Tavonovich #2 Cocaine

Tavonovich

#2: COCAINE

Genie Driscoll

Copyright © 13 September 2018 Genie Driscoll

All rights reserved. Second Edition.

Smashwords.com

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Lulu.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Books by Genie Driscoll

Andromeda Gates

# 1 The Beginning

# 2 Solaris

# 3 Enemies or Allies

# 4 Calm before the Storm

# 5 Enemy Within

Romance Anthology #1

Romance Anthology #2

Tavonovich Series

# 1 : International Intrigue

# 2 : Cocaine

# 3 : Dirty Wars

# 4 : Agent M.I.A

# 5 : Trouble in Paradise

# 6 : Into Africa

# 7 : Family Ties

Trubachev: Conflict of Interest

Neverland Romance

Earthdome Space Fleet

Time Leap

Time Guardians : Mission Primeval

Kissing Bandit

Rebel Princess

Sheriff of Coco Point

Eternal Love

Laird of Glencarriagh

Cleo and the Lawman

A Twist in the Tale

Elfthade

1.

Trent looked at the file in his hands with a frown. The Minister had been very specific. Do something about the drug situation or she will bring in the Americans to do his job. Threats did not sit well with the Major. Yes, they had a problem with the drug trade going through Britain. How it got in was a puzzle as most airports and ships were being well checked and yet it was here. Cocaine being the top earner for the criminal fraternity so far reaching into the Billions in 2003 alone. He sighed. He couldn’t send out Winters or Shelby as they were already in the field looking at how a shipment of M16’s vanished off the base in Sheffield. Very annoying but most probably a glitch in somebody’s computer system backlog. Novak was on sick leave. That left Douglass and Brooks, they would have to be pulled off their present case and assigned to this one. He yelled through the doorway, Mr. Williamson. Contact Brooks and Douglass and tell them to get back here yesterday.

— Two days earlier.—

Tavonovich heard knocking at her door and yelled, Enter.

A smartly dressed Lieutenant of the SVRR entered and snapped to attention. Excuse me Comrade Colonel. A dispatch has just been sent and its for your eyes only. He handed her a sheet of paper. Saluted and left her to read it. He closed the door behind him.

Vanessa stared down at the words on the sheet and her face went white with shocked horror. She gasped as if in pain and clutched the dispatch crumpled against her chest, her jaw open and silent tears filled her eyes. Closing them tightly she wept until anger took over. Wiping the tears away she walked into her en-suite bathroom and cleaned her face and reapplied new make-up on her face and then walked back into her office.

Angry she picked up her phone and snapped out instructions to the male at the other end.

Twenty minutes later she was striding out of the SVRR Headquarters to a Black Mercedes limousine waiting for her in the courtyard. Getting in she told the driver to take her to the airbase.

Two hours later she was striding into the complex where her best friend was living. Guards, police officers and other civilians got out of her way. A largish man was standing in the doorway and he turned to her and growled, This is a crime scene, please stand outside and one of my officers will attend to you and get a statement.

She snapped, Get out of my way, or I will have you arrested for obstruction!

Who the hell are you? he snapped.

I will be your worst nightmare comrade. She flashed him her ID and he swallowed and removed his bulk out of her way saying, I am sorry Comrade Colonel. May I ask a question? What interest has the SVRR with the deceased?

Vanessa sighed and replied, She was my friend and my colleague.

The Inspector pointed to the bedroom and accompanied Vanessa into it. She had tried to psyche herself to seeing her friend and she had seen many dead bodies and even done the killings but actually witnessing it up close and personal was hard. She stared emotionlessly down at Katrina and a great sadness ripped through her again. The pretty brunette was lying on her bed. Eyes open as if in shocked surprise. Clutched in her hand was a chocolate bar with a bite missing out of it. On the bedside table lay a fairly large box with a signature on it displaying that the chocolates inside were Swiss. From where she was standing Vanessa could see a few slabs were still in the box. On the floor and side table were some chocolate wrappers. She smiled sadly and shook her head; Katrina’s biggest problem was her love of chocolate. And it looked like she had died eating it. Vanessa turned away and looking at the Inspector said, I will be at the Airbase. I want all relevant details about what killed her. Understand?

He nodded and Tavonovich left the apartment. Basically to get some air. The rest of the time to think. What had Katrina been working on? She needed to find out. Obviously whatever it was – had gotten her killed. In which case those individuals had just bitten off more than they could chew. Now the case was hers! She would avenge her best friend.

The next afternoon a call came through for her.

Picking up the phone she asked Da?

