Diary of a War Crime

by Simon McCleave

  Ruth followed, dreading to think about what they might find.

  Flinging the door open, Lucy looked back at Ruth.

  The room was empty. And so was the bed.

  ‘Where the bloody hell is she?’ Lucy thundered.

  Ruth’s mind spun with all the different scenarios. Had Katerina been kidnapped? Where the hell was the armed officer?

  Then she spotted Katerina come wandering down the corridor accompanied by the officer.

  Well, that’s a bloody relief!

  ‘Christ, you scared us Katerina,’ Lucy said letting out a sigh.

  ‘I needed to stretch my legs, and this young gentleman was kind enough to escort me.’

  ‘Okay, well we need you to get your things together,’ Ruth said gently.

  Katerina nodded and then gestured into her room. ‘I have something that I need to tell you.’

  Ruth and Lucy glanced at each other – what’s she talking about?

  They followed her into the room and closed the door.

  ‘Everything okay?’ Ruth asked her.

  Katerina went over to the bed, sat down, and looked at them for a few seconds.

  Okay. The suspense is killing me, Ruth thought.

  ‘I can help you to find Simo Petrovic,’ she said quietly.

  ‘What?’ Lucy said, her eyes widening.

  Did she say what I just thought she said?

  ‘I didn’t want to tell you before. I was too scared,’ Katerina admitted.

  ‘How can you do that?’ Ruth asked.

  ‘I have a friend. He contacted me yesterday morning and told me he had found out where Simo Petrovic is hiding.’

  ‘Did he say where?’ Lucy asked.

  Katerina shook her head. ‘No. He didn’t want to say it over the phone. He is very frightened.’

  ‘Will he talk to us?’ Ruth asked.

  Katerina nodded. ‘If I come with you, he might do.’

  ‘Where are we going?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘Cobham. It’s in Surrey.’

  They knew exactly where it was.

  ‘Benfleet Road?’ Lucy asked. She had told Ruth earlier about her discovery that Ben Fleet was the name of a road, not a person.

  Katerina looked confused. ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘Your friend, Hamzar, wrote it in his diary,’ Ruth explained. ‘We thought it was a person’s name.’

  ‘And if we take you to Cobham, we can talk to your friend?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘Yes. We must stop this man ... before he harms anyone else,’ Katerina said as she got up from the bed. ‘We must stop him today.’

  BY THE TIME THEY REACHED the car, Ruth had made it clear that she wasn’t happy about them swanning off to Surrey with a key witness. They helped Katerina into the back seat of the car.

  ‘If you’ve got something to say, just say it Ruth,’ Lucy snapped.

  ‘We need to run this past Brooks.’

  ‘Brooks won’t let us go. He’ll tell us to wait, or hand it on to someone else.’

  ‘Maybe that isn’t a bad thing. Every step of this investigation seems to have led us to another dead body.’

  ‘You don’t bloody get it, do you Ruth? Petrovic is our collar. And we’ve got a chance to get him today,’ Lucy growled.

  ‘And we’re going after him on our own, are we?’

  ‘No. We get the address where Petrovic is hiding out, liaise with local police to provide backup, and go and nick him.’

  ‘I bloody hope it’s that easy, Lucy,’ Ruth said as she got into the car.

  ‘I can drop you in Peckham if you want?’ Lucy sneered.

  ‘Don’t be stupid.’

  Ruth had no choice. Lucy was her partner and her friend, but she had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be as straightforward as Lucy had pitched it to her.

  Five minutes later, they had pulled out of the hospital car park and were heading towards the Wandsworth one-way system where they would join the A3 and head south to Cobham.

  There was a tense silence in the car. Ruth reached for a cigarette and then turned to offer one to Katerina.

  ‘I have my own, thank you.’ Katerina reached into her handbag and pulled out a filterless brand of cigarettes that Ruth had never heard of.

  ‘Here you go,’ Ruth said as she passed Katerina the lighter.

  Looking out at the South London suburbs, Ruth took a long deep drag on her cigarette. She felt apprehensive.

  ‘In my country, we don’t have any women as police officers,’ Katerina said.

