The Amber Knight (20 page)

Adam walked to the window and stared out at the deserted beach. Any view was preferable to looking at his wife. As silence fell, and embarrassment mounted, he was conscious of Josef’s and Magdalena’s eyes boring into his back.

‘This is a policeman. Captain…’ Georgiana had forgotten Josef’s name.

‘Josef Dalecka.’ He rose to his feet and kissed Courtney’s hand. ‘You must be Adam’s wife?’

‘Soon to be ex-wife,’ Adam said quickly. Too quickly he realised, when he saw everyone staring at him.

‘Magdalena, how nice to meet you again,’ Courtney gushed insincerely.

‘Captain Dalecka came to tell us that Casimir is dead. Shot,’ Georgiana added dramatically.

‘Dead! We were with him until after midnight…’

‘He left us before midnight.’ Georgiana corrected.

‘You were tired. We went to the Casino again after you went to bed, Georgiana. Only for half an hour. I wanted to play blackjack.’ She looked fondly at Adam. ‘It used to be Adam’s favourite game. I asked Casimir to take me. All he did was talk about you, Georgiana. He was so looking forward to exhibiting in the States.’

‘So he left you at twelve thirty?’ Josef asked.

‘About then.’

‘And you didn’t see him again?’

‘Not after I said goodbye to him in the lobby. How dreadful. What happened? Was it an accident?’

‘He was trying to kill someone. They stopped him with a bullet.’ Josef put away his notebook.

‘Casimir a murderer!’ Georgiana’s eyes widened in horror. ‘I simply refuse to believe it.’

‘Try,’ Adam interposed dryly.

‘Did he say where he was going after he left you?’ Josef looked at Courtney.

‘No.’ She shook her head sending her blonde curls tumbling around her shoulders. ‘All he said was he’d call us in the morning. He’d promised to show Georgiana the medieval town.’

‘Did he tell you anything about his personal or private life?’ Josef questioned.

‘Only that he was an artist.’

‘Did he mention where he lived?’

‘Just Gdansk. We spent most of the time talking about art.’ Courtney looked to Georgiana who tearfully nodded agreement.

‘And in the Casino?’

‘We played blackjack.’

‘Did you stake him?’

‘I bought a hundred dollars worth of chips and gave him half,’ Courtney walked into the room and stood close to Adam.

‘Either of you win?’

‘Does anyone ever win at blackjack except Adam?’ She gazed at her husband again.

Adam moved to the door. ‘Time we were going, Josef, they’ll be waiting for us downstairs.’

Courtney laid a hand on his arm. ‘Could you possibly spare me a moment?’

‘It’s a bad time.’

‘Just a moment,’ she pleaded, looking around the room for support.

‘We’re not in that much of a hurry, Adam.’ Josef left the sofa. ‘Don’t worry about Magda, I’ll look after her. We’ll wait for you in the restaurant.’

‘I must look for Nanny.’ Georgiana tactfully followed them out of the room.

Adam returned to the window, folded his arms across his chest and glanced at his watch. ‘You wanted to talk. I can give you five minutes.’

‘That’s very generous of you.’

‘I think so,’ he replied, refusing to allow her sarcasm to rile him.

‘You seem inordinately concerned about Magdalena, considering she’s only an employee.’

‘A valuable employee,’ he emphasised, ‘and Josef and I have every reason to be worried about her. Casimir was shot last night trying to kill her.’

‘Kill Magdalena?’ Courtney’s light silvery laugh reverberated around the room. ‘Why on earth would anyone want to kill that blue-stocking? Aren’t you being just a little melodramatic, Adam?’

‘No,’ he said flatly.

‘How intriguing.’ She sat on the sofa and the slit in her skirt fell open. She saw him eyeing her thighs and crossed her legs to give him a better view. ‘I had no idea Gdansk would prove so exciting.’

‘It isn’t usually.’ He turned his back on her, furious with himself for giving her reason to think he still enjoyed looking at her.

‘Do you really think Georgiana and I are in danger?’ she asked seriously.

‘You could be.’

‘So you want us to leave?’

‘It would be a prudent move,’ he said.

‘Are you worried about Georgiana and the children, or me?’ she questioned archly.

‘All of you.’

‘Then you still consider me family?’

‘Ex-family.’

‘Casimir was Georgiana’s acquaintance, not mine, so I fail to see how I could possibly be implicated in anything that’s happened. But if you really are worried, I could move out of here and into your apartment until we thrash out a settlement. That’s if I can’t persuade you to change your mind about divorcing me.’

