Woman Chased By Crows Part 47

"Oh yeah? Who got robbed?"

"n.o.body, yet. We're doing the B&E. The shrink's office."

"We are? Cool." Adele got them headed in the right direction. "Horrible thing? I actually know how to get there." Stacy was picking a Twizzler off the floor mat. "Darn! Missed one. Well, it's no good now. Stick it in the glove compartment." She made a left onto Evangeline. "I'll wipe it off later." The glove compartment held an a.s.sortment of traveller's rations: Cheetos, beer nuts, half a Snickers bar. Stacy laid the red whip on top of the Cheetos bag and closed the lid. "Hey, you never know," Adele said, "a person could get caught in a blizzard and then where'd you be?"

"Up the creek, definitely."

"So? Wanna give me a hint? We looking for anything in particular?"

"We're looking for her. Where she went, what she's driving, where she took our dancer."

"She scooped her?"

"Or she went willingly. Don't know. One of our constables spotted Zubrovskaya getting into a car near the bus station. Don't have a plate number, don't have a positive ID on the driver except our guy says she had a bandage on her head. Car was a dark blue GM product. Unfortunately the doctor drives a Honda."

"What about her hubby?"

"Ford pickup. He's moved out of the marital house. Could be anywhere."

Adele pulled into the parking lot beside the two-storey Evangeline Medical Centre. "We got a warrant or anything?"

"I've got a credit card. You got anything better than that?"

"Check under the beer nuts. Lockpicks. Black zipper bag. Not kosher, but I'm always losing my house keys."

She was in a barn. She knew it was a barn. She could smell straw, she could hear the echo of pigeons cooing high above. She hoped they'd aim their droppings at the scarf tied over her head. The Hermes scarf. She should have picked up on that right away when Lorna came into the studio wearing it. She had seen it once before. It belonged to Sergei. He will be furious if it's ruined by bird s.h.i.+t. It would serve him right. And to think she almost had warm feelings for him the previous evening. Well, if not warm feelings, at least she hadn't been filled with loathing when the two policewomen brought him in. Her own fault. So sure that she was finally in control of events, directing the situation, driving things to a conclusion of her own choosing. She had forgotten the most important rules: never let your guard down. Trust no one.

And she was paying for her stupidity. The crows had won.

"I always thought they would send a man."

"I am not a killer." Lorna's voice was the same as it used to be in her office, calm rational, dispa.s.sionate, understanding.

"And yet here you are, prepared to kill me. Who are you? Who employs you?"

"Does it really matter?"

"Moscow?"

"At one time."

"And now?"

"And now we don't have a lot of time, Anya. I tried to do this the soft way. The others who came after you over the years were crude, and ultimately unsuccessful. I hoped that I could gain your trust."

"Ha. You did. I got into your car without a second thought. I think it was when you cried in my studio. And then that wicked cat sat in your lap. I should have known better."

"Just give it back and it will all be over."

"You guarantee that, do you?"

"Of course. I don't want to kill you, I never wanted to kill anyone."

"Is it necessary for me to wear this thing over my head? I do not know where I am, and I already know who you are. What point does it serve?" She heard a hollow clumping noise. Someone was leaving. Then, after a silent moment, the scarf was untied and lifted from her eyes. She was in a small room inside a big room, a s.p.a.ce like a stall, or a storage area. There was straw on the floor and rusted things hanging from rusted nails along one wall. The barn boards were loosely fitted and thin shafts of light entered from behind and above. She was tied to a wooden chair. Lorna was standing in front of her. "Why did Sergei have to leave? I already know what he looks like." Lorna didn't answer. "Oh, of course. How silly of me. It wasn't Sergei."

It took Adele just a few seconds to pop the lock. "Smooth," Stacy said.

"s.h.i.+t, I could open one of these with a dirty look. Can't be much worth stealing." The door swung open. The place was bare. "Or much of anything."

Stacy stepped into the place. "Definitely cleared out."

They split up, made a search of outer office, inner office, washroom, closet, and came together in the middle of the main room. "Gonzo," said Adele. "Totally. Last time I moved I left enough c.r.a.p behind the Three Stooges could've tracked me down. What's next?"

"House."

