‘Where was this club? What was it called?’
‘Here in Tallinn. On a small street off Vana-Posti. It had no—’
‘With just a sign outside showing a man in a top hat and tails helping a lady into a coach?’
‘That is right.’ She seemed surprised. ‘You have seen it? It is still there?’
‘I’ve seen it,’ said Banks. It was the place just around the corner from St Patrick’s, where Rachel Hewitt had possibly been spotted going the wrong way by the Australian barman. ‘It may have changed quite a bit since your day. It’s a sort of exclusive sex club now, or at least that was the impression I got. What sort of club was it back then?’
‘Just a nightclub, for dancing, parties. Mostly young people. It was very good class. More expensive, perhaps, than Hollywood and Venus, more popular with Estonians than with tourists. As I said, it has no name. We just called it The Club.’
‘How does Bill Quinn come into this?’
‘It was just fun, really. A joke. I was given his picture and the name of the hotel where he was staying, told to seduce him, to pretend we were making love. We never did. It just looks like it. But we never did have sex. He was asleep by then. It was all really very funny. Someone took photographs. I got two thousand kroons. That was that.’
‘You didn’t know who ordered it?’ Joanna Passero asked.
‘No.’
‘You didn’t know why you were doing it?’
‘No.’
‘Weren’t you just a little bit curious?’
‘Two thousand kroon was a lot of money.’
Joanna looked at Banks and shook her head as if to say a promising lead had turned to dust right in their grasp. Banks wasn’t too sure.
‘Were you taking drugs then?’ he asked.
Larisa hung her head. ‘Yes. My life was a mess. I was only eighteen. I had run away from home. I drink too much. But soon after, maybe one, two month, I left, left Tallinn, went home to Tartu, became sober. When I was well again, I enrolled in the university. After three years I met Alexei, and here we are. I left that life behind me, Hr Banks. Now I am only twenty-four, and I sometimes feel I have lived a whole lifetime. I am sorry if I cannot help you more. I have done nothing wrong.’
Except drug a man and set him up for blackmail, Banks thought. But he said nothing. He couldn’t see any point in trying to ruin a young woman’s life over a misguided act committed six years ago, no matter what its consequences had been. ‘You said the man who actually instructed you and paid you was not the man who ordered it done, that you overheard a telephone conversation.’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you know who he was talking to?’
‘No, but it was someone who was... I do not know how to say this. His boss? Someone who told him what to do?’
‘Do you have any idea who that might be?’
‘No. I only know the club manager who tell me. Perhaps other people employ him.’
‘Why did you leave the club, Larisa?’
Larisa paused and picked at a fingernail, as if struggling to find an answer. ‘I had a friend there, a friend called Juliya. She was from Belarus. She was a very beautiful girl, very funny, clever, and very nice. She was good to me. She made me laugh when I felt bad. She showed me how to live in that world. We shared a flat together.’
‘Did something happen to her?’ Banks asked.
‘She ran away.’
Banks and Joanna looked at one another. Banks also noticed Merike’s eyes open a little wider. ‘Ran away?’ Banks echoed.
‘Yes. Just like that. One day she was there, then she was gone. All her clothes and belongings — not that she had much — gone. Not a word of goodbye, not a note to say where she has gone. Nothing.’
‘But she took all her things?’
‘Yes.’
‘What did you think happened to her?’
‘I think she went back to Belarus. She had a boyfriend who came to the club a lot. He was very rich and handsome. What do you call it, like a playboy? He always had good drugs, the best clothes, a fast car, and women were drawn to him. He was charming, but I think underneath he was dangerous. Young, rich and wild. For him there were no boundaries, no rules. There were many rumours about him. I do not know if they were all true. Juliya did not go into details. Wild orgies. Kinky sex. Every drug you can imagine. He had friends in St Petersburg, people said, criminal friends. Russian Mafia.’
‘And this was Juliya’s boyfriend?’ Joanna said.
Larisa gave her a sad smile. ‘We were living in a very strange world back then. Very unreal. It all feels like a dream, sometimes like a nightmare. At first he excited her, but soon I think she became frightened of him.’
‘So you think Juliya left to get away from this boyfriend?’ Banks asked.
‘Perhaps. I just knew that was the end for me after she had gone. I was alone. I had to get away, too.’
‘Why? Because of Juliya?’
‘Because he was turning towards me. I always thought I was safe. He liked blondes. But I realised soon that he was not so particular as I thought. When he turned his attention to me at The Club, asking me to go away with him for weekends in St Petersburg or Helsinki, that was the end. I disappeared quickly, too.’
‘Just like Juliya?’ Banks said.
‘Yes. But I went first to Tartu,’ Larisa said. ‘I think Juliya went home to Minsk. I have never heard from her again until I got married. She must have seen something in the newspaper because she sent a postcard with congratulations to Alexei’s studio. It was from Athens.’
‘What about the man? Weren’t you worried he’d try to find you?’
‘No. A man like him has no attention span. Someone else would come along. A new toy. He would forget what I look like in a few days.’
‘Do you remember his name?’ asked Banks.
‘Yes, of course. It is Joosep Rebane.’
‘That’s an Estonian name,’ Merike said.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Larisa. ‘He is Estonian. Not all the bad people here are Russian you know.’
‘Do you know where he is now?’ Banks asked.
‘I have no idea. I turned my back on that life. He is not a man who seeks to have his picture in the newspapers, or his name, I think. Then he was just rich and spoiled, but now I suspect he is in the criminal underworld, trafficking drugs, girls, perhaps in St Petersburg. Maybe even in Tallinn. But he keeps out of sight. And perhaps he behaves differently from when he was younger.’
‘Do you think he could have been the one who ordered the club manager to get you to set up Bill Quinn?’
‘I do not know. Perhaps. But why?’
‘I have a few ideas about that,’ said Banks. ‘When did all this happen?’
‘It was six years ago. Summer.’
‘Around the time the English girl disappeared?’
‘I think so. I do not remember. I really... I did not hear much news.’
‘You never linked the events in your mind? The English girl disappearing. You being asked to seduce an English detective?’
‘I did not know he was a detective. This Quinn man. He did not talk about his work. And my brain did not make link.’
‘OK,’ said Banks. ‘Can you remember whether Juliya disappeared before or after you went to the hotel to meet Bill Quinn?’
‘I think it was just before. Can we go back now?’ Larisa asked. ‘I do not know any more. I cannot leave Kaida alone for too long.’
‘Of course,’ said Banks, standing up. ‘We’ll walk with you. It’s a lovely town.’
Larisa smiled. ‘Yes. Is very small, but in summer many tourists come. There is much business. Much to do.’
‘Perhaps we can eat at your restaurant before we return to Tallinn?’ Banks said.
Larisa looked alarmed.
‘Don’t worry,’ he went on. ‘I only say that because we’re hungry. If I think of any more questions, I will be very discreet. We have no intention of spoiling the life you have made here.’