“Apologies,” Leonid said immediately. “I forgot you don’t speak Russian, Mr. Morgan.”
“My problem, not yours,” Jack responded. “So you caught Erik Utkin dealing drugs?”
Leonid nodded. “It seems so. I couldn’t see what was in the bag, but a couple of his fighters were definitely selling narcotics of some kind.”
&n
bsp; “The Black Hundreds would punish him severely,” Dinara observed.
“Unless they’ve branched into new ways of making money,” Jack said.
Dinara shook her head. “Not these people. For them patriotism is bound up in the preconception of a wholesome life. God, country, family. Drugs would attack the very core of what they stand for.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time the actions of an organization like this don’t match its words,” Jack replied. “But let’s assume you’re right for now, unless we find anything to suggest otherwise.”
“What about Fisher?” Leonid asked.
“We think he had a safe somewhere in the city, possibly a warehouse similar to Karl Parker’s,” Jack replied. “We’re going to canvass his neighbors and nearby businesses to see if anyone remembers him. Find out if he’s got a place people saw him using. We’ll start here and spread out. Put his photo in front of enough people and someone will recognize him.”
“What’s our search radius?” Leonid asked.
“We start here and keep going until we find something,” Jack replied.
“The whole city?” Leonid remarked in disbelief.
“I don’t think it will come to that,” Jack said flatly. “But we keep going until Justine and the team in New York come up with a better angle.”
“What’s the matter?” Dinara goaded Leonid. “You’re not afraid of a little hard work, are you?”
He replied in Russian.
“What did he say?” Jack asked.
“Something about how cold it is,” Dinara replied, frowning at the old cop. “The rest of his words I won’t translate, because they belong in the gutter.”
Jack laughed. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 63
I FELT JUST shy of useless. A detective who couldn’t speak the language wasn’t much good at canvassing, and I found myself standing idle as Dinara spoke to storekeepers on Year 1905 Street.
We’d drawn the short straw. Leonid was inside Ernie Fisher’s building, speaking to the man’s neighbors, while Dinara and I trudged the snowy streets, checking with desk clerks, restaurateurs and the managers of local stores. We’d been on the hunt for five hours, and my feet ached and my head was pounding worse than ever.
“You look like you could use a break,” Dinara said as we left an antiques dealership.
“I’m fine,” I told her. It was bad enough being useless. I was determined I at least wouldn’t be the one to slow us down.
“The owner recognized Ernest Fisher,” Dinara told me, gesturing toward the double-fronted store on the ground floor of a large redbrick building. The shop’s windows were full of old Russian and Ottoman furniture and art. “He said Fisher bought an armoire from him a few years ago. He came in to have some restoration work done to one of the drawers shortly after buying it.”
“Might have been the one the key was hidden in,” I remarked.
“Maybe,” Dinara agreed. “The owner hasn’t seen Fisher since.”
We walked down the street a little and stood near the corner of Krasnopresnenskaya Naberezhnaya, the Embankment. The light was fading quickly, and the buildings on the other side of the river were already twinkling in the last of the sunshine. It would be dark soon and the stores would close for the day, and we’d be left with restaurants and bars. Despite the canvass being my idea, I couldn’t help but feel we were clutching at straws.
I looked around, searching for inspiration. We’d already canvassed most of the nearby businesses and would soon need to widen the area of our search. I glanced at Dinara, who was pale. The legacy of her ordeal at the hands of Veles and his associates? Or had her hangover finally caught up with her? Or was she simply feeling the effects of a long day trudging the frozen city? We couldn’t carry on for much longer.
I looked down Year 1905 Street and saw a taxi pull into a spot near the corner of the Embankment. It was soon followed by three others, and the four drivers got out and clustered on the sidewalk. Three of them lit cigarettes and the fourth used a vape.