Castle Killing

by Alec Peche

  The man flashed angry eyes at her, and she shrugged, and then wrote on the screen, "What specifically do you want to know about Nick?"

  His eyes cooled down a bit, and he replied, "Has Nicholas told you about the treasure?"

  Jill was surprised by the question as that was precisely what she'd been searching for with Nicole and Michael, but she answered with the truth, "No he never mentioned a treasure or that he was even searching for something."

  The man paused for a minute, apparently thinking, but Jill noticed his thumb was still on the stun gun switch, so she waited in silence.

  "What did you tell the police about Nick and Girard? I saw you meeting with them."

  This translation software was a pain for a more extended explanation such as what she now needed to provide.

  "The police in Cardiff contacted us as Nick was meeting us there. There was a message on his phone about it. I’m a forensic pathologist, an expert in autopsies, so they invited me to participate in the examination of Nick’s remains.”

  The man seemed to be processing that piece of information, and it was clear it wasn’t the answer he expected. He thought for a while longer then typed in his next question.

  “How did you meet Nicholas?”

  “My friends and I were on vacation in Amsterdam, staying at a hotel he managed the security for and we were having problems with a few people following us. He interceded, and a friendship was born. We manage to meet once or twice a year.”

  Again it appeared her answer wasn’t what the man expected. Jill weighed bringing up Operation Gladio, but decided she didn’t know enough about the man’s reaction to launch that bomb at him yet.

  “Why did you ask me about a treasure? Did Nick mention he was searching for a treasure or your friend Girard, was he working with you to find a treasure? What kind of treasure – money, jewels, art?”

  These long messages were boring to write; she wondered when he would let her go.

  He ignored her questions and asked, “How long was Nick going to be staying with you?”

  “About three or four days.” Jill wondered what that had to do with anything. There was another silence as the man thought through her responses, so Jill wrote one more message on the phone.

  “Can I leave now and go back to my hotel?”

  There was another round of silence. This guy seemed like a slow thinker, or maybe he hadn’t thought much beyond her kidnapping.

  Chapter 29

  Giovanni stared at the woman trying to decide what his next steps were. He'd planned to head home to Sardinia that evening. He was due at work tomorrow, but should he risk his job and see if this woman could tell him something about the treasure? Perhaps he would tell her of the other words that Girard mentioned before he died.

  He’d made no progress in uncovering the alleged treasure that Girard spoke of, and unless he came up with some new information, there would be no reason to return to the United Kingdom or even hope for the reactivation of Operation Gladio. He felt weighted down by what he’d done less than an hour ago and with the weight of his next decision. Giovanni had never hurt another human being, and today he’d fired an electrical charge at a woman. How low could he go? He'd never been a leader before; he had always taken instructions from someone else and now he was frozen on what to do next.

  After more thought, he decided to try the other words that he remembered from Girard and see if the woman could connect the dots for him.

  “Do any of these words mean anything to you? Camp, quarry or quail, northern Europe or the UK?”

  Jill sighed as she watched him type. He was typing more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. She was convinced that he’d been about to let her go and then he began with typing a message that was clearly longer.

  She looked at the words and tried to think back to her conversations with Nick. She couldn’t remember Nick saying those words.

  With the shake of her head and the word, 'no' typed on her phone screen, Giovanni felt like he'd hit the end of this road. He hung his head down depressed that he couldn't go any farther with the clues from Girard and Nick.

  He was still holding Jill's phone, so he typed, "You can go now," as he pointed to the exit and reached out to hand her phone to her.

  Jill accepted her phone back and saw his message with relief and debated asking the man to talk with Nicole and Michael. Perhaps one of them spoke Italian and could have a more thorough conversation with him. She could hear Nathan's voice in her head saying, 'Idiot get out of there and call the police,' but she couldn't do it. Okay maybe he wouldn't call her an idiot to her face, but that would definitely be his thinking. Yeah, the man had hurt her with the stun gun, her muscles had been in pain, but he'd made sure she didn't get hurt on her descent to the ground. She decided they might get farther with the treasure hunt if she included him in the conversation.

  After hesitating another moment, she wrote a lengthy message about Nicole and Michael and suggested he might want to talk with them. She added that the treasure they were seeking would likely be returned to the families it had been stolen from and not to Giovanni personally.

  He read her message and weighed his options. He’d decided to give up on the treasure, what would it hurt to talk to these people before he left for home? He sighed acknowledging his life inside Operation Gladio was over. He looked over at Jill and nodded his agreement.

  They walked out of the building and back to the hotel bar where Michael and Nicole were working. The two looked up at her and then their eyes widened in surprise at the new arrival she had in tow behind her.

  "Do either of you speak Italian?"

  Michael nodded, "I'm not as fluent in it as in other languages, but does he need directions? I can handle that, but I don't know much about where things are located in Edinburgh."

  Jill smiled at Michael's misperception of the situation. She replied, "He's not looking for directions, rather he knows a little bit about the treasure that Nick might have located."

  "Mein Gott," Michael said. Jill guessed that was a German exclamation for surprise.

