23

They'd driven more than seventy miles from Driftwood in the pouring rain before Julien said, "This is far enough."

He pulled into a car park next to a signposted woodland walk and switched off the engine. Ilya unfastened his seatbelt and leaned over to rest his head against Julien's shoulder. Julien turned on his phone and they waited.

"Can I look at mine too?"

Ilya asked.

Julien nodded. "I know it seems over-the-top to drive all this way, but if anyone is ready to trace our location if we get in touch, not using phones in the cottage keeps us safer when we're there. Right, here we go."

He tapped in a password. Not that Ilya was looking but it was 9-6-9-3.

"Anything from Lors?"

Ilya asked.

"Yes. Sent last night. I'm to collect a van from an address in Croydon on Saturday at nine in the morning. Use the Channel Tunnel, then—merde!—drive to Lorient in Brittany."

"Why's that bad?"

"My parents live near Lorient."

"Coincidence?"

"Unlikely. Lors is just reminding me I have to do what he wants or my parents will suffer. Then I have to drive another vehicle back to the UK."

"Let me take a picture of the message."

Once he'd done that, Ilya took hold of Julien's hand. "I think you need to speak to Lors and record the call. It will be more evidence for the police. Get angry at him for sending you to Lorient. See what he says."

Julien called him, then put a finger to his lips to remind Ilya to be quiet.

"Julien,"

Lors said.

"Why Lorient? What are you planning?"

Lors laughed. "What does it matter if your parents live there? You don't speak to them."

"Why is that, do you think?"

"You know why."

His voice had turned hard. "You let your brother and my son die."

"Are you on your own?"

"What? Yes, why?"

"There's something about that night I didn't tell you and I didn't tell the police."

"What?"

"Something Abrek said to me that I'd misunderstood until a short while ago."

"Tell me."

"When I get back."

"Now!"

"When I get back."

He ended the call with shaking fingers.

"Was that a good idea?"

Ilya asked. "Pissing him off?"

"I just want to make him think."

And maybe keep everyone he cared about alive for a little longer.

"Do you really not speak to your parents?"

"I don't speak to them often."

"What the hell is going to be in that van?"

Julien shrugged.

"Drugs? Guns? Money?"

"I'm more worried about explosives."

Ilya widened his eyes.

"Want to use your phone while I check my emails?"

"Before I do, I want to tell you something I did when you went to see Lors. I went online. Along with a deluge of emails about nothing, I'd had several from friends. I didn't open them. I picked Karp to call on Signal. I thought that would be safe because I didn't have location sharing enabled. I didn't think any of my friends would betray me, but Karp let it slip that he knew my father had brought me to England to make me straight. He kept talking, trying to bluster his way through his mistake but I wasn't fooled. I think maybe…he might have helped set me up to be snatched."

That hadn't occurred to him until then, but it made sense. Karp was always whining about money. None of them were on big wages but Karp, who worked in a café, earned the least.

"Do you want to call one of the others?"

"Yes. I've been re-thinking what you said about my father being so determined for me not to be gay, how after years of him not bothering, why now? Maybe the reason is important. I could call my sister too. She'll be back from honeymoon."

"You remember their numbers?"

Ilya nodded. He tried Anatoly but he didn't answer. Vasily did.

"Allo?"

"Vasily, it's me."

He spoke in Russian.

"Kakogo chyorta, Ilya! What the hell? Where are you? What happened?"

Vasily went on asking question after question until he ran out of steam. "Just tell me you're okay."

"I'm okay."

"Thank fuck for that. You couldn't get in touch before now to reassure us? You preferred we think you're dead in some ditch? Exiled to Siberia because you were caught in bed with someone important? I worried! I called Dimitri to see if he knew. He said you'd sent him an email, resigning and apologising for not working your notice, but giving no reason. He also said the message didn't sound like you, but it came from your account. What could he do? I think he tried to email you. We all did."

So his father did have access to his email account to send that to Dimitri. Ilya hadn't thought to look at sent messages. He swallowed hard. "I wasn't in a position to answer emails. I had no access to the internet. I did speak to Karp."

"What? He didn't say. Why him and not me?"

Ilya picked his words carefully. "They took my phone when I left St Petersburg. I have a new one now and Karp's number came to mind first."

"Okay, so where have you been? Why did you leave without saying anything?"

"My father had me kidnapped and brought me to England and I think, but don't know for certain, so don't accuse him, that Karp helped him."

"Oh my God! That's where he got his money? He's been bragging he found it. Mudak! Do I need to call the English police? Obviously not ours because they won't give a shit. But why do you think Karp was involved?"

"When I spoke to him, he said something about my father trying to make me straight. And that was the reason I was brought to England."

"How the fuck could he do that? I mean… Shit! Beat you? Send you to one of those secret clinics? Is that what he did? Though maybe you were better off in the UK than in Russia. I'm not sure escape from any of those places is possible. Are you sure you're okay?"

"It's a miracle. I'm no longer gay."

Vasily laughed. "Right."

"Thing is… What I'm trying to work out is why he was so desperate to make me straight. All those years in St Petersburg and he does nothing, so why now? And why take me out of Russia when he could have had thugs take me to a clinic inside the country? Any ideas?"

"No. Do you?"

"Maybe if there was something that would directly impact him if I was gay. Someone I've been with? You know who I've been with."

