by D K Bohlman
‘Err, well, I think so … yes, I suppose there will be rotas, I hope they are kept. Of course, I didn't run the hotel, I’ve been thrown into this by my father’s death. So, please be patient, but I will try to find out what you need.’
‘OK. We understand. We’ll stay here until you see what you have. In the meantime … where can we get a coffee please?’
Peter looked relieved there was something easy he could do to please his interrogators.
‘I’ll have some brought over to you. I’ll try to be back shortly, officers.’ He walked over to the reception desk.
Nagy turned to Jan. ‘Eh?’
‘Looks nervous. We should check him out a lot more.’
‘That’s what I thought.’
*
Peter did manage to find the staffing list for the day in question. He took a look down it, whilst still in the reception back office. He didn’t recognise all the names yet, but it looked a normal staffing day and there was no one on the list he would have concerns about on the face of it. So he took it back to the officers, expecting it would provide a dead end for them.
He handed them the list. The older one took it and scanned down it. Thirty or so names.
‘OK. We’ll make a start today. Please arrange for all staff who are in today to see us, we will be here, it would be good if you can arrange them to arrive to sit here and talk with us one by one. Any not in today, we will return tomorrow morning to see them all. They must be here, no question. OK?’
Peter didn’t think there was a choice of responses available to him. He started the process of gathering staff together to see the detectives and had one of the front desk team finish the arrangements. He decided to go back to his room and keep well away from it all. He wasn’t here at the time, after all, so there was nothing he'd be able to add.
Salad days
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The afternoon they decided to re-scout the Hotel Cristal proved fruitless for both Jenna and Calum. Jenna tried to casually engage a couple of cleaning staff in a conversation about Sarah’s disappearance but found their lack of English language skills to be a barrier. She concluded if Calum succeeded in being allowed to interview any staff, for many he would need an interpreter.
Calum wasn’t any more successful either, especially as he tried to avoid being in direct view of the reception desk. Funnily enough, he didn’t spot Aliz Gal all day.
So they resorted to plan B and turned up at the Cristal together the following morning. They delayed the visit until after the morning checkout rush, hoping to get some time with Aliz. They decided Jenna would hang back at first until there seemed a reason to break her cover.
Once at the desk, Calum was met with some surprising news.
‘What do you mean you don’t know when she will be here?’
‘I’m afraid I can't tell you more sir. There’s a detective here interviewing people and he asked me the same, maybe he will find out?’
Calum flashed a concerned glance behind him, in the general direction of Jenna, who was sat on a sofa in the lobby.
‘Where is he?’
‘On the back side of the lobby, over there, round the corner. But I think Mr Kovacs, the new owner, might be with him, so perhaps he will not be free.’
‘OK, thanks.’
He turned and walked across the lobby. Jenna started to walk vaguely alongside him as he got clear of the reception desk. As they reached the left turn into the far corner, Calum pulled Jenna by the arm.
‘A second.’
Calum took a couple more steps forward and peered into the alcove, where he saw a pair of detectives talking to a young girl. Presumably, a member of the domestic staff judging by her overall.
He knew they were definitely detectives because he recognised one of them. The surly officer Nagy was, rather unbelievably, right there. The detective looked up, saw him, then turned his attention back to the girl without any discernible change in his face. Calum was sure he’d have been recognised, though. He took a couple of paces back and dragged Jenna away from the area.
‘So the detective I thought was disinterested: seems he likes to use other people’s information and not give them any credit.’
‘Eh?’
‘He’s round there talking to one of the staff. Like we want to. So he’s a step ahead, which I don't mind, assuming he helps find Sarah and lets us or her mother know.’
‘Shall we wait and talk to him?’
‘Yes. Let’s grab a coffee and wait.’
*
Peter Kovacs was becoming increasingly on edge. He saw the couple drinking coffee in the lounge on his way to reception as he popped out to talk to a member of the front desk staff. The girl he knew he’d seen before in the hotel. And the man who, on questioning the reception staff, turned out to be the private investigator. Neuman. And so, unless they were having a casual chat, they must know each other.
He looked at the current list of guests and homed in on any English sounding names. He soon found a possible match for the girl: British passport. They didn’t get many British guests in this hotel, according to his father. The new addition to room 31 was Scottish, wasn’t she? His mind jumped to Neuman and he searched for him on the internet. As soon as he saw the entry for Calum Neuman, private investigator, operating from a town in Scotland he'd never heard of, he realised the girl he’d seen in the hotel must be linked to Neuman: she had to be helping him. What the hell was he going to do about her?
His troubled mind was fearing the worst of everything now. He could only see this as a threat. A big threat. He made his excuses with a conversation at the front desk and went up to his room.
It was early … too early, but he poured himself a whisky. He sank a large slug before exhaling some tension and dropping into an armchair. He felt like he might sink completely through the bottom of it if he didn't conclude all of this.
He was really feeling the pressure now. He knew it and he reached for his bag. Beta-blockers would smooth this excited dizziness, help his heart tick along steadily. He popped a tab of propranolol and washed it down with another sip of whisky. He knew he had to stay calm. The worst was to come.
