Page 11 of We Chase Shadows

‘Correct,’ says Vern.

‘But he wouldn’t kill you?’ says Steve.

‘He would not,’ agrees Vern. ‘Someone is using his name and trying to frighten me. I need you to find out who.’

‘Can I ask –’ says Steve. ‘Sorry, just to start getting a picture. What is the more illegal side of the fake vitamin business?’

‘The fake medication business,’ says Vern. ‘That’s what Jakob Eriksson does. Heart pills, Viagra, statins. Anything that people need but can’t afford the regular way.’

Jakob Eriksson will surely be on the radar of Interpol, then. Rosie wants to know more.

‘And that would make him more enemies than the fake vitamins market?’

‘Of course,’ says Vern. ‘No one owns the idea of a multivitamin tablet or cod-liver oil or fish collagen.’

‘I use fish collagen,’ says Rosie. ‘I swear by it.’

‘Do you get it from a Belarusian website?’ Vern asks.

‘No,’ says Rosie.

‘Shame,’ says Vern. ‘Anyhow, no one comes after me. But you start selling Viagra or Ozempic or anything medical, then there’s a billion-dollar industry with the sole job of protecting their brand. And any time there’s a billion-dollar industry, there are bullets.’

‘So perhaps Jakob Eriksson wants an easier life?’ Steve suggests. ‘Wants to do what you do instead? Prepared to kill your bodyguard to scare you out of his way?’

‘We all met up,’ says Vern. ‘In Vegas, five or so years ago. Eriksson, my good self and four others. Divided the world up between us. Agreed to leave each other in peace. I was a mediator of sorts, because of the vanilla nature of my operation here.’

‘Lot of money in vanilla,’ says Steve.

‘We’ll need their names,’ says Amy.

‘Of course,’ says Vern. ‘There’s me, of course, and Jakob Eriksson.’

‘Your good pal,’ says Rosie.

Amy is scribbling the list.

Vern continues, ‘Then there’s the late Gennady Volkin.’

‘Late?’ says Steve.

‘Shot dead a year later,’ says Vern. ‘Then there’s Mika Voronen.’

Amy looks up. ‘Could you spell that?’

‘Of course,’ says Vern. ‘V-O-R-O-N-E-N.’ And then, ‘R-I-P.’

‘Dead too?’ says Rosie. ‘Goodness.’

‘Shot dead,’ says Vern. ‘Then Vaclav Svoboda.’

‘Is he …’ starts Steve. ‘Still with us?’

‘Very much not, I’m afraid,’ says Vern.

‘Shot dead?’ guesses Amy.

‘A number of times, yes,’ says Vern. ‘Riddled, they say.’