asked the boss why we were dancing around like this, when I could have taken Borubaev out of the world with a single well-placed shot. I could tell he wasn’t…
Tom CallaghanFebruary 13, 2023
The rain had decided to ease off when I left the morgue, with hints of clear blue sky over towards the mountains. The day was shaping up to be one…
Tom CallaghanJanuary 23, 2023
I put the call in, explained that Borubaev was in the city morgue, unfortunately only visiting rather than checking in. Presumably he’d gone to see Husam Umarov’s mortal remains. I…
Tom CallaghanJanuary 16, 2023
A large part of my job is waiting. Waiting for the next crime to occur, for witnesses to come forward and speak, waiting in damp doorways or in run-down bars…
Tom CallaghanDecember 26, 2022
I knew I couldn’t call on my colleagues back at Sverdlovsky to help me out. None of them would want to be within a hundred kilometres of a missing Uzbek…
Tom CallaghanDecember 19, 2022
I was parked across the road from the lawyer’s office when Borubaev emerged, holding the handrail as he made his way down the steps. Even from a distance, it was…
Tom CallaghanDecember 5, 2022
My idea of somewhere private to call Guliya Sabirova was a little unusual, but it always pays to keep everyone guessing. I was pretty sure that Guliya Sabirova wasn’t calling…
Tom CallaghanNovember 29, 2022
‘Inspector Borubaev?’ A woman’s voice, elderly, dry, rasping and hoarse, as if she’d damaged her vocal cords after decades of shouting. I got the sense of fifty untipped cigarettes a…
Tom CallaghanNovember 25, 2022
I’ve never understood why they call it hogtied when you fasten hands and feet together. In my village, when we slaughter a pig, we just leave a trail of apples…
Tom CallaghanNovember 14, 2022
I looked around the empty car park, hoping to see Saltanat walking towards me, hands held up in apology. Bit I knew she wouldn’t have decided on a whim to…
Tom CallaghanNovember 7, 2022
It’s always a pain in the arse if you end up having to take prisoners and keep them in reasonable shape, unharmed apart from a few cuts and bruises, that…
Tom CallaghanOctober 24, 2022
By rights, I should have made my way to Sverdlovsky Station, brushed the dust and cobwebs off my desk, filed a report and sent it to everyone I could think…
Tom CallaghanOctober 17, 2022
‘No-one else is to be admitted into the apartment until the crime scene officers arrive.’
Tom CallaghanOctober 10, 2022
‘No answer.’ ‘Try again,’ I said. Saltanat hit redial, glared at the phone as if she were holding a scorpion. ‘Nothing.’ I reached into the wardrobe, pulled out my canvas…
Tom CallaghanOctober 3, 2022
The only person I ever meet face to face is the boss. It’s one of my strictest rules. Talk to the top man or don’t talk at all. When you’re…
Tom CallaghanSeptember 26, 2022
‘What do you think?’ We were walking down from Kiev Street towards Chui Prospekt and down through the trees of Panfilov Park on our way back to the hotel. Questioning…
Tom CallaghanSeptember 19, 2022
The penthouse had floor to ceiling windows, all the better to enjoy the spectacular view up towards the mountains on the south side of the city. The main room was…
Tom CallaghanSeptember 12, 2022
‘What the fuck you mean, you missed them? And then lost them?’ I did my best to look sorrowful, repentant. ‘It wasn’t an easy shot. Snowing, and no knowing which…
Tom CallaghanSeptember 5, 2022
We must have been followed from the hotel,’ I said. ‘The question is, how did they know we were there?’ ‘I don’t think there would be a police alert for…
Tom CallaghanAugust 28, 2022
The boss wasn’t happy, not that he’s ever been a gleam of spring sunlight shining over the Tien Shan mountains. He only grunted when I handed over the thirty grand,…
Tom CallaghanAugust 22, 2022
steel door frame. We both dived towards the trash skip, unholstered our guns, looked around. The attack could have come from anywhere, a parked car, a window in one of…
Tom CallaghanAugust 15, 2022
Eight hours later, our car was doing its best to get through the ruts and puddles of the road that led into the apartment blocks of Alamedin. To describe Alamedin…
Tom CallaghanAugust 1, 2022
We knew we couldn’t return to the safe house. Too many police and four dead bodies to explain away. My new passport was in the glove compartment, and Saltanat, always…
Tom CallaghanJuly 25, 2022
We buried Orbek near the top of a mountain ridge overlooking the Charvak Reservoir, an hour’s drive outside Tashkent. It’s a popular weekend destination during the summer, but in the…
Tom CallaghanJuly 18, 2022
Four of them, a team. One of them would have been the driver. Confident of taking us, otherwise he’d have stayed in the car, engine running, for a quick escape.…
Tom CallaghanJuly 11, 2022
The window at the far side of the room shattered, and slivers of glass cascaded like ice across the floor. Arctic air slammed into the room, as the curtains billowed…
Tom CallaghanJuly 4, 2022
I never knew when Chinara would decide to come and visit me. Perhaps that’s one of the few privileges the dead still enjoy. I felt a hand shake my shoulder,…
Tom CallaghanJune 27, 2022
Counting and splitting the take is where it usually goes wrong. Forget about bodyguards, armed police. Everything we do comes in a package marked danger; it’s all part of the…
Tom CallaghanJune 20, 2022
‘Husam was my father’s half-brother, by my grandfather’s first wife. Twenty years older than me, already married to a Kyrgyz woman and living in Bishkek when I was a child.’
Tom CallaghanJune 13, 2022
‘How did I end up in Tashkent?’ I asked, genuinely bewildered. Now I understood why neither the nurse nor the doctor had said a word to me. I wasn’t supposed…
Tom CallaghanJune 6, 2022
Saltanat stood in the doorway, arms folded, and I didn’t need to read body language to sense her mood.
Tom CallaghanMay 30, 2022
Resurrection? Easy to say, harder to achieve. Even the acknowledged expert in the field took three days, and I was no expert. Then again, he wasn’t shot three times on…
Tom CallaghanMay 23, 2022
An ordinary day, nothing to remember. A few problems with suppliers not delivering on time in spite of promises. A couple of payments still outstanding, even after three or four…
Tom CallaghanMay 16, 2022
At four in the morning, no phone call is ever good news. A patrol car had stopped in front of an alley off Frunze so the driver could empty his…
Tom CallaghanSeptember 26, 2020
The smell hits you first, so you know what lies ahead, even before you enter the room.
Tom CallaghanSeptember 15, 2020
‘My babulya’s been murdered.’ Not words you ever want to hear, especially when you’ve put your jacket on, decided to walk home though the park, anything to avoid wearing your…
Tom CallaghanAugust 25, 2020
Amateurs - An Akyl Borubaev story The squad room was empty, the only sound the whisper of dust gently settling on filing cabinets stuffed with unsolved cases.
Tom CallaghanAugust 18, 2020
After midnight in the Kulturny Bar, where I was upsetting the regulars and planning to get myself a gun. Of course, I already had one.
Tom CallaghanAugust 11, 2020
The message came in early one morning, the sun barely beginning to clamber over the mountains to the north-east of the city. The lockdown had taken all the taxis and…
Tom CallaghanAugust 4, 2020
Rather than another post about Bishkek’s bar scene, I thought a mini-story about Akyl Borubaev might pass a couple of moments. After all, that’s hopefully why people read this blog…
Tom CallaghanJuly 31, 2020