Agent 6 ld-3

by Tom Rob Smith

  – How do you know this is the store?

  – I don’t.

  Leo pointed to a hand-painted sign. A family business for thirty years!

  Opening the door, a small bronze bell rang overhead. There was a musty smell. The shop counter was dusty. The contents were disorganized. On the wall behind the cash register there was a row of plastic drawers, filled with odds and ends, nails and bolts, screws and hinges, drawers stacked as high as the ceiling.

  The proprietor was young, a man in his early thirties, emerging from a back room with reading glasses on the end of his nose, regarding his unusual customers. His glance concentrated on Leo and turned unfriendly.

  – You’ve been in here before?

  Nara stepped forward, speaking in fluent English, having already gone over the question with Leo at home.

  – We’re looking for information on a famous singer who used to live near here. His name is Jesse Austin.

  Upon hearing the name the man took off his glasses, placing them on the counter.

  – That’s right, you’re the Jesse Austin man. What is it with you, anyway?

  – My name is Leo Demidov.

  Embarrassed by his English, he turned to Nara. She added:

  – My name is Nara Mir. This is my friend. Leo knew Mr Jesse Austin a long time ago. We’re trying to find information.

  The man studied Leo, saying:

  – You knew Jesse Austin? I don’t believe it.

  – It’s true.

  – You’re not from New York, are you?

  – I’m from Russia.

  – Russia? And you knew Jesse?

  – We met in Moscow.

  – You met in Moscow?

  The store owner had a habit of turning everything Leo said into a question and Leo was unsure how to respond. The man addressed Nara:

  – You’re who? His translator?

  – I’m his friend.

  – What do the two of you want?

  Leo said to Nara in Dari:

  – I want to know how Jesse Austin died, the truth, not what was printed in the papers.

  Nara translated. Leo watched the store owner’s reaction. He shook his head, waving at the door.

  – I don’t know anything. Now get out. I’m serious. Don’t bother me again. This is a store. If you want to buy something…

  Before the store owner could return to the back room, Leo took a chance, calling out:

  – Your father knew Jesse Austin.

  The store owner turned sharply, staring at Leo accusingly, suddenly angry.

  – How do you know my father? What are you doing dragging him into this? You better have a good answer.

  Leo replied through Nara:

  – Your father met with Jesse Austin the day he was shot. He brought a young Russian girl to his apartment. The two men argued.

  She translated. The store owner was stunned. Recovering some of his composure he said:

  – What do you want?

  Leo sensed he was making inroads and pushed home his advantage.

  – The papers claimed a Russian woman shot Jesse Austin. The papers claim the Russian woman was called Raisa Demidova. The papers are wrong. She did not kill him. That is a lie.

  Leo took a chance.

  – Your father knew it was a lie.

  The store owner listened to the translation before turning to Leo.

  – And how do you figure this?

  Leo had memorized the English.

  – Raisa was my wife.

  Harlem Bradhurst 8th Avenue amp; West 139th Street Nelson’s Restaurant

  Same Day

  The man referred to as number 111 by Elena in her journal was Tom Fluker, now dead; his son William ran the hardware store, as Leo had correctly guessed. Once a degree of trust had been established, William was prepared to recollect events from the time of Jesse Austin’s death. He recounted his father talking about Austin, and how Tom had been furious with him for bringing their community under scrutiny and suspicion.

  – Jesse used to make my father mad. He called him a troublemaker. But the night Jesse was shot, my father didn’t sahe had it coming, or anything like that. He did something I never expected him to. He cried. I remember thinking it was strange that he never had a nice word to say about Jesse and then he cried when the man was shot. I was a young boy and it seemed like a contradiction at the time.

  William had brought them to a restaurant called Nelson’s, closing his store and agreeing to show Leo and Nara the way. In his extensive exploration of the neighbourhood, Leo had passed the restaurant but since it was several blocks from where Austin lived, and looked new, he’d never gone in. There was no mention of it in Elena’s diary and he could find no reference to it in any of the articles written about Austin in the press. During the walk William had warmed to them somewhat, almost certainly because of Nara. He’d taken a shine to her and Leo could tell she was flattered. William was a handsome man.

  Unlike the hardware store, which appeared not to have been decorated or updated for thirty years, this restaurant had been recently refurbished. Like a tour guide, William gestured at the facade.

  – Don’t be fooled. This restaurant has been here for longer than I’ve been alive. Nelson was the man who opened it and he and my dad were friends. Both of them built up their businesses from nothing. This was the most popular restaurant in the neighbourhood, until…

  William trailed off, adding:

  – That’s not my story to tell.

  Inside the staff were winding down after the lunch shift, tables being cleared, only a few diners remaining, older men who looked as if they had nowhere to hurry off to, nursing cups of coffee. William caught the arm of a waitress.

  – Can we speak to Yolande?

  The waitress glanced at Leo and Nara, assessing them, before turning around and heading back through the kitchen into an office. Minutes passed before she emerged accompanied by a woman in her thirties dressed in a suit. The woman was tall and striking. She took in every detail of Leo and Nara’s appearance before moving forward and shaking their hands. William had phoned ahead. She’d been expecting them.

