The Nameless Ones by John Connolly

Chapter XLIV

Frend heard the ping of an incoming email as he was showering at home. His trip from Belgrade to Romania, and on to Vienna, had been tense and unpleasant, but he had almost succeeded in washing Serbia from his skin. He remained troubled, though, by how close he had come to becoming a prisoner of Simo Stajić. He’d have told them where the Vuksans were, of course, abandoning dissimulation and confessing all at the first sight of the blowtorch, but he knew that talking wouldn’t have saved him. His long death would have been recorded on a cell phone, but only for private distribution. The killing of an Austrian lawyer on Serbian territory would have caused untold problems for Belgrade; his disappearance, less so. Eventually, to throw the Austrians off the scent, Frend’s papers would have been discovered in a Bosnian or Croatian whorehouse, perhaps with a little of his blood dotted around for appearances’ sake.

Toweling himself dry, Frend checked his in-box. Miloje, his bodyguard in Belgrade, had located the Mercedes that had followed them from the airport, the city’s community of limousine drivers being relatively small. Miloje had convinced the owner of the Mercedes to divulge the identity of the person who had hired him: a Dutchman named Hendricksen, who had spent the night at the Radisson before being driven back to the airport for an early-morning flight to Vienna.

Frend put on a robe and set to work finding out all he could about this Hendricksen. Like any good lawyer, especially one who operated in more legal and moral gray areas than the norm, Frend had contacts in credit card companies, banks, and the government, including the Austrian foreign ministry. Somewhere, there would be a record of Hendricksen’s movements. It took Frend thirty minutes, and the transfer of some of the Vuksans’ remaining funds, to secure a scan of Hendricksen’s passport. Within an hour he had also obtained Hendricksen’s residential address in the Netherlands, bank and credit card records, and home and cell phone numbers, as well as a partial client list, because Frend learned that Hendricksen was a former Dutch soldier now working as a private investigator. The majority of his income in recent years had come from three law firms, one of which specialized in cases relating to the art world. The credit card information, meanwhile, showed that Hendricksen was currently staying at a chain hotel in Vienna’s Innere Stadt, and had been for a number of days, apart from his brief sojourn in Belgrade.

Frend heard his wife moving about downstairs, and music playing on the radio. Mina was probably making herself a gin and tonic, because it was about that time. She called up, asking if he’d like a drink, and he told her he’d be right with her. They needed to talk. Frend might no longer have loved his wife, but he retained some residual affection for her and did not wish any harm to befall her, as much for the sake of their daughter as for her own. Frend might have managed to escape Belgrade unharmed, but that did not mean he was safe. He did not doubt that the reach of Kiš and Stajić extended beyond the Serbian border, and there was no shortage of Serbs in Austria. If Kiš and Stajić decided to move against the Vuksans, their lawyer still remained the most obvious means of applying pressure.

With this in mind, Frend had decided that, until the Vuksans’ difficulties were resolved, it might be best if he took steps to safeguard his family and himself. His daughter, he felt, was reasonably secure in London, where she had been living under her mother’s name since moving to England to study law. Even had he attempted to contact Pia in order to share his concerns, he was certain she would have laughed at him, assuming she agreed to accept his call to begin with. In any case, he doubted she would be willing to alter her routine on her father’s say so, even at risk to herself. He suspected she would prefer to die just to spite him.

His wife was another matter; his mistress, too, come to think of it. He would deal with Radka later, although there wasn’t much he could do other than advise her to be careful. She was as willful as his daughter – which was hardly surprising, given how close in age they were – and would be unlikely to entrust the running of her boutique to an assistant for more than a day or two.

Anyway, Frend thought it more likely that his immediate family would be the preferred targets: mistresses, however lovely, were temporary, but family was for life. Yet in the reptile part of his brain, Frend debated how he might act should Radka or Mina be used against him. Objectively, he would be prepared to renounce either or both of them for his own safety, which was intimately connected to the continued safety of the Vuksans, whom he could not betray. The brothers might have been isolated and grievously weakened, but they were not without friends. Were he to hand them over to their enemies, word would get out, and Frend’s days would be numbered. Only for Pia would Frend be willing to sacrifice himself, and even then with a degree of understandable vacillation …

He went downstairs and accepted the glass from Mina. He then led her to the kitchen, where he spoke with her quietly and seriously for ten minutes. He did not share with her every detail of the problem, but told her enough to make her understand the necessity of absenting herself from their home. He was surprised that she did not complain, or even blame him for this enforced exile. She merely accepted with a shrug, and he saw in her face that their relationship, such as it was, had finally reached its belated end.

