The Last Temptation (47 page)

‘The banks of the River Elbe.’ He gestured to his left. ‘Just up there is the junction with the Mittelland Kanal.’ He opened the door and climbed out. ‘Let’s walk.’

She followed him along a path by the river, which was busy with commercial craft ranging in size from long barges loaded down with containers to small boats carrying a few crates or sacks. ‘It’s a busy waterway,’ she commented, falling into step beside him.

‘Precisely. You know, when people think of moving illegal goods around, whether that’s arms or drugs or human beings, they always think of the fastest ways of doing it. Planes, lorries, cars. But there’s no reason for speed. You’re not carrying perishable cargo. And smuggling really started on the water,’ Tadeusz said. As the canal came into view, he reached out and took her hand in his.

‘This is one of the crossroads of the European waterways,’ he said. ‘From here, you can go to Berlin or Hamburg. But you can go much, much further. You can use the Havel and the Oder to take you to the Baltic or into the heart of Poland and the Czech Republic. In the other direction, there’s Rotterdam, Antwerp, Ostende, Paris, Le Havre. Or you can go down the Rhine and the Danube all the way to the Black Sea. And nobody really takes much notice. As long as you have the proper seals on your containers and the appropriate documents, there’s nothing to worry about.’

‘This is how you move your merchandise?’ Carol said, sounding bemused.

He nodded. ‘The Romanians are extremely corruptible.

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The drugs come across the Black Sea, or else from the Chinese as payment for their travel. The guns come from the Crimea. The illegals come into Budapest or Bucharest on tourist visas. And they all get packed into containers with official customs seals and end up where I want them to be.’

‘You pack people into containers? For weeks at a time?’

He smiled. ‘It’s not so bad. We have containers with special air filters. Chemical toilets. Plenty of water and enough food so they don’t starve. Frankly, they don’t care how bad the conditions are as long as they end up in some nice EU country with a welfare system and a lousy procedure for getting rid of asylum seekers. One of the reasons they love your country so much,’ he added, giving her fingers a gentle squeeze.

‘So you load them all up in the docks on the Black Sea? And everybody turns a blind eye?’ Even with corruptible officials, Carol thought this was a rather chancy operation.

He laughed. ‘Hardly. No, when the containers leave Agigea, they’re full of perfectly legitimate merchandise. But I own a small boatyard about fifty kilometres from Bucharest. Near Giurgiu. The barges pull in there and the loads are … how can I put it? Rectified. The legitimate cargoes are transferred to lorries. And our tame customs officials replace the seals so everything is exactly as it should be.’ He dropped her hand and put an arm round her shoulders. ‘You see how much I trust you, that I tell you all this?’

‘I appreciate it,’ Carol said, trying not to show how overjoyed she was at the precious intelligence she had gained. ‘So how many containers do you have in operation at any given time?’ she asked. It was, she felt, the sort of thing a businesswoman like Caroline would want to know.

‘Between thirty and forty,’ he said. ‘Sometimes there’s only a small amount of heroin on board, but it still means you need access to a whole container.’

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‘That’s a big investment,’ Carol said.

‘Believe me, Caroline, every container pays for itself many times over every year. This is a very lucrative business. Maybe if things work out for us with the illegals, we could move some other merchandise?’

‘I don’t think so,’ she said firmly. ‘I don’t get involved in drugs. It’s too dodgy. Too many stupid people thinking it’s easy money. You have to deal with such shitty, unreliable toerags. People you wouldn’t want in your town, never mind in your house. Besides, the police pay far too much attention to drugs.’

He shrugged. ‘It’s up to you. Me, I let Darko deal with the scum. I only talk to the people at the top of the tree. What about guns? How do you feel about them?’

‘I don’t use them and I don’t like them.’

Tadeusz laughed in pure delight. ‘I feel the same about drugs. But it’s just business, Caroline. You can’t afford to be sentimental in business.’

‘I’m not sentimental. I’ve got a very good and very profitable business and I don’t want to have to deal with gangsters.’

‘Everybody needs a second profit centre.’

‘That’s why I bought the airbase. That’s why I’m here now. You supply the workforce, that’s all I need.’

He pulled her closer to him. ‘You shall have them.’ He turned and kissed her lips. ‘Sealed with a kiss.’

