Charlie’s Apprentice (37 page)

It was impressive and convincing and Natalia felt a dip of uncertainty. There was no protest she could make, but the whole balance of the inquiry was unfair, weighted against her. Realizing he had finished, Natalia said quickly: ‘I would like to ask Colonel Tudin some questions.’

There was a peremptory, practically dismissive nod and Natalia tried to remain unruffled by Lestov’s clearly preconceived acceptance of the accusations against her.

She turned fully to confront her accuser, who came around in his turn to face her. He was impassive but still red, his attitude one of assured confidence. She was a long way from matching it, because she hadn’t expected the quasi-legality of an inquiry with witnesses arraigned against her and she still hadn’t properly adjusted. She tried to clear her throat but failed, so when she started to speak her voice was ragged and she had to stop and start again. A smirk flickered momentarily around Tudin’s mouth.

‘You are my immediate deputy, in the external directorate of the Russian security agency?’

Tudin hesitated, cautiously. ‘Yes.’

‘As such I have delegated to you particular authority concerning the new independent republics of the former Soviet Union?’

The caution was longer this time. ‘Yes.’

‘At a recent conference of all department and division heads did I have cause strongly to criticize your performance? And to insist upon substantial improvement within a stated time period?’ The smirk flickered again, and Natalia decided the man imagined she was attempting a defence in an indefensible situation by introducing internecine and irrelevant squabbles.

In immediate confirmation, Tudin turned invitingly towards the committee, visibly shrugging. Lestov responded with worrying speed and obvious impatience. ‘Is there any purpose to these questions? They have no bearing on what we are considering here today.’

‘They – and the attitude of Colonel Tudin – have
everything
to do with what is happening here today,’ argued Natalia, as forcefully as she felt she could. She was directly arguing against her chairman, she realized.

Lestov’s mouth tightened, but he nodded curtly for her to continue.

‘Was there disagreement between us?’ resumed Natalia.

‘I regarded it then and I regard it now as a department matter. I do not consider it has anything to do with these proceedings.’

Natalia’s voice caught again when she began to speak, but this time she did not regret the apparent uncertainty. ‘The conversation between myself and Investigator Kapitsa was a private matter: quite unofficial?’

Tudin smiled openly at what amounted to an admission of what he was accusing her of. ‘Exactly!’ he said, triumphantly. ‘In an official Militia inquiry you intruded unofficially to save your son!’

There was a stir from among the men comprising the examining panel. Natalia tried to remain unruffled. ‘How did you discover that contact between myself and Investigator Kapitsa?’

Tudin’s caution returned. ‘Rumours,’ he said shortly.

‘The directorate has an internal security division. It is not your function or responsibility to respond to rumours or gossip or suspicion of internal wrong-doing within the directorate.’

For the only time since the inquiry began, Tudin looked uncomfortable. ‘I regarded the matter as one of the utmost seriousness: one that had to be handled by someone with the authority I possess, to avoid any intimidation.’

‘Isn’t the truth of the matter that you were spying upon me, as your superior, because of your resentment of my holding that position and because of my criticism of your inadequacy to fulfil the job to which I had appointed you?’

‘No!’ denied Tudin, loudly. ‘I admit – and if the committee should require an apology then of course I offer it – that I did not strictly follow the procedures laid down for investigating matters of this sort. My only reason for doing so was quickly and effectively to prevent an abuse of power and authority. Which I have done.’

Natalia slumped down, stranding Tudin neither talking to her nor to the committee, but to the empty space in between. She hadn’t obtained an admission – as he had from her – but she hoped to have established doubt in the minds of the three men sitting in judgement upon her.

The unidentified man whom Tudin called first gave his name as Anatoli Alipov and his position as a lawyer with the security agency who had witnessed and formally taken the affidavit from Eduard. Alipov’s account was formal, nothing more than assuring the committee that the incriminating statement had been properly obtained.

‘What reason did Colonel Tudin give for your going with him to Petrovka?’ she demanded, when her turn came to question.

‘Legally to conduct the taking of an affidavit.’

‘An affidavit to serve what purpose?’

Alipov considered his reply, a careful lawyer. ‘To establish there had been an abuse of power according to our internal regulations.’

