Oceans of Fire (39 page)

“Because you suspect Frank?”

“I know he’s involved and also the man working for him, Chad Kingman. I wanted to find proof and if Abigail did manage to take pictures of stolen paintings and the pictures can lead us to the thieves, I’ve got them nailed. Frank will give it up. He isn’t a tough guy.”

“Could Prakenskii have been deliberately keeping you from that back room?”

That stopped him. Abigail had been listening and she turned fully around. “There was a fight. I know you saw the spots of blood. We could all feel the vibrations of violence. And we’re certain those paintings are real, they
felt
old, not that Frank couldn’t have acquired them legally.“

“If Prakenskii had already left, and your aunt Carol told me he had, how would he have known I was in that room, or that I was going back to it?” Aleksandr asked.

“Sarah sometimes knows things.”

“Not like that, though, Abbey,” Sarah told her. “It doesn’t work that way. I don’t think Prakenskii could have known without being present. He must have seen you going into the room and used Abbey to distract you from returning.”

“We know he’s good at moving through a crowd without being seen,” Abbey said. “I want to know what happened to Mason Fredrickson. Do you think it was his blood and not Chad’s? If Sylvia saw him go in earlier, but none of us saw him, where did he go? Aunt Carol said she saw Prakenskii give Chad a beating, but Mason was nowhere around. Had he been there earlier, saw something he shouldn’t have and was hurt? Or could he be involved?”

“There’s a door that exits out into the alley where the delivery trucks come,” Aleksandr said.

“And Mason’s good friends with Chad. They went to school together,” Sarah added. “I’m more concerned that Prakenskii seems to be subtly influencing everyone.”

The three entered the kitchen and Aleksandr reached past Abigail to snag the last of the cookies on the plate ahead of Jonas. “Prakenskii follows his own rules. I have no idea what his agenda is, but I can tell you, whatever he’s doing here isn’t exactly what Nikitin thinks it is.”

“What is this?” Jonas picked up a photograph of a naked male statue and thrust it at Hannah. “I suppose this is your idea of a stolen painting.”

She nodded, taking the photo from him and passing it on to her aunt. Carol laughed. “Joley, you took these, didn’t you?”

Joley widened her eyes innocently. “I can’t imagine why you’d think it was me, Aunt Carol. Abbey and Hannah were both there as well.”

Abigail glanced over the pictures spread across the table and her heart suddenly began to pound. She stared down at one of them unbelieving, certain her eyes were tricking her. The face and body were familiar, the stuff of nightmares, she was certain of it. She leaned closer, almost afraid to touch the photograph.

“Abbey?” Aleksandr slipped his arm around her. “What is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Abigail reached past Hannah to grab the picture and wave it at Jonas and Aleksandr. “This is one of the men who shot Gene and Danilov. I know it’s him. I’m certain of it.”

Aleksandr took it out of her hand. “Who took this?” There was shock on his face and in his eyes.

Carol peeked under his arm. “I did. The ladies from the Red Hat Club decided we were going to visit a few of the private beaches as a sort of defiant statement of owning beaches. I’m fairly certain he was staying at the old Hogan place. I saw him start down the deck stairs and knew he was going to run us off. I took a couple of snapshots of him using the zoom lens. It’s such a great feature, don’t you think?”

“You
trespassed
,” Jonas emphasized. “And you darn well did it on purpose, Aunt Carol. You knew the murderers were outsiders and that they would probably be renting one of the more secluded beach houses, didn’t you?”

“Well, dear, it may have occurred to me. If I were going to rent a house and not want the law to catch me, I’d use someone else to do the actual renting. How in the world would you be able to find them? The ladies loved the idea of invading private beaches. We danced and sang and ran barefoot into the sea! It was so much fun. And of course I took lots of pictures for all of our scrapbooks.”

“Carol, you can’t be doing that kind of thing. You aren’t a spy, for God’s sake. And you can’t take Inez and the others along on your little adventures.” Jonas raked his hands through his hair. “Stay out of this.”

“Just say thank you, Jonas,” Joley said. “She got you the address.”

Abigail heard the half teasing, half bickering that often went on between Jonas and her family as if from a distance. Her attention was on Aleksandr. “What is it? Who is this man?”

“Leonid Ignatev. He’s here, in the United States.”

“What does that mean?” Abigail’s heart began to pound.

“He wouldn’t be here for stolen art.” He looked up at Jonas. “I think your murder investigation and my stolen art investigation have just crossed paths.”

“Who is this man?”

“He was a high-ranking member of the police department with aspirations for political office. When Abigail and I met, four years ago, my career had surpassed his and I unwittingly, in the course of several investigations, stepped on his toes. I knew he was dirty and that he had a hand in shaking down businesses in the city.” Aleksandr shrugged. “It can be a way of life, and there are so many like him, I didn’t give it much thought. I would have left him alone even knowing he was in deep with the mafia if he stayed out of my way.”

“But he didn’t,” Jonas prompted.

Aleksandr drew Abigail to him. “No, he didn’t. He went after both my career and Abigail. I had no choice but to take him down. It was the only way to save Abbey’s life. His men would have killed her when they got what they wanted out of her.”

