“I’m terrified. I can’t do this. I just can’t believe this is happening.” She started up the dock. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why did it have to be them?”
“Them who?”
“My cousins, my mom. It’s inside on the table. You can see it.” Anna waved at Tom’s boat.
“An envelope, right? Wait here, let me get it.”
“No, you can’t wait. You have to go. They’ll kill you. Don’t you get it? If you take me, they will kill you. I’m scared of the sea. I do not know what to do. Oh Jess…” Something caught in her throat.
“What? What can I do?”
“Jess, you need to go. You don’t need me now…”
I started to object.
She cut me off. “Not now! I am only going to get you killed. You’re only chance is without me. I know that! Get the boat ready. Get ready and go. I need to go away from everyone. Mother, cousins, Turks… you! Maybe I will be back before you go, but you must go! Go very quickly.” Anna turned and ran up the dock, nearly knocking Tom into the water coming the other way.
“This can’t be bloody happening!” My cheeks burned. I felt like throwing up.
Gasping Tom asked, “Have you seen the package?”
I started up the dock in Anna’s wake, stopped a few meters toward the seawall and felt gravity increase ten-fold. She was gone. “I’m screwed!”
“Not yet… deep breath… but you will be… wheeze… unless you pull it together.”
A large brown envelope sat on the table in Tom’s galley. It had been crudely opened, by Anna, I assumed. Her name was handwritten in Cyrillic on the front. Sliding out the contents, I was hit by photographic depictions of horror. Dead dogs, their bodies contorted, necks twisted, skin pulled back to expose teeth and locked jaws, puddles of red excrement and foam. Human bodies in tall grass, also contorted, crimson and brown stains, eyes open. They looked like peasants, their skin might have been dark in life, their eyes nearly black. Dead livestock, a rock strewn slope, a mountain range I recognized and then the knockout punch, pictures of Jack. One after another, eight by ten, glossy, color. His final moments sadistically recorded to elicit the very reaction I was having.
My hands shook. Shock and rage boiled up inside me. Tom his arms on my shoulders was telling me he knew it was a low blow, but to get a grip.
A thin pile of clippings and print outs was scattered on the divan Anna might have sat on. They were in Russian. Photographs told the stories clearly. Yachts on fire, smashed sailboats on rocks, overturned boats with bloated bodies floating beside them, hurricanes from space, underwater shots of smashed vessels, barely recognizable human remains trapped in the wreckage, food for crustaceans. The Cyrillic headlines screamed of disaster and tragedy at sea. Tom caught me staring at them. “Those came with the package.”
The last thing the envelope gave up was a letter, handwritten on decorated stationary, cherubs, teddy bears, children playing in an enchanted winter forest. A chipmunk with a mallet, a nut to crack, and a big clock at one minute to midnight. A sickeningly sweet Soviet depiction of “New Year’s Eve.” Presents to open in an idyllic winter scene without a hint of a religious capitalist Christmas. The letter was written in careful, cursive, Russian, Tom couldn’t decipher it.
My dear daughter, Anechka, I hope Anton and Victor did manage to give you this package and you have opened it. I also hope that you are well and unhurt.
I know what you see on these photos terrifies you, but you have to know who you are with and who you are entrusting your life to. You would not believe my words in email, so I had to resort to such a disturbing means to convince you.
I was telling you before about our dear friend Vladimir, who was trying to help me to save you in Kiev. He was able to get these photographs for me so that you see for yourself what your foreign “friend” has done about a year ago in a Kazakhstan village. I tried so hard to meet with you earlier, in Istanbul, but that didn’t happen. I also had to ask for so many favors in order to find you in Odessa, but when I finally did, she moved you away again. It seems like no matter what I do to save you, she moves one step ahead of me.
Anna, isn’t it enough? Have not you seen enough of your parents’ suffering? Have not you yet realized who you are running with? If these photographs will not help you make your mind I don’t know what will! Look at these poor people who are now dead. Look at the dogs. Anna, even dogs. Why did she have to kill them, Anna? She has no heart. And my heart is being torn to pieces when I think what they will do to you after she delivers you to her bosses in the rotten “West".
Dear Anna, I soon will be in Marmaris, I still fight for you. I hope you will want to meet with me. By now you must clearly see that your life is in danger and that you need to escape from that criminal IMMEDIATELY. Anton and Victor are waiting for you on a yacht that we had to rent in Bodrum. I have to spend almost my entire savings in order to do this. If you do not want to wait for me to escape from her, please do not hesitate. Go to Anton and Victor, go with them and they will sail you away from Marmaris and protect you.
I love you, dear Anechka, and I hope to see you soon, my beloved and only daughter. Father is worried sick about you and hopes they have not hurt you too much and you are well. Mashka, your beloved cat needs you, is also waiting for you, at home where you belong.
Please, Anna, don’t show this letter to Jess, destroy it, so that she doesn’t know what you are planning to do.
Your Mama.
I translated and summarized for Tom. Reading the last sentence I asked him, “So, how come I’ve got it?”
“Good question. But if I had to guess, I’d say she’s trying to tell you something.”
“Like what?”
“Like she doesn’t believe you’re the monster that did the stuff in those photos or like the letter instructed, she wouldn’t leave it for you. At least that’s the way I see.”
“She read it to you?”
“No, she left it for you. I don’t know Russian. We were unloading those vans when the gentlemen off the catamaran came by. They started arguing with Anna. Sinem and her friends, the guys with the vans, kept the cousins off Shadow. There was more yelling and they tossed the package on the deck. Then the wholesale guys showed the cousins on their way. I guess Anna went below and tore into it because a few minutes later, looking none too happy, she came storming off Shadow. I was worried she’d done herself harm in the lady’s showers which is where I ended up for fifteen minutes convincing her to come back to my boat and simmer down a bit.” Tom took a deep breath, held out a hand to indicate he wasn’t finished yet. “Then you showed up!”
“Do you think she’s with the cousins? Do you think they’ve got her?”
“I don’t think she went near the cousins. I’m guessing she’s off doing some thinking. Jess, you’re trained to notice things like that catamaran they came on is still there.”
“So what?”
“So, that cat isn’t moving. If all they wanted was Anna, they’d have her and it would be on its way to Bodrum by now.”
“You mean they want me?”
“That’d be my guess. With or without Anna, you have got to get out of here.” Tom put a cup of crude oil like coffee down in front of me. “You’re going to need this. Stay away from the juice ’til you’re out of this mess. I need to check on a few things. Do some sipping and some deep relaxing breathing, or whatever it is you new agey types do, for minute or two.”
Tom slid onto the bench seat opposite me, bent his head to his Blackberry and disappeared in a cross-eyed stare at the device. Eventually, he flashed the screen at me. “Anybody you know?”