The Amber Knight (33 page)

‘You’re his second string.’ It wasn’t a question.

‘Who else? We both majored in medieval history and I had better grades. I’m also a member of the family.’

‘But a member he hasn’t trusted with the release code that will free the special fund,’ Adam guessed.

‘Yet,’ she stressed. ‘He was on the point of doing so, when you rang Switzerland – hours after he’d asked you to. I thought if you were dead he’d give it to me. But I misjudged him. He wouldn’t even give it to me this afternoon when I assured him that you’d been murdered in a Polish police station. When he rang me tonight, to tell me the good news – that you were alive but he’d failed to reach you at the number you’d left, I offered to check it out for him. That’s how I knew you were holed up in the museum. Given time and your disappearance I’ll coax the code out of him but it would be so much easier for both of us if you save me the trouble.’

‘Don’t underestimate him, Courtney. He’s too old to be driven by his libido, like me, and this phoney Russian prince.’

She laughed. ‘You really didn’t recognise Vladimir, did you? He insisted you hadn’t, but I must admit I never took you to be quite that stupid.’

‘I told you, I didn’t care who you fucked. Not even enough to take a good look at him while you were doing it.’

‘But you waited around to make a scene,’ she reminded him.

‘No, only to tell you I was leaving.’

She turned away from Adam and looked at Brunon. ‘Strip him, we’ve had a bid in from the Middle East, let’s give them their money’s worth.’

Brunon went for his gun, but Vladimir got to him first, and chopped Brunon’s neck with the side of his hand. Brunon fell in a crumpled heap at Helga’s feet.

‘Four in the vault including Maria and Krefta, Casimir Zamosc in the attack on Magdalena’s apartment, and Brunon here,’ Adam counted off gravely, struggling to find the strength to keep talking. ‘Tell me, how are you planning to get rid of Helga, Courtney? A convenient bullet in the back of the skull so you and lover boy here can go off into the sunset? Or has your Russian prince insisted on Helga going along too so he can continue to indulge in his ménage à trois? You must know that he is screwing Helga as well as you?’

Courtney turned to the Russian and Adam knew he’d touched a raw nerve.

‘You can’t keep any man can you, Courtney? Not me, not him, not anyone. You’re doomed to take second best all your life.’

‘Not once your family’s one hundred million dollars are in my bank account, I’m not. It was good of your grandfather to tell me he’d doubled the size of the fund.’

‘So, you sleep with the money while he,’ Adam jerked his chin towards Vladimir, ‘sleeps in Helga’s bed, which is where Josef and I last saw him.’

‘He’s lying,’ Vladimir protested.

‘It doesn’t matter. We’ve more important things to do than listen to his rambling. Like get him to give us that code so we don’t have to wait around for the old man to drop it in my lap.’

Vladimir picked up the gelding irons.

‘Start work on Brunon.’

‘Why?’ Vladimir asked. ‘Salen’s the one with the code.’

‘Let him see exactly what you have in store for him. After you’ve castrated Brunon dress him in the medieval clothes and armour, put him in the coffin and pour in the molten amber. Slowly.’ She checked the gauge on the kiln. ‘It will be ready in ten minutes. Brunon’s screams should jog your memory and your conscience, Adam. First you fuck his wife…’

‘Magdalena and I…’

‘Are colleagues?’ she sneered. ‘Whether you screwed Brunon’s wife or not, if you don’t give me that code, you’ll be responsible for his slow – extremely slow – and very painful death. The code will buy the touch of Vladimir’s hand that will put Kaszuba out of his misery. Remember that, when Brunon is staring at his own balls on the table and his flesh begins to shrivel with the heat of the amber.’ She nodded to the Russian. ‘Get on with it.’

‘Waleria, you must have some idea where Courtney went?’ Josef said testily as he and Magdalena followed her up the stairs to Adam’s apartment.

‘She didn’t see fit to inform me, and I didn’t ask. I was too busy hoping she wouldn’t come back. Adam’s phobic about his privacy. The last thing he said to me was tell my wife I’ve gone, you don’t know when I’ll be back and I’ve taken my keys with me.’

‘Then why let her into his apartment?’

‘Because she threatened to go to the police and tell them that I was keeping Adam from her. A businesswoman doesn’t need gossip, even when there’s no truth behind it.’

‘What time did she leave?’

