Dan Fesperman - Lie in the Dark

Vlado awakened to find it had snowed overnight, then cleared. The sun now shone brightly, and looking out his front door he could see well into the hills with a clarity rare for this time of year.

He felt refreshed, not only from the solid night’s sleep, but from a renewed sense of purpose. The disappearance of Glavas had both troubled and energized him. At some point during his slumber he had tried to convince himself that Glavas had impulsively decided to exchange his painting for passage out of the city, that perhaps Vlado’s visit had even planted the idea, and that the men who’d escorted him in such orderly fashion-with nothing to hide, apparently, for they’d done it in the middle of the day-had only been starting him on his journey. By the light of day the idea seemed preposterous, but he still clung to the possibility.

Whatever the case, his activities over the past several days had somehow set events in motion that he might now be able to trace if he only knew where to look for the signs. In the weariness of last night such a prospect had seemed hopeless, but this morning, with its rich feel of promise and possibility, it seemed within reach, perhaps only a single flash of insight away.

He broke open the seal on the new jar of Nescafe and treated himself to a luxuriously strong cup. He then sat at his work bench in the kitchen and pulled out the boxful of his unfinished soldiers. It would be a good way to clear his head, to gain some temporary distance from the facts of the case that had crowded his dreams.

He wondered for a moment if Damir had managed to turn up anything yet in his pursuit of missing paintings. The search would probably be more difficult and time consuming than they hoped. Oh, well. He was ready for a full and busy day

His soldiers, he noted with pleasure, needed very little work before they’d be finished, a matter of a few small but important touches-gold on buttons and belt buckles, silver for the sweeping blades of sabers.

From a shelf he took down an oversize atlas of military history. Published in London, it was one of his most prized possessions. He opened it to a map and full-color drawing from the Battle of Austerlitz. There, at the Czech town of cotton mills and sugar refineries, Napoleon had won his most brilliant victory in 1805, defeating not only the Austrians but the Russians as well. The idea of a long-odds winner appealed to Vlado just now. He was using the drawing of the battle as a model for his Austrian hussars, who’d fared badly that day, routed from the field with huge losses.

He held one aloft with a thin pair of tweezers, into the sunlight that seeped through the dull plastic over the kitchen window, and began daubing gold onto the little man’s buttons, taking care not to smudge the bright blue of their tunics. Such pleasing colors. Such dash, with their swords raised in the air, thrust daringly forward. He thought briefly of the muddy men on Zuc, of their faces by the light of cook-stoves and penlight. These soldiers had smooth tan faces, and eyes that were dots of blue. He paused for a moment, smelling the paint, sipping his coffee, and letting the thoughts drain from his mind. He absently set the mug down on the book, and when his reverie broke a few moments later he saw he’d left a brown ring of coffee on the battle map, directly across the blue arrow of Napoleon’s advance. He plucked a dirty shirt from a pile of clothes at the foot of his bed and wiped clean the fields of Austerlitz, then set the mug on the workbench.

He glanced at his watch, wondering where the last twenty minutes had gone, then gathered his satchel and headed out the door.

Damir’s desk was empty, but Garovic was waiting, glancing at his watch with an extra degree of nervousness, his bureaucratic antennae twitching as if he were a cockroach that had just sensed an approaching boot.

“You’re to see Kasic this morning, first thing,” he fairly shouted. “You’re running a bit late, aren’t you. I tried phoning you at home but the lines were down.”

Vlado had wondered how long it would be before he’d have to make an accounting to Kasic, assuming that was what he wanted.

“Did Kasic say why he wants to see me?”

“A progress report. Here’s hoping you have one. For your sake and mine.”

This time there was no waiting in the downstairs lobby. Garovic, ever eager to please, phoned ahead to alert the ministry that Vlado was on his way. He arrived to find a tall man in a dark blue uniform waiting outside the front entrance. He seemed to know Vlado on sight, a bit disconcerting since Vlado had never seen the man in his life. Perhaps it was another small trick by Kasic to impress him. It would have been easy enough to have shown the guard a photo of Vlado a few minutes earlier. But maybe it also meant they’d shown his photo to others, or that this man had watched Vlado on previous occasions.

Kasic was again waiting at the top of the stairs, and once they’d settled themselves into his office he opened with the two words that seemed to preface all his conversations. “So, then.”

He paused, arranging the papers on his desk. “Tell me how it’s going.”

Vlado had wondered on his way over exactly how he’d answer such a question. Glavas’s disappearance had made him wary of just about everyone. And if he could hold out information on his partner for days at a time, then he could hold out on Kasic as well, at least until he was ready to make his final report. Nor did he want Kasic putting his own men onto the trail, behind his back, muddying the waters and drawing further attention to where he was headed. While walking to the ministry he’d formed a general strategy on how to fend off Kasic for now, yet even as he opened his mouth to answer he had not decided exactly what to say.

But Kasic spoke again before Vlado could begin. “I assume it’s going well. Or at least I’ve decided that it must be, or you would have asked for our help by now.”

So, a challenge right away.

“I may need help yet,” Vlado answered. “For further interrogation, that sort of thing. But otherwise, yes, I think I’m making progress. Not enough for any arrests yet, but I’ve developed some theories.” He weighed his next words carefully “And they do seem to match with some of your early leads and suspicions.”

Kasic beamed at the news, his gymnasium vitality shining through his long face, the brown eyes almost fatherly in their softness. Vlado wondered how long the smile would last.

“So, then,” Kasic resumed, “our undercover men were of some help.”

“For themselves, perhaps. I presume they’ve both been paid bonuses.”

The smile disappeared.

“As you had said,” Vlado continued, “they were a little short on specifics. And even in their generalities, well, they were somewhat on the right track. Vitas definitely seems to have gotten himself mixed up in some sort of criminal racket, either from the inside or the outside.”

“The outside?”

“By investigating it. On his own, apparently, without telling anyone else in the department. Either to be in position to cut himself into the smuggling operation or because he didn’t trust the rest of the ministry.”

“Meaning me,” Kasic stated, with a trace of indignation.

“Meaning everyone but himself, including you and a few hundred others.”

Kasic paused.

“But as for the other angle from the undercover men, the general angle of meat and cigarettes. Productive?”

“I’m not so sure. It may have been something more lucrative.” This was as far as Vlado wished to go, and he put his strategy into motion. “Beyond that, I’m afraid I’m not prepared to say anything more just yet. In the interests of the ministry, of course.”