Diary of a War Crime

by Simon McCleave

  ‘For fuck’s sake, Ruth. Are you trying to kill us?’ Lucy exclaimed, and then she looked at the empty driver’s seat, the remains of the windscreen, and the blood that was pooling on the dashboard. ‘Did you know he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt?’

  Ruth nodded. ‘Why did you think I told you to put yours on?’

  ‘You’re a clever fucker, DC Hunter, I’ll give you that,’ Lucy said with a laugh of shock.

  ‘Come on,’ Ruth said as she took off her seatbelt, opened the door, and got out.

  She moved to the front of the car, twisted and smashed beyond all recognition, and looked around.

  Twenty yards away, Zivko lay flat on the ground. He wasn’t moving.

  Ruth cautiously approached him. From the unnatural shape of his body and lack of movement, she knew he was dead. His face was a bloody, uneven grid of cuts and gashes.

  ‘Clunk, click, every trip,’ Lucy quipped.

  ‘Never mind the jokes, we need to find a key for the handcuffs. My wrists are killing me,’ Ruth said as they crouched over him.

  Lucy pulled the gun from his jacket. ‘I might hold onto this. You never know ...’

  Ruth pushed her hand into his blood-soaked trouser pocket. She felt the shape of the handcuff key and pulled it out.

  She manoeuvred the key into the lock of her handcuffs, unclipped them, and then freed Lucy from hers.

  ‘Jesus, that’s better,’ Lucy said, rubbing her wrists. ‘How did you know we weren’t going to get killed in that crash?’

  ‘I didn’t,’ Ruth admitted.

  ‘Fair enough. He was going to shoot us anyway. Where’s Petrovic?’

  Ruth shrugged. ‘We lost them at the traffic lights.’

  ‘Shit!’ Lucy said, and then Ruth watched her storm into the middle of the road, take out her warrant card, and flag down the next car.

  What the bloody hell is she doing?

  ‘Lucy?’ Ruth yelled. Her shoulder was still stinging, and her mind was in a whirl.

  ‘What?’ Lucy asked, as she guided the oncoming car into the side of the road. It was a brand new Audi, with a red number plate in the window to signify that it was being test driven.

  ‘Where the bloody hell are we going?’ Ruth asked.

  ‘After Petrovic.’

  Ruth strolled over to where Lucy had stopped the car. ‘We’ve lost him. We don’t know where he’s going.’

  ‘I do,’ Lucy said as she went over to the driver’s window. ‘DC Henry. I’m sorry sir but I’m going to have to commandeer your vehicle.’

  ‘What? But I’m test driving it. It’s not even my car,’ the driver protested in a very middle-class accent.

  Ruth watched as the furious car dealer got out of the passenger door and glared at her.

  ‘You can’t do this! I need to speak to my head office,’ he uttered in disbelief.

  Ruth had no choice but to back Lucy up. She flashed her warrant card at him. ‘Sorry, sir, but this is a matter of life and death. And we do have the legal power to commandeer this car.’

  ‘Right sir, out we get. Quickly please, and stand to the side of the road,’ Lucy snapped at the driver.

  ‘This is ridiculous!’ he said as he reluctantly got out.

  Lucy replaced him in the driver’s seat. As Ruth tried to get into the car, the dealer stood in front of her to block her way. ‘I don’t think this is even legal,’ he said angrily. ‘How do I know you’re real police officers?’

  Get out of my way you dickhead!

  Ruth held her warrant card about six inches from his face. ‘There. You’ve got my name. If you don’t get out of my way, I will nick you for obstruction.’

  The man stood back. Ruth got into the car and, before she had even closed the door, Lucy had sped away.

  ‘Jesus, Lucy!’ Ruth exclaimed, trying to get her breath back.

  ‘I know. We’ve lucked out getting our hands on this Audi. It’ll go like the fucking clappers,’ she said.

  ‘Where the bloody hell are we going?’ Ruth asked.

  ‘Portsmouth.’

  ‘What? Why? Did you bang your bloody head back there?’

  ‘We were following Petrovic down the A3 which leads to Portsmouth.’

  ‘So what? They could be going anywhere.’