  – Nice to see you, Willie.

  She offered her hand to Leo.

  – I’m Yolande.

  Leo shook it and then Nara. Leo introduced himself.

  – My name is Leo Demidov. This is my friend Nara Mir.

  She smiled.

  – We’d better talk in my office.

  Contrasting with her immaculate attire, her office was a jumble. There was a desk piled high with papers and files. Framed photographs and newspaper clippings cluttered the walls. Without waiting for permission, Leo instinctively began studying the photographs. Belatedly he realized that Yolande was beside him. He pulled back, blushing, embarrassed by his lack of courtesy. She gestured for him to continue.

  – Go ahead.

  One man was central to most of the photographs. Not Jesse Austin – a man that Leo didn’t recognize. Yolande said:

  – That’s my father, Nelson, in his days as a campaigne

  She pointed to one of the photographs, her finger moving away from her father and into the crowd, stopping at the face of a teenage girl.

  – That’s me.

  Leo noted that she did not look as engaged in the march as those around her, a young girl lost in the bustle. Yolande asked, with genuine curiosity:

  – Your wife was Raisa Demidova?

  Leo nodded.

  – She did not kill Jesse Austin.

  Yolande smiled kindly, like a benevolent schoolteacher.

  – I know that. So does everyone who lives round here. No one in Harlem thinks your wife killed anyone, Mr Demidov. This neighbourhood might be the one place in the world where she’s innocent. Certainly my father didn’t believe it, not for one second. The press ran the story about how your wife was Jesse’s lover. The lie became truth. There was gossip and slander, written up as journalism, maybe they knew the truth and were too scared to print
it. Can’t blame a person for that. Either way, the whole thing was forgotten a few months later and now it’s a scandal most people can’t put a name to. The strange thing was that your wife received a great deal of sympathetic coverage. People said it wasn’t her fault. They said she’d been duped. That all she wanted was to escape Soviet Russia, she’d been promised a life in America. She was distraught when she realized she’d have to go back. That lie flattered America. I suppose that’s why it was such a smart lie to tell.

  Nara translated. Yolande was content to sit and watch Leo’s reaction. When Nara had finished, Yolande took down a photograph of her father working in the restaurant, handing it to Leo.

  – I was fourteen years old when Jesse was shot. It changed my life, not because I knew the man but because it changed my father. Up until then he ran this restaurant and ran it well. He was a businessman to his bones. After Jesse’s murder, he became an activist, organizing speeches and rallies, printing leaflets. I hardly ever saw him. The restaurant got into trouble. It became a place to debate. Lots of customers stopped coming here, scared of being seen in case they were labelled a radical. Those who weren’t afraid, those who worked with my father, took free meals in payment for their services. Money ran short. Politics got him into trouble with the law: they almost closed the restaurant down. They sent inspectors who said the kitchens were dirty, which was a lie because I used to clean them myself.

  Leo’s interpretation of the photograph had been correct: Yolande had been a girl caught up in the protests rather than being at the forefront of them. Her heart was here, in the business, not the politics of the time. There was anger too. She saw this restaurant as her inheritance: she’d cleaned it, learned how to manage it, only to have others threaten it. Most of the anger was towards the injustice of the inspectors but some of it was for her father too.

  – In the end, my father’s health got worse, so I took over the restaurant, changed everything except the name, turned it back into a business. No more politics. No more talk of changing the world. No more free meals.

  While Nara translated, William joined the conversation, saying:

  – My father used to say the best kind of activism was to run a good business, to pay your taxes, to make yourself the establishment.

  Yolande shrugged.

  – Jesse paid a lot of tax, more in a year than I’ve paid in my lifetime. Didn’t buy him any favours. They still hated him.

  She opened a drawer, taking out cigarettes and a glass ashtray shaped like a leaf. From her reluctance, it seemed to be a habit she was trying to quit. Leo asked:

  – Who killed him?

  Yolande lit the cigarette.

  – Is that what matters to you? The individual responsible? Or the thinking behind it?

  Leo checked with Nara to see if he’d understood her question. He didn’t need to consider his answer for very long.

  – I’m only interested in the individual. I’m not fighting against any system.

  Yolande inhaled.

  – We don’t know for sure who killed Jesse. My father reckoned it was the FBI. I never contradicted him but it didn’t ring true. The FBI had already beaten Jesse down. They’d taken everything he had, his career and his money: they’d smeared his name. It didn’t make sense to kill him. Maybe they were just so full of hatred they didn’t need a reason but as a businesswoman I find that hard to swallow.

  A waitress brought in coffee, pouring it for each of them, allowing Nara to catch up with the translation. Leo took out his notes, transcribed from Elena’s diary. He said to Nara:

  – On the day of Jesse Austin’s murder, my daughter arrived in Harlem, to speak to him, to persuade him to address the demonstration outside the United Nations. She encountered an FBI agent coming out of Austin’s apartment. She refers to him in the document as Agent 6. Ask if they have any idea who this might be?

  Yolande thanked the waitress as she left.

