by James Green
‘You don’t want to look?’
Otto shook his head.
‘I trust you, it’ll all be there, you wouldn’t welch on a friend. Besides, I know where you live.’
And he laughed, but Jimmy knew from the laugh he wasn’t kidding.
‘How did you know I’d have it? I don’t even know where the nearest bank is.’
‘You paid the first time by banker’s draft and you didn’t know when you’d need the second payment. If you needed it in a hurry or on a day the banks would be closed you wouldn’t risk not being able to get it. I guessed you’d have it where you could get it at short notice.’
‘Or maybe you had someone look at the apartment while I was here. If I left here before your man was finished they’d have got a call. I think looking was a better way of making sure you’d got your money than guessing. Somehow I don’t think you base much of your business on guesses. I think you prefer to know for sure.’
Otto gave a loud laugh and slapped the table hard with an open hand.
‘By God, Jimmy, you’re a smart one, I’m glad we’re on the same side. I see you could be a handful if you needed to be. Was yours a guess or did you know?’
‘I knew, I had the drawer set up. When I went back after lunch I saw it had been gone over. The envelope wasn’t hard to find, I left it where anyone would look.’
‘I hope you understand. I had to know, it’s a lot of money. I liked you from the first but one has to be careful. You came from Udo but maybe these days Udo isn’t as sharp as he was. I had to check.’
‘Of course you did, I expected you to. You don’t know me and like you say, it’s a lot of money. Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing. Anyway you’ve got it now so we can forget about it. How much will the gun cost?’
Otto waved a hand. ‘Nothing, it’s a gift, from one friend to another.’
‘I said I’d pay. I don’t mind paying.’
‘No, I couldn’t let you pay. Guns are cheap, they almost give them away.’
‘So it’s a cheap gift then?’
It took Otto a fraction of a second to react but when he did the frown that had appeared dissolved in laughter.
‘A joke, yes? A British joke. A cheap gift for a cheap friend, is that it? No, no, you are not a cheap friend, you are a very valuable friend.’
And he laughed again.
Jimmy decided that Otto’s laughing could be bloody wearing. He overdid it. He wouldn’t be sorry to sort the Bronski thing out and be on his way. He’d had enough of Lübeck and Otto. He was ready to go to the station or the cemetery, whichever way it turned out.
He got up and so did Otto. They left the bar and crossed the pavement to the Mercedes. Jimmy got into the passenger seat and opened the glove compartment. There was an automatic there. He took it out as Otto got into the driver’s seat.
‘You like it?’
‘Should I?’
It was heavy and Jimmy was holding it in his right hand with his arm across his stomach. The muzzle was pointing towards Otto.
‘It’s a good gun, like I told you. But don’t point it at me like that, it might go off.’
And Jimmy pulled the trigger, then pulled it again. All that happened was that it gave two clicks.
Otto wasn’t laughing now. Jimmy held up the gun and examined it.
‘It doesn’t seem much of a gun to me, it just makes a clicking sound.’ He turned to Otto. ‘If it was any good as a gun shouldn’t you have a couple of bullets in you?’ Otto said something. It was in German but Jimmy guessed he was swearing.
‘Is he coming out now or do we have to wait some more?’
From behind Jimmy a head rose and Charlie Bronski got up and sat on the back seat.
‘Put the gun away, Jimmy. No, not in your pocket, back in the glove compartment. It may be empty but I still think it’s safer in the glove compartment.’
Jimmy put it back. When he sat back he saw Otto was now holding a similar automatic and it was pointed at him.
‘So what happens now? You drive the car from the back seat and Otto covers me, or do we play musical chairs and all change seats?’
‘Put the gun away, Otto, you can see Mr Costello understands how things are. It looks like he understood before he got into the car. Get going.’ Otto put away his gun, started the car and it moved off. ‘You won’t be silly will you, Mr Costello? Otto isn’t the only one with a gun and mine’s not like yours, it has bullets in it.’
