Page 14 of The Allure of Ruins

Z ane Calhoun was the Special Agent in Charge in Chicago, IL, and he was horrified to learn that Veda Walker and Gabe Hall had left the office without backup. The whole “we thought they were with us” didn’t fly with him.

Once we were in the conference room with bottles of water, both of us having shed our outerwear, we sat across from Walker and Hall. When SAC Calhoun joined us, Walker repeated what she’d said in the van, adding more information.

“So due to some inconsistencies with evidence, DNA, and what a judge deemed improper testimony, the California Courts of Appeal concluded that a lower court admitted into evidence biased testimony, as Gen and others, like Erast, testified to charges not included in the indictment.”

“They gave too much damning information,” Colton said, “going beyond the scope of the investigation. Right?”

“Yes.”

“And because of that,” Colton continued, “the trial needs to be redone without a jury hearing all that.”

“Correct.”

“What does this have to do with Pax?”

“So Csokas is still in jail, held for the next trial, and we made a deal with one of the inmates, a guy everyone knew could procure things, and for a reduction in his sentence, put him in contact with Csokas.”

“And of course you don’t even care what this procurer did, right?”

“He moved a lot of drugs, but no,” Walker told Colton. “Getting his twenty years down to fifteen is not keeping me up at night.”

Colton nodded.

“Once our guy talked to Csokas, of course all he wanted was a phone. We got to hear everything when he talked to Rokov, who lives in Miami at the moment, when he spelled out that Gen would have to return to court to give testimony against him a second time, and would Rokov please eliminate him before he could do that.”

“None of which explains what we’re doing here.”

“I agree,” Calhoun affirmed, sounding a bit bored.

“Rokov advised him not to worry. Well, because the office in Miami has Rokov under a microscope, when we found out he wanted to get in touch with Gen, we had the marshals release him into our custody, and let Csokas know we had Antonov and we’ll be ready for his second trial.”

“Which is not at all how any of that works, and Csokas should know better, and if not, at least his lawyer would,” Colton said, his voice dripping with derision.

“You’re right, and his lawyer apprised him not to do anything, but of course, he called Rokov to give him this news, and no more than two hours later, as soon as we had confirmation he made contact, we had Gen call Rokov.”

“So Gen called Rokov, and the big man said what to him?” Colton demanded, his furrowed brows and clenched fists on the table letting me know how tense he was.

I leaned into his side, crowding him, and he quickly exhaled.

“Rokov notified Gen that if he could retrieve the diamonds he’d been holding for Csokas, who in turn had been holding them for Rokov, then Gen would be a free man. Rokov would take him off his kill list.”

“And Csokas just rots in prison?”

“Yeah,” Walker told him. “Rokov doesn’t give a crap about his loyal man. He only wants his diamonds.”

“And Gen?” Colton asked.

“We suspect that if Gen gets the diamonds, he will take them and disappear. I mean, really, the chances that he gets out of this alive are slim. And once we played Csokas the conversation between his boss and Gen, he rolled on Rokov, which renders Gen?—”

“Irrelevant,” Colton concluded. “You have a bigger fish, so you can ditch Antonov.”

“That’s right.”

“What I don’t understand,” Colton began, “is why doesn’t Rokov send guys after Pax?”

“Because no one knows about Pax except us and Gen. He didn’t give Pax’s name to anyone and claimed a rival organization in LA hit his house.”

“That makes no sense,” I chimed in. “Erast knew that was a lie. He was working for you guys the whole time.”

“Not from the beginning, but you’re right. Erast would know that was a lie, and could have told that to Rokov, but his cover was blown shortly after you left, and he died in an explosion when his car blew up in his driveway.”

“Wasn’t he in protective custody?” I asked. “I thought Agent Lattimer put him in witness protection.”

“He did, but Erast was stupid and didn’t listen to the marshals. He didn’t follow their specific mandate for his safety. He contacted Rokov, wanting to get back to his old life. He hated Gen, even though they were cousins, but he had enjoyed the money and other perks.”

“And by then, they knew he was the one who had rolled on Gen,” Colton surmised.

“Correct.”

“Like house sex slaves,” I said before I even realized I was going to. “That was a perk Erast had appreciated. He never hurt me, but I heard him with all the women.”