  – An FBI agent at Jesse’s apartment. There was a man who’d go round there. I don’t remember his name. Anna – Austin’s wife – used to tell my father about him. That was a woman full of love, rarely had a bad word to say about anyone, but she hated that agent more than anyone else alive.

  Yolande rubbed her head, unable to recall the name. She took a sip of her coffee, pained by the refusal of the name to come to her. They sat in silence for some time. Leo waited, watching her.

  Even though her first cigarette was still lit and resting in the ashtray, Yolande lit a new cigarette and sucked on it, blowing smoke in the air.

  – I’m sorry. I don’t remember.

  She was lying. Leo had seen the transition in her expression. She’d tried to conceal the moment by smoking as she was reminded of the price that her father had paid for becoming involved. With the memory of Agent 6’s name came the memory of the type of man he was. Elena’s description of Agent 6 returned to Leo: He scares me. Yolande was scared. Leo turned to Nara. – Explain to Yolande that I understand why she doesn’t want to be involved. Promise her that I would never reveal her name. Also say to her that I will find out what happened on that night, with or without her help. Listening to the translation, Yolande leant forward, close to Leo. – Jesse’s murder is a secret that’s been buried a long time. Not too many people want you to dig up the truth. Not even people round here. Times have changed. We’ve moved on. She looked into Leo’s eyes. – I see the same determination I used to see in my father. And my father would never have forgiven me if I didn’t help you. She sighed. – Agent 6 was almost certainly a man called Yates, Agent Jim Yates.

  New Jersey

  Next Day

  Nara remained silent for most of the bus ride from New York, her attention fixed on the view out of the window. Realizing the depth of the implications, she’d grown ever more certain that the investigation posed a serious threat to their asylum and questioned the wisdom of attempting to expose a controversial case when their lives depended upon the grace of their American hosts. Their actions were wilfully provocative, unwise at a time when their existence was supposed to be secret. What did Leo expect to achieve after sixteen years? There would be no trial, no arrests, his wife’s name would not be cleared – the history books would not be rewritten. Though she had not articulated these thoughts, nor had she tried to talk Leo out of his decision, he clearly sensed her doubts. Perhaps, in turn, she did not oppose his plans because she sensed his own thoughts – a confrontation with Agent Yates was inevitable.

  After the discussion at Nelson’s restaurant, Yolande had taken Leo and Nara to her home, allowing them to search through her father’s extensive collection of newspaper articles from the time of the murder, covering the night’s events and subsequent commentary on the killings. Yolande kept the book of clippings as if it were a family album. In some ways it was, since it contained the only photographs she possessed of her father through his years as an activist. Most of the articles Leo had read in the public library but there were some, printed in local newspapers and on protest leaflets, that he’d not encountered. Among them there was one reference to FBI Agent Yates. Yolande argued that the largely absent figure of Yates, missing from the mainstream media coverage, was surely proof that he was involved somehow – it was illogical for such a pivotal officer, a man who’d visited Jesse Austin on the day of his murder, not to feature more prominently. The only article that mentioned Yates had been sent to Nelson by a fellow activist in New Jersey two months after the murder, a small article in a local paper, reporting that Teaneck resident Jim Yates had retired from the FBI due to his wife’s poor health and was planning to spend more time with her. There was a photograph. The article had spun the news like the man was a hero. Nelson had annotated the article with the question: What was the real reason for his retirement?

  From what Leo could gather from Nelson’s comments and scribbled remarks that criss-crossed the clippings, the individual responsible was less important to him than the system they were part of. His energies were directed into
trying to achieve wider societal change – a dreamer, just like Elena and Jesse Austin. Leo had given up ideological ambitions a long time ago: they had brought him close to ruin just as they had nearly bankrupted Nelson’s business. Dreaming of a better world was not without its dangers.

  As the bus approached Teaneck, Nara turned to Leo purposefully. She took a breath, evidently nervous, before saying in Dari:

  – You’re leaving us, aren’t you? Don’t lie to me. Just tell me the truth. You’re not staying in the United States? Something has changed.

  Leo regretted not confiding in her earlier. She was no longer a naive young student. She demanded to be party to his plans and she had every right to be told the truth.

  – The Soviets know about our defection, or at least, they suspect it. My daughters are being harassed. At the moment the measures against them are a warning. Should I not turn myself in, they will be arrested. The only way I can protect them is if I give myself up.

  – Who told you that?

  – Marcus Greene.

  Nara examined the palms of her hands as if the answer were written on them.

  – So you would return?

  – What choice do I have?

  – A return to the Soviet Union might achieve nothing.

  – My country is not as it once was. They have no interest in harming my daughters. They are vindictive only if it serves some purpose. If I return, I believe my daughters will be unharmed. I can’t be sure…

  – You will be a traitor.

  – I am a traitor.

  – They will execute you?

  – I’m working for the Americans. I’m giving them information that will result in the death of Soviet soldiers.

  – Those soldiers are dying because they were sent to Afghanistan, not because of you.

  – That is irrelevant. I am a traitor. There is no argument.

  – Is your own life so meaningless to you?

  Leo thought about the question.