*
Calum and Jenna had two rounds of coffee, then decided they’d start to float from their seats if they had any more. The detectives were still interviewing a steady stream of staff, with no obvious end in sight, so they walked down the street to a cafe and bought themselves an early lunch.
‘I need a salad,’ Calum said, ‘I know it’s not warm outside, in fact it’s downright chilly, but I need a salad. Too many carbs and fats, eating at the hotel.’
‘For once I agree with you, Calum. I’ll do the same. Did you finish all the pork pies you brought with you?’
‘Eh? I didn't bring many this time.’
‘Oh yeah. And what about the mini-pork pies?’
He smiled. ‘Well, they’re a different thing, of course. Yeah, all four gone. Just as well.’
He tapped his Apple watch and checked his heart alerts. All good. A little reassurance maybe. He knew that wasn’t entirely true, of course … but it was a positive of sorts. Good enough for today.
The waitress bought them chicken paprika sliced on a bed of salad. Calum picked up his fork with a distinct lack of interest.
Some people passing by the large cafe window caught Jenna’s attention. ‘Isn’t that the pair of detectives?’
Calum looked sharply out of the window. ‘Yes, it is.’
He stood up and moved towards the door. ‘You stay here, guard the salads. They’re valuable. Won’t be long.’ With a wink, he was out onto the street and scrambling to catch up with the two men.
‘Detective!’
Nagy and his junior wheeled round in perfect unison, a well-drilled reaction to someone approaching them from behind.
‘Ah. Mr Neuman, I think.’ Nagy’s face was as impassive as when he'd first met him.
‘Yes, sir. It is. And we were in the hotel j
ust now, we saw you interviewing some staff. We were hoping to do the same. Especially Aliz Gal. Did you track her down today?’
Nagy stared at him, obviously deciding what to share.
‘Ms Gal seems not to be in work. No one has heard from her today, even though she was due in. The rest of the staff … well, not so much. Except for maybe one cleaner. She thought she may have heard some kind of screaming that day, the day Miss McTeer supposedly left the hotel in a taxi. But, well, she was quite vague.’
Calum cocked his head into a quizzical pose.
‘You’ll follow it up though, right?’
‘Yes, of course. We need to ask Ms Gal about it. Peter Kovacs wasn’t living here then. So it’s a thin lead but … yes, of course, we will check it out.’
‘Uhuh, so, what was the name of the cleaner? Maybe we can try to talk to her too, you know, try a different set of questions?’
Nagy considered for a moment.
‘No, I’m sorry I can’t do that. This is a police investigation. But if I need your help, Mr Neuman, I will call you. Sorry, but we have another appointment.’
‘OK. Thanks then.’
Nagy turned on his heel, his junior shadowing his movement perfectly. His figure skating partner. They were gone.
Calum returned to his appointment with a salad. Jenna had eaten half of hers.
‘Any luck Calum-O?’
‘Not much. They don’t know where Aliz Gal is. One cleaner mentioned something about hearing some screams that day. Nothing else … well, nothing they wanted to share anyway.’
‘A cleaner?’
‘Yeah, they didn’t seem too concerned about a quick follow-up. Maybe I'm misreading them, it's hard to tell behind those blank faces.’
‘Well, we know one cleaner there. The one you bribed. Maybe you could talk to her again? See if she knows which cleaner it was?’
‘Yep, good thinking, I should. I’ll try and see if she leaves the hotel later … sounds like another afternoon drinking tea, looking out of a cafe window, waiting for an unknown moment that you miss when you finally give in and go to the loo.’
‘Ha, you chose this job. I’ll sit with you awhile.’
‘No need, go shop. Buy Greg something.’
That was a barb too far. She stood up.
‘Thanks for the salad, it was lovely. Catch you later. Might go for a swim.’
Calum follows up with Hanna
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Calum’s favourite cleaner stepped from the hotel’s rear entrance at five minutes past four.
He startled her when he tapped her on the shoulder. ‘Remember me?’
‘Yes, sir, I do.’
‘I have a few questions for you. Can you stop for a few minutes?’
‘You pay me for questions?’
Calum nodded. ‘Of course.’
Hanna suddenly looked very interested.
‘OK.’ She beckoned him on to walk a short distance and turn past the corner of the hotel, where there were a couple of benches. She sat down and motioned for him to do the same.
‘Sorry to stop you when you are leaving work … but I know the detectives talked to all the staff today and I wanted to ask you … it’s all about the Scottish girl who disappeared in Budapest recently. I think you heard all about her? Did the detectives talk to you too?’
She smiled. ‘Yes, he talked to me.’
‘Ah good. And did you hear that one person told him that she heard some screaming on that day?’
‘Yes, I did, sir.’
Calum beamed. ‘And do you know who that was? Would she be able to talk to me, do you think?’
‘Yes, of course, sir. Because it is me!’ She threw him a crafty looking smile, which wasn’t entirely attractive. It made Calum suspicious.
Nonetheless, if she was telling the truth, Calum couldn’t believe his luck. He felt he'd earned it, not much else had broken in their favour. This could be a real bright spot.
