Yesterday's Sins

by James Green

  ‘Ah, now why do you think that?’

  ‘He’s near the station, a short walk, he had probably checked the train times. If he’d already got his ticket, waited until the last minute and hopped on the train it would be difficult to see how anyone would be able to follow him.’

  ‘Why do you think he was being followed?’

  ‘I didn’t say I thought he was followed. I said it would be difficult for anyone ...’

  ‘Can we stop there?’ They both stopped and looked at Udo. ‘As you see, we are both quite happy to answer your questions, but I think that before we go any further you should give us some idea of why you are asking them. Is Mr Bronski suspected of anything?’

  ‘Mr Bronski is involved in a very serious crime. Attempted murder at the very least.’

  ‘His car?’ The visitor nodded. ‘Not a gas cylinder like the papers said?’ The visitor shook his head. ‘A bomb?’

  ‘Oh, yes, Father, it was a bomb and you’ll forgive me, I’m sure, if I say that I cannot believe that either you or Mr Costello put any credence in the gas cylinder story.’

  ‘So you think he is involved in whatever caused his car to be blown up? Is that it?’

  ‘We are following every possible line of investigation.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘I’m sure you do, so please tell me in your own words, Father, about his visit here.’

  ‘Well, he came to Mass at ten and when it was over he asked to talk to us ...’

  ‘Both of you?’

  ‘Yes, he particularly asked Mr Costello to be there while we talked. He said he wanted a favour and some advice. The favour was to visit his wife and tell her he was going to see a publisher and would be away overnight.’

  ‘And the advice?’

  ‘How should he deal with the police.’

  ‘Deal with the police, in what way?’

  ‘He said he felt the police suspected him of something but that he knew nothing. He wanted to know what he should do. He said he wanted to talk to someone who could advise him.’

  The policeman registered surprise and turned to Jimmy. ‘So he came here because he knew you had been a policeman, Mr Costello?’

  ‘No, I told him that when he asked us how he should deal with the police.’

  ‘Are you saying he came here to ask for help with the police without knowing you had been a detective?’

  ‘He was lucky, I guess.’

  The policeman nodded slowly, as if considering it.

  ‘Yes, I’m sure you’re right. Mr Bronski strikes me as a man who would be lucky. What happened then?’

  ‘I told him to cooperate.’

  ‘That’s all, nothing else?’

  ‘Yes. Wasn’t that the right thing to say?’

  ‘Yes, Mr Costello, that was the right thing to say. A good citizen always cooperates with the police and Mr Bronski strikes me as a good citizen.’ He got up and beamed a false smile. ‘Thank you both for your cooperation. I can see that you are also good citizens.’ Jimmy stood up but the visitor held up a hand. ‘Please don’t bother. I’ll see myself out. Good day, Fr Mundt.’

  No one shook hands when he left. Jimmy waited until he heard the front door close then sat down again. It needed talking about.

  THIRTEEN

  ‘What the hell was that all about?’

  Udo shook his head. ‘No idea. What do you think?’

  ‘I think our visitor has an odd sense of humour.’

  ‘It was a very odd visit, I agree. You told him you were English?’

  ‘No, he spoke English as soon as I opened the door. I didn’t have to tell him, he already knew.’

  ‘He was a strange sort of policeman. I got the feeling he didn’t much care about our answers to his questions, that he was looking for something else, but I have no idea what.’

  ‘Whatever he came for, I don’t think we scored any credit points with him.’

  ‘No, I don’t think we did either, but we told him what we know, didn’t we?’

  ‘That’s right, we told him what we know. But we didn’t tell him what we think.’

  ‘He didn’t ask us.’

  ‘Would you have told him if he had asked?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Neither would I.’

  ‘So, Jimmy, you were the detective. What do you think?’

  ‘I think that ever since his car went up, Bronski’s been very careful to be in control of himself, too much in control for anyone who isn’t trained to handle situations like that.’

  ‘Yes, I noticed that in the hospital. For a man who had seen his car go up in a ball of fire that morning he seemed, well, abnormally normal.’