‘I always knew you were crooked,’ she said. ‘I knew it from the day we met.’ Curiously, she did not use the word unehrlich, meaning dishonest, instead opting for verkrümmt, as in bent or warped, as though his perfidy was so ingrained as to have manifested itself physically. ‘But,’ she continued, ‘perhaps I, too, was guilty. I enjoyed our lifestyle. I just chose not to ask how we could afford it.’

She looked around the kitchen.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever sleep under this roof again,’ she said. ‘I hope you realize why.’

‘I do,’ said Frend, and recognized the irony of using these two words upon the dissolution of a marriage. Now that she was leaving him at last, he desired only for her to stay. He was not so unhappy with Mina as to prefer a life without her, and he knew that Radka would ultimately forsake him. ‘I don’t wish I was a better man, but I do wish I had been a better husband.’

‘You cannot be one without the other. We should both have come to terms with that a long time ago.’ She sipped her gin. ‘Does she make you happy?’

‘Who?’

‘The woman you fuck when you’re not with me.’

He thought about the question.

‘Sometimes, but there is always guilt.’

‘Even for you? I’m surprised.’

‘Even for me.’ He felt empty and weary. ‘If I survive this, I believe I will conclude the relationship. All things considered, I’d rather embrace solitude.’

‘That might be best for everyone.’ She stood. ‘I suppose I’d better start packing.’

‘Where will you go?’

‘I was thinking of London. I could see Pia.’

He shook his head – ‘I wouldn’t’ – and the look he gave her made the reason clear.

‘Jesus,’ she said.

‘There is only a small chance.’

She stared at him for a moment before throwing the contents of her glass in his face.

‘Listen to yourself!’ she said. ‘A “small chance”. This is your child you’re talking about!’

He used a clean dish towel to wipe away the gin.

‘I know that, which is why we have to stay away from her.’

Mina placed the empty glass on the table and leaned toward him.

‘If anything happens to her,’ she said, ‘I’ll kill you myself.’

Mina had an old friend, a widow, who lived in Kufstein in the Tyrol. It was a pretty town, and her friend would welcome the company. Frend provided Mina with €20,000 in cash from the safe and advised her to avoid using her credit card or making withdrawals from ATMs.

‘How long?’ she asked, as she waited for a taxi to arrive.

‘A week, I should think, or just a little longer.’

In truth, he did not know. Perhaps it would never end, or not as long as the Vuksans remained alive.

‘What about you?’

‘I cannot leave the city,’ said Frend. ‘I have obligations. I’ll move to the apartment above the office.’

The first two floors of the building were rented to a security firm, which had also paid to have a vault installed in the basement. In addition, the firm had assumed the lion’s share of the cost of double security doors at the front and back entrances, and at least one of its staff was on monitoring duty 24/7. The firm did not specialize in personal protection, but Frend was sure that it might be in a position to recommend someone should he choose to engage a short-term bodyguard. He would advise Fräulein Pichler to take a trip to visit her sister in Helsinki, with all expenses covered. She would require no explanation, and would know better than to ask for one.

Frend thought that if Kiš and Stajić decided to come after him in Vienna, it would be as a last resort. Vienna was not Belgrade, no matter how many Serbs might be employed in the city. By escaping from Serbia intact, Frend had bought himself some time. Now, he hoped, Kiš would restrain Stajić while they waited for the Vuksans to make their next move. If Kiš could not, Frend had a card he might yet play.

The taxi appeared. Frend placed his wife’s bags in the trunk.

‘I’ll arrange to collect the rest of my things once this is resolved,’ said Mina. ‘I have a lawyer in mind for the divorce. She’s young, and doesn’t move in your circles.’

‘You don’t have to worry,’ he said. ‘I won’t make things difficult for you. You have my word.’

‘It’s a little late for that kind of promise, isn’t it?’

He couldn’t help but smile, and she responded in kind.

‘I suppose so.’ He placed his hands in his pockets. ‘Were they all so terrible, these years we spent together?’

‘Not terrible, but such a waste.’

‘Except for Pia,’ he said.

‘Yes, except for her.’

‘You know that by losing you, I also lose her?’

Mina’s smile faded.

‘You lost us both a long time ago,’ she said.