“What did they want?” Sarah asked.

“For her to give me up. If she once gave them my name, I would have lost everything, but she held out and when I found out what was going on, I moved quickly to free her and destroy him. Several of his men were killed and evidence against him was discovered. He had to run in order to survive. He put out a hit on me using Nikitin as the broker. We know Nikitin is very violent and mafia, but we’ve never been able to get anything at all on him. Several times agents have been sent in and they turn up dead.”

Jonas rubbed his jaw. “We’ve been keeping an eye on this Nikitin. I’ve got a file on him a few inches thick, but he hasn’t made a single misstep and you’re right, there’s nothing to charge him with. He’s acting as if he’s on vacation and just enjoying the coast. He’s frequenting the best restaurants and he’s shopping in all the stores.”

“And making contacts,” Aleksandr pointed out. “He can be very charming, but there’s no question he’s a shark.” He tapped the picture. “This one is up to something very bad. He’d never bother with stolen art. What we have here is a takeover of an established route and whatever they’re bringing into the country via that route is hot and it’s coming in soon. They’re willing to kill to protect whatever it is. Nikitin is up to his neck in this, he’s most likely the advance man, but Ignatev is almost certainly the man in charge.”

“Are you certain the man in that photograph was one of the men in the speedboat?” Jonas asked. “It was dark.”

Abigail nodded. “Absolutely. It was a full moon and they weren’t all that far away from me.”

“If Ignatev was there to pick up something and there was a problem, even a small one, he would have been angry. He has no patience and he solves his problems with violence.”

“What would they be bringing in that would be so important?” Carol asked.

Aleksandr’s gaze shifted to Jonas. Their eyes met over Carol’s head. Jonas nodded ever so slightly. Aleksandr let out his breath. “Ignatev was involved with a group that used terror tactics to try to overthrow the government. I know that he was trained in Africa and has ties to several terrorist groups. I would guess he’s returning a favor for someone and getting very rich while he’s at it. To get out of Russia safely, he had to use his connections and those kinds of favors always come with strings. He’d need money to rebuild.”

Abigail looked from one grim face to another. She turned to Sarah. Sarah looked frightened. “Sasha, do you think he’s bringing in a bomb of some kind?”

His arm swept her closer and he brushed a kiss on top of her forehead. “I think he’s bringing in a dirty bomb. Ignatev is here to receive it and pass it on to a mole. He’d never use it himself, but he’d be in a position of having no choice if they asked him to get it here. Nikitin knew about the route for stolen art, it’s been going on for years, so when Ignatev approached him, naturally he chose it. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of our investigation and Danilov was already in position undercover. They didn’t know about him or that Interpol was looking hard at this coast.”

“You don’t know that for certain,” Joley said, her hand to her throat.

Hannah made a small distressed sound and Jonas reached out and ran his hand down her arm in reassurance. “We’ll stop them, now that Volstov is working with me.” He frowned. “Why are you working with me? You’ve been stonewalling me this entire time. Why the sudden change?”

“After Abigail and I are married, I’m going to need a job and someone on my side,” Aleksandr said.

Abigail made a face and rolled her eyes at her sisters, but she remained silent. Aleksandr may have had a trace of amusement in his voice, but he was being serious.

Jonas regarded him for a long moment. Abigail could hear the clock ticking in the silence of the room while Jonas weighed his reaction. “A job, huh? You do have a few skills that might be useful.”

“A few,” Aleksandr agreed.

Joley and Abigail exchanged a quick smirk. Men always seemed to growl and sniff around each other, bristling over nothing, and just as suddenly become buddies at the least likely moments.

“Aunt Carol.” Jonas turned his attention to the older woman. “You really have to listen to me this time. I don’t want you spying on anyone else. This is far too dangerous. You can see from everything we’ve said that you were in danger whether you realized it or not while you were playing at James Bond. You need to give me your word you won’t be skulking around with your camera poking into the hornet’s nest.”

“I never skulk, dear,” Carol said.

“Aunt Carol,” Sarah persisted, her voice stern. “Jonas is right this time.”

“This
one
time,” Hannah muttered under her breath as she stared down at one of the photographs.

Jonas scowled darkly, snatching the picture of the naked statue from her and crumpling it into a small ball. “You don’t need to be looking at this crap.” He looked exasperated. “And I mean it, Aunt Carol, no more poking around.”

“I’m certainly not about to do anything so silly.” Carol grinned at him. “But you have to admit, I broke the case!”

Relenting, Jonas slipped his arm around her and dropped a kiss on her head. “You did do that. I now have gray hair, but you definitely gave us a very important piece of information.”

“I’ll get back to my house and send off some inquiries immediately and see what data Interpol can give me on recent movements of materials needed for a bomb. I’ll also check the freighters coming close to the coast in the next few days,” Aleksandr said. “Harrington, don’t go after these people alone. Nikitin is dangerous and he has a few people working for him that are even more so. Ignatev is a venomous snake.”

“I can’t move until I have something concrete,” Jonas said. “Right now, it’s all speculation.”

“I’m taking Abigail home with me,” Aleksandr announced to the Drake sisters. “When she comes back, ask her to see the ring.”

Chapter 16