  ‘That’s right, too normal and very much on the alert. I think when we visited the hospital and he got a close look at me he decided that maybe I wasn’t what I seemed, that I might be some kind of a plant and possibly connected to the car bomb.’

  ‘Why? Why should he think that?’

  ‘Because he might have asked himself, why is an Englishman with no foreign languages doing a placement with a German priest in Denmark?’

  ‘Yes, when you put it like that you are a bit of a plant, aren’t you? He wasn’t exactly right but unfortunately he was close.’

  ‘Whatever that car bomb was about, he was on the lookout, he would pick up on any face that didn’t quite fit, especially a new face. Once he put his mind to it then you can see how I’d fit the bill for him. Someone must have watched his Sunday routine and knew when to plant the bomb. When we turned up at the hospital he focused on me, saw that I fitted what he was looking for, so next day he arranged to come here to check me out. When I told him I had experience with police methods he must have felt sure I was something more than I was telling him. I think that’s why he was late coming to Mass. He was arranging to get in touch with someone who could help him, maybe someone who could check up on me.’

  ‘I wonder why a car bomb? It’s not run-of-the-mill violence, is it? It’s usually a terrorist thing. Could this be terrorist-related?’

  ‘How should I know? I was only ever a bent detective sergeant, I never blew anybody up. If he has me down as the one who planted the bomb, then God knows why.’

  ‘How about if he was an ex-terrorist, someone who’d sold out some sort of terrorist group and was now living undercover.’

  ‘That would make sense except for one thing. They wouldn’t frighten him, they’d kill him.’ But Udo’s idea had set Jimmy thinking. ‘Whatever he is, he’s a trained bugger, he got straight into action after he’d put his wife safely in hospital.’

  ‘Trained as what?’

  ‘God knows. But if he’s on the move, it probably means he’s been in touch with an emergency contact, one he’d been given if he thought his past had caught up with him. If he is an ex-terrorist or ex-something else then he’d be in some sort of programme, he’d be protected by an agency. If they’d given him a new life, he’d want to live somewhere quiet, like Nyborg.’

  Jimmy waited. He wanted Udo to act as a sounding board on his thoughts. He didn’t want to do it all in his head. He needed to do it out loud to somebody.

  ‘No, you’re going too far on this. Isn’t it all a bit far-fetched?’

  ‘Maybe, but isn’t it always, when something like this turns up on your doorstep? What you read in the papers or see on TV always happens to someone else. When it happens to you, it always seems far-fetched.’

  ‘I suppose so. Car bombs aren’t exactly routine in Denmark.’

  ‘And like I said, if it’s a new face he wants, a new face with a shaky story, I fit the bill.’

  Udo hesitated for a second.

  ‘You’re not involved, are you? You’re not making some kind of case against yourself to tell me something, to warn me? After all, what do I know about you except what you’ve told me?’

  ‘No, I’m not involved, Udo, you can pick up the phone any time and check with the Monsignor or even Professor McBride. If I’m right, then I’m just an innoce
nt bystander who’s in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

  ‘And we both know what happens to innocent bystanders.’ Jimmy nodded, he knew. ‘So what do you propose? Tell the police what you think is happening? We could try to get in touch with the one we’ve just had here.’

  ‘Why, what can they do? I’ve no proof of anything and if Bronski’s what I think then he’ll have been given a watertight story. If I tell the police what I’ve told you, all that will happen is that a whole crowd of people will get to know I’m here and it won’t be too long before my visitors turn up.’

  ‘And that would be bad?’

  Jimmy decided it was time to let Udo know what he was getting into just by having him there.

  ‘When they come it will be either the CIA or Mossad. Would you say that was bad?’

  Udo didn’t say, he didn’t need to, he waited. It was Jimmy’s problem so it was Jimmy’s choice. But Jimmy was certainly right about one thing. He was very much in the wrong place at the wrong time, a bystander. But not so innocent if it was the CIA and Mossad after him.