‘Which you considered to
be
established?’

There was another gap, for consideration. ‘Yes.’

‘Was that all?’

‘No.’

‘What else?’

‘To give an opinion on possible criminal action, too.’

‘What was your opinion?’

‘That there was a case to be made.’

As she sat, Natalia glanced unexpectedly sideways and caught the look of smiling satisfaction upon Eduard’s face, and when Tudin called him by name there was a swagger about the way he stood. He rested his hands upon the chair-back in front and at the beginning looked about him, and Natalia got the impression he regretted not having a larger audience before which to perform.

Tudin led.

The facts, from the moment of the interception on the Serpukhov road, were essentially the same as she had heard from Kapitsa, and there was a basis of accuracy in the account of the conversation she’d had with Eduard and which Kapitsa had witnessed, at her insistence. But it had all been subtly exaggerated, inference hardened into substance, innuendo presented as positive fact.

It sounded convincing and devastating.

Eduard adamantly repeated that he had never doubted her protection: at Petrovka his mother had assured him he would be freed and no action taken against him. His deepest regret was that his mother now faced this and possibly further, more serious inquiries. He had never openly asked her to be his protectress. He wanted to cooperate in every way he could, which was why he had made the affidavit. He hoped his mother would be leniently dealt with, at this and any other investigation.

She was quickly on her feet, but having risen she did not immediately speak, regarding her son steadily. How could she have ever had any emotion or love for this creature standing before her, thinking about him in the same terms – my flesh and blood – as she thought about Sasha? Her only feeling now was one of loathing hatred.

‘Where do I live?’ Natalia demanded, harshly.

Eduard blinked. There was shuffling in the room. Eduard said: ‘What?’

‘Where do I live?’

‘I don’t … I thought Mytninskaya but it wasn’t.’

‘When was the last time you came to Mytninskaya?’

‘I don’t …’ started Eduard, then stopped. He shrugged. ‘Some time ago.’

‘How long have you been out of the army?’

Another shrug. ‘Quite a while.’

‘Have you come to Mytninskaya to see me during that time?’

There was no longer any swagger or superciliousness. Eduard was suddenly aware it was not as easy as he imagined it to be, and was leaning slightly towards her. Tudin was half turned, but unable to provide any guidance, from his awkward position. Guessing the direction of her questioning, Eduard said: ‘I tried, but you weren’t there.’

He was improvising! Natalia realized at once, from long-ago experience. He was lost without guidance from Tudin and he was improvising as he went along! ‘When did we last meet,
before
you left the army?’

‘Can’t remember.’

‘The dates of your leaves and furloughs would be a matter of existing record, on army files,’ she warned, heavily. ‘It was six months before you left the army, wasn’t it?’

‘Maybe.’

Natalia was too far away to be sure, but she suspected there was a sheen of perspiration on her son’s face. Sweat you bastard, sweat, she thought. ‘What rank do I hold?’

‘Colonel. That’s what it was.’

‘Not what it
was
. What
is
it, now?’

‘Not sure.’

‘Where do you live?’

‘Tverskaya.’

‘In what? An apartment?’

‘You should know! You’ve been there often enough!’

Natalia realized that her son was really remarkably stupid. ‘Is that what you’re telling this inquiry? That I’ve visited you there?’

‘You know you have.’

‘That’s not true, is it?’

‘You know it’s true! That’s where we reached our understanding!’

Tudin was turned away from Eduard now, head lowered towards the floor, and Natalia wondered how the man could have possibly imagined he would succeed with an attack like this. At once she answered her own question. The ways of the past, she remembered: once an accusation as blatantly false as this could have succeeded. ‘Tell the inquiry about that understanding.’

‘Already have,’ said Eduard. He’d been tensed but now he relaxed, believing he had beaten her.

It was important to inflate the confidence, in the hope that it would burst. ‘Let’s do it again. You were sure I’d get you out of Militia custody?’

‘That’s what you’d always said you’d do.’

‘When I came to Tverskaya?’

Eduard smiled. ‘Yes.’

The balloon was becoming stretched, decided Natalia. ‘What did I say, when I saw you in the cell?’