  Lucy shook her head. ‘No - they need to get out of the country. And what do we know about Katerina Selimovic?’

  Ruth thought for a moment. ‘She has a sister in northern France.’

  ‘And which port runs ferries closest to the Loire Valley?’

  ‘At a guess, I’m saying Portsmouth.’

  ‘Yep. The Loire Valley is a three-hour drive from Cherbourg.’

  CHAPTER 30

  An hour later, Lucy and Ruth pulled into Portsmouth Ferry Terminal. There was only one more ferry that day and it didn’t leave until 7pm, which was in just over an hour’s time. Ruth had rung Shiori to explain some of what had happened, but she had kept it as vague as possible. They had now informed Brooks of what they were doing, and had asked Hampshire Constabulary to provide two uniformed units as backup in case Petrovic and Katerina were indeed trying to escape to France.

  As they made their way towards the Customs and Immigration Office, Ruth looked up into the greying sky. Two gulls dived and flapped overhead, their loud rhythmic squawking was loud and unsettling. The air was thick with diesel fumes and the smell of the sea.

  Arriving at the office, Ruth and Lucy showed their warrant cards and were directed to Gary Baker, Head of Operations.

  Baker sat in a small, untidy office eating a sausage sandwich and nursing a huge mug of tea. ‘I understand that you ladies are down from the Met. To what do we owe the pleasure?’

  Ruth wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or just irritating.

  ‘We’ve got two murder suspects that we think are going to board the last ferry out of here to Cherbourg,’ Lucy explained.

  ‘You can have a look at the passenger lists,’ Baker suggested, putting down his sandwich and wiping his hands on his trousers.

  ‘They’ll be in a car,’ Ruth said.

  Baker went to his computer. ‘Got the registration?’

  Ruth and Lucy looked at each other. In the confusion and stress of their kidnapping, Ruth had only looked at the registration of Petrovic’s Jaguar a few times.

  Ruth looked pensive. ‘Hmm ... I know it’s a P registration Jaguar.’

  ‘That narrows it down,’ Baker gibed.

  Is he being sarcastic or is it that everything he says sounds barbed?

  Baker hit the printer and a moment later it whirred into action. Getting up from his desk, he hitched his trousers over his midriff and retrieved the printout.

  ‘That’s the passenger and vehicle list for tonight’s ferry,’ Baker said as he handed them over.

  Ruth smiled. ‘Thanks.’ She was still in a bit of daze from the kidnap, the crash, and Zivko’s death. On top of that, she had Ella to think about - even though she knew that with Shiori she was in good hands.

  ‘I guess we’re looking for Oliver Stankovic?’ Ruth asked.

  ‘I don’t think that even he has the balls to travel as Simo Petrovic,’ Lucy said as they both scoured the lists.

  She ran her finger slowly down the vehicle list. There were no Jaguars listed, and very few P registrations. Maybe Petrovic and Selimovic weren’t on the ferry. Maybe they had gone to a different port? They could even be flying from a smaller airport such as Southampton.

  ‘Anything?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘Nope. Nothing even close,’ Ruth admitted. ‘You?’

  Lucy shook her head. ‘No, nothing. Not a Serbian sounding name in sight.’

  Baker looked over from his desk. ‘At the risk of making things difficult, there will be some last-minute foot passengers who don’t appear on that list.’

  Lucy and Ruth looked at each other – that did make it more difficult.

  ‘How far is Southampton from here?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘Half an hour’s drive,’ Baker rep
lied.

  ‘And if you’re travelling from London on the A3, is it easy to get to?’

  ‘Piece of piss. You just come off onto the M27.’

  Lucy let out an audible sigh. ‘Maybe we just got the wrong ferry terminal.’

  ‘There’s only one ferry a day to France from Southampton, and that takes eleven hours to Brittany. If I was your suspects trying to get out of the country, I’d be going from here,’ Baker said, glancing at his watch. ‘If you want to observe everyone getting on, you’d better hurry up. Passenger boarding starts in five minutes.’

  ‘Thanks for your help,’ Ruth said.

  ‘Hope you catch the bastards,’ Baker said, as they left his office and headed out towards the dockside.

  Ruth was feeling emotional and exhausted. ‘I’m starting to think this is a waste of time.’

