You Don't Know Me (The Russian Don 3)

I frown. ‘Didn’t your father install one of the best security systems with cameras all around the house and four guards day and night. How did you dodge the guards? And wouldn’t the cameras have caught you driving out in your father’s car?’

She explains exactly how Baba, Kiri and Vasluv did it.

To be honest, I’m impressed. Not bad at all for a little girl who never said boo to anyone in her life, but I still have to quiz her about the most important thing. ‘What will you tell the police tomorrow?’

‘I’ll tell them Papa went to bed after dinner and that was the last I saw of him. I sleep deeply and never heard a thing.’

‘You’re sure you’re not on any of the video?’

‘One hundred percent.’

I look closely at her then at the dead man on the plastic tarp. Can she really pull this off? ‘What if there are cameras in the streets that have recorded your journey here?’

‘I went to the garage and changed the plates earlier this evening.’

‘What about the phone calls you’ve been making tonight?’

‘Pay as you go mobile, and I’m dumping it later this morning in other peoples’ bins.’

I nod with approval.

‘Don’t worry, Noah. I have planned this very carefully.’

‘I can make it easier for you. I can arrange a fake kidnapping attempt. This way it won’t look like such an inside job.’

‘No,’ she says, and her voice is very sure and calm. ‘I don’t want anyone else to take the blame for this. In fact, I am very sad that I was too gutless to pull the trigger, and that you were the one who had to do it. I don’t want you to go to a different place than me. If you’re going to hell, I want to go there too, ice cream or no ice cream.’

‘Fine. Shall we get the ball rolling?’

She fishes her mobile from her pocket and hits a button. ‘It’s done,’ she says into it. Then she closes it and looks at me. ‘I’ve so many questions for you, but they can wait. However, there is something very important I have to say to you now.’ She stops to clear her throat.

‘Go on,’ I encourage.

‘If something goes wrong tonight and for some reason I don’t make it, I want you to know that I love you, Noah. I love you more than life itself.’

I hold her beautiful face between my palms. ‘Nothing will happen to you. I’m not trusting you to any minicab driver. I’ll call Sam and ask him to meet us somewhere. He will drive you to the end of your road and wait until he has seen you climb the ladder.’

A single tear flows from one of her eyes. I wipe it away. ‘And just in case anything happens to me and I don’t make it, I want you to know that I love you, Tasha. I love you like I’ve never loved anyone in my whole life. I’d die for you, girl.’

Thirty-nine

Tasha Evanoff

Anak

I put the rope ladder away and go into the kitchen. Baba is sitting in front of her customary pot of tea. Her face is pale and sadder than I have ever seen it.

‘Is he … gone?’

I nod.

She closes her eyes and swallows violently as she tries to regain control of her emotions.

I kneel beside her and cover her clenched fist with my hand. Even though I’m the one who was out in the cold all night, her hands are freezing.

She opens her eyes and nods. ‘You did well, my child. You did well.’ Her voice breaks on the last word and I throw my arms around her neck.

‘It wasn’t me. I was too cowardly. I couldn’t pull the trigger.’

A ghost of a smile appears on her lips. ‘I’m glad it wasn’t you. A child shouldn’t have to kill her own father, even if he is a monster.’

‘Noah did it.’

‘So he made it there. How is he?’

‘He’s wounded, but he’s alive.’

‘Where is he now?’

‘I don’t know the full details, but it’s some kind of safe house run by Irish gypsies.’

She nods distractedly. ‘Where is your father now?’

‘They’ve taken his body away.’

Her lips press down so hard they are a thin straight line. ‘To be disposed of how?’

‘I don’t know. I didn’t ask, but it has to be in such a way that it is never found.’ I don’t tell her about the pig farm and greedy pigs.

She looks down at the floor. ‘Did he … suffer?’

‘No. It was instant. One bullet.’

‘Was he angry with me?’

I stroke her hair. ‘He died not knowing you helped me.’

A great sob racks her body. It comes from her very core and makes her hands tremble so uncontrollably I become scared.

‘Oh, Baba,’ I cry helplessly. ‘Don’t cry so hard. Please. You’ll become ill.’

She makes a great effort to calm herself, but tears flow down her cheek ceaselessly.