assumption. As to living dangerously, it’s no more risky now than it was in Soviet times.”

  “One more thing I can’t disagree with. How well do you know him, Tiron, I mean?”

  “We came into the CPS in the same class, and we’ve worked together closely on some things. A good man. When did you last see him?”

  “Many years ago. But … his father and I were close, so when I heard the news…”

  “Of course. I’d still be happy to give him a message.”

  I thought about that a moment. Trust may be the most difficult thing a spy comes to grips with. Iakov taught me that. The working premise, of course, is trust no one, but the need to get things done chips away at that. You make judgments, recognize some will be mistakes, hope you don’t make too many. The man looking at me from his one good eye seemed like a good bet. At the same time, he was holding back. Then again, in his shoes, wouldn’t I do the same? Circles within circles. At some point you make a call.

  “You and Ivanov are correct. The man with the gun was indeed a Cheka marksman. He was operating under orders from Vasily Barsukov. He was in the car with the shooter.”

  Petrovin put down the glass, and his eye narrowed. “Jesus, that’s bold, even for the Cheka.”

  “To state the obvious, it would be smart for Tiron to lie low for a while.”

  “I’ll tell him, most certainly. But … May I ask how this involves you?”

  “The Barsukovs are applying pressure. Not just to Tiron.”

  He nodded and smiled. “We all know that. I must ask again—why does this involve you?”

  “Lachko looks for whomever he can squeeze. Any connection is enough for him. I’m sorry to say, he knows me very well.” I hoped that would get him off the subject.

  “What’s he want?”

  “The database and code that run Ratko’s laundry. He thinks I know how to find them.”

  “Do you?”

  “Maybe.”

  “You going to give them to him?”

  “I don’t have them yet. If I get them, I’ll try to make a deal. That’s what he’d expect me to do.”

  The eye narrowed again. “What kind of deal?”

  “Depends on the cards I’m holding. Lots of interests to be taken into account.”

  “Including Tiron’s?”

  “Including Tiron’s.”

  He smiled again. I returned it, which made my jaw ache. “Perhaps you’d like to play a card or two.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Rad Rislyakov.”

  He watched me while he sipped his vodka. I sat still. If I didn’t move anything, most of the pain receded to a low-level throb.

  “Vodka’s excellent,” Petrovin said after a while. “Tastes like home.”

  “Help yourself.”

  I slid over the bottle, and he poured.

  “What caused you to join the Cheka?”

  How much did I want to tell him? I thought—very briefly—about the truth, but as so often I pulled back to the sanitized version of my life story. No sense of liberation with a fellow Russian, even one who would barely remember the Soviet years. “I had a difficult childhood, no parents, lived in orphanages. My only skill was languages. That got the Cheka’s attention, and I didn’t think twice. They offered a way out … a way forward, something better even if I didn’t know what it was. Don’t put too much weight on the hard luck story, though. I also said there’s honor in serving one’s country. I meant that, too.”

  “If you had it to do over, would you do different?”

  I reflected on that. I knew the answer, but the question still demanded consideration. “I’ve never met anyone who’s been offered that chance, so I don’t spend much time thinking about it. Regret, remorse—sugar-coated poisons. You get dealt five cards in life, maybe seven, depending on the game. Sometimes you get to draw three more. You play them the best you can. I realized a long time ago, the goal is not so much to win but to avoid having to fold unnecessarily. Stay in the game. Make the other guy go out first. The only honest answer I can give you is, no, I wouldn’t make changes. No guarantee that whatever changes I made would lead to a better set of cards.”

  “You might not look like you do this afternoon,” he said with a smile.

  “I look like hell, true, but I haven’t folded yet.”

  “You’re making me rethink my lifelong Chekist stereotype. Do you have family?”

  I thought again for a while before I said, “No. Not an
ymore.”

  “I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t step over a line. I couldn’t help thinking you’d make a good father.”

  “That’s quite a compliment, especially for a would-be ex-Chekist.”

  He nodded and went silent again. He was trying to make up his mind about something, and it wasn’t easy for him. Best thing I could do was stay out of the way. I poured a little more vodka and sipped slowly.

  “Suppose I dealt your life-hand a wild card, the kind that could change everything you believe, every assumption you’ve made?”

  “That would be some card. Guess I’d have to see it.”

  “It will also make you immediately and desirably expendable, in the eyes of your former colleagues.”

  “At least one of them already feels that way. Will I have to fold my hand?”

  “Based on what you’ve told me, I don’t think so. Although it could well cause you to play differently from here on.”

  “All right, I’m game. But tell me something first. How did you lose your eye?”

  “You remember Andrei Kozlov?”

  “Of the Central Bank?”

  “That’s right. I was with him when he was assassinated in 2006. I was collateral damage—or maybe they just missed, in my case. We were working together at the time.”

  “And you believe the Cheka was responsible?”

  “Who else?”

  “The jury said it was the former chairman of VIP Bank, if I remember correctly. Kozlov had suspended his license.”

  His voice took on a hard edge, bordering on bitter. “We both know two things. There is no rule of law in Russia, and nothing has happened since the fall of the Yeltsin government that wasn’t cleared in Lubyanka.”

  “I haven’t signed on to that platform yet, and I didn’t mean to start an argument. I was asking … You take a lot of chances. You’ve already paid a big price. What are you in this for? Love, honor, duty, revenge, money—what?”

  He picked up his glass, saw it was empty, looked at the bottle, and put the glass back on the counter. “Not money. This suit is the most expensive thing I own. The rest—maybe some of all of the above. If we both live long enough to get to know each other better, I’ll tell you the story. That might explain things. I’d like to hear yours, too. That could explain more.”