‘After the meeting downstairs, I have to go away for a few days.’

‘Running away from me again?’ she pouted.

‘Long-standing business trip.’

‘With your lady friend? I could be wrong about her. Perhaps you do find that particular kind of blue-stocking attractive.’

‘It’s strictly business, Courtney.’ He opened the door. ‘And there’s no settlement to thrash out. I’ve made my offer. Take it or leave it.’ He stepped outside and almost fell over Georgiana, who was crouched at the keyhole.

‘Eavesdropping?’

‘I didn’t want to walk in on a reconciliation, or something even more private,’ she explained.

‘There’s no danger of you stumbling into either scenario, Georgie.’

‘Adam, you’re a fool.’ She reverted to the hectoring, older-sister, school-marm voice that never failed to irritate him. ‘Be sensible and make it up with Courtney. You’ll never find anyone who loves you more.’

‘That’s why I’m considering taking Holy Orders.’

‘For once in your life, be serious. At least give her a chance,’ she said earnestly.

‘Like you did with numbers one to seven?’

‘My husbands never looked as gorgeous as Courtney.’

‘I’d be worried if they had. In case I don’t see you for another year or two, bye, Georgie.’ He kissed her on the cheek. ‘Take care of yourself and the brats.’

‘You aren’t angry with me for springing Courtney on you?’ she asked, suddenly solicitous.

‘You did us both a favour by bringing our ugly abscess of a marriage to a head.’

‘Where are you going – just in case we need you?’

‘Warsaw,’ he lied.

‘Perhaps…’

‘Don’t even think about it, Georgiana. Look to remedying your own love life before mine.’

‘Then Courtney’s right, there is someone else?’

‘No one. I’m serious about taking orders. Between the two of you, you’ve succeeded in putting me off women for life. I have to go, there are people waiting.’

A sacrosanct tradition of the Grand Hotel is a buffet breakfast which is served until two in the afternoon to accommodate casino patrons who make a late start to the day. Adam found Josef and Magdalena sitting with Radek and Melerski at a window table in the deserted side restaurant.

‘Coffee?’ Josef purloined a clean cup from the table behind him. ‘I recommend the frankfurters if you’re hungry. Magda and I were starving.’

‘So I see.’ Adam helped himself to a roll from the basket and a slice of ham from Josef’s plate.

‘Get your own,’ Josef growled.

‘I’d be in danger of missing more than I already have.’ Taking a spare chair, Adam set it at the head of the table. The view from the window opposite him was breathtaking. Miles of silvery gold sands, sparkling sea and cloudless, deep blue sky.

‘We had nothing to do with last night.’

‘Give me time to ask the question before answering it, Melerski.’ Adam bit into his roll.

‘We’re as interested as you are in finding out who’s peeing on our patch,’ Radek asserted crudely.

‘Casimir Zamosc for one.’ Adam opened the mustard pot on the table.

‘He wasn’t an artist.’ Josef picked up a brown, government-issue file that lay next to his plate.

‘That come from the station?’ Adam asked.

‘It does,’ Josef confirmed. ‘Preliminary enquiries suggest Zamosc never painted a picture in his life, much less the ones in Waleria’s gallery.’

‘So who did?’ Adam took another bite of his roll.

‘Some poor devil desperate enough to sell his name as well as his work. The only artistry Zamosc could lay claim to was in the con department. He had a string of convictions for petty theft, pimping around tourist hotels, living off girls and defrauding rich, old women.’

‘Georgiana always did know how to pick them,’ Adam said.

‘The only surprise was last night. If anyone had asked, I wouldn’t have said that murder was in his repertoire.’ Josef finished the ham on his plate lest Adam take more.

‘Someone must have put him up to it,’ Adam commented.

‘I wish we knew who,’ Radek murmured.

‘You don’t?’ Adam raised his eyebrows sceptically.

‘Not us. We lost a good man last night.’

‘Who was wearing a police uniform,’ Josef divulged grimly.

‘He was a good policeman,’ Radek asserted defensively.

‘Who worked both sides of the law?’ Adam finished his roll and helped himself to coffee from the pot on the table.

‘Last night wasn’t down to any of the locals.’ Melerski succeeded in diverting Adam’s attention away from Radek. ‘Some people have good reason to slit Kaszuba’s throat. Sorry,’ he apologised to Magdalena, who’d paled. ‘But even they would prefer to settle for their money rather than his blood. Besides, we passed on the message that Brunon doesn’t live with his family. Anyone who knows him would realise the futility of trying to put the squeeze on him through you or his grandmother.’

