Tom Bradby - The Master Of Rain

“You’re not much of a gentleman, are you, Officer?”

“And you’re not much of a lady.”

She inhaled, blowing the smoke out of the side of her mouth, before moving over to the wall opposite him and leaning back against it.

Field threw his cigarette, which he wasn’t enjoying, out of the window and put his hands in his pockets.

“I saw you arriving with Charlie Lewis. You’re a friend of his?”

“I hardly know him.”

“Well, you should get to-”

“You danced here with Lena Orlov.” Field had taken his hands from his pockets again and spoken with unexpected ferocity. “You were friends.”

“So?”

“Everything you told me this afternoon was a pack of lies.”

“And you’re hurt?”

“That’s an offense, do you know that?”

“Is that a threat?”

“You can laugh at us all you want, but you’re vulnerable here, Miss Medvedev, no matter how much you sleep with the likes of Charlie Lewis or Lu.”

She was staring at him. “Is that what you think I am? You think I’m a prostitute?”

From a standing start, he’d insulted and perhaps-this couldn’t be true, but somehow seemed to be-hurt her. He wished he were less drunk. The conversation had developed a momentum that their brief acquaintance hardly merited.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to offend you. The ways of the city are strange.”

She was still looking at him, her hostility not assuaged. “They are strange, and perhaps it is you who should be careful.”

“Is that a threat?”

“It’s a warning.”

“You were good friends with Lena Orlov.”

“Yes I was.” Now she threw her own cigarette through the window.

“Then why did you lie to me?”

“Because I didn’t want to answer a lot of questions.”

“Why did you go around to her apartment?”

She sighed. “To get some milk.”

“But-”

“I went in because it was unusual for her door to be unlocked. That was the only lie.” She sighed. “Lena was a Russian girl, Detective.”

“Like you.”

“Yes, like me.”

“So it doesn’t matter.”

She looked at him, then came forward and took the lapel of his jacket, flicking it with one long, thin finger. “You need a new suit, or you’ll boil to death. The summer has only just begun.”

Charles Lewis walked in through the doors and stopped. “Conspiracy,” he said. “He’s not rich enough for you.” He took Natasha Medvedev’s hand. “Come on, I want one more dance.”

Field left and took a rickshaw back to his dingy room in the Carter Road quarters. The steward was asleep in his chair when he got to the top floor and the corridor quiet. Prokopieff’s door was, thankfully, shut.

Field closed his own door carefully, lest Prokopieff hear, and took off his jacket, switching on the fan on the wall beside him.

The room was tiny. Yellow paint peeled in large strips off the walls and ceiling on account of the damp. There was a small window, but Field had learned never to open it in the summer because of the mosquitoes.

He sat down at his desk, put his holster on the starched white sheet beside him, and opened the leather-bound diary. He returned to his jacket to remove his father’s fountain pen.

Underneath the date and still feeling drunk, he wrote: Met a girl-a woman-and can’t stop thinking about whether or not she is compromised and… honest. Don’t know why it matters, but it does.

He stared at the page for a few moments more-this was the first thing he’d written for weeks-then slipped off his shoes, trousers, and shirt and slumped down onto the bed. He leaned forward again to flick the light switch and clumsily knocked the copy of The Great Gatsby he had bought last week onto the floor. He didn’t bother to pick it up.

There were no curtains, so the streetlamps created dappled pools of light and shadow on the walls and ceiling.

Field closed his eyes. His head and heart pounded as he imagined Natasha doing what the Chinese girl had done, his hands entwined in her long hair. His whole body was covered in sweat.

We have made the assumption,” Caprisi said, looking around the C.1 office, “that the doorman was killed because he could definitively identify the murderer. Chen has been through the building and the surrounding area, and everyone insists they saw no one arrive or leave. But the murderer must have come in sometime during the evening.”

They were in a small group outside Macleod’s office. It was not yet nine and Field was glad he’d come in early, though his awakening several hours ago was the result of a night’s drunken, dehydrated sleep and Prokopieff berating the steward on their landing for bringing him tea rather than coffee.

“Where does Lu come into it?” Macleod asked.

“Lu owned the flats,” Caprisi said. “We believe his men were responsible for the abduction of the doorman.”

“Says who?”

“Chen.”

They all looked at the Chinese detective, who smiled.

“All right,” Macleod went on, “his men were cleaning up, so he might have killed the girl, but why?”

“His flat,” Caprisi said, “his girl. His pleasure.”

“Wouldn’t he take the precaution of getting her over to the French Concession first?”

“Perhaps he lost his temper, although”-Caprisi looked at Field-“Maretsky says it is more premeditated than that.” He shrugged. “Maybe Lu is arrogant enough now to think he can get away with anything, anywhere.”

Macleod nodded.

“We should apply to the French authorities for permission to interview him formally.”

“Yes.” Macleod’s voice was hard and confident, but he fiddled with the chain around his neck as he talked. He looked at Field-which all of them kept on doing, he noticed, as if eyeing an enemy in their midst. It was clear that none of them trusted him or felt comfortable with his presence. “So you think it could have been Lu himself?” Macleod went on.

“It could have been,” Caprisi said. “But if it isn’t, then he knows who it is and is protecting him. That’s why they disposed of the doorman. There was certainly a cleanup operation. There was no murder weapon, no prints on the cuffs.”

Macleod was staring at the floor, still fiddling with the chain. In some ways, he reminded Field of his father; he seemed to have the same sense of moral and practical certainty.

Caprisi had a notebook open in his hand. “So we talk to Lu when permission comes through from the French. We try the apartment block again and talk to Natasha, the unhelpful neighbor.”

“Natasha and Lena were close friends,” Field said. “They danced together at the Majestic Café.”

All three detectives looked at him in silence for a moment. “Okay,” Caprisi said, “since we are short of direct evidence, we should work on tracing through Orlov’s life. Was she a prostitute? Did she have a regular man? Did she exclusively belong to Lu, and did he lend her to anyone else? And there’s this.” Caprisi produced the leather volume with the hole cut in it and handed it, open, to Macleod, who took out the notebook and glanced through it.

“Names of ships, departure dates, and destinations,” Caprisi explained.

“I can see that.”

“We don’t know its relevance, but if Lena was one of Lu’s girls, it may have something to do with him, or with the man who killed her.”

Macleod shut the book and handed it back to Caprisi. “Right. Keep me briefed. The municipal authorities wish to be kept closely informed on this investigation, and the commissioner wants regular updates.”

They all frowned, including Field.

Caprisi turned away. Field followed Chen toward the American detective’s desk.