He appreciated the value of punctuality, if that's what you mean. What are you aiming at?'
Only this: someone baited a trap for him with an expensive watch.' Nikolai picked up a medicine ball and began to roll it in his dinner-plate-sized hands.
Gankrelidze tut-tutted.
Good taste. It can be a curse.'
I don't suppose you've any idea who that might have been?'
You're the local melody, you tell me. I'm just a citizen.'
Sure, you're a citizen,' said Nikolai. And I'm the Grand Duchess Anastasia.'
And then we left,' he said and unlocked the safe by his desk. He placed his holstered gun inside, took out his diary and locked the safe again.
What do you think?' I asked. Would they really execute one of their own and then give him a Mafia funeral with all the trimmings?'
If it was good for business they'd give the Patriarch a Mafioso's send-off,' declared Sasha. These bastards like to think that they're men of honour, but that's only because they've seen Al Pacino in The Godfather. In reality they've got no more respect or honour than a hungry pig.
It's true,' said Nikolai. They watch that video over and over again. It's like a training film for them. I wish I had ten roubles for every churki who thinks he's Michael Corleone.
The big man's phone rang. He took the call and then asked me if I remembered the man who owned the restaurant that had been firebombed.
Chazov, wasn't it?' I said. You were hoping to jog his memory?'
Care to sit in?'
We spent a fruitless afternoon with Chazov, who was still too scared of the Mafia to add anything to his original statement. When Nikolai explained that there would be an official investigation into the origin of his meat supplies, Chazov assured him that he had bought it in good faith from a legitimate supplier, although he was unable, or unwilling, to name him. To Nikolai's final tactic, that he intended to find out whether or not the meat had been stolen from the state meat markets, contrary to Article 92 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, an offence punishable by up to four years' deprivation of freedom or corrective labour, Chazov answered with a shrug only. And after he had gone Nikolai banged the table in the interview room with the flat of his hand.
He knows I've got nothing,' he growled. If I had the first shred of evidence that the meat was stolen I'd have had it impounded and him charged. But how can I ask for a protocol purely on the basis that the very quantity of it makes the supply suspicious? He knows that.'
He hit the table again and I didn't fancy the idea of him ever hitting me.
But I'm not finished with him. I'll keep having him back here until he's so sick of the sight of me, he'll be begging to tell me who's putting the squeeze on him.'
I had no doubt that he meant every word of it.
8
Peter the Great built St Petersburg as Russia's window on the West. That was before television. Television is today's window on the West. Not that there's much worth watching, unless you like Brazilian soap operas. Which is why so many people beg, steal and borrow to own a video-cassette recorder.
St Petersburg Television, broadcasting to over 70 million people, from the Baltic to as far away as Siberia, remained the exception to the state's continuing broadcasting monopoly. A mouthpiece for opinions quite different from those expressed on national television, it had long been a hotbed of the new democracy. The studios of St Petersburg Television were located on Petrogradsky Island, near the top of Kirov Prospekt and easy enough for Grushko to find since they were distinguished by an enormous transmitter-mast that soared over the Neva like a smaller version of the Eiffel Tower.
A middle-aged balding man, wearing his tie askew and his sleeves rolled up, greeted Grushko in his office.
Yuri Petrakov,' he said, introducing himself. I was Mikhail's producer on Sixty Minutes.'
We're speaking to everyone who worked with him,' explained Grushko, sitting down, in the hope that we might find out if he was working on anything that might have got him killed.'
Petrakov lit a cigarette and nodded attentively.
I've already telephoned Mikhail Mikhailovich's editors at Krokodil and Ogonyok in Moscow. But since I was coming here anyway I thought I'd speak to you in person, Mr Petrakov. Did you know him very well?'
Yes, I did. He was one of our finest journalists, and I don't just mean here on Petersburg TV. He was one of the country's finest journalists. The Golden Calf Literary Award, the Ilf and Petrov Prize for Satirical Journalism, Journalist of the Year two years running. There has never been anyone quite like Mikhail. Not in Russia, anyway. It was no surprise to me to learn that he had been lured away by national television.'
He was leaving the station?'
Yes. He told me himself exactly a week before he was murdered. Well, of course he was only ever a freelance. As you know he had other commitments besides us. But they wanted him and were prepared to pay handsomely to get him. More than we could afford, anyway. We are not as well off as they are, colonel. In fact we're losing money. Our major source of funds remains the state budget. I dare say we'll end up as part of the great Russian broadcasting company. They already own a fifth of our equipment and technology.' He shook his head. But here, you don't want to hear about our problems, do you?'
Was there any resentment at Mikhail leaving?'
Some. But not from anyone who knew him. Mikhail wasn't a wealthy man at all. Some people imagined that because he was famous he was rich. It simply wasn't true. Mikhail wasn't very good with money. He was never paid well for what he did. So I didn't blame him at all for wanting to leave. And of course he wasn't the first person to be enticed away. Bella Kurkova went last year. I don't suppose they'll waste any time in looking for someone to replace him.'
Do you know what they wanted him to do?'
The same thing as for us: make five or six documentaries a year.' He shrugged. To tell the truth, as he saw it. I guess that's why he was killed. I'm not sure they would really have known how to handle a man like Mikhail. There was never much editorial control from me. Mikhail liked to do his own thing, and sometimes that meant upsetting people.'
Yes,' said Grushko. I've already seen a sample of the kind of fan mail he received. Was the day he told you he was leaving the last time you spoke to him?'
I think it was, yes. Under the terms of our original agreement he had one film left to do for us and so we also talked over an idea he had for another film about hard-currency prostitutes.'
The phone rang. Petrakov stubbed out his cigarette and answered the call. Then he replaced the receiver without speaking.
That was Zverkov. You're to go down to make-up in ten minutes. I'll show you the way when it's time.'
This film about hard-currency prostitutes, said Grushko. 'Did he mention a Mafia connection? The Georgians?
If he did I doubt it would have registered,' said Petrakov, lighting another cigarette. Mikhail got to be a bit of a bore about the Mafia sometimes. Well, to be quite frank with you, he was obsessed with it. He saw the Mafia everywhere, in everything.'
Grushko was half inclined to say that he agreed with that assessment. Instead he reminded Petrakov that the Mafia had threatened Milyukin's life on a number of occasions.
I'm afraid that's just an occupational hazard for any journalist, Colonel,' shrugged Petrakov. Especially in Russia. About the only thing that isn't rationed these days is stupidity.'
Would you have known if he was ever scared by one threat in particular?'
No. And I think he took them all quite seriously. At least to the extent of taking taxis instead of public transport.' Petrakov laughed. Always allowing for the vagaries of Petersburg taxi-drivers. That's why he never had any money.'
He frowned as his lips tugged at his cigarette. But you know, now I come to think of it, I do remember him being quite agitated by something. I don't know that you would call it a threat exactly.
Oh? What was that?'
He found out that his phone was being bugged.'
