for a number of years on the Costa del Sol with Leonid Revnik and his predecessor before I joined Yuri Donstov in the same capacity. I was given the names of people I was required to kill, but I did not always remember them. It was just business. If you can be specific and remind me of the circumstances, I might be able to help.'
Ramirez was momentarily wrong-footed by the tone of this reply. He'd been expecting a belligerent silence. It made him concentrate on his adversary. Falcon began to think that inside Sokolov's brutal frame there must be a young man with a briefcase, a set of pens and an eagerness to please. Then it occurred to him that the last thing this sort of work needed was craziness. What it demanded was discipline, calmness, attention to detail and a clear uncomplicated mind. Maybe weightlifting wasn't such bad training for the work.
'I was thinking of Marisa Moreno,' said Ramirez, jogging himself back into the interview. 'You knew her, of course.'
'Yes, I did.'
'She was cut up with a chain saw.'
'As you've probably already gathered, that is not my method,' said Sokolov. 'Sometimes I have to satisfy the needs of others. The two who did that were animals, but they were brought up on brutality. They know nothing else.'
'Where are they now?'
'They are dead. They were captured by Revnik's men on Monday night and taken away to be… processed.'
'Was that why you and Yuri Donstov were in the Hotel La Berenjena last night?' asked Ramirez. 'Was that just revenge?'
'I will tell you things, Inspector, but I would like you to guarantee me one thing.'
'I'm not sure I can offer you any guarantees.'
'Just this one,' said Sokolov. 'I want everything I tell you to come out in court.'
'Any reason?'
'There are people in Moscow who should know the sort of a man Leonid Revnik was.'
'I think that can be arranged.'
'Leonid Revnik had the backing of the Supreme Council of vory-v-zakone in Moscow to terminate Yuri Donstov's operations in Seville. He was given this because he'd told them that Donstov had killed two directors on the Costa del Sol. This was not true. Revnik had executed them himself. You do not kill a vor-v-zakone without repercussions,' said Sokolov. 'Very quickly our supply lines of heroin from Uzbekistan were cut. Then Vasili Lukyanov died in a car accident last Thursday on his way to Seville.'
'So, it was revenge in the Hotel La Berenjena last night?'
'I did you a favour, killing Revnik.'
'Why's that?'
'He had agreements with people. Politicians,' said Sokolov. 'He'd keep Seville clean in return for big favours on the Costa del Sol.'
'Why did you have to kill Marisa Moreno?'
'She was at breaking point. She could not be relied upon to keep her mouth shut.'
'What did she know?'
'She knew people by face and name. If she found out that I was not working for Revnik any more, she might have felt that her sister was safe enough and would start talking to you,' said Sokolov. 'She would also reveal that she'd been forced to have a relationship with the judge.'
'Esteban Calderon?'
'Him.'
'Why did she have to do that?'
'Information.'
'I thought it was so that she could provide you with a key to the judge's apartment.'
'You might be right.'
'Did she supply you with the key?'
'Yes.'
'What was done with that key on the night of June 7th/June 8th this year?'
'It was used to get into the judge's apartment.'
'But the judge wasn't there, was he?'
Sokolov glanced over at the observation panel.
'His wife was there,' he said.
'Were you the person who gained access to the judge's apartment that night?'
'Yes.'
'Did you murder the judge's wife, Ines Conde de Tejada?'
'If that was her name, yes.'
'Why did you do that?'
'Because I was instructed to do so by Leonid Revnik.'
'Did you know why you were instructed to kill her?'
'Of course. I had to make it look as if the judge had murdered his wife, so that he would be removed from the investigation of the Seville bombing,' said Sokolov. 'One thing we didn't expect was for him to try to get rid of the body. Fortunately, I'd left a man watching the apartment and he was able to report the judge to the police… otherwise he might have got away with it. And that would not have been fair, would it, Inspector?'
Ramirez and Sokolov looked at each other across the table. The translator stared, mesmerized.
'No, that wouldn't have been fair,' said Ramirez, and his next question came out with his heart in his throat. 'Do you know who was responsible for placing the bomb in the mosque on Calle Romeros, in the barrio of El Cerezo, in Seville on 5th June 2006, which exploded the following morning?'
'I know that it was organized by Leonid Revnik, but I don't know who put the bomb there.'
'What about the building inspectors?'
'I don't know anything about that,' said Sokolov. 'That was not my work.'
'What about the murders of Lucrecio Arenas and Cesar Benito?'
'I killed Cesar Benito in the Holiday Inn, near the Real Madrid football stadium,' said Sokolov. 'Another of Revnik's men shot Lucrecio Arenas at his home in Marbella.'
'Name and where can we find him?'
'I don't know who did it, but you'll probably find him in the puti club near Estepona, which was run by Vasili Lukyanov,' said Sokolov.
'You were a friend of Vasili Lukyanov,' said Ramirez. 'He was coming to join Donstov when he was involved in an accident. He had money and some disks with him…'
'It was all stolen from Revnik,' said Sokolov. 'We were having cash-flow problems, so the money was to get us through the next few months. The disks: Vasili thought we could use them to get involved in the building project here in Seville.'
'Was that all?' asked Ramirez. 'There were a lot of people on those disks, more than sixty. There were also a couple of encrypted disks, which we haven't been able to unlock.'
'With the disks that Vasili was bringing, Yuri said we'd be able to force Revnik out into the open so that we could kill him. I don't know the people who were filmed,' said Sokolov. 'The encrypted disks contain the real accounts of all Revnik's businesses on the Costa del Sol. They were very important to him. That was valuable information for the tax authorities.'
'I'd like to thank you for being so co-operative in our first interview,' said Ramirez.
'As you say, Inspector, it's all over for me now.'
'But normally you people don't talk to the police.'
'Those two directors that Revnik shot were vory-v-zakone. They should have been paid off, not killed. Once Revnik had done that, and put the blame on Yuri Donstov, in my eyes he forfeited the right to the terms of vory-v- zakone. I will tell you anything you need to know about him.'
Falcon left the observation room and knocked on the door of the interview room. Ramirez came out with the translator, who excused herself.
'Great interview, Jose Luis,' said Falcon. 'Not your usual style.'
'Pure luck, Javier. I was going to go in hard about cutting women up with chain saws and shooting them in the