  ‘No? There still aren’t that many in London,’ Ruth said with a smile. ‘Or at least, there aren’t enough.’

  ‘You read Hamzar’s diary?’ Katerina asked.

  ‘Yes, we had it translated so we could read it,’ Lucy explained.

  Katerina nodded as she thought about what Lucy had said. ‘Then you know that we saw things that no one should ever see.’

  Ruth nodded solemnly. ‘Yes. It was very upsetting to read. You were with Hamzar in Keraterm, is that right?’

  ‘Yes. We were taken to the old tile factory. The women slept in the canteen and kitchens. I looked after Hamzar’s daughter for a while. The men slept by the machines on the floor, sharing blankets.’

  ‘Did you stay there?’ Lucy asked.

  Katerina took a few seconds before she answered. ‘No. A few of the women were taken elsewhere. And I ...’ She stopped talking, took a drag of her cigarette and looked out of the window. ‘I was taken somewhere else. That’s all.’

  Ruth could tell that it wasn’t something Katerina found easy to talk about, and she wasn’t about to push her on it. She looked up and saw that Lucy was taking the exit from the A3 that led to Cobham.

  A moment or two later, they turned into a small side road, Benfleet Road.

  ‘This is it?’ Lucy asked.

  Ruth turned and saw Katerina staring intently at the houses as Lucy slowed the car.

  ‘Yes. It is on the right. Just here,’ Katerina said, pointing to one of the small newly-built houses.

  Lucy parked the car and they all got out.

  For a moment, Ruth was distracted by the sky. Its baby-blue hue was dotted with wispy clouds that resembled pulled candyfloss. It was one of those spring days when that kiss of coldness somehow intensifies the warm rays of the sun. However, the tension in her stomach warned her that something about this trip was making her feel uneasy.

  ‘This the one?’ Lucy said, pointing to the painted door with the number 27 on it.

  ‘Yes, yes,’ Katerina said. ‘He said he would be in all day.’

  Lucy gave the door a decent knock, and a moment later a bearded man in his sixties partially opened the door.

  ‘Katerina?’ the man said with a friendly smile.

  ‘We must talk to you. We must put an end to all this,’ Katerina said looking at him.

  He nodded, looked around nervously, and then opened the door fully and beckoned them in.

  As the front door closed behind them, Ruth was struck by the lack of furniture and possessions inside. She had assumed that they were walking into the man’s home, but the house was just a shell.

  What the hell is going on here?

  Suddenly, Ruth felt the hard jab of something metallic at the base of her skull.

  Please don’t tell me that’s a gun.

  ‘Don’t move and don’t turn around,’ said a man’s voice in a thick accent.

  Glancing at Katerina, Ruth saw that her face and whole demeanour had changed. She was no longer the frightened old lady that she had seemed to be all day.

  Oh shit. We’ve just walked into a trap.

  CHAPTER 28

  Ruth looked over at Lucy who was clearly more angry than frightened. Having had their radios, phones, and handcuffs taken, they had been marched at gunpoint into a small room by the man who had threatened Ruth and Ella the previous day in the car park. The door had been locked from the outside. Having established there was no way to escape, they had no choice but to sit on the
floor.

  ‘How did we not see that coming?’ Lucy said, shaking her head.

  Ruth didn’t think it was the right time to mention that she’d had an uneasy feeling about this trip. She was starting to feel panicked. It had been demonstrated in the last week that Simo Petrovic, and those who sought to protect him, had no regard for human life. There was no reason to think that wouldn’t extend to British female police officers.

  ‘I don’t understand. Katerina Selimovic suffered at the hands of Petrovic. She has known the men that he killed all her life. She was meant to be their friend,’ Ruth said thinking out loud. It was hard for her to make any sense of it.

  ‘Maybe she was blackmailed into setting us up?’ Lucy suggested.

  ‘Once we were inside this house, she didn’t act like someone who was being blackmailed,’ Ruth pointed out.

  Before they could say anything else, there was a metallic click as the door was unlocked from the outside.

  As it opened, Ruth shifted awkwardly on the floor.

