Part 33 (1/2)

'Before my time,' Kuzmin said dismissively and handed the picture back.

'You're not curious? Or do you already know what it means?'

'What are you talking about? What does it mean?'

'It means that, contrary to what everyone has been telling us, Nancy Haynes had been here before, she knew Mikhail's father and would surely have approached Mikhail.'

'And you think this has something to do with their deaths? That's crazy.'

'Gennady had met Nancy's mother before, in San Francisco in 1939. They became lovers. Gennady was Nancy's father, Mikhail was her half-brother.'

Brock watched the man's impa.s.sive face. 'You knew this?' Brock persisted. 'Mikhail told you?'

Kuzmin shrugged.

'Nancy had recently lost the money she needed for the lifestyle she was used to. Did she ask for money from Mikhail to keep quiet about this family scandal?'

Kuzmin shook his head indifferently. 'I don't know.'

'What about Marta? How would she feel? Her revered husband, Hero of the Soviet Union, the father of an American woman. Would she have wanted rid of her, before she sold her story to the newspapers?'

That seemed to register with Kuzmin. 'That old witch,' he growled. 'Who knows what she would have done? But what about Mikhail? Why kill Mikhail?'

'Yes indeed,' Brock said. 'Why kill Mikhail?'

Brock left Kuzmin and went out to see how the search through the Russians' palace was going. They were looking for doc.u.ments, letters, electronic records, anything that might throw light on the relations.h.i.+p between Hadden-Vane and the Moszynski family.

Eventually he made his way down to the bas.e.m.e.nt security control centre where Zack was working at the control panels, and took a seat alongside him.

'So what is all this stuff?' he said.

Zack looked up. 'High-quality gear but nothing extraordinary. That's the controls for the motion sensors set up around the house, and this is for the window and door alarms. Then there's the CCTV stuff-the screen there linked to that DVR . . .'

'DVR?'

'Digital video recorder, which in turn is linked to that HDD-hard disk drive-which stores the images.'

'Can we find out why the CCTV was switched off at exactly the times that we really needed it-like when Mikhail Moszynski went out for a cigar on the Sunday night he died?'

'The Shere Security people explained that, didn't they?' Zack said. 'They said that Mikhail must have switched the recording off himself.'

'The trouble is, Zack, that we may not be able to trust Shere Security-Wayne Everett in particular. How can we check this?'

'Well, either the system, or some key part of it, like the HDD, was switched off for that period, either deliberately or as a result of a tech glitch, or . . .'

'Or?'

'Or the system did record for those periods and was erased afterwards.'

'Can we test that?'

'Yes. Not here or at Queen Anne's Gate, but I can take the HDD over to technical support to take a look.'

'Yes, do that.'

Brock's phone sounded. Bren had something for them at Queen Anne's Gate. Brock contacted Kathy and got up to go. As he made his way out he pa.s.sed an open door leading into the warren of unused cellars in which he'd seen evidence of digging. The walls in there were whitewashed brickwork, similar to what could be seen in the background on Freddie Clarke's video. He called Zack and reminded him to take a look.

As he stepped out into the square Brock saw a taxi waiting outside the hotel, the driver loading a suitcase into the boot. The hotel door opened, and he saw Deb, a coat over her arm, come trotting down the steps. When she reached the cab she turned and, seeing him, gave a wave, then she got in and the taxi moved off.

THIRTY-SIX.

'I reckon we've got him,' Bren said, nodding with satisfaction. He described what he'd established about Wayne Everett's earlier history with Hadden-Vane and the Tottenham youth club.

'He was Hadden-Vane's enforcer, and he made sure the club officers were kept sweet as he used the charity to divert his share of the money coming in from Moszynski. He knew Danny Yilmaz, and also Kenny Watson, who used to come to the club before he went up to Glasgow.'

'He told you all this?' Brock asked.

'Yes. It took a while, but he finally agreed to let us have his prints and DNA. They're processing them now.'

'Good. Does he show up on the CCTV records at Hackney?'

'We're still looking.'

As Brock and Bren sat down together to go through the interview record in detail, Kathy at the next desk checked her phone again. Nothing from John. She tried ringing his number, but it was still switched off. She hesitated for a moment, then finally called the number of the Chelsea Mansions Hotel. It rang for a long time before it was answered with a tentative, 'h.e.l.lo?' She recognised Toby's voice.

'Toby, h.e.l.lo, it's Kathy Kolla.'

'Ah . . . h.e.l.lo, Kathy. What can I do for you?'

'I'm trying to get in touch with John. Is he in the hotel?'

'John? John Greenslade?'

'Yes.'

'He's not here. I haven't seen him since yesterday.'

Kathy frowned. 'I was with him yesterday evening, and he said he was going back to the hotel. He should have got there about ten-thirty, eleven.'

'No, he didn't come home last night-we presumed he was with you.'

'Would you mind getting someone to check his room, Toby? See if he slept there?'

'It's a little awkward at the moment. I'm rather short-handed. I'll ring his room, shall I? Hold on.'

After a minute he came back on the line. 'No reply, I'm afraid. He's not here.'