“Sure, I killed him. It’s a secret, though; only one other person knows.”
“Oh, mum’s the word, old boy—no one will hear it from me. But I don’t really understand why. Not money, surely, that doesn’t seem your style at all.”
“No, not money. You got to be careful with money. Don’t let it be in charge.” Bogdan advances a knight, and Stephen sees what he’s up to at last. Delightful, really.
“What was it, then?”
“It was simple. I had a friend, my best friend when I arrived in England, and he drove a taxi. One day he saw Tony do something he shouldn’t.”
“What did he see?” Stephen surprises Bogdan by moving his rook. Bogdan smiles a little. He loves this crafty old man.
“He saw Tony shoot a boy, a young boy from London. About something, I don’t know, I never found out. A drug thing.”
“So Tony killed your friend?”
“Well, the taxi company is run by a man named Johnny. They called him Turkish Johnny, but he was Cypriot. Johnny and Tony were in business, but Tony was the boss.” Bogdan stares down at the board, taking his time.
“So Johnny killed your friend?”
“Johnny killed my friend, but Tony told him to. I don’t care, is same thing.”
“It is. We’re agreed there. And whatever happened to Johnny?”
Bogdan withdraws his knight. A waste of a move, but never mind, these things happen.
“I killed him too. Straightaway, pretty much.”
Stephen nods. He stares at the board in silence for a while. Bogdan thinks he may have lost him, but he has learned you have to be patient with Stephen sometimes. And sure enough.
“What was your friend’s name?” Stephen keeps looking at the board, trying to conjure something from nothing.
“Kaz. Kazimir,” says Bogdan. “Johnny, he ask Kaz to drive him to the woods; he has to bury something, and he needs help. They walk into the woods, they dig and dig, for whatever Johnny needs to bury. He was a hard worker, Kaz, and nice, you would like him very much. So then Johnny shoot Kaz, pop, one shot, and buries him in the hole.”
Stephen further advances his pawn. Bogdan glances up at him and gives him a little nod and a smile. He scrunches his nose for a moment as he looks back at the board.
“I thought Kaz had run away, maybe home, keep his head down, okay? But Johnny is stupid, not like Tony, and he speaks with his friends, and says he shot this guy in the woods, and the guy did all the digging, and isn’t this funny? And I hear about this.”
“So you go into action?” asks Stephen.
Bogdan nods, wondering about his bishop and whether Stephen might just have something up his sleeve. “I tell Johnny I need to speak to him. Don’t tell Tony, don’t tell the others. I say a friend works in Newhaven, at the port, and there might be some money for him, and is he interested? And he’s interested, so we meet at the port, about two a.m.”
“And there’s no security?”
“There’s security, but the security man is a cousin of my friend, Steve Ercan. A good guy. He really does work at the port. Is easier to lie with the truth. So Steve comes along too. Steve knew Kaz. Steve liked Kaz like I did. So we walk across to harbor steps and get in a little boat, and Johnny, he is stupid, he just think about money. We chug, chug, chug, and it’s choppy and I’m telling him the plan, and we use this boat to smuggle people, and Steve’s cousin will turn a blind eye, and think of all the money. Then I take out a gun and I tell him kneel down, and Johnny thinks is a joke, and I say, ‘You killed Kazimir,’ just so he knows why he’s there, so suddenly he thinks it’s not joke, and I shoot him.”
Bogdan finally moves his bishop, and it is Stephen’s turn to scrunch his nose.
“I take his keys and his cards. We weigh him down with bricks and throw him over, never to be seen. Back we go to Newhaven, we say thank you to Steve’s cousin, let’s not speak of this. Then me and Steve, we drive to Johnny’s house, we let ourselves in, we take his passport, we pack suitcase full of clothes, there is piles of money, you know, drugs money, and we take this too, and anything valuable we find. Some of the money is Tony’s, like, a lot, so I was glad to take it.”
“How much money?” asks Stephen.
“It was, like, hundred grand. I send fifty grand to Kazimir’s family.”
“Good lad.”
“The rest I give to Steve. He wanted to open a gym, and I thought was good investment. He’s a good guy, no nonsense with him. Then I drive Steve to Gatwick, he take flight to Cyprus on Johnny’s passport, no one looks. Easy. Then Steve fly straight back to England on his own passport. I call the police, anonymous, but I know enough that they take me serious. I tell them Johnny killed Kaz, and they raid his house.”
“And they find his passport gone and his clothes gone?”
