Silent Thunder

'I'm sorry,' Hannah said. 'You said that he wasn't your father. How was he related to you?'

'He wasn't.'

'Boyfriend?' Kirov said.

She made a face. 'Please. He was my mother's boyfriend. Two years ago, my mom got a new guy, and she left us both. I didn't have any other family, so Petrenko let me stay with him.'

'That was nice of him,' Hannah said gently.

'Yeah.' For the first time, Hannah saw genuine emotion creep from behind Anna's tough veneer. 'He didn't have to do that. He was a nice guy. You know, until that time I never liked him. He was just another one of mom's guys.'

'Do the police have any suspects?'

'I told the police about the two of you.'

Kirov's lips twisted. 'Of course.'

'I had to do it. But I told them that I didn't think you were involved. Petrenko pretended to be afraid of you, but he wasn't really. I could tell.' She shrugged. 'I was always worried about something like this happening. He dealt with nasty people. He was into some bad stuff. Smuggling antiques, smuggling people.'

'But not last weekend,' Kirov said.

She shook her head. 'No, but somebody paid him a lot of money to make sure you got that bag.'

'We know that now,' Hannah said. 'Can you give us any idea who?'

'No. Petrenko didn't even tell me about it until after you left here. Here I was ready to blow your heads off, and he'd actually been waiting for you to show up. Someone must have made the arrangements with him after he got back from Paris on Monday.' She frowned. 'Are you detectives or something?'

'Or something.' Hannah glanced at Anna's duffel bag. 'Where are you going?'

'A long way from here.'

'Where?'

'Don't know.'

'Honey, you just can't-'

'Why not? I'm only four months away from my eighteenth birthday, and I'd rather not spend that time trying to break free of Protective Services,' Anna said. She zipped the duffel closed. 'I'll be fine. I've already been accepted at Cal Arts for the fall semester. If I'm careful, I'll be able to get by on student loans and tuition grants.'

Kirov handed her a thick fold of bills. 'Until then, this might help you get where you're going.'

She pocketed the bills without counting them. 'If you thought I'd refuse this, you thought wrong. Everybody needs help sometime. I'll just pass it along when it's my turn.' She nodded as she headed for the door. 'Thanks.'

She stopped, hesitating at the door. 'Look, there was another package.'

'What?' Kirov said. 'Along with the satchel?'

'No, it was brought in the night before Petrenko was killed. It was a rush job. Someone came to the shop to pick it up.'

'Have you any idea what was in it?'

She shook her head. 'But Petrenko did. He opened it and looked through it before he turned it over. I was thinking maybe he shouldn't have done that.'

'It wasn't smart. Chances were the package had a security seal to tell if it had been tampered with. He might have signed his death warrant.'

'He was nervous. You scared him. He didn't want to have that happen again.'

'You don't know anything about the contents?'

'It was from Moscow. There was an official-type paper on top and other papers and letters, photos and stuff underneath.' She frowned, thinking. 'And there was a name stamped on the folder. I caught a glimpse of it but I only caught a few letters before Petrenko shoved it back in the package.'

'Can you remember?'

'It was Russian. Petrenko was teaching me but it was damn hard. H, E, I…' She shook her head. 'That's it. Does it help?'

'It helps,' Kirov said.

'I'm glad.' She opened the door. 'Good luck to you. And if that good luck means catching up with the guy who killed Petrenko, I hope you score big.'

Hannah turned to Kirov as the door shut behind Anna. 'The information packet your source in Moscow said Pavski was expecting? Heiser?'

'Probably.'

'Which Heiser? Captain Heiser or his father?'

'I'd bet he wanted more background on Heiser's father. Heiser was trying to tell his father about the location of the cradle. Everything was aimed at him.'

'But Pavski has the plates. What does he need with info about Heiser's father?'

'I've no idea. I find it curious that it was a rush job. That means he did send for it after he had the plates. That may mean he saw something on the plates that he wanted to verify.'

'What?'

He shrugged. 'But if Pavski wanted in-depth information about Heiser, then I believe we should have it too.' He reached for his phone. 'I'll fax Eugenia all the information we've gathered plus the transcript of Heiser's conversation with his father. Let's see what she can come up with.'

After they left Petrenko's shop, Hannah and Kirov drove to a coffeehouse in nearby Bridgeport, where they sat on the patio and studied printouts of the sonar readings Hannah had made from LISA. The pages almost resembled X-rays, offering red-tinted views of the cylinders and the tight clumps of mass within them.

Hannah found it difficult to concentrate on the pages. She was haunted by her last sight of Anna, duffel slung over her shoulder and all alone in the world. So strong, yet so sad. Hannah had always been independent, but she'd never lacked loving family support. Every kid should be entitled to that security. It should be written on a human bill of rights.

Kirov was frowning down at the readout. 'You know, I think your experience with that explosive device on the ocean floor could be of use to us.'

Hannah snapped to attention. 'How?'

'If we knew who built it, we might be able to track him to Pavski.'

'Well, I don't recall seeing a name and address engraved on the damned thing.'

'No, but we now know that the device had some unique characteristics.' He pointed to one of the canisters. 'Pavski and I both knew a man named Dane Niler, who was probably the best underwater demolitions expert in the Russian Navy. Twenty years ago, he designed a series of mines that are still used in every ocean on the planet.'

Hannah looked closer at the scan. 'You think this is his work?'

'It's a strong possibility. I hear he's been doing a lot of work for South American drug lords in the past few years. They hide their shipments in underwater containers to throw off the drug-sniffing dogs, and Dane secures them with his booby traps. I'm told many of them are damn ingenious.'

'Ingenious like a bomb that suddenly turns into an electromagnet and clamps itself to the target?'

'It seems like something Dane would create. I've never known him to work with Pavski, but there's a first time for everything.'

'So how does that help us?'

'Dane is a mercenary. Even if Pavski is paying him, he's still looking for his next job.'

Hannah nodded. 'So if a lucrative offer suddenly floated in his direction, he might surface.'

'Exactly.'

'But how are you going to float such an offer if you don't know where he is?'

Kirov reached again for his phone. 'Where there's Eugenia, there's a way.'

'Aren't you putting a lot of pressure on her?'

'Checking the GRU package is going to be dicey. Finding Niler should be fairly easy for her.' He started to dial.