Read Online Mazurka by Campbell Armstrong - Free Book Online

envelope and held it up to the light. He longed to tear it open.
    The Commissioner asked, “Do we use a steam kettle? Or do we simply slice the thing with a knife?”
    Frank Pagan grinned. “Go for broke,” he said, and he ripped the envelope open. It contained a single sheet of yellowing paper covered in a language completely alien to him. Disappointed, he stared at the strange words, written in faded blue ink, as if they might be made to yield up some kind of sense simply by an act of concentration. The Commissioner peered at the sheet with a look of frustration on his face. He even pressed his nose close to it, sniffing the old sheet of paper which smelled musty, like something stored for many years in a damp attic.
    â€œWhat language is that?” the Commissioner asked.
    â€œI haven’t got a clue,” Pagan said. He glanced at a couple of words – Kalev, Eesti, tooma . The handwriting wasn’t very good. “Danus Oates is something of a linguist.”
    â€œThen let’s fetch the lad,” said the Commissioner.
    â€œHe’s somewhere in the building,” Pagan said. “Last time I saw him he was swallowing Valium in the canteen. Events in Edinburgh unsettled his delicate constitution.” As they had unsettled his own, Pagan thought, which was a lot less sensitive than Danus Oates’s.
    â€œFat lot of good Valium’s going to do him,” said the Commissioner. “In the meantime, you ought to have a word with our American friends in Grosvenor Square, Frank. See if they’ve got anything on this Jacob Kiviranna. The fellow to contact over there is a chap called Teddy Gunther. See what you can get from Kiviranna first, although from what I hear he’s either rather surly or two bricks shy of a load.”
    Pagan arranged Aleksis’s papers in a neat pile.
    The Commissioner said, “So far as Romanenko is concerned, if you want to find out if there’s anything that made him a suitable candidate for assassination, the man to see is Tommy Witherspoon. He’s got something to do with the Foreign Office, though if you ask me that’s only a cover. I think Tommy really liaises between the FO and some of our intelligence agencies. Tommy lives and breathes Russia. I’ll give him a call and tell him you might have a question or two for him.”
    Pagan looked down at Romanenko’s papers a second. The dead man’s effects. The bits and pieces of a life. A life that had been blown away right in front of his own eyes. He felt acutely depressed, as if he might have done something to prevent the catastrophe. It was too late for regrets – but then when were regrets ever timely? He remembered the hours he’d spent drinking with Romanenko, how the Russian’s booming laughter filled the hotel room, the conspiratorial way Aleksis had said You will see differences, Frank Pagan, such as you have never dreamed of. Big changes are coming . The biggest change so far had been Aleksis’s murder, which was surely the last thing Romanenko had had in mind.
    â€œBy the way, if the press gets on your arse, you’ve got nothing to tell them. Keep that in mind.” The Commissioner paused a moment. “Whole thing’s a bit of a bloody mess. But you’ve had worse, haven’t you, Frank?”
    Frank Pagan looked up at one of the fluorescent tubes which, slightly flawed, blinked now and again. “Maybe,” he answered. He moved towards the door. “Don’t you want to sit in on my interview with Kiviranna?”
    The Commissioner shook his head. “As I said, Frank, I’m leaving it entirely to you. In any case, I’m sure to have some Russians to deal with very shortly.” He adjusted his eyepatch. “One last thing. Change your suit first chance you get. You look like something the cat dragged in.”
    Jacob Kiviranna was being held in an interrogation room on the second floor, a bare chamber