Crossing the Line (10 page)

The field office files showed the fight against them consisted of a depressingly familiar catalogue of wire-taps, payments to criminal informants and reports from law abiding citizens. Despite hard work and determination, there were relatively few arrests and convictions. One of the main problems was a lack of agents suitable to work undercover. They needed more Russian speakers. It looked as though Tom Davies had seen that opening. The fact that neither Martinez nor Lindy had volunteered to demonstrate their Russian suggested to Ethan they couldn’t.

The more he read, the more he began to wish he sat on his deck in Sanibel. One more dossier and he promised himself he’d start on the accommodations list. He’d already glanced at it. Frank was right about Luisa’s efficiency, the list was divided by district, cost and type.

When he opened the last file, an envelope of photographs rested on top. A dead girl had been found lying naked next to a retention pond in a new housing development south west of Orlando in Lake County. Her throat had been cut and her tongue removed. The blood between her legs had originally suggested to the investigating officers that she’d been raped, but the ME made his own grisly discovery. Her tongue in her vagina.

The murder took place five months ago, the victim still unidentified. Jane Doe was five-seven, in her early twenties with long blonde hair. The reason they had a file on her was because her dental work suggested she was from Eastern Europe and she was apparently the second victim.

Ethan looked for details of the other. A twenty-two year old, Valentina Korchova, found near the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum close to Tucson. She was from St Petersburg and had entered the States on a student visa. In addition to having her tongue cut out, she’d also had her fingers removed. All found inside her vagina. Ethan made the link to Galya Mazarov. Had the killer moved over here? The phone rang and startled him.

“Ethan, Brannon and Merino are the detectives working the Novikov murders. They’re expecting you tomorrow morning at ten.”

“Thanks, Frank.”

That gnawing in his gut he’d felt at the airport came back. He wanted to believe Katya was enjoying herself in some shopping mall, unaware of what had happened to her aunt and uncle but he suspected she was neck deep in shit.

The following morning, Anna was waiting in the foyer of the apartment block when Aleksei arrived. She flung her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek.

“I have a job for you,” Aleksei said. “Someone I want you to take shopping. Her name’s Katya.”

They stepped into the elevator.

As the doors closed, Anna slid her hands around his waist. “We never get to be together anymore. She can go to mall on her own. If you don’t like what she buy, she can take back.”

“Who do you work for, Anna?” he snapped.

She let him go. “Sorry.”

He took out his wallet and modified his tone. “What you don’t spend, you can keep, but I know the difference between Donna Karan and Wal-Mart. I don’t expect to see her in clothes any different from yours.”

“Okay.” She kissed his cheek and fluttered her lips round to his. When she put her tongue in his mouth, he bit it and she yelped.

“If she tells me that you haven’t been nice…” The elevator doors opened and they stepped out. “She may well be asleep. Make coffee while I check. No noise.”

He unlocked the door. Last night he’d slept as badly as Katya. Whenever he’d checked the monitors, he’d rarely seen her in the bedroom. At two in the morning she was ironing, at four cooking, at five playing her violin. When he last checked at seven she was finally asleep. He opened the bedroom door. She slept now, spread out like a starfish under the sheet and he didn’t want to wake her. She was beautiful, with delicate features and cute ears. The longer he looked at her, the more he wanted her. As his cock hardened, he walked back into the living room.

Anna put coffee and glasses of ice water on the table. “Still asleep?”

He nodded and sat down. Anna scooped an ice chip from the glass and held it to her lips, running her tongue around it before she popped it into her mouth. She shifted to sit next to him, and slid her hand onto his crotch, lingering over his erection.

“I want to lick every inch of you,” she whispered.” I want to put my lips around you and suck so you come like fucking volcano. I want—”

“Shut up,” Aleksei said.

She fell silent, but he didn’t stop her when she unzipped his pants.

Katya stood at the bedroom door. Aleksei sat on the couch with his eyes closed, quietly groaning, while a woman with shoulder length red hair had her face buried in his crotch. The woman glanced at Katya then flicked her tongue across the top of his cock before she took more of him into her mouth. Katya knew she ought to turn away but her feet wouldn’t move. A wave of disappointment swept over her. She’d convinced herself he cared and he didn’t. The woman’s head bobbed faster and Aleksei grabbed her hair and grunted as he bucked into her. Moments later the redhead pulled back and spat into a tissue. Katya slid away.