"I'll need directions."

It was Constable Charles Maitland who had spotted Anya Zubrovskaya getting into a car outside the bus station. He had waved to her but she hadn't seen him, and as he was busy writing a ticket for a car with one wheel on the curb in a well-marked no-parking zone, he hadn't waved a second time. When he learned that the Chief was concerned about Anya's whereabouts, he reported in that he'd spotted her driving away but was unable to furnish a plate number. These facts nagged at him all through his lunch break until he remembered the couple whose car he'd cited for the lousy and illegal parking job crossed the street to yell at him for sticking the ticket under their wiper blade. They claimed that they'd only been there for a few minutes while seeing the wife's parents off. By that time Maitland had already written the ticket and couldn't do anything about it. He did say that they had the option of appealing the citation in traffic court, a suggestion that was met with overt hostility. It was while mulling over these events that it occurred to him that the couple in question, a Mr. and Mrs. Amos Wallace, had been taking pictures of Mrs. Wallace's parents prior to their departure and that the parents were posed with their backs to the street. Constable Maitland further remembered that at the same moment the pictures were being taken, Anya Zubrovskaya was getting into a dark blue Chevy Malibu and driving away. There was a chance, a slim chance to be sure, but a chance nonetheless that the Wallaces had a picture of the car in question.

They left her alone for a while. What did they expect her to do? Lose heart? If she had any hope of getting out of this, it rested on her ability to hold fast. She had no doubt they would kill her when they were finished with her. What else could they do? She knew their faces, some of them anyway, they would need to get away somehow, to somewhere. They couldn't afford to keep her alive. They must be desperate. Something must have happened to force this. Well, of course, I forced it, did I not? But they forced it, too. Maybe none of us had a choice in the matter. No choice from the time Viktor bought his suitcase of silk s.h.i.+rts and expensive cologne. From that moment on, the die was cast, and all the players were p.a.w.ns pushed around a board. Vysotsky, Romanenko, Kolmogorov, Kapitsa - they all paid for knowing Chernenko and what he had stolen. It is quite possible they would have died anyway, even if they had not lost his treasure. Just knowing about it might have sealed their fates. Men like Konstantin Chernenko did not value any lives but their own. So who would care about the little lives of gypsy smugglers caught in a misadventure? Not him. And after he was dead? Not anyone who followed him. How many people had been on the trail over the years? Whoever Lorna Ruth was, she was just the last in a long line of corrupt officials, outright thieves, opportunists. And for what? Was it really worth so much?

How did it happen? How did she let Lorna get so close?

Another rainy night. I only drink when it rains. Not precisely true, but true enough, rain had a way of making her feel more acutely all that she had lost - homeland, career, family, friends - all gone. She was not a person to wallow in self-pity, she was stronger than that, but always, deep within, a secret ache like the ghost of a missing limb kept her company. And on rainy nights it called to her more insistently. The only way to dull the pain was . . . well, what else?

The Rose, a lounge attached to the big family restaurant in the West Mall, not far from the hospital. It was almost exactly six months ago. That afternoon, while showing her students a tour en l'air, a girl dropped her three-ring binder and in a desperate attempt to pick it up, the unfortunate child kicked it with her toe, sending it sliding across the wood floor. It came to rest exactly in the wrong place. Anya twisted her ankle so badly upon landing that she was forced to cancel the rest of the cla.s.s. The student whose binder had caused the accident sobbed and hid behind the piano. Anya laughed and told her not to worry, ballet dancers were always getting sprains, she would be fine in a day or two. One of the students was dispatched to the store for a bag of frozen peas, and then Anya sent them all home.

For two hours she huddled in her corner filled with dread, the bag of frozen peas wrapped in a towel, wrapped around her ankle. Pain she could put up with, but being unable to dance, to even walk, made her quite crazy. It brought back such bad memories.

It took them three hours to get around to her in the emergency ward, but in the end they p.r.o.nounced it a very bad sprain, nothing more, try to stay off it as much as she could for a few weeks. She knew how to look after sprains, she didn't need the lecture, just the rea.s.surance that she hadn't ruptured something, broken something or torn a ligament. A sprain she could deal with. They bandaged her ankle, gave her a few painkillers and an ugly metal walking stick to lean on.