The conversation was short. Vanessa’s face became like stone and she growled, I will be at her apartment in 10 minutes.

She arrived and went up the elevator to Katrina’s apartment and was let in by a police officer guarding the door. Inside the place was a wreck. Someone had turned it upside down looking for something. The person himself was kneeling on the ground, his face down and his hands in handcuffs. The Inspector got up off the chair and said, Comrade Colonel, this man was caught inside this apartment looking for something. I thought you would like to talk with him before we take him to the station.

The man looked up and stared coldly at Vanessa.

He seemed to be a swarthy foreign looking male, obviously not from Russia. Heavyset. Thick eyebrows and dark skin. She walked over to him and asked him a question in Russian. He just smiled.

The Inspector looked at her and asked, Are you threatening my prisoner Colonel?

Tavonovich ignored him and looked pointedly at the foreigner. Who kept smiling and then he spoke to her in Spanish.

Vanessa smiled coldly, and knew that he had understood her clearly and in defiance was answering in Spanish, thinking she wouldn’t understand. So she replied in Spanish.

His jaw fell and he stared at her. But so did the Inspector. Staring at her he asked, What language is that?

Without taking her eyes off the prisoner she growled, Spanish. And he is about to tell me what I need to know. Aren’t you?

The Inspector asked, What did he say and what was your reply?

She replied, He said that threats are no interest to him. I am of no interest to him. And that I can’t kill him. He called me a bitch. He then said ‘There are witnesses.’ So I explained that to never take me for a fool; comrade. I am his worst nightmare, because I don’t care if there are witnesses or not. If I say the word, nobody will ever see him again, still breathing. Who sent him and why did he kill my friend? And if he thought I will not get retribution, to think again. Because if he did not tell me, I would find out who he was eventually and I would kill every member of his family and friends. Slowly.

The Inspector nodded and looking at the prisoner replied in English, Seeing as you understand languages, I can assure you Comrade Tavonovich is telling the truth. Have you not heard that in Siberia people vanish every day? The Colonel is the head of the SVRR and even I would not like to cross her. I would think very carefully if I were you about cooperating.

The man stared at her in shock. I did not kill your friend. I was ordered to go and retrieve the box of chocolates that was sent to her by mistake. When I got here, there were cops everywhere and I came through the roof only to find that the chocolates were missing. And she was dead.

Vanessa frowned at him and asked, What was so important about those chocolates?

He clamped his mouth shut and refused to say anything else, excepting, My boss would kill me if I told you.

No amount of threats could persuade him to change his mind. Vanessa looked at the Inspector and the man sighed and left the room.

A few minutes later Vanessa walked out the door and said, He chose to leap out the window. Call the coroner and tell them to come and fetch his body.

The Inspector nodded. Knowing that the man who had ‘leapt’ out the window probably had help doing so. But since he hadn’t been there to witness it, he couldn’t say anything and besides that, it was safer not to say anything anyway.

Vanessa went down to the Forensics department and had words with them about the chocolates. An hour later she was asked to come to a meeting and a slide show. They had some interesting news.

Seated in a chair in a briefing room Vanessa waited until the room was full of police officers and herself and the Forensics team. A doctor stood up and said to everyone, We now have an idea about what is going on. The chocolates were subsequently examined and tested. We found that the basic component of the sweets was cocoa based but the bulk of the sweets were Cocaine. High grade, good quality pure. A kilo of that would fetch easily $25 million dollars on the street.

Vanessa stared in horrified shock at him. Finally she found her voice and asked, How much of that was in the chocolate Comrade Patrovsky ate, which killed her?

A very small amount Comrade Colonel. She had ingested half a teaspoon but it was distributed in 3 chocolate bars. If we were to remove the Cocaine from the chocolate we retrieved, it would fill half a small bag but be lethal enough to kill everyone in this room ten times over.

Shocked silence echoed in the room at his words.

Finally Vanessa asked, If it was so lethal how does it not kill those on the street where it will eventually land up?

The doctor looked at her and replied, At its current status comrade, it is very dangerous, but if in the right hands, I am not saying criminals are the right hands, but in professional hands say, that small dosage will be cut up and mixed with a variety of different substances until it no longer resembles the purer form.

Vanessa stared at him.

He continued, What we have here is probably not the first shipment to arrive. But it is the first time we have seen it in this form. We did not know how it was coming into the country, only that it was. Now unfortunately thanks to your friend, we know what to look for. I am very sorry she had to die first Comrade Colonel. You have our deepest sympathies.

Tavonovich wiped her neck in annoyance. Thank you I will read up on this problem and deal with it myself.

She stood up