‘Late – a couple of hours ago maybe.’ She read the look of exasperation on Josef’s face. ‘I was in bed,’ she protested defensively. ‘I didn’t think to look at the clock.’

‘Did she go by car?’

‘I heard her walk down the stairs and into the street. Even if she had a car it wouldn’t have been parked outside. The police don’t allow vehicles in Mariacka Street,’ she added, reminding Josef of the arguments she’d had with the traffic police when she’d tried to take deliveries for the gallery through her front door.

‘But it could have been parked around the back. Please, Waleria it’s more important than you can possibly know. Did you hear a car engine start up shortly after she left?’

Waleria shook her head as she opened Adam’s apartment. Josef stepped inside and looked around. Courtney wasn’t as fastidious as Adam. Magazines lay strewn over the tables and floor, dirty glasses and coffee cups filled the kitchen sink, clothes hung in disarray over the banisters on the mezzanine.

‘I’ll get Pajewski to put out Courtney’s description.’ Disheartened by one blind alley too many, Josef headed back down the stairs.

‘Adam is all right, isn’t he?’ Waleria asked Magdalena anxiously.

‘We’re not sure.’ Magdalena read the very real concern in Waleria’s eyes and wondered if she was the only woman in Gdansk that Adam Salen hadn’t slept with.

The Russian threw a bucket of water into Brunon’s face, bringing him around so he could feel the steel of the gelding irons closing in on his testicles. Brunon opened his eyes, saw what Vladimir was holding and screamed hysterically.

‘Give me the pen. I’ll write down the code.’ Adam concentrated his gaze on Courtney.

‘Hold off for a moment,’ Courtney commanded Vladimir.

Adam took the pen Helga handed him and scribbled a complex series of numbers and letters on to the paper. Courtney walked over and looked over his shoulder.

‘Don’t worry, it’s the right one,’ Adam assured her.

‘I don’t doubt it. You might try delaying tactics if you were the one facing the irons, but you’re far too noble to risk prolonging someone else’s agony. Even if that someone is a worthless bag of shit like Kaszuba.’

‘You’ll need the twenty-four hour telephone number of the bank.’

‘I have it. Your grandfather gave that much to me when you didn’t phone Switzerland when you said you would. Pity you didn’t delay longer, another couple of hours and he would have been angry enough with you to give me the code. I’m sorry, Adam.’

‘What for?’

‘This charade. It wasn’t planned this way. We intended it to be a simple, straightforward operation. Exhume the knight, sell it to the Institute and clean out the special fund, which your grandfather had so generously doubled since the early days when you used to tell me everything. I didn’t envisage any of this.’ She wrinkled her nose in distaste at the kiln, the boxes of amber, Kaszuba’s naked body chained by the ankles to two Gothic stone pillars to expose his genitals, his neck roped to another pillar to immobilise his head, Vladimir tapping the gelding irons against his hand.

‘Why steal the amber shipment? It was taken before you or anyone else could have possibly known the knight was contaminated. Did you intend to make a copy all along?’ When Courtney didn’t reply. Adam said, ‘Of course, you always were greedy. You wouldn’t have been able to resist the chance of doubling your profit.’

‘Stealing the amber shipment was Brunon’s idea. I didn’t know he’d done it until I arrived a couple of days afterwards. At that stage I was quite content to go for the original fifty million and leave it at that.’

‘I doubt you would have been content with fifty million dollars for long, Courtney. You always have had expensive tastes. How did you find out about the knight?’

‘My grandfather was an officer in the SS. His last orders were to blow up the Wolfschanze.’

‘I thought your grandfather…’

‘Was a Prussian refugee?’ she laughed. ‘It was the story he told the US immigration board in 1946, and afterwards he saw no reason to change it. People in the States had more sympathy for refugees who’d run from the Communists and Stalin than ex-Nazis at the time.’ She took the paper from the table, read it and folded it into her pocket.

‘You won’t be long?’ Vladimir called after her as she turned to the door.

‘Only as long as it takes you to clean up here and me to transfer the money from the Salen holding account into the one we set up.’

‘I think we should go together.’

‘I’ll take Helga with me so you can get on with what needs to be done without any distractions.’

‘If you wait outside until I’ve finished, I’ll be able to go with both of you.’

‘What’s the matter, Vladimir? Don’t you trust us?’ Courtney asked.

