‘Your ex-wife and sons are in Cyprus, right?’
‘We have a villa there. The villa has a full staff and I sent a driver and two of Dmitry’s best men with them.’
‘Do you think that’s enough?’
Grechko frowned. ‘You think that someone would hurt my family?’ He smiled and shook his head. ‘You do not understand Russians, Tony. Those dogs in the Kremlin would kill me, they’d lock me in a dungeon and throw away the key, they would steal all my money if they could get their hands on it, but they would not dream of hurting my family. That is not the Russian way, Tony. It never has been and it never will be.’
‘I’ll take your word for that,’ said Shepherd.
‘You can,’ said Grechko. ‘No matter how much I hated someone, I would not attack their family. It’s just not something I would do and nor would any other Russian. Men do not attack women and children, Tony. And if you are worried about my ex-wife’s security you can check it for yourself in two days. I’m flying out there. You should come.’
‘I will do, Mr Grechko. I’ll be with you now whenever you leave the house. And what about the present Mrs Grechko? She is in France?’
‘Nadya has her own security. She will be safer away from me for the time being, that’s what I told her. Who’s to say that she won’t be standing next to me if the sniper should try again.’
Shepherd stood and turned to go. ‘Then I’ll say good evening and go through tomorrow’s schedule with Dmitry.’
‘And you’ll be coming along with my security team?’
‘Every time you leave the building, yes.’
Grechko jutted his chin out. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘I can see you are a professional, Tony. I like to work with professionals.’
‘As do I, Mr Grechko.’
Shepherd left Grechko’s house at just after ten o’clock and drove back to his Hampstead flat. On the back seat of his car he had a transceiver and the Bluetooth earpiece was in his jacket pocket. Popov had also taken a print of his thumb and given him a four-digit keypad code for the security system. He phoned Button on hands-free as he drove and updated her on his progress. ‘What do you think?’ she asked.
‘His house is a fortress,’ said Shepherd. ‘I don’t think he’ll have any problems while he’s there. Fully alarmed and with CCTV everywhere, and most of the time he’s underground.’
‘Underground? How does that work?’
‘His house is like the Tardis,’ said Shepherd. ‘I mean, it’s big enough but there’s even more of it below ground. But the house isn’t overlooked anyway so no sniper’s going to get him while he’s at home. The problem is, he does put himself about and while he’s outside he’s vulnerable.’
‘Well, make sure he stays inside as much as possible.’
Shepherd laughed. ‘He’s an oligarch, I don’t think anyone tells him what to do. But I’ll give it my best shot. One thing’s for sure, we’re flying to Cyprus the day after tomorrow.’
‘That doesn’t sound such a great idea,’ said Button.
‘He’s got a private jet so we’re flexible about the take-off time, and his plane is at RAF Northolt so security there is tight.’
‘And what about Cyprus? What’s the story there?’
‘He says it’s not generally known that he’s flying out there, he’ll be taking security with him obviously, and there’s security on the ground. It’ll be OK. Can you speak to Europol and get me cleared to keep my gun while I’m there?’
‘I will, but I’m not happy about this,’ said Button.
‘The gun?’
‘The gun’s fine. It’s Grechko flying around the world while there’s an assassin after him that worries me.’
‘I’m not thrilled about the idea, but he’s probably safer in Cyprus than he is in London. Plus if anything happens to him when he’s there, it’s not really our problem.’
‘I do hope you’re joking.’
‘I am.’
‘Because if anything happens to Grechko while he’s in our care, we’ll be the ones carrying the can. And by “we” I mean “you”, of course.’
‘Message received loud and clear, ma’am,’ said Shepherd, and he ended the call just as he drove into Hampstead High Street. He found a parking space in the road close to his flat. He popped into a corner shop and picked up a bottle of milk, a loaf of bread and a packet of Birds Eye fish fingers before heading for the flat. He did a quick U-turn and looked at a mobile phone shop window display to check that no one was following him, more out of habit than because he seriously thought he was under surveillance, and then he walked home. He let himself in, tapped in the alarm code and went through to the kitchen and switched on the kettle. He’d left Harper’s Samsung phone in the cutlery drawer and he took it out and checked the screen. There had been no texts or calls while he’d been away.
He called Harper’s number and he answered almost immediately. ‘Where are you?’ asked Shepherd. He walked through to the bedroom and sat on his bed.
‘In the hotel,’ said Harper. ‘It’s doing my head in. There’s no hot water after nine and the guy above me is watching some foreign channel with the volume full on. I might look for somewhere else tomorrow. It’s finding a place that’ll take cash that’s the problem.’
‘Why don’t I help?’ said Shepherd, bending down to untie his boots. ‘You can use my credit card to book somewhere.’
‘Yeah, but then if it turns to shit there’s a clear link between you and me,’ said Harper. ‘Also, in a fleapit like this no one looks at me twice.’
‘You really are serious about keeping below the radar.’
‘I have to be, mate,’ said Harper. ‘So what’s happening with Khan?’
‘I’m on the case,’ said Shepherd, slipping off his boots. ‘They can try some face recognition software but it’ll take time. What about you? What are you up to?’
‘I’m staking out the mosques.’
‘You’re what?’
‘I’m checking out the mosques in West London. There aren’t too many and he’s got to be going to one of them, right? He’s a Muslim and Muslims pray five times a day.’
‘Yeah, but they don’t have to pray at mosques. They can do it home, they just need to be facing Mecca.’
‘They’re happier in mosques, you know that. And in that newspaper photograph he was happy enough walking around. I figure he’ll use a mosque fairly close to his home, so assuming he’s living in West London there aren’t too many options.’
‘It could be that he was just passing through when that photograph was taken.’
‘It could be. But he was holding a carrier bag so it looks to me like he’d just popped out for a bit of shopping. I don’t think he was too far from home when that picture was taken.’
‘Be careful, Lex. You’re playing with fire.’
‘Even if he saw me, I doubt he’d recognise me,’ said Harper. ‘I don’t think he ever got a good look at me in Afghanistan. I saw him in the camp but he’s got no reason to remember me.’
‘That’s not what I meant,’ said Shepherd. ‘Most of the mosques are under constant MI5 surveillance. Especially those that are in any way connected with fundamentalism. They’ve got agents inside the mosques but they’ve got people on the outside watching as well.’
‘I’m not going inside,’ said Harper. ‘Give me some credit.’
‘Lex, they’re not just watching for Islamic fundamentalists. They’re also looking for the right-wing nutters who go around leaving pigs’ heads on the doorstep. If you start hanging around outside any mosque, alarm bells will ring.’
Shepherd waited for Harper to reply, but there was only silence.
‘You see what I’m saying?’ said Shepherd eventually.
‘Yeah. I hadn’t thought of that,’ said Harper. ‘I was too busy watching out for Khan to think that someone might have been watching me. Shit. If I have been spotted, what will they be doing?’