Everyone was silent for a moment.

“Two days after contacting Rokov, Erast was dead,” Walker informed me.

“I thought he was smarter than that,” I mused as Colton put his arm around me. The heat, as well as his strength, was so appreciated.

“But now Pax is the only one who knows for sure what happened that day he and the others escaped. And Gen certainly won’t ever tell anyone that his sex slave got the better of him, turned everything over to the FBI, and skipped town with ten thousand dollars of his money.

That’s why he put out the rival-gang story all those years ago. He didn’t want to lose face.”

“Of course not,” I agreed.

“Where is Gen now?” Colton wanted to know.

She was silent, and when Calhoun cleared his throat, we both looked at him.

“Gentlemen, as the Los Angeles office is now prepping Csokas for the witness stand, and Rokov has been taken into custody, awaiting trial, the fact of the matter is, Genrikh Antonov is no longer needed as a witness.”

“No,” Colton said under his breath.

“Because Antonov was given transactional immunity?—”

“He was freed,” Colton stated.

“How?” I asked him.

“Because they gave him blanket immunity, and he held up his end, he’s out,” Colton stated.

“Now he’s running around without any protection and with a giant bull’s-eye on his back because everyone knows he rolled on Csokas, but that doesn’t help you at all because I bet no one had eyes on him and he disappeared. ”

I turned to Calhoun.

“I’m sorry, I can’t speak to how he slipped out without anyone knowing where he went because that’s not how we do things here in Chicago.”

“That’s not fair,” Walker admonished him, and I could tell, the moment the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. Because when his gaze moved from me to her, she visibly flinched. She was not a Special Agent in Charge, and I was betting she forgot that in the heat of the moment.

Calhoun then refocused on Colton and me. “All this, everything between Rokov, Csokas, and Antonov, transpired weeks ago now. The Los Angeles office has their case made with Csokas, but still, it would be nice to have the diamonds, as they would tie everything up in a bow.”

“Why’s that?” Colton asked him.

“Apparently, the diamonds were to be used as a payment for guns, RPGs, basically a whole lot of firepower Rokov was in the market for. If the diamonds can be found and Rokov gives us the name of his contact, we can make a deal for the weapons and shut down this supplier of illegal firearms.”

“This was years ago,” I reminded him.

“But the contacts are all still in place.”

“Well,” I said with a shrug, “as I told Agent Lattimer that day, there were no diamonds. I suspect Gen either never had them or perhaps put them to a different use.”

“Which I would believe,” Calhoun replied, “except we have video of him from the camera across the street from that pub you were going to. I’m betting Genrikh Antonov wants to have a word with you.”

“You used Pax as bait without even letting him know,” Colton accused Walker. “And how the hell did Antonov know Pax was in Chicago?”

“That was Erast—at least that’s our assumption,” Walker said, appearing pained. “When we recovered Gen’s phone, it had a message on it placing Pax in Chicago. The text came from a burner phone.”

“Gen’s known all this time where he is.”

“Yes. He simply couldn’t do anything about it without money and men. He was completely cut off from his accounts. All his assets were first frozen, then seized.”

“As if all his money was in one place,” I scoffed, squinting at her.

“Well, I agree it’s likely he had reserves we didn’t know about, though less than he would have had if you hadn’t given us the information about the second safe behind the first. We really appreciated that—there was a lot of money and gold bars back there, as well as another hard drive with even more evidence. ”

I nodded.

“You gave us so much that day, laying the groundwork for Rokov’s eventual arrest.”

“And you repay me by not telling me Gen Antonov is after me,” I said sourly, standing up and walking to the large mirror on the wall.

“We can protect you,” she asserted.

“Yeah, because you’ve done such a great job already,” I replied curtly, glowering at her. “I have no idea how long Gen’s been here, watching me… And how did he… How did…”

“What?” She sounded exasperated.

I surveyed Walker, then Hall, and finally turned to Colton, my voice having deserted me.

“That’s a very good question,” Colton stated, reading my mind as usual, eying Walker. “How did Gen know we would be at the pub?”

“I—” She opened her mouth, then closed it, glancing around at all of us before stopping on Hall and gasping.

“Why’re you looking at me like that?”