  Jimmy didn’t think for too long. He knew he really didn’t have a choice. It was stay and die, or do the other thing. So it had to be the other thing.

  ‘I’m going to run, Udo, it’s best for both of us. I don’t like the way things are going. It was bad enough when I was hiding out from Mossad and the CIA but now it’s Bronski, and he’s right here beside me, and soon I think he’ll have help. There’s no way I can hide or defend myself. So I’ll run.’

  Udo didn’t argue. He had nothing to offer, so he accepted Jimmy’s choice.

  ‘Where to?’

  ‘I don’t know and even if I did I wouldn’t tell you. Once I’m gone I want you to go straight to the police and say I’ve disappeared. I don’t want you to have to lie for me, I don’t want to put you in any danger. Tell them what you know, all of it. That way, if anyone else turns up you’re in the clear. You don’t know where I am.’

  ‘What do you think your chances will be if you run?’

  ‘Not great. If anybody at all in the Intelligence community gets to know about this then I’m located and that’s pretty much that. But it doesn’t matter. I told you, dying isn’t something that I worry about, but I can’t just sit here and let someone come and finish me off. I’ve got to make the effort. I’ll run, but I doubt I’ll get all that far.’

  ‘How long will it take you to get ready?’

  ‘A couple of days. I need to fix the money end of things.’

  ‘Will money be a problem?’

  ‘No. There’s plenty. I suppose you’d call me well-off.’

  ‘Ill-gotten gains?’

  ‘Mostly, and well invested. I fixed a drugs charge against a young bloke because his father was an investment banker.’ Jimmy gave a small laugh. ‘Can you believe it? By that time, I’d got to the stage where I needed an investment banker. Fixing the evidence was my price to get him to look after my money and make it work. He was good at it and either he’s still grateful or he’s still afraid of what I’d do if he didn’t do well by me. One way and another I never got round to telling him I was a reformed character and didn’t hurt people or fix evidence any more. I have all I’ll ever need and when they catch up with me it’s all set up so it will go to my daughter and her kids. It will be a nice surprise and when I’m dead it won’t matter where it came from.’

  ‘So, you reformed but you never got round to giving any of the money back?’ Udo was smiling. ‘Very sensible. It makes everything easier. Listen, if you run you’d better try to do it properly.’

  ‘Properly?’

  Udo sat back and didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he began.

  ‘You’ve told me your story, Jimmy, now let me tell you a little bit of mine. Before I became a priest I was a minor official in an East German government department. When unification happened nobody needed or wanted our department. We just duplicated people who were doing the same thing in Bonn so we got closed down. It happened to a lot of government people. I worked out of an office in a little town called Dassow, about twenty kilometres east of Lübeck. Being a government official I could cross the border whenever I liked so I visited Lübeck pretty often. It was always a nice town but quiet in those days, too near the border for foreign visitors. Our border fence didn’t have any of the attraction of the Berlin Wall and there was no Checkpoint Charlie to take photos from. Since reunification, Lübeck’s back on the tourist trail and these days I suppose it’s very nice, now there’s money about. I’ll give you an address there, an old colleague of mine. Go to him. I’ll get in touch and ask him to look after you, find you somewhere discreet to stay. An ex-copper wandering through Europe who only speaks English with a London accent isn’t going to blend in. You need a few friendly faces round you. I’ll try to see that you get them. It isn’t much, but it may help.’

  Jimmy wanted to refuse. Deep down inside he wanted the whole stupid mess of his life over and done with. But Bernie had stuck it out, so he had to stick it out. He had to take any help he was offered, otherwise he might as well sit in Copenhagen and wait for whoever came. He made one last effort.

  ‘Thanks, Udo, but I can’t let you do it. I don’t want to get you into trouble and I don’t want you to put your friends in danger.’

  ‘I’m used to trouble and my friends won’t mind a little danger, especially if they’re well paid. It won’t be a free ride, it will cost you. I’m glad you told me money wasn’t a problem; you’ll need it, plenty of it.’

