Donovans 01 - Amber Beach

the amber panel?”
    “I don’t know,” Kyle said.
    “I find that difficult to believe.”
    “Why? Do you trust everyone you screw?”
    The Russian looked amused. “That would not be wise.”
    “Marju didn’t trust me. She used me. Big difference.”
    Honor flinched with silent sympathy for her brother.
    “What do you know that might help me?” Resnikov asked Kyle.
    “That depends,” Jake said before Kyle could answer. “If you’re working for the Russian government, we can’t tell you much that you don’t already know. Marju’s cousin, according to her, was her source for the amber.”
    Resnikov turned quickly toward Jake. “Do you believe that?”
    “I believe her cousin is a fast-rising mafiya star whose buddy tried to kill Kyle and ended up dead himself. If the Kaliningrad mafiya had the panel, then the cousin was Marju’s connection.” Jake looked at his watch. “My turn,” he said to Resnikov. “Were you the one who searched this place?”
    “Yes.”
    Honor stiffened.
    “Were you on the freighter that nearly ran us down?” Jake continued.
    “No.” Resnikov looked toward Honor. “I had nothing to do with that misunderstanding. The captain has contempt for little boats. As for Vasi, he received a harsh lecture delivered by me for his part. He has enough English to warn you, but he enjoys—how do you say it?”
    “Being an asshole?” Jake asked.
    “Yes. It is the reason he left Russia.”
    “He gets in my face with that seiner again and he’ll be looking for a new place to live.”
    Resnikov nodded. “I said something very similar to him.”
    “You weren’t aboard the seiner either, were you?” Jake said. “You were in Vasi’s Olympic, keeping us in sight by keeping the Coast Guard in sight.”
    The Russian smiled. “You nearly caught me at dawn.”
    “There were two people aboard. Who was the other one?”
    “Marju.”
    “Her again,” Jake said. “A real piece of work, that one.”
    “She has her uses,” Resnikov said. “When you refused my offer, I sent her to enlist her fiancé’s sister in our cause.”
    “Marju and I were never engaged in anything but sex,” Kyle said bluntly.
    “But Honor did not know that, did she? What would be more natural than a loving sister helping out a grieving fiancé?”
    Kyle’s expression went from disgust to anger. “It’s a good thing it didn’t work, Pete. I would have taken you apart for dragging Honor into this mess.”
    “Why? She was very much a part of the game,” Resnikov said matter-of-factly.
    “Honor had nothing to do with any of it!” Kyle said.
    “She had Jacob Mallory.”
    “You were the one who told me to get rid of Jake,” Honor said suddenly. “That’s why your voice seemed familiar.”
    “I did not succeed in separating the two of you,” Resnikov said, shrugging. The look on his face said that it wasn’t a defeat he accepted graciously.
    “Were you the silent caller, too?” she asked.
    Again, Resnikov looked puzzled. Jake spoke a few swift sentences in Russian. Before he was finished, Resnikov was shaking his head.
    “My guess is Pavlov,” Jake said to Honor. “He likes scaring women.”
    “Where is Marju?” Honor asked.
    Resnikov looked at Ellen. She looked right back at him.
    Jake looked at his watch. “One more, Pete.”
    “The panel,” he said instantly to Jake. “Is it genuine?”
    “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
    “You examined it.”
    “So did you.”
    “You are better,” Resnikov said impatiently.
    “I’m not good enough to look at a piece and say yes, no, or maybe. I would have to run some tests. To do that, I would have to have the panel. I don’t. Uncle does.”
    “The amber is genuine,” Resnikov said.
    “Genuine Baltic, Mexican, Dominican, or all three?” Jake asked evenly.
    “Baltic, solely.”
    “If you know that, you have a better idea where the panel came from than I do.”
    “But—”
    “Time’s up. Say good-bye, Pete. Ellen wanted privacy for her questions.”
    Resnikov hesitated, then gave in. He was in no position to push and he knew it. “There will be other times.”
    “Not if I can help it,” Jake said.
    Ellen waited until the front door shut behind Resnikov and his car headed out the driveway.
    “How did you get across Russia with the panel?” Ellen asked Kyle.
    “Dollars,” he said succinctly. “You would be amazed what hard cash buys in the former Soviet Union.”
    “Who did you buy?”
    “Same people you