Garry Abson: Motherland: A Gripping Crime Thriller Set in the Dark Heart of Putin's Russia

‘That’s it!’ she yelled.

The BMW squeezed past an oncoming van, ripping off Lagunov’s wing mirror. Rogov hit the horn. ‘Why doesn’t the stupid bastard stop?’

Ahead was a sign – the border was five hundred metres away. The road in front of the BMW was clear all the way and the distance between them was widening.

‘Fuck,’ she hissed, ‘we’re too late.’

She flicked off the siren.

Rogov didn’t slow. She turned and saw a malicious glint in his eyes. ‘Boss,’ he shouted, ‘Look!’

An eighteen-wheeler with “Vladivostok Auto Spares” stencilled on the side was parked at the border; it pulled out of the queue and started turning to block off the highway.

‘Come on!’ she screamed.

The lorry moved with torturously slow speed. The cab twisted, then it reversed and straightened. The BMW headed for a gap. The eighteen-wheeler edged forward to seal the road. Lagunov’s car braked harder than she thought possible. It shuddered to a halt two metres from the lorry’s cab.

Rogov stamped on the brakes. Lagunov was already running out, and they were out of the Nissan after him. If he crossed the border they would never get him back. Lagunov would insist he had been the victim of an FSB conspiracy, with just enough evidence to make Interpol reluctant to enforce a Red Notice. He was too far ahead, already rounding the lorry’s cab.

Lagunov stopped. The driver of the eighteen wheeler blocked his path with a tyre lever in one hand.

Dahl was on him too. ‘I told you to stop. You could have killed us all.’

Natalya fought to control her breathing. ‘Lagunov was working with Volkov.’

The Swede twisted his fist in Lagunov’s shirt to tighten his grip and the lawyer squirmed as he fought to free himself. The lorry driver saw he was no longer needed and climbed back in his cab, waving briefly to her and Rogov.

‘Thorsten! Let me go, damn you. I was trying to save you. The Russian police are corrupt.’

She ignored him and turned to Dahl. ‘Why did the sale of your companies fall through?’

Dahl rubbed his free hand over his face; he looked as tired as she felt. ‘The buyer was already nervous then his auditors found fraud.’

‘My guess is, Lagunov was helping himself,’ she said.

Lagunov twisted his neck. ‘Get your hand off me, Thorsten!’

‘It’s alright, let him go. If you move, Lagunov…’ She pointed at Rogov who had taken out his Makarov.

‘You wouldn’t dare.’ Lagunov straightened his shirt. ‘When I’m finished with you, you’ll be lucky to have a job as a security guard.’

‘Don’t run, he really will shoot you. That’s what we do to murder suspects.’

‘Murder?’ The word made him recoil. ‘I haven’t killed anyone.’

‘Then how did Volkov know Zena was alive?’

Lagunov looked to Dahl. ‘How should I know? I don’t care either. The real story is Kristina jerked him off. All she wanted was to get away from Volkov, and Thorsten ended up with her child like a pussy.’

Dahl cocked his hand into a fist and smashed it into the side of his lawyer’s head. Lagunov’s feet lifted off the ground and he landed heavily on the tarmac, his body twisted.

‘Still think I’m a pussy?’ Dahl yelled over his lawyer’s prone body. ‘The man who got us over the border, I thought it must have been him but he had no idea Volkov was Zena’s father. It was you. Why did you tell Volkov, Anatoly?’

Lagunov was dazed. He got slowly to his feet then dabbed his brow with the back of a hand.

Natalya asked, ‘Rogov, have you got your bracelets?’

‘Yeah.’ The sergeant unclipped a set of handcuffs from his belt and fixed them to Lagunov’s wrists.

As the lorry moved, there was a chorus of horns from the Finnish side; behind them, the motorists were oddly respectful and Natalya turned to see half a dozen border guards edging between the cars as they made their way towards them. She waved a thank you at the lorry driver and didn’t think he’d noticed until a tattooed arm extended from the open window of his cab and gave her a thumbs-up sign.

‘So, why did you tell Volkov about Zena?’ Dahl asked.

Lagunov’s mouth had taken on the crooked shape of a sneer. ‘You paid nothing for those companies then ran away. I gave up my life for them. They turned a profit because I made them turn a profit. They are worth a hundred times your original investment because of me. And what did I get? You rewarded me like a regular salaryman.’

Rogov rested a heavy hand on Lagunov’s shoulder and squeezed it. ‘And I pay my taxes, but that doesn’t make me President of the Republic.’

Natalya said, ‘You panicked when Thorsten told you he was selling the companies. Were you angry that you couldn’t keep stealing from them or were you worried the buyer would find out?’

The lawyer stared back at her, hatred radiating from him like a heat shimmer. ‘You are nobody. A corrupt little mouse who tried to grab some cheese from a trap.’

She ignored the accusation. ‘You needed the company documents and Thorsten out of the way so you found Volkov and told him his daughter, Ksenia, was alive. You had him arrange the fake kidnapping then insisted that Thorsten went in person to the ransom exchange.’

‘Where’s your evidence?’ Lagunov demanded. ‘You have nothing.’

‘I have a witness. Originally I thought Zena had been kidnapped and Thorsten had sent you to her apartment to see if she really was missing. The truth is, you panicked. You thought there was something there to connect her to you. How did you get inside? Zena had one set of keys and her neighbour had the other.’

‘Yuri took my keys,’ Zena said. ‘He said he was going to get some things from my apartment but he forgot.’

Natalya held out the flat of her hand to Lagunov. ‘There’s your evidence.’

‘You don’t scare me. I’ll tell you something else if you like – it was me who sent those emails to Zena. Thorsten’s job was done. He’d been the parent of a cuckoo child. It was time for her to go back to her real father. Where’s the crime in that?’

‘I think Volkov screwed you after the ransom exchange. Why did he have the company documents, and not you? I bet you offered him money but it wasn’t enough. Once he smelled how much the companies were worth he wanted them too.’

Lagunov’s sneer had gone, it was replaced by self-pity. Most criminals, when it came to it, were selfish and blamed everything and everyone except themselves. ‘The FSB have Thorsten’s companies now.’ He let out a shrill laugh. ‘Why don’t you arrest them?’

Rogov gave him an unsettling grin. ‘The same reason you won’t say anything – because the FSB do some evil shit.’

Natalya turned to Zena. ‘You had a handbag – a Hermès Sellier Kelly. What happened to it?’

Zena frowned, ‘I don’t know. Yuri said I’d lost it before he found me. I was so drunk.’

‘Did you know a body was found on Krestovsky Island?’

‘I heard it on the radio. Yuri told me it was a trap. The police were saying it was me so I would come out into the open.’ She glanced at Dahl, then looked away, embarrassed. ‘You don’t know what it was like. It was so hard to do anything he didn’t want me to do.’

‘The girl in the park was Yulia Federova,’ said Natalya.

Zena’s hand went to her mouth, ‘No!’

‘A man working for Yuri killed her.’

The girl looked stunned; she was staring into the middle distance. ‘Yulia is dead?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

‘She was helping you to look for your parents. Lagunov was worried Yulia might lead me to Volkov and expose everything.’

‘I didn’t want to cause my father any embarrassment. I told her not to say anything.’