  Michael switched to Italian, introducing himself and Nicole. The three of them appeared deep in conversation with Michael vacillating between German for Nicole and Italian for Giovanni. Jill was disappointed that they hadn't asked where or how she'd met Giovanni, instead they'd immediately rushed into getting information. Jill just shrugged and decided she was in the mood for food and alcohol after her heart-pounding excitement of the past hour and left the bar for the second time for a meal.

  After an uneventful lunch during which she relaxed and examined her actions that morning. She decided that a preponderance of people would deeply question her lack of desire to report a man who stun gunned her, to Scottish authorities. In fact, she hoped that her abductor would be gone by the time Nathan returned later that afternoon as she guessed that a meeting between the two of them would not go well. She’d head back to the hotel bar and see if Nicole and Michael had finished with the man from Italy.

  Chapter 30

  Jill got her wish as the bar contained only Nicole and Michael upon her return.

  “Hey guys, did the man provide you with any useful information?” Jill asked.

  “He really just confirmed the direction that we were taking was correct. We are following a trail as you know from Lithuania, north,” Michael said. “I asked him more questions about his word ‘treasure’, but he didn’t have a clue as to gold, jewels, art, or something else. He’s left for the overnight train back to Sardinia. He refused to give us his name or contact information."

  After a pause, Nicole asked, “Where did you meet him?”

  Jill knew they would eventually ask that question and so she’d formulated an answer while at lunch.

  “As I was looking for a place to dine, I made eye contact with him on the sidewalk and recognized him as the guy that had been at Edinburgh Castle, when the other guy tried to shove me over the castle wall,” Jill said thinking back to those scary mom
ents. “Were you in the vicinity when that occurred?”

  “No, it took us a few days to find you in Edinburgh, and it was really dumb luck that had us crossing paths. You say that someone tried to push you over the castle wall? How terrifying! No wonder you were so suspicious of Michael and I. What happened?”

  Jill explained what had happened at the castle and added, “I spoke with this man through translation software on my phone, so I didn’t get the full story, but I had a feeling he was an acquaintance rather than a friend as he didn’t seem particularly heartbroken over his death.”

  “I asked how he knew Nick, and he said that they belonged to a men’s club, but that was all he would say. I wonder if they belonged to this Operation Gladio, you’ve mentioned?”

  “Perhaps so. Given the guy’s secrecy. Why else would he refuse to give us his name and contact information? So are you any farther along on guessing what the treasure is and where it might be?"

  "We're farther ahead in that we have had confirmed for us that there was some kind of treasure that Nick was investigating and that we're looking in the right region."

  "But having a region to look for treasure is like looking for a needle in a haystack as we Americans like to say. Besides he mentioned two regions to me - northern Europe and Northern U.K."

  The two Germans looked at her, puzzled over her phrase. She started to explain when the picture became clear to them.

  "Yes, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack," Michael agreed with a small smile. "But we've been successful in finding those needles in the past."

  "Before I left for lunch, I asked if you'd come across any pictures from Estonia and you said not yet. Have you found any since? Have you found any pictures of Scotland?"

  "Yeah, we did for Estonia. There was a picture of the Klooga train station," replied Nicole with excitement in her voice.

  "I'm not familiar with that city, but you seem excited by your find. What's special about Klooga?" Jill asked.

  "From a historical point, it's the rail station to which many Jews were transported before arriving at the concentration camp there and losing their lives," replied Nicole.

  "Yes, but it's unlikely they arrived with their treasures. Weren't many Jews forcibly removed from their homes? Sometimes allowed to bring a small suitcase with them. Neither of those scenarios seems like they could produce much treasure for the Nazis in Estonia. Wouldn't the treasure need to be moved into the country by the Nazis hoping to hide stuff until they could come back for it after the war's end?" Jill asked thinking about the strategy of the Nazis.

  "This is true," Nicole said quietly, "but it's all we have at the moment."

  "Perhaps this is no treasure despite what Nick seemed to have thought."

  "If you believe that, you should leave us Nick's phone," Michael suggested.

  "I'll definitely do that after his funeral next month, but for now, I'll hold on to the phone."

  Jill was expecting a message from Nathan and so glanced down at her phone to see if it was from him. Instead, she was surprised by the message.

  Chapter 31

  It was from Jo.

  "You know me - I can never sleep on a plane and since it had Wi-Fi, I decided that I would look into your German mystery, rather than ruining my vacation glow by reading work emails, LOL."

  Hallelujah, thought Jill. Jo had provided so many breakthroughs by evaluating the finances of suspects. Admittedly she was curious about how good Jo would be in finding historical financial records, but she'd pulled off miracles in the past.

  'The accounting records of the Nazis are immense and chaotic. I started with an overview of where the Nazis financed their war and what the rest of the world did after the war was over. Did you know there are fifteen million pages in our National Archives alone in addition to what the rest of the world has? No way am I wading through that pile of paper! So here's a summary; at one time the Germans had $580 million of gold that they used to finance the war. By the way, that's $5.6 billion in today's money. Germany bought raw materials from many countries like Turkey and Argentina to make stuff used in war. They also needed to pay for and care for their troops. The Nazis stole the money from countries that they took over as well as from victims of the Holocaust. So now you know where the money came from and what it was used for. Switzerland was the banker for the Nazis - they stored the gold and dispersed monies for war purchases.'

