by Anya Lipska
Oskar shook his head slowly, his face a chubby roundel of pent-up glee.
“And you’re meant to be the big detective?” he shook his head pityingly. “Since when did Ray start speaking Polish, idiota?”
Janusz realised Oskar was right, for once: Ray did only know about three words of Polish. The whole thing had been a sly wind-up, no doubt to pay Janusz back for spinning that yarn about hidden cameras in the peepshow booths.
“She’s opening a nail bar, alright, but not in Warsaw,” said Oskar, “in Stratford.” He chuckled delightedly.
“She told you all of this?” asked Janusz.
“Why not?” protested Oskar, then shrugged. “OK, so maybe she came in looking for you. She asked when you were coming back from Poland.”
Janusz suppressed an urge to phone Kasia there and then, but he knew that Oskar would never let him live it down.
“Anyway,” he went on, “I didn’t come all this way just to sort out your sex life. I’ve got a brilliant idea for an import business.” He leaned toward Janusz. “Antique woodstoves,” he whispered.
Oskar rapped out a celebratory tattoo on his mate’s plaster cast. “You and me, kolego, we’re going to be zloty millionaires!”
EPILOGUE
GLOS WARSZAWY
May 1, 2009
PRESIDENT DIED ‘BY DROWNING’ - A NATION MOURNS
The Government has declared three days of national mourning after the shocking death of President Edward Zamorski, who was elected in a landslide vote four weeks ago. President Zamorski’s body was found among reeds on the eastern bank of Biala River yesterday morning, and police sources confirm that he died by drowning. A note found on his body suggests that he took his own life, for personal reasons. By a poignant coincidence, the President’s body was recovered from almost exactly the same spot as that of Father Marek Kuba, the pro-democracy cleric abducted and murdered by members of Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa in 1986.
World leaders have joined to offer tributes to a national hero, a man who was a beacon of courage and integrity.
www.wherethedevilcantgo.com
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
EPILOGUE