  That was his last chance, and now it was gone. Udo was going to help him stay alive.

  ‘OK, Udo, and thanks. I’ll be ready the day after tomorrow. I’ll go out the same way as Bronski.’

  ‘No, nobody was watching when he left. They will be now. They’ll almost certainly be monitoring the trains and airport. If anyone connected to that car bomb buys a ticket out of the country the police will be informed. And I think our visit from the policeman with the odd sense of humour means we’re very much connected. They won’t want anyone else involved slipping away like Bronski. Anyone else might not be coming back. If you go to Hamburg you’d be stuck on the train for over four hours. They’d have no trouble getting you. It’s too risky.’

  ‘So a plane?’

  ‘No, same problem. You buy a ticket and then you sit in Departures until they come and pick you up. Even if you get on the plane they get you at the other end.’

  ‘So how do I get out?’

  ‘Go to the station and buy a ticket for the direct train to Hamburg, make sure it’s the right one, the one you pay a supplement for and has a Bordbistro on it. Find a train, a fast train going west that leaves at about the same time or as close as you can get. Take that train just before it leaves. On it buy a ticket for Aarhus. That will make it look as if you’re headed for the airport either there or at Billund. Get off the train at Fredericia. From there you can get a train into Germany. Buy a ticket for Hamburg. By the time the police are told you bought a Hamburg ticket at Copenhagen and start looking you’ll be well on your way. If they find you didn’t take the Hamburg train but headed west, the first thing they’ll probably do is cover the airports, especially Billund.’

  ‘Why Billund?’

  ‘It’s the airport for Legoland. It would make sense for you to head there; it’s a tourist airport with plenty of budget flights to the UK. An Englishman wouldn’t be noticed. By the time they find you’ve not gone to Billund or Aarhus and backtrack to the Fredericia train you should be into Germany.’

  ‘But once they find I’ve bought a dud Hamburg ticket in Copenhagen and scarpered in the opposite direction, any doubt they might have about me and the bomb is gone. They’ll have the German police waiting for me at Hamburg with an arrest warrant.’

  ‘They may have the German police watching for you, but that will be in Hamburg, so get off at Padborg just before the line crosses the border and get a ticket to Bad Oldesloe. At Bad Oldesloe you get a ticket to Lübeck.’
<
br />   ‘Why can’t I just get a ticket straight through to Lübeck?’

  ‘Because there are two routes from Padborg to Lübeck. On one you change twice, at Neumünster and Bad Oldesloe. On the other there’s only one change.’

  ‘So why not get that one? Fewer changes means less chance of me getting myself screwed up.’

  ‘Because the change is Hamburg.’

  ‘Oh, I see.’

  ‘Also the Bad Oldesloe train is faster even with the changes, three hours as opposed to nearly four if you go through Hamburg.’

  ‘OK, I suppose you know best.’

  Udo could see Jimmy was getting nervous about the journey.

  ‘Don’t worry, after Padborg you’ll be in friendly territory, northern Germany. They’re nice people - slow and without any sense of humour, but friendly. Just show your ticket to any railway official when you have to change and they’ll get you on the right train. If you can’t find an official just show it to anybody who’s there. Like I say, they’re friendly. If you travel on an intercity express there’ll be a Bordbistro, if not you’ll have to do the best you can for food and drink at the stations. The whole journey will take ...’ Udo did quick calculation, ‘about five and a half to six hours.’

  ‘That’s not bad. I expected longer.’

  ‘It will be longer. That’s travelling time - it doesn’t include waits between trains. You could add up to three hours, depending on connections.’

  ‘Shit, that’s long time to be on the move. Still, if you think it’s the best way.’

  ‘I do, I think it’s the only way if you want to get where you’re going. At Lübeck you get a taxi from the station to an address I’ll give you. After that you’re out of my hands but you’ll be with old colleagues of mine. They will tell you the price and if you pay it you’ll be safe. Then you can decide where you want to go and how you’ll get there.’