There were two clothes closets, one given over entirely to diaphanous silk or gauzed negliges and night-wear: in a pull-out drawer within the closet was a range of sexual underwear, pants without crotches, bras without tips, for nipples to protrude, and lacy garter belts and suspender belts.
It was behind the drawer, which he fully withdrew to take it free of the closet, that Danilov found the hide-away place, a hollowed rectangular space concealed behind a sliding panel that looked at first like the rigid back to the closet. Inside was Nadia Revin’s birth certificate, passport, $22,000 in cash and a manila envelope containing documents. Danilov briefly flicked through the papers before offering them to Cowley.
‘She wanted to go to America,’ said the Russian, simply.
‘And Ralph Baxter signed the acknowledging letter to her visa application,’ said Cowley, reading more thoroughly.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Everything fitted — the shorn hair, the positioning of the shoes, the severed buttons — yet once more there was no way for them to go forward from the already established pattern. The routine began again, a roundabout making another circle, ending where it began.
Novikov’s early and more careful autopsy report gave the same measurements for the weapon, with the exception of the entry wound. The cut here, by what would have been the sharp edge of the knife, was wider than on any of the other victims, nearly six millimetres. The likeliest explanation was that the woman had tried to turn towards her attacker, driving the knife against her own body to cause herself a greater injury. All her perfectly manicured nails were intact, with no evidence of her having fought. There was no vaginal deposit indicating recent sexual intercourse, despite her profession, but this was consistent with the condoms found in her handbag. Novikov insisted that, following the second American post-mortem on Ann Harris and the Quantico assessment that the buttons indicated a nipple fetish, he had closely examined Nadia Revin’s breasts for injury or abrasions. There had been none.
The English publisher, Charles McCleary, was traced by noon of that first day. The reservation at the Metropole was in the name of the company which had published the book found beneath the body. McCleary, a bachelor, admitted at once and quite openly being Nadia’s client the previous evening: they had arranged to meet that night, too. He’d paid her $100, with a $20 tip, and given her the book. It had been a pleasant evening. She had shown no indication of being worried or frightened. She had not talked of a quick-tempered minder or a ponce, or of any outside pressure. Four members of the hotel staff, including the night receptionist and the night security guard, confirmed that McCleary had not left the hotel, either with or without Nadia Revin.
The single names listed against hotel telephone numbers proved to be those of receptionists, counter staff and concierges who had acted as Nadia’s touts. On the off-chance of finding a connection, however tenuous, Danilov had Vladimir Suzlev’s taxi company checked again to see if Nadia Revin had been a regular customer or whether any of their drivers also acted as customer spotters. The company denied all knowledge of the woman and showed unconvincing indignation at the suggestion that their drivers would ponce for a prostitute.
At the Militia commander’s invitation Cowley went with Danilov to a delayed morning conference with General Lapinsk, at Ulitza Petrovka. The American expected the demand to be made for Danilov to accompany him for a meeting with Ralph Baxter, in return for the concession apparently being advanced to him, but it wasn’t suggested. Danilov recited the preliminary findings to the muted background of Lapinsk’s coughing, and when the investigator finished Lapinsk said: ‘So it’s another random killing, like the others? No obvious, logical way to go?’
‘That’s how it looks,’ agreed Danilov, unhappily.
‘We’re going to have to make a statement,’ said the General.
He spoke looking at the American, and Danilov realized that Cowley had been invited to the meeting to share the responsibility for any decisions reached there. For several moments Cowley did not respond, surprised at being questioned so directly. Then he said: ‘I think the more sensational reaction to the earlier killings was increased by delaying the first announcements. For which, as I know you are already aware, we in America were grateful.’ There was a lot of purpose in his being allowed into this discussion: Cowley wished he could work out all of what it was. Yet again plenty to discuss with Washington: he was glad Andrews had returned, to ship back all the duplicated material collected from Uspenskii Prospekt. Senator Burden was not going to welcome his niece now being linked to the killing of a Russian hooker.
‘I would expect you to participate in any press conference,’ warned the old man, openly, still speaking directly to Cowley. ‘Do you need to get authority from Washington?’
Cowley wasn’t sure. ‘I’ll ask.’
‘And I think it would be proper for the statement to be issued jointly, both here and in Washington,’ Lapinsk continued, tightening the pressure.
Danilov wondered if all this had been Lapinsk’s idea, on the spur of the moment, or demands prepared well in advance of another possible killing with the Federal Prosecutor or possibly even beyond Nikolai Smolin, involving some even higher official in the Foreign or Interior Ministry. He was surprised at the blatant anxiety to extend the liability.
So was Cowley. ‘A Washington statement about the murder of a Russian national in Russia?’
‘It is a joint investigation,’ Lapinsk insisted. The cough rattled.
Cowley was unsure whether to remind the General that the FBI’s supposed presence was in a support role of scientific liaison. He quickly decided not to: in his eagerness to duck behind every and any barricade, Lapinsk had conceded precisely what the Bureau had wanted to achieve. Which might be an advantage later, ‘I will advise Washington. They will obviously want to know exactly what your statement will be.’
Lapinsk nodded. ‘It would also be best if the statements were issued simultaneously, at an agreed time.’
Definitely not Lapinsk’s sole idea, decided Danilov: these staged insistences betrayed a great deal of advance planning and thought.
‘I will advise about that, too,’ promised Cowley.
As they descended the stairs, back to the level of his own office, Danilov said: ‘I suppose I should apologize. I didn’t know it was going to be like that.’
Cowley smiled across at the other man. ‘No need for apologies. It was just like being at home.’ Watching Your Ass Time, Russian style, he thought.
Ralph Baxter leaned attentively over his embassy desk while Cowley outlined the barest details of another murder identical to that of Ann Harris. And then, obediently, stared down at the mortuary block photographs of the shorn Nadia Revin. Forever a man of quick movements, he jerked his head up, frowning incomprehensibly. ‘Why are you showing me these?’ The moustache twitched.
‘Don’t you know her?’
The bespectacled diplomat went back to the photographs. ‘Of course not. Why should I? You said she was a prostitute?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then what on earth are you talking about?’ Baxter’s voice rose in his outrage.
Cowley offered a photocopy of the embassy letter signed by the other man that had been in Nadia Revin’s closet hiding-place, saying nothing.
Baxter began to read just as attentively, but then stopped, checked the signature with growing dismissiveness and laughed across the table. ‘It’s a long-term visa application!’
‘I know.’
Baxter remained smiling as he depressed an intercom button, identified a reference number and sat back, waiting. Almost at once a secretary entered whom Cowley recognized from the social club gathering, although they had not spoken. The woman recognized him, too, smiling and nodding. Baxter took what she carried and without reading it offered the top document back across the desk to Cowley, together with the notification that had been retrieved from Nadia Revin’s apartment. Both were identical, apart from Baxter’s signature. ‘You any idea how many visa applications we get here, every day? The line’s around the block, all the time. It’s a pro forma letter, for Christ’s sake! We send out dozens of them, asking for more information when the request is for long-term entry permission, which this clearly was, although I haven’t bothered to check: don’t need to. As the senior consular official, I have to sign …’ He renewed the offer, with the rest of what the secretary had brought. ‘That’ll be her file. If it helps, you’re welcome to keep it as long as you like.’ The grin widened. ‘I bet it doesn’t list her profession as hooker.’