The Defector: A Gripping Spy Thriller (The Russian Detective Book 2) by Blair Denholm

Author:Blair Denholm [Denholm, Blair]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blair Denholm
Published: 2024-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

I followed Schulman up a flight of metal stairs and into the bowels of the No. 78 militsiya station. Inside was quieter than I expected. A puffy-cheeked uniformed officer, perspiration blooming under his shirt, greeted us at the reception counter with a wordless finger salute. I brandished my ID, the man simply nodded. No enquiries as to who I was. Schulman accompanying me was enough. Glass-walled offices either side, two cops in each, all engrossed in paperwork or typing up reports. At the end of a short corridor we stopped at a door displaying my escort’s name and rank. Opposite – the station chief’s office.

‘Not introducing me to the commanding officer?’ I said.

‘He’s at a meeting all day. Which means I’m in charge.’ Schulman offered an amiable smile.

‘Not much crime going on in Leningrad lately?’ I said.

He shrugged. ‘Not the usual kind where we drag people into the holding cells. The city was cleared out a week before the summit, so of course crime’s going to be down.’

‘Cleared out…’ I repeated his words, knowing exactly what he meant. In 1980, army trucks patrolled Moscow in the dead of night, gathered up drunks, drug addicts, all manner of miscreants, hauled them far away from the centre of the city. According to rumour – because none of these activities officially happened – the worst undesirables were transported to gulags in Siberia. Troops under the supervision of the KGB’s Sixth Directorate were rumoured to have carried out the lion’s share of the dirty work. Most of this unwanted humanity was brought back to the capital once the Olympic Games were over. But many did not return. Homeless unwashed alcoholics and drug addicts aren’t missed very much. I fear the truth of what happened is so well covered up that it will never come to light. And now, it was probably happening all over again. ‘Shit,’ I said. ‘I thought I’d noticed a lack of bums out on Moscow’s streets, too.’

‘Yes.’ Schulman gestured me into a cramped, untidy office that reeked of cheap tobacco. ‘The government wants to present a perfect picture to the world for the next couple of days.’

‘But the summit’s in Moscow, not here,’ I said, taking a seat opposite Schulman. The desk was faded and well-scratched. The etchings appeared to have been carved with knives over a number of years. A psycho cop with a blade obsession perhaps. Procurement of decent furniture obviously wasn’t a priority at station No. 78.

He flung a packet of awful Belomorkanal-brand cigarettes at me, which I watched bounce twice on the desk and then ignored. He frowned, scrabbled for the packet and lit one for himself. ‘Haven’t you looked at the schedule? For the summit I mean.’

‘My job right now’s got nothing to do with the summit. Why would I have seen the bloody schedule?’

‘Because you are a colonel in the MVD. A step above me.’ He rested the cigarette in an ashtray and glanced at his fingernails, which, I noted, were bitten back to the quick.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.