“How did I do?” the woman asked.

“Great.” Aleksei said.

“She watched.”

Katya heard Aleksei swear and then his approaching footsteps and she retreated to the far side of the bedroom.

He appeared at the door. “Learn anything from Anna’s demonstration?”

“You don’t have to swallow.”

“I’d rather you did. Join me in the shower?”

“Hold your breath till I get there.”

The redhead rubbed up against him.

“Katya, this is Anna. She’s going to take you shopping.”

“I don’t want to go shopping.”

“You look awful,” Anna said.

“That’s what a short acquaintance with Aleksei has done,” Katya said. “I can see you’ve known him for ages.”

She could still hear Aleksei laughing after he’d left the room. Anna stalked up to her, hands on hips, eyes narrowed. “He’s mine.”

“Is he?”

Katya saw the uncertainty in Anna’s eyes and felt a thrill of pleasure until she remembered what the redhead had just had in her mouth.

Aleksei drove them to the Bal Harbor shopping center. “Be back here at one. Don’t be late.”

“Course not.” Anna kissed his cheek.

When Katya stepped away to avoid his kiss, he stroked her chin. “Try to enjoy spending my money.”

Anna walked into the mall, chattering into her phone. Katya lingered a few paces behind until she’d finished.

“Okay, now we shop,” Anna said. “Natasha meet us later. We live together.”

Anna strode into Donna Karan and moved from display to display, flicking through the garments, draping several over her arm.

“Aleksei says you need everything. What happened to clothes?”

“Stolen.”

“What a country.” Anna held up a white leather jacket. “I love this.”

Time to play the dumb blonde.
“What does Aleksei want with me?”

Anna rolled her eyes. “To work for him.” She held up a tight red V-neck top. “What about this? Would suit you. And this. Try them.”

“Doing what?” Katya followed her into the changing room.

“Same as me and Natasha. Sometimes he need deliveries made or want us be nice with people, drive them, go to parties. I’ve been to New York, Seattle, Chicago and Caribbean. Good money.”

“My uncle stole my money.”

“Stole it?”

“He said he owed a man called Petrenko.” Katya stared at Anna as she said the name.

“Viktor Petrenko? That top suit you.”

Katya’s heart slammed into her throat and she let out a choked cough. “You know him?”

“I met him. Aleksei know him. They do business together.”

It couldn’t be the same man, could it? She tried to think of some way of checking without alerting Anna, but her brain wouldn’t click into gear. Was something finally going right?

“You can earn three, four thousand a night working for Aleksei,” Anna said.

“A night? What do you do for that?”

“Anything they want. They like to fuck someone younger and prettier than wife. We don’t get headache or moan to take out garbage.” She giggled.

“Why so much?”

“We exclusive. Private men like private women. We clean, smart and best of all Russian. The older guys like idea of fucking enemy.”

“Natasha does it too?”

“Yes.”

“Did you do it in Russia?”

Anna glared. “I have history degree from Moscow State. Natasha study biology.”

Katya gaped.

“Don’t look so shocked. I have brain. That’s what Aleksei like about me. I’m intelligent and not scared of him. You won’t last long. Weak women bore him.”

She thinks I’m weak and stupid?
Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. Katya tried on a dress. “How did you meet him?”

“In club. He look at me from across room.” Her face took on a dreamy expression. “He take me to apartment and I’m with him since.”

“Or with men he wants you to be with,” Katya muttered.

She glared. “Aleksei don’t like smart mouths.”

“Yours looked pretty smart earlier.”

Anna stared and then laughed. “Okay, I see why you interest him. You funny.”

“I won’t sleep with men for money. Even that amount.”
Only information.
Oh God.

“We supply high quality product. No different to buying clothes. You can buy underwear in Target or Neiman Marcus. If you have cash, you want best.”

Anna paid for clothes Katya didn’t want. Despite attempts to justify what she was doing, the only difference between Anna and the women who stood on street corners in Tverskaya Ulitsa, was in the amount they earned. Sleeping with Aleksei was one thing, whoring for him something else entirely. Katya wouldn’t do that. She wasn’t even sure she could sleep with him just to get information. Her father wouldn’t have wanted her to do that. She sighed. He wouldn’t have wanted her to give Platov a blowjob either.

