‘Not to me,’ said Dean, looking once more to his deputy. ‘Were you told?’
‘No,’ said Johnson, shortly.
‘We’ve obviously got to find out what it’s all about,’ said Pacey.
‘Obviously,’ agreed Dean.
Choosing his moment – and the exaggeration – Charlie said, ‘In practical terms my expulsion was more inconvenient than a serious setback, as long as we had the American conduit. If they’re going to abandon that then the idea of setting up a sting operation becomes even more valid, doesn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ agreed Dean. ‘I think it probably does.’
Petr Tukhonovich Gusev was a sparse-bodied, fixed-faced man who wore well the ribboned uniform of the Militia controller of the central Moscow region and whose reserve, Natalia decided, had nothing to do with the apprehension that both Oskin and Lvov had shown towards her and her rank. It was, instead, the natural demeanour of a totally professional policeman unwilling to venture an opinion ahead of all the evidence: the voice, when he did speak after considered pause, was as slowly pedantic as it had been at their first encounter on the day the Arbat vehicles had been found.
He accepted without hesitation the chair Natalia offered, formally straightened the uniform and sat without any discomfort waiting for her to tell him what she wanted. A witness.
‘You’re very much part of the efficiency and speed of this investigation that’s been acknowledged. I have asked Colonel Popov officially to commend you. Which will, of course, be noted in your records.’ Natalia wasn’t as sure now that the complimentary approach, which she’d decided upon because the man had been present when she and Aleksai had been publicly praised, was the right one.
‘Thank you,’ said Gusev, automatically, flat-voiced.
‘I am personally going to question Yevgennie Agayans and Vasili Shelapin.’
He nodded.
‘I want to be as fully prepared as possible.’
‘Of course.’
‘So I want to know everything.’
‘I understand.’
‘Where were the canisters found?’
‘In Shelapin’s car. And another. It was outside the house in which we arrested him.’
‘There was no resistance?’
‘We hit it at dawn. They were all sleeping. Shelapin is homosexual. He was with his lover, a boy of twenty. It was in the boy’s car that two of the canisters were found.’
‘How old is Shelapin?’
‘Fifty-five, sixty maybe.
‘There was one in Shelapin’s car?’
‘That is correct.’ He could have been giving evidence in a court.
‘What cars were they?’
‘Both Mercedes. They have large boots.’
‘That’s where the canisters were, in the boots?’
‘Yes.’
Natalia hesitated, as the unprepared question came into her mind. ‘Are you telling me what you’ve learned from those at the scene? Or were you there?’
‘I was there, in charge. Bykovo is their area: it was the obvious place to concentrate. I led the Shelapin raid and was still there when we got a report about Agayans. So I organized the road block.’
‘How did you hear about Agayans?’
‘We had a report, from a radio car we’d put in the area.’
She’d moved away from the core questioning: time to get back.
‘What happened to the Shelapin cars?’
For the first time Gusev’s expressionless face showed a frown. ‘I don’t understand?’
‘Were they seized?’
‘Of course. Brought to the central Militia garage. So were the Agayans vehicles.’
‘I’m only interested in those belonging to Shelapin at the moment. Were they brought to Militia headquarters at once? Or were they scientifically examined at the site, first?’ Natalia took particular care posing the question.
‘Scientifically examined. We had to establish the canisters were safe.’
‘Quite,’ agreed Natalia. ‘So who carried out the examination? Nuclear experts? Forensic scientists? Or both?’
Gusev hesitated longer than usual. ‘The nuclear people. It was only the canisters that were important.’
Natalia felt a dip of uncertainty. ‘After they were found to be safe what happened to the canisters?’
‘They took them away to be properly stored.’
‘So they weren’t forensically examined? For fingerprints, for instance?’
‘No.’
Again! thought Natalia, anguished. She should have corrected the first omission with Aleksai. Too late now.
Gusev took the silence to be criticism. ‘We have no facilities, for this stuff! We couldn’t have stored it!’
‘Storage wouldn’t have been a factor if a forensic team had been brought to the scene, would it?’
‘There was!’
‘At the same time?’ She was exceeding her remit – although not her authority – straying into an operational wilderness about which she knew nothing, full of unseen quicksands and sucking whirlpools. She’d have to tell Aleksai.
‘No,’ conceded the man. ‘But I don’t understand the significance.’
‘Fingerprints could have guided us, literally, to who’d handled it.’
‘It was in their cars!’
‘You questioned Shelapin?’
‘I tried to.’
‘Explain that.’
‘It was just abuse: obscene abuse.’
Natalia had interrogated too many people to accept that generalization. ‘There was something,’ she insisted.
‘He denied any knowledge of the canisters: said they’d been planted.’
‘How were they, in the cars? In boxes? Secured? Loose? What?’
‘Loose.’
‘Wouldn’t they have rolled about, with the movement of the car?’
Gusev regarded her even more blankly than normal. ‘There would have been some movement, I suppose.’
‘You’re a very senior Militia officer: have you ever had any dealings with Agayans before?’
‘No. But I know of him. It’s a major Family.’
‘Tell me about his arrest.’
‘We set up a road block. The moment they drove up to it I had other cars come in behind, so they were trapped. They began shooting at once. Uzi machine guns: Israeli. One of my officers will lose a leg.’
‘How long did it last?’
‘It was very brief. I had twenty-five men: they were outnumbered.’
‘You heard the Yatisyna tape, about an Arab buyer?’
‘Yes.’
‘Is the Agayans Family big enough for an operation like they tried at Kirs: with contacts outside Russia?’
‘They tried the robbery at Kirs!’
It hadn’t been a considered question: she couldn’t afford to be that casual with either of the gang leaders. ‘What’s your reaction to Yatisyna’s claim, against the Militia? Were you surprised?’
‘No.’ There was no hesitation.
‘Why not?’ prompted Natalia.
‘Every law enforcement organization in Russia is infected. Are you surprised that virtually every former KGB officer is now involved in organized crime?’
‘I would be, if it were true.’
‘It is.’
‘You’re the head of the largest Militia division in Russia!’ repeated Natalia. ‘If you know it’s true haven’t you tried to do something about it?’ She was going way beyond the original intention of the interview.
The face broke again, into a patronizing smile. Gusev’s teeth were very bad, overcrowded and displaced: one in the front was practically covering another behind. ‘Since 1992 I have initiated disciplinary proceedings against a total of two hundred and thirty officers, up to the rank of inspector, in the central Moscow division alone. The accusations against ten were unproven but I still dismissed them. The remaining two hundred and twenty are serving prison sentences.’ Gusev paused. ‘I knew Nikolai Ivanovich Oskin. I was looking forward to his being transferred under my jurisdiction. He was an honest man.’
‘I was not making any criticism,’ said Natalia. ‘I was asking your opinion.’
‘In my opinion there is no such thing as law and order in Russia,’ declared Gusev. ‘The country is collapsing into total chaos. And no one could care!
‘A few care.’