So he does have a bitch, the person at the other end said. He hung up.
Ella began to shake as she realized what the man had said. She instinctively put her hands to her belly in an act of protection. Where was Pavel, she thought. Five minutes later she breathed as sigh of relief when she heard the front door.
How was your flight? Ella asked the father of her child.
Long and uncomfortable, he replied.
So why was it so uncomfortable?
Firstly, because you weren't with me and secondly, a toy elephant kept poking me in the leg. Really, I'll have to have a word with the guys that load the plane with the stuff for the orphanage. They forgot to leave room for me this time.
Well you usually don't fly with all the toys, I suppose they forgot. Please Pavel, be careful, I am worried sick about you. I can't sleep for worry.
You know what we discussed. You will be safe at your parents Stay there until I come for you. I'm sorry you are involved in this, but nobody threatens the woman I love. I will put an end to in once and for all.
Oh my God, please don't do anything stupid and get yourself killed. I couldn't bear to lose.......
Ella, listen to me. Nothing is going to happen. I will be back in a few days. Get some sleep and look after our child.
Pavel put the cellphone back in his pocket and walked out of the airport.
Hello Pavel, Lilia said, holding a broom in her hand.
Lilia, come here, Pavel said as he held out his arms. He hugged the sixty-three-year-old woman who looked after his apartment in his home town of Sochi. Thank you for looking after the place. It's a long time since I have been here.
It's my pleasure, and it's so nice to see you. I have stocked the fridge and made the bed.
When Lilia left, Pavel looked around. He'd kept the small apartment he'd managed to buy after he'd left the army. He took a photo from the sideboard and looked at it. It was taken in Chechnya. Abram was in the middle, in his officers uniform and Pavel, and a few comrades were huddled around him. Pavel didn't want to remember his time there. It had been the most brutal of wars, and he'd considered himself lucky to escape with his life. Unlike a lot of his comrades, he'd been able to come home. His thoughts turned to Nikolai. Now he was going to avenge his unnecessary death.
Pavel showered and drank some coffee. When the taxi arrived, he was sitting on the wall in the street outside his apartment. He'd gone out early to get a feel for the place. It hadn't changed much at all. Everyone still hung their washing from wires on their balconies and the kids still rode around on rusty old bicycles.
The taxi, a battered Lada, arrived and took him to Gagarina Street, block 18. He got out and looked up at the dilapidated balconies. Some of them had been repaired and some of them looked as thought they were ready to fall down. He went into the building and climbed to the third floor.
Katya, he exclaimed when the old woman opened the door.
Pavel, my dear boy. How long it is since I saw you, How are you?
I'm really well. How are you?
Come in and I will give you a long list of my ailments, she chuckled. Inside it was a typical Russian apartment. A small corridor with a kitchen to the right and a living room to the left. At the end a bathroom and a single bedroom.
This apartment hasn't changed at all, he remarked.
No. I wanted to renovate it, but I only have a small pension. Now I'm too old to bother, she said as she showed him into the tiny sitting room.
Please Katya, sit down. I'm afraid my visit today is not going to be a pleasant one.
Katya was in her eighties and just five feet two. She had curly gray hair and for her age remarkably fresh looking skin. She was dressed in a flowery summer dress. Outside it was thirty-two degrees and inside the stuffy apartment, not much cooler.
Katya instinctively put her hands up in the air when Pavel pulled out a hand gun and pointed it at her. I am sorry to have to do this Katya. But your son is a disgrace. He is one of the richest people in New York, and he's left you living in this hovel. I need him to come home and see what he has done, and there's only one way to do that.
Why are you pointing a gun at me and why are you talking so badly about my boy. He's a good boy.
Pavel ignored her and pulled out his cellphone. When he got up and put the gun to her head, Katja closed her eyes. Pavel dialed the number and waited.
Hello, Abram said.
Abram, Abram, there's a man here and he's going to kill me. Please help me, Katya cried into the phone.
Abram, you've got two days to get your ugly ass back to Sochi or your mother gets a bullet, he said. He put the phone down.
And what the hell do you want? he man said as he looked through the peephole in the wooden door.
My name is Pavel Beljakov. I'm an old comrade of Dimitry's brother, Nikolai.
So what, what do you want?
I want to speak to him about his brother.