  Jill appreciated Jo's synopsis of the situation as she hadn't learned those details.

  'I looked at many different documents including ledger books and other materials from the archives of history. Thankfully they put all of that stuff on the internet! Here's my conclusion from an accounting perspective - there is no pile of hidden gold from the Nazis anywhere but in a few small accounts in Swiss banks.

  Yes, I'm betting my CPA accreditation on my conclusion. There still may be a treasure that Nick was looking for, but it won't be a large cache of gold. There are still missing works of art, but my advice is not to waste any time looking for a mythical gold train.'

  Jo added a few more comments and ended the email. Jill leaned back and thought, 'now what?'

  She looked up to find her German associates staring at her, and she blurted out, "Jo, my accounting friend, did an analysis of the income and expenses of the Nazis and believes there is no gold train, no missing and large stockpile of cash. And I believe her analysis, mostly because she's never been wrong."

  Michael and Nicole looked at each other and then she replied, "Your friend is probably right. Given that the world has not discovered the legendary train despite the advanced technology at our disposal in over sixty years since it was rumored stolen. However, we have a sacred duty to discover and return all possessions looted by the Nazis, and we've traveled down many a dead end in our lives."

  After a pause, Jill asked, "Or… might we be looking for a different treasure?"

  "It's possible. Every time there's war in a region, treasures disappear, and Europe has seen many wars dating back thousands of years," Michael replied.

  "Have you ever chased one of these other treasures?" Jill asked curious about their jobs.

  "Mostly we've investigated and located paintings. We've handled a few sculptures and coins, also. We've never found gold bars as they are too easy to melt down and sell, rather than be returned to the rightful owners. I think in the decade or so that I've searched, I've come across at most two or three works of art that aren't paintings from the plunderers of war," Michael replied.

  "Thinking back to our conversation with Nick, I don't believe he mentioned the Nazi gold. In fact, I can't remember his exact words as to the type of treasure he was curious about," Nicole mused looking at Michael for clarity.

  Pausing a moment to think back, he slowly spoke, "Nick mentioned World War II not specifically gold. Our mysterious friend said a treasure in a quarry in northern Europe near concentration camps. There are items missing from the war still today that the average person would call a treasure."

  "Don't forget he said it might also be camps, as in the outdoors, quail in addition to quarry, and northern UK in addition to Europe," Jill said.

  "The Nazis hated the Impressionists, and so Monet and his brethren's paintings were banned from Germany and any one of those today would fetch tens of millions of dollars. There were other things as well," said Nicole. "The problem is that some things disappeared due to the bombing in an area and you never know if something is hidden by a collector, stored in a tunnel, in a museum's back dusty storage room, or destroyed by a bomb."

  "Yeah, there's the Amber Room from Russia. A few of the original stones have been found, but not the entire room which the Germans were known to have boxed up for transport back to Germany."

  Jill paused a moment to look up the Amber Room and thought, ‘wow how do you pack up a room like that without damaging it?’ And then said to the two art experts, “So it was located in Saint Petersburg, which isn’t that far from Northern Europe? That seems probabl
e location-wise.”

  “Yes, but it was also rumored to have been destroyed by the Royal Air Force and the Russians when they blew up Konigsberg Castle. Another rumor was that it was shipped to Poland only to be torpedoed in the Baltic Sea,” noted Michael.

  “Any other treasures that you can think off? Perhaps something from World War I or the Russian Revolution?” Jill asked. “Have you finished cataloging Nick’s pictures? Is there anything new from Estonia or Scotland? Is there anything in those pictures that would make you think they were taken for a purpose other than a vacation picture?”

  There was silence while they thought about the pictures. Michael pulled up a picture and a discussion ensued with Nicole. The two of them did this for a few minutes, and Jill decided to leave them to their own conversation and pulled up her email. There was a note from Nathan that he would be back at the hotel in an hour and he had some exciting news. There was also a second email from Jo.

  'Thinking back on our two-plus years with Nick, he was full of gallantry and so I could see a stay-behind army appealing to that gallant side of his personality. I could also see him searching for treasure confiscated by the Nazis, as again he would feel chivalrous in returning it to the rightful owners. I also don't see him wasting time by chasing ridiculous legends like the Nazi gold. I think he saw a painting somewhere and guessed it to be expensive…just my thoughts.'

  Jill checked her watch and thought Jo would be in the air a while longer and thus have an internet connection. So she sent a reply with the words given them by the Italian man. She left out the full story as there was no sense in distracting Jo, but maybe she would make something of the word association. She'd give her ten to twenty minutes for a response. Meanwhile, she tuned back into Michael and Nicole's conversation.

  "Anything?" she asked.

  They looked up and her and shook their heads.