Carol allowed herself to lean into him, aware she mustn’t reveal the repugnance his revelations had engendered in her. ‘We’ll make good partners,’ she said softly.

‘I’m looking forward to it,’ he said, his voice heavy with secondary meaning.

She chuckled as she pulled free of his embrace. The too. But remember, I don’t mix business with pleasure. First, we

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do the business. Then … who knows?’ She skipped away from him and ran back down the path towards the car.

He caught up with her halfway along the river bank, grabbing her round the waist and pulling her close. COK, business before pleasure,’ he said. ‘Let’s go back to Berlin and make some plans. I’ll call Darko and get him to meet us. We’ve got a quiet little office in Kreuzberg where we can sit down and make some firm plans and talk money. Then tonight we can relax.’

Oh shit, Carol thought. This was all moving faster than she really wanted. How was she going to get out of this in one piece?

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Petra looked up gratefully from her computer as The Shark barged into the squad room. Her head was a slow throb of red-eyed pain from too many hours staring at the screen. Her only break had been arranging the warrant for Tony. Late night reading of the murder files followed by a morning of assimilating Carol’s reports and cross-referencing them with the existing files on Radecki had left her convinced she could no longer avoid a visit to the optician. This was it, then. The end of youth. First it would be reading glasses, then contact lenses, then she’d probably need a hip replacement. It all felt too grim to think about, so even The Shark was a welcome distraction.

‘Got any codeine?’ she demanded before he could open his mouth.

‘I’ve got better than codeine,’ he said. ‘I know where Marlene’s kid is.’ He stood there grinning, an overgrown child who knew he’d done the one thing that his mother would approve of.

Petra couldn’t stop her mouth falling open. ‘You’re kidding,’ she said.

The Shark was literally bouncing on the balls of his feet. ‘No way, Petra. I’m telling you, I’ve found Tanja.’

‘Jesus, Shark, that’s amazing.’

‘It was your idea,’ he said, his words tumbling over each

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other. ‘You remember? You set me looking for Krasic’s contacts? Well, I eventually found this cousin, he’s got a pig farm on the outskirts of Oranienburg, his son Rado is one of Krasic’s gophers, apparently. So I went over there to check it out. Lo and behold, they’ve got the girl!’

‘You didn’t go near the house, did you?’ Petra felt a moment’s panic. He wasn’t that much of a liability, was he?

‘No, of course I didn’t. I was going to go out there last night, then I thought it’d make more sense to wait till morning. Daylight, you know? Anyway, I got up before dawn, put on my oldest clothes and went across the fields. I found a place where I could see the back of the house and I crawled under a hedge and staked it out. God, it was horrible. Cold and muddy, and I had no idea how much pigs fart. The bastards seemed to know I was there, kept walking right up to me and farting in my face.’

‘Never mind the fucking pigs, Shark. What did you see?’

‘Well, it’s a lovely day, right? Perfect spring weather? Anyway, around seven, this middle-aged guy built like a brick shithouse comes out on a little quad bike and feeds the pigs. Nothing much happens for a while, then the back door opens and a woman comes out. Looks like she’s in her late forties. She walks around the yard, taking a good look around her. There’s a lane runs along the side of the yard and she sticks her head over the fence, like she’s checking if it’s all clear. Then she goes back in the house and comes out with this little girl. I had my binoculars with me, and I could see straight off it was Marlene’s kid. I couldn’t believe my luck. Anyway, the woman is holding Tanja by the hand, then she lets her go, and I can see she’s got a rope tied round the little girl’s waist. The kid tries to run off, but she gets yanked off her feet before she’s gone a dozen yards. The woman walks her round the yard for ten minutes like a dog on a lead, then picks her up and carries her back indoors.’

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‘You’re sure this was Tanja?’

The Shark nodded like a man with palsy. Tm telling you, Petra, no mistaking her. I had her photo with me, just to be on the safe side. It was Tanja. No messing.’ He gave her an eager grin.

Petra shook her head, hardly able to believe that the bone she’d thrown to keep him quiet had given them so much to chew on. Much as she had come to respect Carol Jordan and the quality of the work she was doing, she still wanted to nail Radecki herself. And it looked as if she might finally have her hand on the lever that would deliver him to her. ‘That’s terrific, Sharkster.’

‘So what do we do now?’ he demanded.