Jimmy didn’t answer. He had seen it coming but he hadn’t seen how he could stop it. He was on his own in a place he didn’t know. They were organised and it was their town. So, would it all end in Lübeck? Well, why not? It had to end somewhere. Soon it would all be over. He didn’t mind. It would be painless, just a bullet in the head and then ... then what? Heaven, Hell or just black oblivion? But he’d asked himself that question many times. Long ago he had decided that whatever had waited beyond life for Bernie would be OK for him. If she was in Heaven then it might be a long wait, but Bernie would get him in if anyone could. If anyone ever deserved Heaven it was Bernie. If there was a Heaven. If there still was a Bernie. If there was nothing, fine. If she was nothing now, he would soon be nothing, not even a memory.
The car was moving out of the narrow streets into the traffic of a main road. Charlie spoke from the back seat.
‘I hope you’re not trying to work anything out, there’s nothing you can do.’
‘Then I’ll do nothing, won’t I?’
‘How did you know? What tipped you off?’
‘Otto told me.’ The car swerved as Otto turned and looked at him before quickly getting his eyes back on the road. ‘Careful, Otto, I’m the only one supposed to die today, don’t bugger it all up and kill all three of us.’
Otto didn’t look at him or say anything but Jimmy could see he was truly pissed. It was Charlie who wanted to talk.
‘Otto told you?’
‘As good as, last night. All that crap about papers and moving, about how hanging about wasn’t good for me. Why the big hurry? I’d only just arrived. I could see he wanted some sort of opening so I gave him one to see where he’d go. He went straight for the money. I knew he’d had the apartment checked to make sure the money was there but he still played the innocent. Can you get it, Jimmy? I can’t bet what you owe me on any shoot-out.’ Jimmy looked at Otto who was staring straight ahead. ‘Your acting was good, Otto, but the script was crap.’ He looked back at the road. They’d crossed a bridge, not either of the ones he’d been over before. They were heading out of the city. ‘Why the act unless he was planning something for me? It wasn’t hard to guess what that something was. He’d sold me out. If he’d put a “sold subject to contract” sign round my neck he couldn’t have made it more obvious.’
‘Is that it?’
It didn’t matter but it was something to do. Make Otto look like an arsehole. Why not?
‘His two goons stayed. I didn’t leave the bar until about quarter to eleven. Otto was with me, so they could have gone, but they stayed. That meant I was being watched, not protected. Otto wasn’t taking any chances. There was nothing I could do, so I did nothing. I just went to bed, got up and had breakfast and walked about until lunchtime. Friend Otto turns up, thinks everything’s just as he wants it and goes into his laughing routine. The gun thing gets me into the car. He has it parked so the passenger door is at the curb. I get in and look for the gun, that way I’m not supposed to notice you down behind the seat.’
‘You saw me?’
‘I didn’t look. Why should I look? If Otto was driving there had to be someone behind me. Either you were behind the seat or somewhere very close so you could get in once I was in. It didn’t matter one way or the other.’
‘So you just walked into it? Why not at least try to run?’
‘I wanted to see if I could make Otto wet his pants. I think I nearly did. At least I stopped that bloody laugh – it was getting on my nerves.’
Charlie sat back, he didn
’t want to talk or listen any more so they drove on in silence. Once out of the Herren Tunnel, Charlie gave directions and they followed the same route he’d made the previous night with Clarke-Phillips until Otto pulled the car off the road onto the car park in front of the crumbling industrial complex. They drove up to the set of double steel doors. The small door set into them was open. Otto stopped the Mercedes by the open door, got out and moved round the car towards the door, watching Jimmy, the automatic back in his hand. Jimmy and Charlie got out. Charlie had his gun out as well. He gestured with it.
‘In you go, Mr Costello, and remember, nothing silly.’
‘My, my, so many guns and so few brains. Am I supposed to be worried that if I try anything you might have to shoot me? It’s hardly a threat, is it?’
Otto moved to just inside the door where he could still cover Jimmy with his gun.
‘Just go inside, keep the jokes for later.’
Jimmy walked into the building. Charlie followed. Once they were all inside, Charlie turned to Otto.
‘Wait in the car.’
‘You don’t need me here?’
Charlie shook his head. ‘No.’
Otto turned towards the door and began to put his gun away. Charlie took one step towards him and shot him once in the back of the head. Jimmy blinked at the noise which the emptiness of the place magnified. Otto pitched forwards into the door and then fell to the floor. Jimmy looked at him. He was very dead.
‘Goodbye, Otto. It wasn’t a pleasure knowing you.’
Jimmy looked away from the body. Charlie’s gun was pointing back at him now.
