“Wiped clean.”
“If it was her weapon, in her apartment, why would she wipe it clean? I wouldn’t trust the word of thepolitsiya, and even if this was found in her apartment, you can’t rule out the possibility it was planted. I mean, who shoots someone and keeps the murder weapon? Hypothetically speaking—I have no personal experience of murdering anyone.”
“You have plenty of experience with weapons.”
“As do most military veterans. Was there a question there?”
“Next,” Schneider said, pulling the laptop toward him, “we have a copy of transactions of Elena’s U.S. bank account. You’ll see a substantial sum of money was deposited in the last week, and not by the CIA. The transaction was made in Moscow, but beyond that it appears to be untraceable. What do you know about this?”
“Nothing at all. Maybe she transferred her own money, knowing she was moving here.”
“A lot of money for a travel agent.”
“She has a wealthy family.”
Schneider shut the laptop screen and studied Carter. “Is it safe to say there’s a lot more going on here than you were aware of?”
Carter took his time answering. “That is a safe assumption, yes.”
“Are you still confident enough to vouch for her innocence?”
“None of this sounds like the Elena I know.”
“And yet, here we are. Next, we have a copy of what I understand to be a marriage certificate,” he said, pulling a sheet of paper from the file. “I don’t read Russian, but you recognize the names and date on this?”
Carter ran his gaze down it. “Elena’s real name and my Moscow alias, written in Cyrillic. The date is the day we left Moscow.”
“And you were unaware of this so-called marriage.”
“We had discussed it before she arrived at the station.”
“But you hadn’t agreed to it.”
“I was willing to do it, if it kept her safe. She was marrying my alias—she did marry my alias—not the real me. What’s with the raised eyebrow?”
Schneider grimaced. “Deputy Chief Maldonado, would you like to enlighten Mr. Beck?”
Silvia paused as if to collect her thoughts. “Okay, so this is complicated,” she began. “Fact is, your alias is a real person, according to Russian law, so apparently it’s a legal marriage. And because the U.S. recognizes Russian marriages… Well, it will take some time for our legal department to sort through it. It’s not a situation we’ve faced before. Obviously, we can’t tell the Russians that you were there under an alias, so Elena’s marriage is legitimate, even if yours isn’t. Crazy, huh? However—and I know you’ll be relieved to hear this, given your personal history—there is an easy way to resolve it.”
“Which is?”
“By law,” Schneider said, talking over Silvia, “in Russia, a marriage can be annulled if it was entered into involuntarily, or if it was registered without a genuine intent to create a family. Under the circumstances, our diplomatic staff in Moscow can make this happen fairly smoothly and get it expedited through the courts. We just need you to sign a statement to that effect. Our legal department has already drafted one, which I have here.” He pulled another document from the file and slid it across the table, followed by a pen. “If you’d like to look it over and sign it, that will at least clear up that minor distraction so we can focus on the bigger picture.”
“And then what happens to Elena?”
Schneider shrugged. He and Silvia were making an effort to be nonchalant. “Nothing that wouldn’t happen to her anyway.She’ll face the consequences of her actions, whatever they may or may not be. But it gives you a little protection from being charged as an accessory, or something more serious. And it just makes things neater.”
“If I sign it, it’ll invalidate her spousal visa, and you’ll send her back.”
“That’s a decision for Immigration.” Schneider directed his words to the document, not Carter.
“Do you have anything else to suggest that her documents are fraudulent?”
Schneider glanced at Silvia, whose expression remained impassive. “Uh.”
“I take that as a ‘no.’ They were all legally issued, legally expedited, yeah? And I assume she hasn’t confessed to any of this?”
“This is not a forum for you to ask questions.”