  ‘We were so bloody close to him,’ Lucy said in a frustrated tone.

  ‘Yeah, but we were also bloody close to getting killed.’

  They made their way quickly over to the foot passenger entrance for the 7pm ferry, and identified themselves to the ticket collectors and immigration officers.

  For the next ten minutes, they watched the stream of passengers queuing and showing their tickets and passports before boarding. However, there was no sign of Petrovic or Selimovic.

  As the queue shortened, Lucy gave an exasperated sigh. ‘We can’t let him get away after all that bloody hard work. If he gets to Europe, he’ll probably disappear forever.’

  Ruth knew that was true, and she shared Lucy’s determination to bring Petrovic to justice. However, she also felt at breaking point after the events of the day.

  ‘We’re running out of passengers,’ Ruth said quietly.

  ‘Don’t you want to find him?’ Lucy snapped.

  Ruth decided to ignore Lucy’s comment. They were both tired, and nerves were starting to fray.

  As the queue reduced to a single file, Ruth knew that the chances of finding them now were diminishing fast.

  Gazing up at the ferry, Ruth wondered if they had just got it wrong. There were no names or vehicles matching the passenger or vehicle lists. They could have decided to go from another port on the south coast. It had been a long shot at best.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Ruth spotted a man leaning with his back against the ferry’s guardrail. It seemed odd to her that, although he was extremely well-dressed, he was wearing a very old Panama hat. For a moment, she wondered where she had seen the hat before.

  Then it clicked.

  Katerina Selimovic’s flat.

  Bloody hell.

  The man moved out sight, but it could have been Petrovic.

  Am I just seeing things?

  ‘You okay?’ Lucy asked. She had clearly spotted Ruth’s changed expression. Ruth was staring up to see if the man she thought was Petrovic would return to where she could see him.

  ‘Up there,’ Ruth said pointing.

  ‘What am I looking at?’ Lucy asked putting her hand over her eyes to block out the fading sunlight.

  Then suddenly, in the same place where the man had been standing, a woman looked over the rails. She was wearing sunglasses, but even from a distance Ruth recognised her.

  Shit! Katerina Selimovic!

  ‘They’re on the ferry!’ Ruth cried out.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Come on!’ Ruth took Lucy by the arm and they both broke into a run.

  As they sprinted over to the ferry, Ruth noticed that there were no more passengers to get on, and the check-in point was now closed.

  They showed their warrant cards and boarded.

  A deep, thunderous blast of a horn sounded.

  Ruth glanced over at movement on the dockside as one of the enormous steel mooring chains began to be wound in noisily.

  She glanced at Lucy. ‘Looks like we’re going to France.’

  CHAPTER 31

  Ruth and Lucy had been searching the ferry for over twenty minutes but hadn’t seen any sign yet of Simo Petrovic or Katerina Selimovic. They walked back through the huge lounge and bar on the upper deck. With 1,500 passengers on board, their search wouldn’t be easy.

  ‘And you’re sure it was her?’ Lucy asked.

  Ruth gave her a scornful look. ‘Come on. If we keep circling, we’ll find them.’

  Lucy nodded and went over to the central concourse where there was a deck plan of the ferry. ‘We’ve been everywhere, haven’t we?’

  By now, Ruth was starting to doubt what she had seen.

  ‘Where would you go if you wanted to keep out of sight on a cross-channel ferry?’ Ruth asked.

  Lucy scoured the map for a few seconds and then pointed to a small rectangle on the lower deck marked Cinema. ‘It’s dark, no one walking around. I’d hide in there.’

  ‘As good a place as any,’ Ruth agreed.

  They turned and headed for the central stairwell where they could access the lower decks.

  ‘At least we know he hasn’t got a gun,’ Ruth said as they clattered down the stairs at speed. There was no way of getting a gun through the metal detectors at the gates.

  At the bottom of the stairs, they ran straight ahead towards the cinema. They then slowed as they reached the doors where a ticket collector sat.

  ‘Police officers. We think there might be two suspects inside here,’ Lucy whispered as she showed her warrant card and gestured into the cinema.

  ‘Call security and tell them to wait for us here,’ Ruth said quietly.