‘Fantastic. So I think I’d like to know more about when this happened and exactly where. Can you show me?’
‘Maybe sir. How much you give me?’
Calum did a swift calculation. ‘Ten thousand.’
She smirked back at that. ‘Twenty-five thousand. You are lucky to find me.’
Calum’s rough check on that amount into pounds sterling gave him a high and cheeky figure … but one he’d pay. ‘OK.’
‘I need to pick up my daughter from school now. Come meet me in hotel tomorrow. I start at two in afternoon tomorrow. Meet me on fourth floor at two-thirty. I tell you everything then. And you pay me first, OK?’
Calum smiled. ‘I’d better go to the bank then.’
The temperature rises …
____________________________
Nagy sat down at his desk with a coffee and wrote up his notes on the interviews at the Hotel Cristal. He’d sent Jan away to do some digging on Peter Kovacs. Right now, he’d need to wait for Aliz Gal to resurface before he took his next steps. He thought a joint interview with Gal and the cleaner who had heard some faint screams might be a way of surfacing anything Gal had to hide. Trouble was, he didn't know where Gal was. He’d tried to call and visit her after the interviews and had drawn a blank. He’d give it twelve hours before he started looking at hospital lists.
Jan was at his desk fifteen minutes later, with the edgy impatience he always had when he had some useful news to tell his boss. Nagy knew he just wanted to impress his superior, it made him chuckle inside.
‘Go on then, what did you find?’
‘Peter Kovacs is a doctor living in Bucharest normally. No police record, but he is on a list of suspected neo-Nazi sympathisers. Interestingly, so was his father, Marton, who died recently. What’s more surprising, is that Aliz Gal is also on the list.’
Nagy raised an eyebrow and twisted his mouth simultaneously. ‘And that list contains, what, people linked with far-right organisations like MNA, other Jobbik satellites?’
‘Yes, sir. Especially MNA. And we know that Marton Kovacs was part of the original Arrow Cross, at least that’s what our database tells us.’
‘And this Scottish girl, McTeer, she was researching Arrow Cross right?’
‘Yep.’
Their eyes met and acknowledged their joint conclusion. Jan waited for Nagy to suggest it, though, acting the dutiful junior.
‘We need to search the hotel, preferably without any warning. Can you arrange the numbers, Jan? We’ll need the chief of police onside with this, I’ll sort that out, just start getting us ready please.’
Izabella homes in on Jenna
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Izabella was standing behind the bar, polishing a glass. She hadn’t seen Jenna for a day or so. Her paymaster had been chasing her this morning and it seemed she would have to take the hard route now. She needed the money, sooner rather than later. Her habit was getting more expensive to feed. It was just a habit, though, she knew she could stop if she needed to. She just didn’t want to.
It would have to be a surprise … a sharp knife in a quiet place. She couldn’t risk a struggle. At least she knew where Jenna’s room was. She’d somehow have to stake out the corridor for a night and hope for an opportunity. She took a deep breath. It would need to be tomorrow, she couldn’t put this off any longer. It wasn’t the first time, not at all. But it felt like this every time. She wasn’t cut out for it, she just did it, hated it, took the money and moved on. She had never felt she would get caught, though … she wondered if other criminals had that sense of invincibility.
She put the glass back on the shelf and caught the reflection of herself in it, distorted by its curved surface. Even through that stretched and twisted image, she recognised the tension in her face.
Shame. What started as a feigned interest in Jenna had caught her by surprise. It had kindled her own sexual ambivalence … not for the first time. Jenna would actually have been a pleasing prospect.
She shook her head and turn
ed to a customer who was trying to get her attention. Suddenly her thoughts were snapped back to real-time and she started to draw a large glass of pilsner for a man in a grey business suit.
‘And what’s your name?’
‘Izabella.’ She smiled weakly, hoping not to encourage him. Usually, that didn’t work, though. Usually, it took a while for them to get the message, especially after a few beers. But this was his first. She could feel a conversation of attrition coming on. She had the tactics ready. A feigned loo break. Filling the peanut barrels around the other side of the bar. That sort of thing. Eventually, they lost interest or started annoying someone else.
She gave him the room tab chit to sign, then looked for another customer to serve before he could develop his attempts at conversation.
The trio
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The three women looked at each other warily. Aliz was sprawled on the floor, head propped against the bed. Katalin was at the other end of the bed, legs dangling over the edge, facing Sarah, who was sat in a chair on the other side of the room. Outside a tram passed and the floor vibrated weakly with the rhythm of its wheels.
Ever since Peter had shut the door on the three of them, Aliz had thought only about two things. Firstly, she was sure Peter intended to kill them all. He wouldn’t be able to keep them all fed and healthy without arousing suspicions somehow. He would have worked that out already. He had that hardness in him too, the mentality needed to kill people, she knew it. They had to find a way out of room 31 before that happened.
The other thing was what to say to these two, what to admit she knew, how to explain it … explain anything about this whole mess. Maybe she would play dumb: after all, Peter had shut her in, so she could pretend she was innocent of any complicity in all of this.