After a moment, Delchamps said, somewhat sadly: "Well, why not? They turned people, Billy. Or they set them up to be turned. . . ."
"Turned?" Dona Alicia asked softly, as if she hated to interrupt but really wanted to know.
"They made good guys out of bad guys, Abuela," Castillo said. "They got Russian intelligence people to come to our side."
"And East Germans and Poles and Czechs and Hungarians," Delchamps said. "What I can't understand is why they were just killed. Excuse me, garroted."
"Instead of 'interviewing them' at length?" Davidson asked. "Getting a list of names? Some of them, I'll bet, are still being worked."
"A lot of them are still being worked," Delchamps said matter-of-factly. "I had three in Paris. One in the Bulgarian embassy and two in the Russian."
"At the risk of sounding paranoid, I think there's a pattern to this," Castillo said.
"Just because you're paranoid, Ace, doesn't mean that ugly little men from Mars--or from Pushkinskaya Square--aren't chasing you with evil intentions."
That got some chuckles.
"Pushkinskaya Square?" Dona Alicia asked.
My God, Castillo thought. She's not just being polite; she's fascinated with this b
usiness.
What kind of a man discusses multiple murders--or attempted murders--with his grandmother at the Christmas dinner table?
"It's in Moscow, Dona Alicia," Delchamps explained. "It's famous for two things: a statue of Pushkin, the Russian poet, and an ugly building that's the headquarters of the SVR, which used to be the KGB."
"Oh, yes," Dona Alicia said politely, then asked, "Does 'garroted' mean what I think it does?"
"Why don't we change the subject?" Castillo said. "It's Christmas!"
"Yes, dear," Dona Alicia said. "I agree. But I'm interested."
"They put a thing around your neck, Dona Alicia," Delchamps said. "Sometimes plastic, sometimes metal. It causes strangulation. It was sort of the signature of the AVH, the Allamvedelmi Hatosag, Hungary's secret police. When they wanted it known they had taken somebody out, they used a metal garrote."
"The sort of thing the Indian assassins, the thugs, used?"
"So far as I know, they used a rope, a cord, with a ball on each end so that they could get a good grip. What the Hungarians used was sort of a metal version of the plastic handcuffs you see the cops use. Once it's in place, it's hard, impossible, to remove."
Davidson saw Castillo glaring at Delchamps.
"What kind of a garrote was used in Vienna, Charley?" Davidson asked innocently.
Castillo moved his glare to Davidson.
"How long does it take for someone to die when this happens to them?" Dona Alicia asked.
McGuire saw the look on Castillo's face and took pity on him.
"You think there's a pattern, Charley?" McGuire asked, moving the subject from people being garroted. "What kind?"
Castillo shrugged. "All these hits were on the same day."
"First," Delchamps went on, "the victim loses consciousness as oxygen to the brain is shut off. After that, it doesn't take long."
"Is it very painful?" Dona Alicia said.
"I would suppose it's damned uncomfortable," Delchamps answered. "But I would say it's more terrifying; you can't breathe."