“Keal,” Semion said, his voice low and resonant, “I want you to tell me about your visit to pick up the packages from Minty’s shop yesterday.”
“Yesterday. Yes.” Keal’s voice was compliant, measured and slow. “I went to the shop. Minty wasn’t there, so I let myself in with my key. Everything was normal. I collected the four packages that had arrived in the last four days.”
Semion checked that against the information Olezka had given him. It was correct. Keal had also handed four packages to Olezka. Semion noted that down.
“Thank you, Keal. You’re doing really well. Now tell me about the time before. When was that, and what happened then?”
Keal’s jaw ground ferociously, and his head shook. Then he began to speak.
“That was five days ago. I got to the shop and Minty was there. He was unhappy about something. I’m not sure what. He barely even spoke to me. I picked up the packages and left. There were five of them. Four small and one bigger.”
Semion checked the notes. Again, the man was correct. He wrote that down.
Maybe Olezka has got this wrong.
“And the time before that?” Semion asked.
Keal’s eyes fluttered and focused for a second before descending back into the thick haze of the drugs.
“That was four days before. I arrived as normal. The shop was open already, so I just walked in. I was running late. Minty was there. He was talking to someone out the back. I picked up the packages —”
“How many were there?”
“There were six packages. Two big and four small.”
Semion checked the notes. Correct.
“I was just about to leave when I saw the person Minty was talking to walk from the backroom and into the shop. It was Borya.”
Keal’s words slurred to a stop.
Semion’s eyes shot up.
Keal’s head lolled forwards.
“What did you just say?” Semion asked.
Keal muttered something unintelligible.
“Keal, take me through that visit to the shop again.”
Keal’s body shook and then went limp.
23
When looking for someone, Leo had learned to rely on his feelings and instincts. They told him where to look, what to accept as truth and what to challenge. Right now, he had a feeling things weren’t fitting together as they should.
Minty was a bright, colourful and vibrant man. A man with a successful business. A man who lived his life to excess — not one who, Leo thought, would choose to end it in a place like this. Sure, maybe his private and public personas were different. But then, would he really have ended his life in such a public way?
The rumble of an approaching train overwhelmed the white noise hum of the station. Leo turned to face the dark eye of the tunnel. Warm air buffeted him. As a light appeared, Leo felt the vibrations climb through his feet. A moment later, the yellow body of the train leapt into the station. With a hiss of brakes, it started to slow. The train was still going fast when it reached Leo halfway down the platform.
Fast enough… Leo shuddered.
The train eased to a stop, and its doors buzzed open. Half a dozen passengers stepped out and headed for the exit. Leo stepped away from the waiting train and looked down at his phone. Pushing in one of his earphones, he played the voicemail message he’d recorded from Charles’ answerphone. Beneath Minty’s words was the same gushing rattle of the arriving train.
In a staccato of ascending gears, the train began to accelerate from the station.
As the train’s rumble faded to silence, Leo listened to the recording again. This time he counted the seconds between the start of the noise and the end of the recording. Six seconds. He counted again. Yes, there were six seconds between the sound of the train entering the station and the end of the recording — the impact.
Hearing the rumble of the next train approaching, Leo stood ready. First, the darkness of the tunnel was solid. Then a single light pierced the darkness. Then the rails began to glisten.
Leo watched, waiting, ready to count.
As the train lurched into the station with the whining of engines and hissing of brakes, Leo counted. One, two, three, four... and then the train passed him. Leo continued counting. It was six seconds to the final pillar. Eight, and the train finally pulled to a stop.
Seven seconds was approximately the halfway point between the final pillar and the wall. It wasn’t an exact science, Leo knew that, but it might give him an estimation of where Minty was on the platform. That could be helpful. Right now, anything could be helpful.
Leo walked to the point where he estimated Minty had made the call. It was about three-quarters of the way along the platform.
The doors slid closed, and the train began to glide from the station. Leo would be ready for it when the next train arrived. He would listen to the recording, and if the sounds matched up, then he was in the right place.
Leo felt his phone vibrate in his hand. An icon showed the receipt of a message. Leo jabbed it impatiently, and a message filled the screen. Leo didn’t need the interruptions right now. Seeing it was from Allissa, he felt an irrational prickle of irritation.
Doesn’t she think I can do this on my own?
“What do you think? Xx.” The message said. There was a picture attached.
Leo thumbed the button, and an image filled the screen. In the photo, Allissa was wearing the dress she had tried on yesterday, but now she wore makeup and high-heeled shoes. For a moment too long, Leo found himself looking at the impossible slenderness of her waist, the bulge of the hips, and her legs, lengthened by the shoes. Her skin glowed even more flawlessly than usual, and her hair tumbled in great curls beside her face. Leo remembered their embrace. The feeling of her body beside his. They’d known each other a long time now and had spent hundreds, maybe
