Jeffery Deaver - Watchlist

“Any leads?”

“We thought possibly British or American. Maybe Canadian. Some of the phrasing in the note suggested it.”

“No idea of his name?”

“No. We gave him a nickname, after the book-Faust.”

“A deal with the devil. Are you still searching for this man?”

“Me? No. My group disbanded. The Tribunal’s still in force and the prosecutors and EUFOR might be looking for him but I doubt it. Rugova’s in jail, some of his associates too. There are bigger fish to fry. You know that expression?”

“No, but I understand.” Padlo crushed out another cigarette. “You’re young. Why did you quit this job? The work seems important.”

“Young?” Middleton smiled. Then it faded. He said only, “Events intervened.”

“Another dispassionate phrase, that one. ‘Events intervened.’”

Middleton looked down.

“An unnecessary comment on my part. Forgive me. I owe you answers and you’ll now understand why I asked what I did.” He hit a button on his phone and spoke in Polish. Middleton knew enough to understand he was asking for some photographs.

Padlo disconnected and said, “In investigating the murder of the piano tuner I learned that you were probably the last person-well, second last-to see him alive. Your name and hotel phone number were in his address book for that day. I ran your name through Interpol and our other databases and found about your involvement with the tribunals. There was a brief reference to Agim Rugova, but a cross-reference in Interpol as well, which had been added only late yesterday.”

“Yesterday?”

“Yes. Rugova died yesterday. The apparent cause of death was poisoning.”

Middleton felt his heart pound. Why hadn’t anyone called? Then he realized that he was no longer connected with the ICTY and that it had been years since St. Sophia was on anyone’s radar screen.

An isolated incident…

“This morning I called the prison and learned that Rugova had approached a guard several weeks ago about bribing his way out of prison. He offered a huge amount of money. ‘Where would he, an impoverished war criminal, get such funds?’ the guard asked. He said his wife could get the amount he named-one hundred thousand euros. The guard reported the matter and there it rested. But then, four days ago, Rugova had a visitor-a man with a fake name and fake ID, as it turned out. After he leaves Rugova falls ill and yesterday dies of poison. The police go to the wife’s house to inform her and find she’s been dead for several days. She was stabbed.”

Dead… Middleton felt a fierce urge to call Leonora and tell her.

“When I learned of your connection with the piano tuner and the death on the same day of the war criminal you’d had arrested, I had sent to me a prison security camera picture of the probable murderer. I showed the picture to a witness we located who saw the likely suspect leaving the Old Market Square recital hall last night.”

“It’s the same man?”

“She said with certainty that it was.” Padlo indulged again and lit a Sobieski. “You seem to be the hub of this strange wheel, Mr. Middleton. A man kills Rugova and his wife and then tortures and kills a man you’ve just met with. So, now, you and I are entwined in this matter.”

It was then that a young uniformed officer arrived carrying an envelope. He placed it on the inspector’s desk.

“Dzenkuje,” Padlo said.

The aide nodded and, after glancing at the American, vanished.

The inspector handed the photos to Middleton, who looked down at them. “Oh, my God.” He sucked cigarette-smoke-tainted air deep into his lungs.

“What?” Padlo asked, seeing his reaction. “Was he someone you know from your investigation of Rugova?”

The American looked up. “This man… He was sitting next to me at Krakow airport. He was taking my flight to Paris.” The man in the ugly checked jacket.

“No! Are you certain?”

“Yes. He must’ve killed Henryk to find out where I was going.”

And in a shocking instant it was clear. Someone-this man or Faust, or perhaps he was Faust-was after Middleton and the other Volunteers.

Why? For revenge? Did he fear something? Was there some other reason? And why would he kill Rugova?

The American jabbed his finger at the phone. “Did he get on the flight to Paris? Has it landed? Find out now.”

Padlo’s tongue touched the corner of his mouth. He lifted the receiver and spoke in such rapid Polish that Middleton couldn’t follow the conversation.

Finally the inspector hung up. “Yes, it’s landed and everyone has disembarked. Other than you, everyone with a boarding pass was on the flight. But after that? They don’t know. They’ll check the flight manifest against passport control at De Gaulle-if he left the airport. And outgoing flight manifests in case he continued in transit.”

Middleton shook his head. “He’s changed identity by now. He saw me detained and he’s using a new passport.”

The inspector said, “He could be on his way to anywhere in the world.”

But he wasn’t, Middleton knew. The only question was this: Was he en route to Africa to find Tesla at her relief agency? Or to the States, where Lespasse ran a very successful computer company and Brocco edited the Human Rights Observer newsletter?

Or was he on a different flight headed to D.C., where Middleton himself lived?

Then his legs went weak.

As he recalled that, showing off proud pictures, he’d told the piano tuner that his daughter lived in the D.C. area.

What a lovely young woman, and her husband, so handsome… They seem so happy.

Middleton leapt to his feet. “I have to get home. And if you try to stop me, I’ll call the embassy.” He strode toward the door.

“Wait,” Padlo said sharply.

Middleton spun around. “I’m warning you. Do not try to stop me. If you do-”

“No, no, I only mean… Here.” He stepped forward and handed the American his passport. Then he touched Middleton’s arm. “Please. I want this man too. He killed three of my citizens. I want him badly. Remember that.”

He believed the inspector said something else but by then Middleton was jogging hard down the endless hall, as gray as the offices, as gray as the sky, digging into his pocket for his cell phone.

Felicia Kaminski first noticed the tramp outside the Pantheon when she was playing gypsy folk tunes, old Roman favorites, anything that could put a few coins in the battered gray violin case she had inherited from her mother, along with the century-old, sweet-toned Italian instrument that lived inside. The man listened for more than 10 minutes, watching her all the time. Then he walked up close, so close she could smell the cloud of sweat and humanity that hung around people of the street, not that they ever seemed to notice.

“I wanna hear ‘Volarè,’” he grumbled in English, his voice rough and carrying an accent she couldn’t quite place. He held a crumpled and dirt-stained 10-euro note. He was perhaps 35, though it was difficult to be precise. He stood at least six feet tall, muscular, almost athletic, though the thought seemed ridiculous.

“‘Volarè’ is a song, sir, not a piece of violin music,” she responded, with more teenage ungraciousness than was, perhaps, wise.

His face, as much as she could see behind the black unkempt beard, seemed sharp and observant. More so, it occurred to her, than most street people who were either elderly Italians thrown out of their homes by harsh times, or foreign clandestini, Iraqis, Africans and all manner of nationalities from the Balkans, each keeping their own counsel, each trying to pursue their own particular course through the dark, half-secret hidden economy for those trying to survive without papers.