  What the hell are they going to do with us?

  The man who had forced them into the room at gunpoint came in. Behind him were two figures - Katerina Selimovic and a man with a large frame who was in the shadows.

  As they moved into the room, Ruth instantly recognised the man.

  Simo Petrovic.

  A chill ran up Ruth’s spine. She had been in the presence of murderers before, but never one who had taken such pleasure from killing so many.

  She looked up at Katerina and shook her head. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Be quiet!’ Katerina snapped.

  ‘This man destroyed your friends, your family and your village.’

  Katerina gave her a withering look. ‘You wouldn’t understand.’

  ‘Try us,’ said Lucy.

  ‘He also chose me over all the others to save. Simo had his pick of all of those women – but he chose me.’

  Is she really saying that? What kind of twisted logic is that?

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Ruth asked.

  ‘He saved me and my family. You have no idea what that means,’ Katerina sneered.

  ‘When Hamzar Mujic contacted you to say that he had seen this monster at Waterloo station, you already knew he was here?’ Lucy pointed to Petrovic.

  Katerina snorted. ‘Here? Don’t you get it? Simo is with me. We are together.’

  Ruth couldn’t understand how Katerina had chosen to be with this cruel psychopath and allow her friends to be murdered. Was it some warped version of the Stockholm syndrome? Some kind of twisted love that had developed between captor and captive?

  ‘Get up,’ Petrovic barked.

  ‘Are we going somewhere?’ Lucy asked sarcastically.

  Petrovic didn’t answer but looked at the man. ‘Zivko.’

  Zivko moved forward and gave Ruth’s feet a kick. ‘Get up!’ he growled.

  ‘Manners,’ Lucy said with a sneer.

  With her stomach now tense from anxiety, Ruth put her hands onto the dusty floor and got to her feet. With a sigh of reluctance, Lucy did the same.

  Lucy stared at Petrovic. ‘You do know that our DCI is going to be here any minute now?’

  ‘I doubt that very much. In fact I’d be surprised if he even knew that you were here,’ he replied coldly.

  He’s right. No one knows we’re here.

  Zivko waved their handcuffs at them. ‘Put these on each other.’

  ‘Are you taking the piss?’ Ruth asked rhetorically.

  Zivko gave her a scathing look – he was deadly serious.

  ‘And if we don’t?’ Lucy asked.

  Zivko looked over to Petrovic for a moment.

  CRACK!

  He fired a bullet into the floor beside Lucy’s foot. Within the confines of the room, the sound of the gun was deafening. Ruth flinched.

  Jesus Christ! You had to ask, didn’t you?

  ‘Then I will shoot you both,’ Zivko said quietly.

  Ruth grabbed the handcuffs from him. She turned to Lucy, opened them up, and clicked them closed around her wrists.

  ‘Be gentle,’ Lucy said under her breath.

  Not the time for jokes, Lucy.

  As Ruth secured her own handcuffs, she was very relieved that they hadn’t insisted that they put them behind their backs. It was far less restrictive and more comfortable to have them in front. She also knew that if they had any chance of escape, they would need the use of their arms in front of them, not behind.

  Petrovic looked at them. ‘Out this way.’

  Zivko gestured towards the door with his gun.

  Ruth followed Lucy out of the room and through the empty house to a side door.

  Two large black cars were parked to the rear of the house – a Mercedes and a Jaguar. Zivko ushered Ruth and Lucy into the back of the Mercedes at gunpoint before getting into the driver’s seat.

  Petrovic and Katerina got into the Jaguar.

  Both cars pulled away, and ten minutes later they were on the A3 heading south towards Portsmouth.

  CHAPTER 29

  Gazing out of the car window, Ruth watched the countryside zipping by. Where were they going? What were their captors going to do with them? She knew that they were unlikely to drag two detectives around with them for very long. Petrovic had murdered several people in recent days to protect his identity. Two police officers weren’t going to make any difference to him. She had to conclude that they were going to kill her and Lucy in a remote area.