Katya followed Anna over to a tall, elegant girl she assumed was Natasha. She had a thin face with a pointed chin and long pale blonde hair similar to Katya’s, though Natasha’s flowed down her back. She reminded Katya of an Afghan hound. She kissed Anna on both cheeks and then kissed Katya.

“Nice to meet you, Katya. Let’s have coffee and you show me what you buy.”

Katya had argued with Anna but they’d walked out of Donna Karan with two dresses, a shirt, purse and a pair of pants for her and a skirt plus the leather jacket for Anna. Apart from checking each hundred dollar bill to make sure it wasn’t counterfeit, the saleswoman showed no reaction to the huge amount of cash. Katya had the deposit for an apartment in clothes if she chose to run.

What have I gotten myself into?
A half-baked plan to find Petrenko by hanging around Russian restaurants either as a waitress or playing the violin, then what? Grab a steak knife and stab him? And now Aleksei had pulled her into his world and it turned out he knew Petrenko. Another sign. To think she hadn’t believed in them. One thing she had to do, figure out what she’d do if she came face to face with Petrenko.

They’d spent over thirty minutes in a shoe store, surrounded by a sea of open boxes when Anna jumped up and swore. “Late. Shit. See you, Natasha.”

Anna threw money on the counter, grabbed three pairs of shoes and rushed Katya toward the entrance to the mall.

“He hates if people late,” she said.

There was no sign of Aleksei and Katya put the bags down on the curb.

“How you meet him?” Anna asked.

“At The Sturgeon.”

“I ate there once. I never work as waitress.”

Katya didn’t bother to correct her.

“How long you in America?” Anna asked.

“Not long. What about you?”

“Eighteen months. Aleksei and I together a year. Here he come.”

Aleksei drew up, clicked open the trunk from inside the car and got out. “Had fun?”

“I did.” Anna smiled.

“Make your own way back, Anna. I have somewhere I need to take Katya.”

Anna failed to mask her disappointment.

Katya glanced over her shoulder as Aleksei drove away and saw the venom in Anna’s eyes.
Damn.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“To see a doctor.”

“I don’t need a doctor.”

“Good.”

“It was only a kick in the ribs. They’re not broken and even if they were, they mend on their own.”

“It’s not about your ribs.”

She sighed. “I was only joking about the weeping, ulcerated sores.”

“You need medical insurance.”

“I’ve signed up for the university plan.”

“I want you on mine,” he said.

“I—” She thought about her father’s advice when she got into trouble at school—don’t fight every skirmish, learn when to keep quiet and conserve strength for the battles that really matter.

The doctor’s office was on the second floor. Aleksei stayed behind her as they walked up the stairs. Maybe he thought she’d bolt. It was tempting, but his link to Petrenko kept her where she was.

A nurse gave her a gown, showed her into a cubicle and handed her a container. “Urinate into this and leave it here. When you’re ready, go through to the examination room.”

Katya undressed and wrapped herself in the blue gown. The moment she walked into the next room, a middle-aged woman in a white coat appeared from behind a screen.

“Sit,” she snapped.

Katya sat.

“Arm.” The doctor spoke English but the accent was Russian.

“What are you doing?” Katya held out her arm.

“Taking blood.”

“Why?”

The woman glared. “Testing for HIV, STDs, hepatitis.”

“I don’t have any of those.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

Katya yelped as she twisted her wrist to turn her arm.

“Did you miss the class on bedside manners?” Katya asked. “I think you could do with a refresher course.”

The doctor jabbed the needle into her arm and Katya yelped again.

“Just a little prick. I’m sure you’re used to bigger.”

An iron fist gripped her heart. “How dare you? You know nothing about me.”

“Nor you about me.” For a moment, the woman’s expression looked bleak.

Katya’s blood pressure was recorded. Surprisingly normal, considering her temper. Notes were made about her weight, height and the date of her last period.

“Any major operations?” asked the woman.

“Lobotomy.”

She tsked. “Serious illnesses?”

“The plague.”

“Don’t be a smart ass.”

“Do you have a pill for that?”

“What about allergies?”

“Men make me sick.”

“Ah, we have something in common.”

“Apart from our sunny personalities?” Katya asked.

“It’s in your best interest to answer these questions properly.”

“According to the government, it’s in our best interest to pay our taxes but we don’t if we can avoid it.”