When she stepped outside the rain had begun to fall, a steady, heavy rain. The taxi company said it would be half an hour at least before they could get to her. She told them not to bother. The little shop in the hospital lobby sold her a cheap umbrella and a magazine and she limped the two blocks to the Rose to drink some vodka and ease her various aches and worries.

And that's when Lorna Ruth came in to sit at the next table, or perhaps she had been there all along, Anya couldn't quite remember.

"What are you drinking? Vodka? Brandy for me, on a night like this, warms my blood. I worry about getting a chill. I'm Lorna Ruth. I'm a doctor. Your leg all right?"

"Just a sprained ankle. I will be fine." She hadn't wanted conversation.

Just a few drinks. Perhaps the rain would slow down and she could limp the three blocks to her apartment without getting soaked. But the woman had kept talking to her. Not asking questions, not prying, just making pleasant conversation about weather, and life in a small town, and how the world was changing, and Anya only half listening, half responding, and somewhere along the way the woman bought her another drink without offering, it just appeared, and perhaps one more, and sometime after that she found herself in her own apartment being put to bed. Maybe it was the painkillers, or the painkillers in combination with the vodka, or there might have been something else in her drink, but whatever the case the woman had, for an hour or two at least, taken control of her life. When she woke up she didn't remember much. It didn't look as though her apartment had been disturbed.

The doctor had left a card beside her telephone.

The next day Lorna Ruth called, just to see how she was doing, she said. She suggested that the combination of painkillers and perhaps one too many vodkas had caused her to pa.s.s out. She mentioned that when she was being put to bed she appeared to be having a nightmare. She said she was a psychiatrist, and that if Anya ever felt that she needed someone to talk to, she shouldn't hesitate to call.

And then the dream started coming back, and after a few bad nights she called the only doctor she knew. All she wanted was some sleeping pills. Maybe they would kill the night terrors. Dr. Ruth didn't expect pills to help but she suggested, gently, that perhaps a few sessions talking about what was at the root of her anxieties would do some good.

And so, almost without a conscious decision on her part, Anya began twice-a-week sessions with a psychiatrist who, as it turned out, had been searching for answers of her own.

Breaking into Dr. Ruth's house wasn't as easy. There were double locks front and back and the ground floor windows had burglar-proof latches. Adele was getting ready to kick in the back door, but Stacy told her to hold off for a minute.

"Upstairs. Looks like the bedroom window's open a crack."

"Oh sure. Got your rocket pack handy?"

"Standard equipment." In three easy moves Stacy went from the deck to the railing to the roof of the sunroom, and slid open the bedroom window while hanging by one hand.

"You're in the wrong business," Adele called up from the back lawn. "Could have been a cat burglar."

"It's on my resume," Stacy said, and disappeared inside. Thirty seconds later she opened the back door. "It's harder to clean out a three-bedroom house in a hurry," Stacy said. "Maybe they left stuff behind."

"I'll flip you for who gets the bas.e.m.e.nt."

"You want it?"

"h.e.l.l no. That's where my mother used to stick me when I said 'f.u.c.k.'"

"No problem. You get the attic."

"Oh f.u.c.k, it's got an attic, too?"

Stacy grinned. "Meet you back here."

Adele was happy to find out there was no attic. Attics weren't quite as creepy as cellars, but they did hold a few s.h.i.+tty memories. The upstairs had three bedrooms, two baths. The master bedroom was at the front of the house, overlooking a tree-lined street. The trees were still bare of leaves and the curtains were pulled on all windows on the opposite side. The broadloom bore the imprints of a queen-size bed, two side tables, a loveseat close to the window. The carpet had been recently vacuumed. The closet was bare except for a tangle of discarded wire hangers. They must have had a truck, or one h.e.l.l of a garbage pickup. The ensuite bathroom was clean. The wastebasket held an empty plastic package for a disposable razor, the medicine cabinet had one bent Q-Tip and a dusting of powder on the bottom shelf. That was it for the happy couple. Didn't look like much action had been going on in there for a while.