  ‘Okay ...’ the ticket collector stammered, looking terrified.

  Feeling the tension in her stomach, Ruth opened one of the doors very slowly. A loud noise of sound effects and an orchestral score came from inside the cinema. Some kind of sci-fi film was being shown.

  At least it’s loud enough to cover the sound of us coming in, Ruth thought.

  Moving forward into the darkened cinema, Ruth could see that they had entered halfway down the room, with the screen to their left. Scanning the audience, it was difficult to see much. The lights and flashes from the screen meant that the members of the audience were only visible for a second or two before being plunged back into obscurity.

  They gradually made their way towards the screen at the front.

  It was difficult for them to disguise the fact that they were scanning the audience and looking for someone.

  Suddenly, two figures rose from their seats on the other side of the auditorium. They headed towards the green light of the nearest exit.

  Ruth nudged Lucy and pointed.

  As they squinted and began to move, Ruth recognised them.

  Petrovic and Katerina. Got you, you bastards!

  ‘Over there!’ she yelled, tapping Lucy’s shoulder.

  They broke into a run and, a few seconds later, Ruth smashed through the exit doors with Lucy just behind her.

  They looked left and then right.

  Nothing.

  ‘Where are they?’ Lucy shrieked.

  Ruth saw Petrovic and Katerina heading back towards the stairwell.

  ‘There!’ she said, and they set off again.

  By the time they got to the stairs, Petrovic and Katerina had disappeared again. However, Ruth could hear the sound of running feet above them.

  ‘Up this way!’

  Leaping up the steps, two by two, Ruth felt the muscles in her thighs begin to burn.

  Jesus, this is starting to really hurt.

  Reaching the middle deck, she glanced both ways. Nothing.

  The sound of running feet came again from above.

  ‘Come on,’ Lucy urged, as she took over the lead.

  Dragging in air, they arrived on the upper deck. Glancing around, there was no sign of them, but there was a door about ten yards away that led outside.

  Lucy ran to it, opened it, and Ruth followed.

  The wind whipped around their faces as they ran down the deck towards the stern.

  They spotted Petrovic and Katerina up ahead.

  He w
as dragging her by the hand as other passengers jumped out of their way with irate glances.

  Ruth and Lucy followed after them.

  ‘OUT OF THE WAY! POLICE!’ Lucy yelled.

  The fugitives had now reached the end of the deck.

  Right! Now they’re trapped!

  However, Petrovic and Katerina climbed rather awkwardly over the safety rail onto the final ten-foot of deck beyond. Nothing now protected them from a fifty-foot drop into the white, swirling depths of the English Channel.

  Lucy and Ruth stopped at the rail, breathing heavily.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Lucy yelled at them both before climbing over the rail.

  Nearby passengers were looking on in shock.

  ‘Stay where you are!’ Katerina shouted at Lucy, before moving backwards away from Petrovic.

  Oh God, if she slips now, she’s going into the sea.

  ‘What’s this all about Katerina?’ Lucy asked, raising her voice over the noise of the wind.

  Petrovic hadn’t moved a muscle. He just glared at Lucy.

  Katerina shook her head. ‘You wouldn’t understand.’

  ‘This man is a monster. He killed women and children from your village,’ Lucy shouted in disbelief.

  ‘Simo picked me. Of all the women in that camp, he picked me to be with. Because he loved me and I loved him,’ said Katerina, trying to explain.

  ‘But you betrayed your friends here in London, and now they’re dead.’

  ‘They were never my friends. I knew that one day there would be rumours that Simo was alive, and they would want to take revenge. I decided to keep them close by in case that day ever came ... and it did.’

  Katerina glanced backwards and saw that the heels of her shoes were now only a foot from the edge.

  ‘Okay. You’re right. I don’t understand, but I don’t want you to die,’ Lucy said as she pointed to the sea.

  Ruth very slowly climbed over the rail. The slight rolling of the deck, and the battering wind, made it feel very precarious.

  Katerina shrugged. ‘What is the choice?’

  ‘You can’t believe that jumping off there is the only choice you have?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘I will spend my life in prison. So will Simo, and I don’t want to live without him,’ Katerina said as she turned to Petrovic. ‘I don’t want to be without you.’