Page 99 of King’s Ransom

‘Yes, I am,’ I answered, cutting Georgy off.

(It was entirely possible that Georgy, in his overwhelming nervousness, was more socially awkward than I was.)

‘And now you work for the beautiful Yasmina?’ he asked.

‘I do.’

‘That business in the rich man’s tower the other day,’ Oberov said, ‘it has been bad for us. Embarrassing. The FBI came here in force and questioned me and my son—questioned us in front of our family and our associates—because we know Sergei Kazan, the Grandmaster, and because the two men who were killed with Sergei at that cemetery worked for me.’

That would be the two tracksuit-wearing thugs whom Merritt Garrett had also shot, I thought.

Oberov said, ‘I tell them we know nothing of the whole affair—nothing—which is the truth. Then I read in the newspaper that Yasmina arrange whole thing with Sergei.’

‘Yasmina disputes that. She says she was set up.’

‘So was Sergei,’ Oberov said flatly.

That made me blink.

‘How do you know that?’ I asked.

‘Because, Doctor Speedman, the events in that tower took place on the 21st of December and Sergei Kazan, the Grandmaster, has been missing since December 10th.’

Now, that was interesting.

Oberov withdrew a huge cigar from his jacket pocket and a gold lighter.

(The lighter was an S.T. Dupont jet-flame lighter; one of those mini-blowtorch butane lighters that wealthy men often use to light their cigars. It was a total flex. Oberov’s gold lighter probably cost $1,500 but you could light a cigar just as well with a one-dollar Bic.)

The Russian gangster ignited the cigar and began puffing.

He said, ‘Fear is a tool of my trade. And Sergei was very useful at instilling fear in people. He was creative, clever. I liked using his talents for extortion and vengeance.

‘But on December 10th, his wife Olga came to me saying that Sergei had not returned from his weekly massage. This is most unlike Sergei. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since.’

I said, ‘You think whoever did all that in King’s tower—arranged all those complex deathtraps, killed all those people—was posing as the Grandmaster? Setting him up?’

‘That is exactly what I think,’ Roman Oberov said.

My mind was really spinning now.

Yasmina had said she’d been set up.

Now, Oberov was suggesting that the Grandmaster had also been set up.

At that moment, Oberov’s son leaned in close to Oberov and said something in his ear.

I heard it.

‘Papa, rasskazhi yemu o perevertyshe,’ he said.

Oberov’s eyes darted sharply toward his son.

‘Dmitri! Never say that word!’ Oberov hissed.

He paused, thinking.

Then he looked right at me.