‘That it wasn’t just a matter for you: that you had to consider the Militia position.’

That was a fairly accurate recollection, she conceded. ‘How long had you been in detention when I saw you?’

‘Five days.’

‘When were you released?’

‘This morning.’

‘That is the agreement, is it? Your release in return for talking to this inquiry today?’

Natalia had hoped to get the over-confident, unthinking admission, but before Eduard could reply Tudin hurriedly stood. ‘I should tell the committee that I have today sent a full report to the Federal Prosecutor, recommending immunity in return for this man’s cooperation. At the moment, technically, he remains in Militia custody.’

It was the perfect rebuttal of what Natalia was striving to establish, that a freedom deal had been reached between Eduard and Tudin in return for Eduard’s testimony, and briefly Natalia was numbed by the despair of being so easily thwarted. For several moments her mind blocked and she couldn’t think how to continue – but more importantly how to win – this exchange with her son. And then her mind did start working again and the despair lessened, although she suspected everyone -the committee headed by the security chairman, and Tudin and Eduard and Kapitsa – would believe she had failed miserably to establish any sort of defence. Briskly she said: ‘We weren’t alone in the detention cell, were we? Investigator Kapitsa was there all the time?’

‘Yes.’ Eduard’s caution had returned.

‘He witnessed everything?’ A great deal depended on the honesty of the detective, Natalia realized: more than she’d anticipated until this moment.

‘Yes.’

‘Did you want him to be there?’

Eduard shrugged. ‘It was a matter for you. I didn’t mind.’

‘You didn’t suggest he should leave?’ Natalia concentrated not upon her son but upon Kapitsa when she asked the question. The detective was frowning.

‘No.’

Kapitsa’s frown deepened. Dear God, thought Natalia, don’t let him have reached any agreement or understanding with Tudin, as Eduard obviously has. ‘You identified me as your mother to Investigator Kapitsa the moment you were stopped on the Serpukhov road?’

‘That was what you’d always told me to do: announce it at once to prevent any investigation becoming established.’

Natalia intruded the pause, wanting the silence. Then she said: ‘So it had to be done quickly? You were to be got out quickly?’ Natalia saw Tudin stiffen.

Eduard said: ‘Yes.’

‘But it was five days before I came to Petrovka.’

Eduard appeared to realize the danger. He nodded, nibbling his lower lip, not replying.

‘Was it not five days before I came to Petrovka?’

‘Yes.’

‘If we’d always agreed to move quickly, why do you think it took five days for me to come to you?’

‘You tell me!’ said Eduard, defiantly.

‘I will! You didn’t have an address to contact me, because there had been no meeting between us for almost two years, had there? Just as there was no understanding or agreement between us, to look after you if you got into trouble.’

‘Always said you’d help!’ insisted Eduard, desperately. In front of him, Tudin was rigid, head predictably down over his papers.

Destruction time, decided Natalia: she was savouring the moment, even delaying for the pleasure of it. ‘Why do you think it was that when I promised you protection, which you say I did at Tverskaya, I didn’t tell you I’d been promoted to General, which would have been a much better guarantee than if I had remained a Colonel? Or why, during those visits, did I never give you my new address? And how did I
know
you lived at Tverskaya, when we hadn’t had any contact for six months
before
you left the army? Eighteen months before you even
had
somewhere to live at Tverskaya!’

There wasn’t any impatient shifting from the panel now. In fact there was no movement or sound at all in the room.

Natalia pressed on, relentlessly. ‘Colonel Tudin promised there would be no prosecution if you came here today, didn’t he? That’s the deal, isn’t it? Give evidence against me – incriminate me – and you’ll go free!’

‘He said he would recommend it,’ said Eduard, trying to stick to what they had rehearsed.

‘It’s with Colonel Tudin that you have an arrangement, isn’t it? Not with me? There’s never been an understanding or arrangement with me.’

Again Tudin came to his feet before Eduard could reply. Tudin said: ‘This evidence is becoming distorted: twisted. The facts are that General Fedova went to Petrovka and in front of Investigator Kapitsa, who has still to address this committee, undertook to prevent a prosecution.’