Tom Callaghan - A Killing Winter

The Chief sat forward, raised an eyebrow.

‘A notorious smuggler who’s also an uncle of yours by marriage, da ?’

I continued, wondering what Chinara would have said about giving her uncle up.

‘There’s the missing drugs, unaccounted for in the files.’

Now it was the Chief’s turn to shrug.

‘An oversight. Easily rectified.’

‘An examination into your finances, bank statements, deposit boxes.’

The Chief smiled, genuinely amused.

‘You’re saying I dipped my beak? If we lock up everyone who’s taken a taste one way or another, Bishkek will be a ghost town.’

The Chief sat back in his chair.

‘I’m not like you, Inspector. I’m a pragmatist, not a “justice at all costs” missionary. You’re good Murder Squad, maybe the best. But solving something as big as this? That’s like picking at Mount Lenina with your fingernails. You end up torn and bloody, and the mountain’s still there.’

He stared out of the window, at the city. I watched his reflection dance and flicker on the glass.

‘We’re a country of nomads; it’s in our blood. Even when we have houses, cars, jobs, we refuse to be held down, to go against our nature. In almost a century, the Russkis never managed to smash that out of us. It’s more than just pride or stubbornness, it’s who we are.’

‘So the dacha , the Mercedes, the big house; that’s your idea of being a nomad?’

‘Now you’re trying to be cute? You know how easy it would be to leave all that behind? Head up to the high plain and watch the world from a distance?’

Now it was my turn to smile.

‘But you haven’t. The Merc is still parked in your reserved space outside, the house in the compound doesn’t have a For Sale sign on the wall.’

The Chief rubbed his face, a weary man with the world’s troubles strapped to his back.

‘Inspector, I love my country. But as I say, we’re nomads, individuals, tribes, not a people. We need a strong man at the top. Someone to cut through the shit. A modern-day Manas, if you like. Everything for his people, no mercy for his enemies.’

‘So you turn the country into chaos, then you and the big man reluctantly climb into the driver’s seat?’

The Chief said nothing, continued to gaze out into the dark.

‘It’s a very clever strategy, to get the Circle of Brothers to do your dirty work for you. Everyone believes it’s just the usual business of stealing everything not nailed down. No one thinks there’s politics behind it all.’

I reached into my pocket, took out a handful of the capsules from the holdall.

‘And how will you pay the Circle, all the bosses and the underbosses and the torpedos and the vory muscle, when they all come with their beaks open, saying “feed me, feed me”? They’re not chicks, they’re sharks, and they bite without mercy.’

I scattered the capsules on to the desk.

‘Do you know what these are? I got a call from Usupov earlier, he ran some tests on this shit. Stamina-boosters, from China, that’s what it says on the packet. Each one supposed to be made up of dried and ground human foetal tissue. You’re going to let the Circle make money by turning the Kyrgyz people into cannibals.’

I swept the capsules off the desk and ground them into the wooden floor.

‘Except all that’s in there is baking powder, brick dust and salt. Nothing but a scam, and a diversionary tactic to keep people off your trail.’

The Chief raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

‘And there’s the krokodil , and the heroin, and any other rubbish that turns a profit. The whores, the casino rake-offs, all of it dirty money.’

I turned to Kursan.

‘You always told me you wouldn’t touch this shit. I turned a blind eye, because I thought you had some decency about you.’

Kursan stared at me, then finally spoke.

‘You don’t know what it was before independence. Back when we danced to Moscow’s tune, when we had to pull over to let some Russian boss in a long black Volga speed past us on the way to the lake, when we were supposed to be grateful for any grains of rice that fell from the table.’

I shrugged.

‘Ancient history, Kursan.’

‘Not to me. Not to people who suffered, who never knew where their next bowl of plov was coming from. I learnt that nothing comes before survival, not party, not family, nothing. And if that means selling krokodil to the very people that fucked this country for seventy years, that’s a sweet bonus.’

Kursan paused, picked a fleck of tobacco off his tongue.

‘Akyl, you were married to my niece. I like you. But that doesn’t mean you can stand in the way of my business. Sure, I got some small favours from you, an unfair advantage over my competition. But all advantage is unfair, tovarishch , that’s why it’s called advantage. Would you really expect me not to use it? People were happy to work with me, they thought I had protection, whatever we brought in. Despise me, if you like, you know I’m right. Everybody makes money, everybody’s smiling.’

‘Not everybody,’ I said, ‘not me. And if she were alive, Chinara wouldn’t be smiling either.’

‘You ever see a skull that’s been picked clean by the worms and maggots? Isn’t that smile, at death, the biggest joke of all? And that’s the smile on her face now.’

Kursan grinned, his teeth bared, but the smile never reached his eyes. In his face, I saw the mountain wolves that come down in the winter and attack the flocks, ripping and tearing, starving and relentless.

It was time for some creative lying.

‘Aydaraliev? The Bishkek pakhan ? I’m sorry to say, he didn’t share the same sense of loyalty and “we’re all in this together” attitude. At least, not towards you. He would never have opened his mouth against the Circle, but he was delighted to sing about you.’

The Chief looked wary, then leant forward and spat into the full ashtray.

‘One thing to give the old bastard credit for; he was tough,’ I said. ‘Too tough for us to break. So we told him what we were going to do to his beloved Ayana, his little granddaughter. Not once but over and over again. The scissors, the lighted cigarettes, the video. Payback for the sins of the grandfathers, and all that. He didn’t just sing, I thought I was at the Bolshoi in Moscow.’

I reached inside my jacket and pulled out a cassette.

‘All the times, the places you met, the instructions you gave, the money you paid. He knew about your side deal with Gasparian, by the way, the foreign bank account, all that. He said, “Let him build it up, we’ll take it all back when we’re ready. He can choose between gold and lead.” ’

I let a sneer scar my face.

‘Did you honestly think he was going to take orders from you for ever?’

The Chief reached over for the cassette, but I slid it out of reach.

‘Don’t worry, Chief, it’s safe with me. All that high-minded stuff about nomads needing a strong leader? Just another fucking thief, and a stupid one at that.’

The Chief held his hands up in mock-surrender.

‘I’m not a stupid man, Inspector, and I don’t believe you are either, in spite of your “principles”. This isn’t a yelda -measuring contest. Tell me what you want, we make an accommodation.’

I shook my head.

‘I’m not looking for a deal. I want this over.’

The Chief smiled.

‘You think I’m going to sit here with a litre and a Makarov, and do the “decent thing”? Killed “while cleaning his gun”? You’re not that naive.’

He filled his glass again, sipped this time. This was business.

‘This isn’t a game of kok boru . If all the riders try to grab the headless goat, no one gets a piece worth having. I don’t get what I want, neither do you.’