‘We go and see Plesch and decide how we’re going to liberate the kid and take care of Marlene so Krasic and Radecki can’t reach out for her. Well done, kid. I’m impressed.’

It was all he wanted to hear. A grin split his face from ear to ear. ‘It was your idea, Petra.’

‘Maybe. But it was your hard work that made it happen. Come on, Shark. Let’s make Plesch’s day.’

When Tadeusz had told her his was a small office, he hadn’t been joking, Carol thought. There was barely enough room for the table and four chairs in the room above the amusement arcade. However, in spite of the scruffy stairway that led upstairs, the office itself was as plush as she would have expected. It reeked of stale cigar smoke, but the furnishings were expensive leather executive desk chairs and the table was a solid piece of limed oak. A bottle of marc de champagne and one of Jack Daniels sat on a small side table beside four crystal tumblers, and the ashtrays were four pieces of hand-crafted glass. The walls and ceiling were lined with sound-absorbing tiles so that none of the electronic

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cacophony from below penetrated this quiet sanctum.

‘Very choice,’ Carol said, spinning one of the chairs on its swivel. ‘I see you like to impress those you do business with.’

Tadeusz shrugged. ‘Why be uncomfortable?’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Make yourself at home. Darko will be here any time now. Would you like a drink?’

She shook her head. ‘A bit early in the day for me to hit the brandy.’ She settled down in the chair facing the door.

Tadeusz raised his eyebrows. ‘The bodyguard’s seat, huh?’

‘What?’

‘Bodyguards always sit where they can see the door.’

Carol laughed. ‘And women over thirty always sit with their backs to the window, Tadzio.’

‘Not something you have to worry about, Caroline.’

Before she could respond to the compliment, the door opened. Fuck me, it’s a Centurion tank with legs, Carol thought.

Krasic stood on the threshold, shoulders almost as broad as the doorway itself. His eyes were shadowed under frowning brows as he took in the scene. Turn on the charm, Carol, she told herself, jumping to her feet. She crossed the short distance between them, hand extended, smile masking the deep unease this man’s physical presence provoked in her. ‘You must be Darko,’ she said cheerfully. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you.’

He took her hand in a surprisingly gentle grip. ‘Mine is pleasure,’ he said in heavily accented English, his brooding stare giving the lie to his words. He looked over her shoulder and said something in rapid German.

Tadeusz snorted with laughter. ‘He says you’re every bit as beautiful as I said. Darko, you are such a smooth-talking bastard with the ladies. Come on, sit down, have a drink.’

Krasic pulled out a chair for Carol, poured himself a Jack Daniels and sat down opposite her, his eyes fixed on her face.

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‘So, you are to answer our English problem?’ he said, his voice a challenge.

‘I think we can be of mutual assistance, yes/ |

‘Caroline needs workers and she has a source of paperwork that’s far better than anything Colin Osborne ever came up with. All we need to do now is to arrange a schedule for delivery and payment,’ Tadeusz said, his manner businesslike as he sat down and lit a cigar.

‘Tadeusz has shown me how your operation works. I’m impressed with how well organized the system is.’ She gave Krasic an encouraging smile. ‘I only work with people once I’m satisfied they can deliver what they promise, and I’ve seen enough now to know that’s true of you guys.’

‘We also work only with trust,’ Krasic said. ‘Do we trust you?’

‘Come on, Darko, stop being such a hard-nosed bastard. We’ve checked Caroline’s credentials, we know she’s one of us. Now, how soon can we deliver her first load?’

Krasic shrugged. ‘Three week?’

‘It’s going to take that long?’ Carol asked. ‘I thought you had a pretty streamlined operation going.’

‘Things are difficult after Osborne has died,’ Krasic said.

‘What about the ones we’re warehousing in Rotterdam?’ Tadeusz butted in. ‘Can’t we move some of them into England sooner than that?’

Krasic frowned. ‘I suppose so. You are in hurry?’

Til take delivery whenever you can arrange it. But if you’ve been warehousing the goods, I want to check them for myself before they leave. I don’t want a container-load of corpses on my hands.’

Krasic darted a look at his boss. Tadeusz spread his hands. ‘Of course, Caroline. Darko, why don’t you set up a trip for the beginning of next week. Caroline and I will meet you in