The Half Truth(18)

‘Pavel killed Gromov?’ said Adam.

‘Kill or be killed,’ said John. He nodded at the computer. ‘Get cracking, then, and see what you can find. I want to know if Pavel came in alone.’

Adam got to it straight away. Within an hour he was calling John over.

‘Sir, you might want to come and look at this.’ John came and looked at the monitor. There was Pavel Bolotnikov in full Technicolor.

‘Was he alone?’

Adam flicked to another CCTV screen capture. ‘It would appear not. Came through passport control and customs separately, but joined up in arrivals.’ Adam zoomed in on Pavel and his accomplice.

Martin came and peered over his shoulder at the screen.

‘Is that who I think it is?’





Chapter 9


Tina smiled as Dimitri danced in and out of the shade of the sycamore trees, the late afternoon sun stretching the shadows into long, narrow strips, which spread over the pavement and climbed the garden walls.

‘The crocodiles can’t get me when I’m on the black bits,’ said Dimitri, as he hopped from one shaded patch to another.

The light breeze that tripped through the trees threw the edges of the shadows from side to side, making the jumping across the sea of crocodiles quite precarious.

‘Ah! Your foot landed in the water,’ said Tina as Dimitri performed a rather optimistic leap from one shadow to another. She chased after him, snapping her hands together. ‘Snap! Snap! Snap! Here comes the crocodile!’

He squealed and laughed as he darted to the shade of another tree and leaned against the trunk. ‘Not quick enough, Mr Crocodile.’

Dimitri looked on further down the avenue, assessing his next death-defying leap across crocodile-infested waters. He raised himself from the tree trunk and peered more closely at something ahead of him.

‘There’s a man outside our house,’ he said.

Tina followed his gaze. Standing outside her front gate was John Nightingale. She was surprised to see him and found herself subconsciously running her hand across her hair, which was tied back in a ponytail. A fleeting thought, that she wished she had her hair loose today, whizzed through her mind. Swiftly followed by another that she was in her work uniform. However, these were soon overtaken by the idea that something might be wrong. She hadn’t been expecting to see the police again, unless there had been some developments.

‘Hello, Tina,’ said John as she neared him.

‘Hello,’ said Tina. ‘Is everything all right?’ An uneasy sensation pitched up in her stomach and instinctively she took Dimitri by the hand, drawing him into her.

‘Everything is fine,’ replied John, he looked down at Dimitri and smiled. ‘Hello, I’m John. You must be Dimitri.’

Dimitri turned into Tina’s legs. ‘Say hello to John,’ she said. John crouched down and held out his hand.

‘Hello,’ said Dimitri. He looked at John’s hand for a moment and then solemnly shook it.

‘I wondered if we could have a word,’ said John standing up.

‘We?’

John motioned with his head to the other side of the road. Another man Tina didn’t recognise lounged against the side of a black BMW. ‘Martin, he’s my partner.’

‘Two of you. That sounds to me like everything is not fine.’

She watched John’s face for any sign that she might be right. It was impassive. ‘Can we come in?’ he said after a moment.

‘I suppose you had better.’

Tina hoped that the air of calm she was desperately trying to project was working. She didn’t want to alarm Dimitri any more than he had already been the past few weeks. She was very much aware he was picking up on her anxieties. He had started having upsetting dreams about hearing footsteps in the night and being watched. A couple of nights ago, his whimpering had woken her, the result of a nightmare that someone was in his room.

Once inside she busied herself making tea for the adults and poured a glass of milk for her son. ‘Why don’t you pop the TV on?’ she said to Dimitri as she took the drink and a biscuit through to the living room.

‘TV? Now?’ said Dimitri excitedly. ‘I can watch it now?’

‘Yes, just this once I’ll make an exception to no TV immediately you get in. You can do your reading and writing later instead.’

Martin followed her into the living room. ‘I’ll watch TV with you, if you want. Haven’t seen Tom and Jerry in years.’

‘Tom and Jerry,’ said Dimitri. ‘I don’t watch that, it’s for babies. No, I’m going to watch Ben 10.’

‘Ben what?’

‘Sit down and you’ll find out,’ said Tina. She was grateful that Martin was acting as a distraction for Dimitri but, at the same time, apprehensive as to what John was about to spring on her.