‘Then last night had to be organised by someone who doesn’t know him. Perhaps someone who already tried to get Magdalena and failed. Someone who drives a black Mercedes with Russian plates.’ Adam looked Radek in the eye.

‘Do you think we’d kill one of our own men just to throw you off the scent?’ Radek said testily.

‘Since you’re asking…’

‘All our investigations point to an independent organisation.’ Josef handed Adam the file.

‘Kaszuba’s shat on someone besides us.’ Melerski picked up the coffee pot Adam had emptied and waved it at the waitress.

‘And the car in the forest?’

‘None of ours have been near the border for weeks.’ Radek kept his cold, dead eyes focused on Adam.

‘Someone knows something,’ Adam insisted. ‘No one sneezes in Gdansk unless one of you gives them the go-ahead.’

‘There’s no word out on the street about last night,’ Radek said in a tone Adam wasn’t tempted to argue with.

‘So where does that leave us?’ Adam asked.

‘Treading carefully,’ Josef cautioned. ‘With everything that’s going on, I advise you to postpone your trip.’

‘You’ve told these two where we’re going?’ Adam looked at Josef in surprise.

‘Not yet. I hoped you would.’

‘Like hell I will!’ Adam exclaimed.

‘One of our men died trying to protect your arse last night,’ Melerski reminded him.

‘I saw the expendable label.’

Radek reached across the table and gripped Adam’s throat.

‘Put him down, there’s a good fellow. Adam didn’t know he was your brother.’ Josef shovelled the cheese on his plate onto a piece of bread, feigning nonchalance while counting off an interminable sixty seconds before Radek relaxed his grip.

‘We’ll be able to protect you if we know your itinerary,’ Melerski said.

‘I’d sooner spit in my coffee.’ Adam rubbed his neck.

‘I advise you to take them up on their offer.’

‘You might enjoy going to bed with the Mafia, Josef, I don’t. I’ve put myself in your hands because I had no choice, but I’m telephoning America before we leave. If anything happens to me, or her,’ he pointed at Magdalena, ‘in the next couple of days, there’ll be embarrassing headlines in the press. And all three of your names will be up in block capitals alongside mine.’

‘The American lady and her companion did play blackjack last night, sir. Miss Leman’s table.’ The waiter slipped Josef a piece of paper. In return Josef pushed a bundle of bank notes into the top pocket of his tuxedo.

‘I can trust your usual discretion?’

‘You can rely on me.’ The waiter washed his hands and left the men’s room.

‘You have spies everywhere,’ Adam observed sourly.

‘You any objection to stopping off to talk to Helga Leman?’

‘What do you expect to get out of her?’

‘Me, nothing. You, on the other hand, might do better.’

‘I’m the man before yesterday. Besides I don’t know her address.’

‘So you always stayed at your place. I did wonder. Never mind, I have it.’ Josef took the paper the waiter had handed him from his pocket.

‘We’re on our way to the Wolfschanze.’ Adam went to the door.

‘You can go after seeing Helga. It won’t take long.’

‘I can’t leave Magdalena.’

‘She’ll be safe in Piwna Street.’

‘Like Kaszuba.’

‘You’ll never let me forget that, will you,’ Josef snapped. ‘I’ll order six men to sit with her.’

‘Radek’s employees or yours?’

Josef lost control. ‘I’m the one who’s busting my arse trying to keep her alive. I’ve already lost three men…’

‘Seems to me you could have done with losing one of them.’

‘To hell with you and your bloody wisecracks. Zamosc wanted to kill Magda badly enough to risk breaking into her apartment when she had police protection and, before then he took your wife to the casino. The obvious next step is to interview the croupier, unless you want to forget the whole thing, in which case I suggest you put a bullet in Magda’s brain now. With a little care you should make a painless job of it, which is something the opposition might not do the next time they try.’

‘Have it your way, but do me a favour first.’ Adam reined in his temper. ‘Check out the six policemen before you entrust them with Magdalena to make sure none of them are on Radek’s payroll. Then I’ll give you an hour, not a second more, before we head for the Wolfschanze.’

‘You and Magda can go on ahead to Hitler’s lair. I need to interview Waleria and examine the ballistic reports. And you’d better have this back, just in case.’ He handed Adam his Glock pistol. ‘We’ve kept one bullet.’