‘Anyone who does is a fool,’ Adam said to Vladimir. ‘And that’s coming from a man who was married to one of them for five years, and slept with the other for five weeks.’

‘We’ll be back.’ Courtney walked over to the Russian and kissed him. Adam saw Helga’s eyes turn a deeper shade of green.

‘You’ll have to make a choice sooner or later,’ Adam informed Vladimir.

‘I’d be happier if you’d let me go with you.’ Vladimir tried to pretend he hadn’t heard a word Adam had said. ‘Anyone could be out there.’

‘In Gdansk at four in the morning,’ Helga scoffed. ‘You’re lucky if you stumble into a cat.’ She opened the door.

Once the women had left Vladimir wasted no time. Throwing the bolts across the door to reinforce the lock, he returned to Brunon. Whimpering in terror, Kaszuba was thrashing around as much as his chains would allow. The Russian retrieved the irons and snapped them, testing their strength.

‘I gave you the code. You promised…’

‘I promised you nothing, Salen.’ The Russian lashed out, catching Adam on the side of the head with the irons. The chair rocked for a moment before clattering on to its side, knocking what little breath remained out of Adam’s body. Too winded to cry out, he lay stunned and helpless as a loud and intensely agonising scream tore from Kaszuba’s throat.

The atmosphere darkened. There was noise and confusion. Shadows moved through a haze of reports that might have been gunshots and cries that could have been caused by pain.

Adam continued to lie on the floor curled into an all-encompassing world of torment that left no room for any other emotion. He was no longer capable of untangling reality from dream or nightmare.

Strong hands lifted him and the chair from the floor. Someone called for metal cutters. A stone passageway flowed past, dark, damp and icy after the heat of the cellar. A rug that stank of petrol and dog hair was wrapped around him. He was stretched out on cold, hard pavement. Above him arched a vast expanse of sky, tinged with the clear, grey light of early dawn.

He could still hear screams. Frenzied and bestial like the howling of a trapped and wounded animal.

‘We’ve sent for an ambulance. It will be here soon.’ Melerski bent over him and examined the damage that had been done to his chest and hand. ‘Don’t talk. I think you have a punctured lung.’ He waved away a man who came towards them with a spirit flask. ‘I dare not risk giving you anything, you may need surgery.’

Melerski’s last words were drowned out by one final blood-curdling scream.

‘Adam!’ Courtney pushed her way towards him, dragging the man she was handcuffed to with her. ‘Tell your police friends I’m an American citizen. I have influence and money. And I won’t keep quiet about police brutality…’

Adam smiled in spite of his pain. He pointed a finger at Melerski.

‘What your husband is trying to tell you, Mrs Salen,’ Melerski answered, ‘is that you’re in the hands of an organisation that’s more powerful than the police. I’m Stanislaw Melerski, member of the local Mafia.’

‘You told Radek,’ Josef hissed at Melerski as they helped load Adam into the ambulance.

‘I didn’t have to. I warned you he had men watching the streets. Salen’s wife walked into this building, his men followed.’

‘There’s no way I can condone what went on in there.’

‘Why not? Salen has his Amber Knight.’

‘You don’t think for one minute he’d use it? Magdalena, what do you think you’re doing. You can’t go with Adam…’

‘You’re always trying to keep me from where I want to be,’ Magdalena interrupted Josef.

‘You a relative?’ the paramedic asked.

‘Yes,’ she answered defiantly.

‘Then you can come with us.’

A mid-morning hush had settled over the hospital. Josef’s footsteps resounded like an army recruit’s as he walked down the corridor to the waiting room where Magdalena sat hunched next to Melerski.

‘He’s still in surgery,’ Melerski answered Josef’s enquiring look.

‘Do they know any more than they did an hour ago?’ Josef asked.

‘A nurse came out ten minutes ago. She said it’s worse than they first thought. Two ribs have pierced his right lung. And his hand is a mess.’

‘Do you want coffee?’

Magdalena didn’t answer Josef.

‘I’ll come with you.’ Melerski followed Josef out through the door.

‘You knew Radek would kill that Russian,’ Josef rebuked, as soon as they were out of Magdalena’s earshot.

‘You didn’t?’

‘We could have got something out of him.’

‘Nothing we didn’t already know,’ Melerski said carelessly.

‘Then tell me the location of the vault in the Wolfschanze where the knight’s been hidden for the last fifty years?’

‘Brunon Kaszuba…’