‘Do you think I didn’t recognize you? You killed Zurab. I don’t just make the news. I watch it too.’
Stupid wasn’t going to work.
‘Wait, Nana… Yes, I was there. Charlie and I were both there. But we didn’t kill him. Akaki did, they were his people.’
She stared at me coldly, her hand up, blocking me off. ‘So what? The only difference between you is that Akaki got there a little earlier. Was Zurab making too much noise for you? What does it matter? You all wanted him dead. Why else were you there? And this one’ — she aimed a toe at Bastard’s head — ‘he carries government ID. What am I to make of that?’
Paata was busy setting up his camera stand and lights just a few metres from us.
Bastard had been uncharacteristically quiet so far, but being face down in the dirt wasn’t going to keep him from his default setting for long. ‘You don’t lump me in with these two fucks, you hear? I’m pipeline security, period. Nothing to do with whatever these fucks got up to. That ID says you gotta help me, so do it.’
‘I despise you.’ Nana glared across at him. ‘You are as guilty as if you’d pulled the trigger yourself.’
Paata had rigged up the lights, forward and either side of us, and started running the cables back to the van.
That was it then. Our big moment. Captured on camera by Nana Onani. I wondered what Silky and Hazel would make of it.
Charlie was obviously thinking much the same. ‘Don’t look now, lad,’ he muttered. ‘We’re about to have a starring role in Nana’s answer to
‘That’s got to be worth an Emmy, don’t you think?’ she said, then barked something to Koba in Paperclip. He nodded obediently. The muzzle of the Desert Eagle didn’t waver a millimetre as Nana stood up and hit the cell keys again.
‘We didn’t kill him, Nana. You must have seen the CCTV. You didn’t see me kill him, did you?’
‘Save it for the camera. You’ll all have your chance.’
She waffled into the cell, was put on hold for a moment, then started talking again.
Paata fired up the Merc’s onboard generator and the arc lights burst into life. I could feel their heat on my face and back. My clothes started to steam.
Nana went into rapid-fire Paperclip mode; she checked her watch and waved her spare arm at Paata and his kit, as if whoever was on the other end could see. I could make out every mention of Baz’s name now; I’d heard it far too often these last couple of days not to.
Paata knelt by the van to unpack a sat dish from something resembling a black golf caddie. Nana’s exclusive was going to go out live, with us pleading our innocence straight to camera just before the police arrived.
Decision time.
Should we give up the papers now? Maybe we could still get out of this some other way, and hang on to them.
Bastard was going to say fuck all to her. Why incriminate himself?
But Charlie might…
I decided to hold off just a little longer, until we got ready for filming. Maybe we’d get to sit up; any chance we had to move was a chance to take action.
Nana finished her conversation and her gaze rested for a moment on something just beyond where we were lying. ‘That bench?’ There was sadness in her voice. ‘That is where Zurab sat on Saturday, when he took the call that made him go back to Tbilisi. If only… If only he hadn’t gone… If only I’d asked him even two or three more questions, who knows how things might have turned out?’ Her head jerked back towards me, her eyes full of loathing once more.
Charlie broke the silence that followed.
‘Nana, we didn’t do it. We can prove it. We have papers. That affidavit everyone’s after? I’ve got it here — and a tape of this fat fuck setting the whole thing up.’ He turned to Bastard. Their heads were just a couple of feet from each other. ‘Pipeline security, my arse.’
7
The tape started to spin in the console.
Koba now had the three of us lying down beside the Merc’s open door, but we could see everything we needed to. We had a pretty good view of one of the monitors; Koba and his Desert Eagle had a very good view of us.
To start with, Paata and Nana seemed more interested in what the fuck had happened to Eduard. I was getting the hang of this Paperclip now. Where was he? But then they went quiet as he concentrated on the screen and she flicked through Baz’s papers.
The picture quality was nothing to be ashamed of, given what it had been through. It was a bit gritty and fucked up by the mud, but it was clearly and unmistakably Jim Bastendorf coming into Charlie’s hotel room at the Marriott.
The little 10x8 screen didn’t do full justice to Charlie’s disguise, but it still brought a smile to my face. He’d remembered to keep his back to the lens, which was a smart move, given his outfit. He’d draped a towel over his head and shoulders, like a boxer, but no-one was going to confuse him with Muhammad Ali. He’d topped off the whole ensemble with a shower cap.
Somebody said something, but the sound quality was poor. Paata rewound the tape a few frames and turned up the volume.
We all listened to Bastard telling Charlie the reason he needed him to get into the house on Saturday night. ‘
I flicked my eyes from the screen to the open barn doors. The rain-drenched track was beginning to look more like a duck pond. How long would it take for the police to arrive? And where would they come from? If there was a station in Borjomi itself, we could be seeing blue-and-whites any minute.
Koba was still standing, rock solid, a very professional three metres from our backs. What were the odds of gripping him and that.357 before we heard sirens? We had to be in with a chance. There were three of us, counting Bastard, and I guessed he’d pitch in. He’d gone far too quiet for my liking, but I knew he wouldn’t want to be lifted any more than we did.
Nana looked across at me. ‘Do you know what this says?’
I shook my head.
I had another go at explaining why we’d been in Baz’s house, but she just carried on reading. I wished now that I had taken action when Koba had kicked us to our feet and walked us the dozen or so paces to the van. No matter what, she was going to wait for the police.
But what the fuck, I told her everything I knew; how Bastard came into the story, why we were at the house — and how the tape proved not only that Bastard was part of the operation, but that we didn’t even know Baz was going to be there…
‘Hey, lady,’ Bastard chipped in. ‘I just do what I’m told. I knew nothing about that killing shit. I didn’t know he was gonna come home…’
He was wasting his breath. We both were. Nana’s head was down, and less than halfway through the second page she lifted a hand to silence us.
The folder was on her lap. I watched a tear fall from her cheek and land on the page.
‘Oh my God.’ She stifled a sob. ‘
8