  Her thoughts couldn’t help but turn to Ella. She would be happily playing with Koyuki with no idea of what was happening to her mother. The thought of her daughter’s innocence made her feel both frightened and angry.

  I’m not going to let this fucker take us into a field somewhere and shoot us. I’m not going to leave Ella on her own.

  Glancing up ahead, she saw that Petrovic’s Jaguar was about five hundred yards ahead of them.

  Looking over to Lucy, she knew they were both thinking of ways to escape and get away. However, Zivko was armed and they were handcuffed. What were the options? And then she thought of something.

  She glanced down at the side of the driver’s seat.

  Zivko wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. Why would he? He was a Serbian hitman with a gun. Wearing a seatbelt didn’t really fit his mindset. But it gave Ruth an idea.

  She nudged Lucy with her elbow to indicate that she needed to communicate something to her urgently. Now that she had Lucy’s attention, Ruth very slowly moved her hands up to the rear seatbelt. Taking the seatbelt strap in her hand, she started to pull it very gradually across her body an inch at a time so as not to alert Zivko that she was doing anything.

  Gesturing with her head, Ruth signalled to Lucy to do the same. After a few minutes, Ruth had managed to ease the seatbelt strap diagonally across her body. With the metal buckle now in her right hand, she pushed it down very slowly into the locking clip until she heard it click into position.

  She held her breath. Did Zivko hear that?

  For a second, she froze, not daring to move. They had to get this right. It might be their only way to escape.

  Glancing right, she saw that Lucy had also managed to pull her seatbelt into position across her body. She was now lowering the buckle into its locking clip.

  Ruth coughed quietly as Lucy clicked it into position.

  Lucy looked at Ruth and raised an eyebrow as if to say Now what?

  Ruth knew she needed to find exactly the right moment. If she got it wrong, Zivko could turn and shoot them.

  Having passed Guildford, she could see that the road was now far less busy and had gone down to a single lane. However, they were still travelling at 60 mph and an accident at that speed could kill them all.

  Then she saw it.

  Roadworks up ahead, and a temporary set of traffic lights currently at red. That meant Zivko would have to reduce speed and stop, as long as they stayed on red. It also meant that his speed would be lower as they pulled away fro
m the lights.

  As the car slowed to a halt, Ruth looked at Lucy to signal that she was about to do something.

  After a few seconds the lights turned green. Zivko revved the engine and they pulled away. Ruth looked ahead and realised that Petrovic’s Jaguar was nowhere to be seen. They would have to deal with him later. First thing was to get out of this bloody car.

  With her eyes locked on her side of the road, Ruth felt the car starting to speed up. She knew what she was looking for, but time was running out.

  Come on. Come on.

  As they rounded a corner, Ruth saw a line of large trees up ahead, set back about thirty yards from the road.

  Bingo! That’s perfect.

  Glancing back, she could also see that there were no cars behind them. Even better. She didn’t want anyone ploughing into the back of them.

  Two hundred yards to go.

  She braced herself, her eyes darting between the approaching trees and Zivko’s hands on the steering wheel.

  A hundred yards.

  Here we go. Let’s bloody do this.

  Fifty yards.

  Twenty.

  Ruth launched herself forwards, grabbed the steering wheel in both hands, and twisted it hard to the left.

  Zivko let out an undecipherable yell.

  Ruth looked out. The car was now hurtling towards the trees.

  She pushed herself backwards into the rear seat and braced herself for impact.

  ‘Hold on, Lucy!’ she yelled.

  BANG!

  The sound of metal tearing and glass smashing.

  The car had ploughed headlong into the trunk of one of the trees.

  With the impact, Ruth was thrown forward hard against her seatbelt before bouncing back into her seat.

  The back of her head hit the headrest hard.

  Bloody hell. That hurt!

  Then the searing burn of the seatbelt which had cut into her left shoulder.

  ‘Jesus Christ!’ Lucy shouted.

  For a moment, Ruth just sat there breathing deeply.

  As she shook her head, she glanced at the driver’s seat.

  It was empty.

  Only a few broken fragments of the windscreen remained, and blood was dripping from the window trim.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Ruth asked turning to Lucy.