The other two bedrooms were small and didn't contain beds. In one of them was an Ikea computer workstation, partially disa.s.sembled. Maybe they lost the Allen wrench, I was always doing that. d.a.m.n Ikea, anyway. Never could figure out the stupid instructions. Left one behind at my last residence too. The computer cable was neatly coiled on the bottom shelf of the empty bookcase.

The small bathroom was almost as clean as the big one except that they'd left behind the terrycloth toilet seat cover and the medicine cabinet held an empty Dristan squeeze bottle. Adele did a final check. On one of the coat hangers she found a torn piece of what looked to be a baggage claim ticket. That was it for the upstairs.

Stacy called up from the main floor. "Anything?"

"Nada. You?"

"Doesn't look like they were really living here. Not long anyway."

"Okay, I get the kitchen, maybe they left some peanut b.u.t.ter or something."

Kitchens are harder to strip bare; upper and lower cabinets, cutlery drawers, refrigerator, oven, nooks and crannies everywhere. Even better, things fall behind refrigerators and stoves and are never seen again unless someone feels like pulling them away from the wall.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing?" The man at the back door was loaded down with a lawn sign, a pail filled with cleaning supplies, a broom, a sponge mop and a vacuum cleaner. He wasn't sure if he wanted to confront Adele or yell for help. "You're not supposed to be in here."

"Are you supposed to be in here?"

"Yes, of course I am."

"And who are you?"

"What does it matter who I am, who are you?"

Adele showed him her badge. "Adele Moen, Metro Homicide Unit. Hey Stace," she called, "you want to come in here? We've got a visitor." She smiled at the man. "Come on in, stranger. State your business."

"Homicide? Oh Christ. Is there a dead body in here?"

"Haven't found one so far. How about you, Detective Crean?"

Stacy shook her head. "Care to show us some ID, sir?"

"I'm Ben Chiklis. I'm the rental agent. This place was supposed to be vacant."

"Oh, it's vacant all right," Adele said.

"This was a rental?" Stacy gave that some thought. "Explains the lack of a personal touch. How long were the tenants here, sir?"

"They had a year's lease. It's up next month but the woman said she'd be leaving early. I'm just here to check it out, make sure it's in shape to show it. Nothing broken is there?"

"Wish my place was this clean," Adele said. "I was just going to check behind the major appliances when you came in, Ben. Why don't you and Detective Crean have a look around and you can tell her all about the tenants."

Stacy led Mr. Chiklis out of the kitchen and Adele went back to muscling the stove away from the wall. Behind it she found a packet of soy sauce, a crushed fortune cookie and paper-wrapped chopsticks from Long Wok. The fortune said, "You will find true happiness." The refrigerator held one limp leaf of iceberg lettuce draped over the bottom rack. There was no peanut b.u.t.ter. So much for fortune cookies.

"Let me help you with that stuff," said Stacy. She relieved him of the vacuum cleaner, the mop and broom and leaned them against the wall. Chiklis laid the sign on the floor. It read, "For Lease Pilon Realty." Stacy had a look inside the pail. It held Windex, Mr. Clean, Febreeze, a sponge and a wad of cleaning rags. "They made it easy for you Mr. Chiklis. The place is clean."

"That's good," he said. "You never know what you're going to find, y'know?"

"So far we haven't found much of anything. So. What can you tell me about the people who leased the house?"

"Not that much," he said. "She was a medical professional, I believe; the gentleman was in the construction business."

"Did he have his own company?"

"I wasn't the rental agent when they took the place. But I can get you a copy of the rental agreement if you want it. They must have had references. It's an executive-level home, all the amenities, fireplace, hardwood floors . . ."

"Yeah, it's a nice house. But it doesn't look like anyone actually lived here."

"I understand the husband had some problems with the police, but I thought that had been straightened out."

"It was."

"According to his wife, he moved out last Monday or Tuesday. That's when she said she'd be leaving as well."

"You're here pretty quick. She can't have been gone long, either. Did they leave together?"

"I don't know. I got the impression they were separating."

"So how do you come to arrive here so fast? I mean, they've only just cleared out. Here it is Friday and already you're putting a sign out, vacuuming the stairs . . ."

"I came by yesterday morning and saw the moving truck here. It looked like everything was going."

"Were either of them still here?"