"Not that many guys."

"No, but has anyone else gone missing? I did worry all of us had been detained."

Vasily exhaled. "No, but I've not seen Arkady since you disappeared. I did wonder if he had something to do with you vanishing. He always had his tongue out when he was anywhere near you."

"It sounds like he was taken too."

"It's the sort of thing his father would do."

"He told me his father ran a paper company."

"Yeeess."

"What does that mean?"

"He's also first deputy director in the FSB."

The federal security service? Ilya almost dropped his phone. "How do you know that?"

"My father told me. I didn't know until after you'd disappeared or I'd have warned you. I was talking to my dad about you and Arkady and he told me about Arkady's father and also told me not to talk about it."

"Shit. Right, be careful, Vasily. Don't tell anyone you've spoken to me. Not even Dimitri or Anatoly."

"Are you coming back? I miss you. I miss our outings."

"Maybe one day."

"Are you safe now?"

Ilya glanced at Julien. "Yes, I'm safe. You stay safe too. Bye."

He ended the call and switched to English. "I might have found out why my father doesn't want me to be gay. Remember when you asked about a boyfriend and I said I didn't have one, but Arkady might disagree?"

Julien nodded.

"Arkady told me his father owns a paper plant. He didn't tell me that his father's main job is first deputy director in the FSB. Arkady disappeared around the same time as me. He might have been sent to a conversion clinic. I think, maybe, by bringing me to the UK, my father was trying to save me from that, maybe save my life."

"By employing someone to torture you?"

"He didn't know how bad it was."

"Did you try to tell your father what Bryant was doing?"

"My father was away from the house a lot of the time. When he was at home, Bryant was always with me, ready to shut me down if I said too much. Bryant told me that if I took the punishment, went with the…programme…that it would show my father I was trying my best and there'd be no need to resort to other measures."

He groaned. "The guy was like Rasputin. Heard of him?"

Julien nodded.

"Bryant manipulated everyone, especially my stepmother. I resorted to silence. But he was getting frustrated. I bet my father wasn't happy he took me away from the wedding."

Ilya sucked in his cheeks. "I need to call my sister."

"Do it while we're out here."

When Lara answered, Ilya spoke quickly in Russian. "If you're not on your own, don't let anyone with you know that it's me. Go somewhere else to speak to me."

"I'm with Giles. You can trust him. Where are you? Where did you go? What happened with Bryant?"

"He's not dead?"

"No. He had to have stitches. Mama and Papa were beside themselves. Mama's necklace stolen, you disappearing, Emilia hysterical because she thought she'd upset you, and Bryant was found bound and unconscious in your bedroom. It was my wedding, Ilya! What the hell did you do?"

"What were you told about why Papa employed Bryant?"

"What do you mean? He was a life coach. And trying to get you fit."

"Neither of those things are true. He wanted to make me straight instead of gay."

"You're gay?"

Lara! Ilya almost rolled his eyes all the way out of his head, but then how much had she seen of him over the last ten or so years?

"Yes,"

he said quietly. "I'm gay." What would she say?

"Oh. Well…so what?"

Ilya breathed out. "I was friends with a guy in St Petersburg whose father is in the FSB. Arkady's disappeared too. He's probably in a conversion clinic. I was coming back for your wedding, but I think Papa might have brought me back early to save me from that. I want to believe he didn't know how Bryant was treating me. But he knew about the tracker in my arm."

"Chyort! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wasn't allowed to. And…I didn't want to spoil the wedding. And Bryant would have convinced you otherwise. Svetlana thought he was wonderful. I was waiting for an opportunity to run and I took it when Bryant carted me upstairs. He beat me with his belt and when I tried to get away, I fell over a table. My hand landed on Mouse and I hit him with it."

"Just as well you didn't let me have it when I pleaded with you. I loved that mouse. Maybe I like it even more now."

Ilya gave a little laugh. "I didn't want Papa to think he'd won if I gave it away. Anyway, I tied Bryant up and ran."

"Bryant said you were drunk and he took you upstairs to get you sober. When he turned his back, you hit him."

"Huh. Is he still at the house? Are people looking for me?"

"Papa's at home. I have no idea about Bryant. I think you should talk to Papa. Tell him the truth. Did you take Mama's necklace?"

"No."

"Because she saw it on the neck of another woman in Paris."

"It was a stolen necklace when Papa gave it to Svetlana."

"Ahh. Well, Mama said Papa laughed about it, but he was pissed off."

"It had nothing to do with me."

"I'll tell him that."

"I have to go. I'll keep in touch. Oh, did you enjoy your honeymoon?"

"Mauritius was wonderful."

"Good. I'm glad. You can bore me with pictures when I see you."

"Be careful, Ilya!"

He ended the call and repeated everything to Julien.

"It's a shame Bryant hasn't been sacked,"

Julien said.

"He had his hooks deep in my stepmother. She thought the sun shone out of his arse. Me hitting him over the head probably earned him a bonus."

"How could Lara not see what was happening to you at Sandridge?"

"She was busy with wedding stuff and I was in the cellar much of the time. I couldn't have told her. It was her special day, and Christ knows what her husband's family would have thought. They'd have run a mile. I wouldn't have done that to her."

"While you were talking, I was thinking. I ought to call the police now while we're away from the cottage. Before I lose my nerve."

Ilya shivered but he knew Julien was right.