‘No loose ends. The people I work for don’t like loose ends.’ He gestured with the gun. ‘On your way, there’s somebody waiting for you by that window over there.’
Jimmy looked. She was standing to his right, by one of the windows. It wasn’t bright inside but enough of the glass in the grimy windows was smashed, so it was clear enough to see her. He walked towards her. She wore a smart suit, had longish brown hair. Jimmy had never seen her before in his life. Her arms were by her sides and in one hand, pointing at the floor, was a gun. He walked up and stood in front of her. He wasn’t far away, she couldn’t miss. Neither spoke, there was nothing to say. They both knew what was going to happen. The gun started to come up and the sound of the shot filled the warehouse with noise, echoing and bouncing around the stained concrete walls. Then there was a silence. Jimmy looked at her. She lay crumpled against the wall under the window. Charlie went to her side, made sure she was dead, picked up her gun and then looked at Jimmy. Now he had a gun in each hand. One was pointing at Jimmy, the other he was holding out.
‘Take it.’ Jimmy looked at him in a dazed way but didn’t move. Why wasn’t he dead? And who the hell was she? ‘Take the bloody gun, will you?’ Jimmy moved forward and took the gun by the barrel. Charlie stood up and moved away. ‘Now, moving very slowly, put a bullet in her head.’
Jimmy looked at her. She was dead. ‘What?’
‘Mr Costello, you’re alive. If you want to stay that way don’t ask questions, just do as you’re told. Put a bullet in her head.’ Jimmy bent down, held the muzzle of the gun against her head and pulled the trigger. Once again the place filled with noise and the dead woman pitched violently sideways onto the floor. Charlie pulled out a plastic bag from a pocket, dropped it on the floor and stood back. Jimmy stood up and turned to face him, he still had the gun he had been given. It was pointing straight at Bronski’s stomach, he couldn’t miss, but Bronski didn’t look worried. Jimmy pulled the trigger. There was a click. He wasn’t surprised. It wasn’t his day for guns. ‘That’s right, Mr Costello, I had just three bullets in mine, enough to get the job done. This is hers and it’s fully loaded. Put the gun in the bag and put it back on the floor.’ Jimmy picked up the bag, put the gun in it, put it back on the floor and stood up. ‘Stand back.’
Jimmy took a couple of paces back and Charlie picked up the bag and stuffed it in a side pocket.
‘What now? Is now when you shoot me?’
‘Now you have a choice. You can get in the car with me or you can stay here. If you stay here I’ll make sure the police find this gun.’ He tapped his side pocket. ‘It’s got you all over it and it’s killed two people. Think fast, Mr Costello, this place is derelict but three shots might bring somebody and I don’t want to kill anyone else today.’
There was nothing to think about, so he didn’t think about it. He was alive.
‘OK, let’s go.’
And they walked back to the steel doors, stepped over Otto, and left.
TWENTY-THREE
When Jimmy got to the Mercedes, there was someone sitting in the driver’s seat and the engine was running. The driver turned and looked at him. It was Udo. Charlie opened the back door.
‘In front, where I can see you.’
Jimmy did as he was told and Charlie got in the back. Udo had the engine running but he didn’t seem ready to go anywhere. He nodded towards Otto’s feet, which were visible by the open door.
‘Haven’t you forgotten something, Jimmy?’
‘No.’
‘Don’t you want your banker’s draft back? If I know Otto, it should be a lot of money.’
‘It’s a piece of blank paper in a unsealed envelope. Why would I have given him a lot of money? I switched it once I was sure he’d had my room searched.’
Udo looked at him for a moment then laughed and the Mercedes moved off.
‘I should have guessed. If this had turned out the way Otto expected you’d still have had the last laugh. My God, would he have been pissed at you.’
Bronski’s voice came from the back seat.
‘Nice one, Jimmy.’ Jimmy looked round at Charlie. ‘Come on, I can call you Jimmy now. I just saved your life.’
‘Do I get to know what this is all about? If you didn’t follow me to kill me what sort of game are you playing?’
‘Ask Udo. It’s his game now. It has been ever since I got to Lübeck.’
Jimmy turned back.
‘Well, Udo, do I get to know what this is all about or do I have to guess?’
‘Now that would be interesting. If you had to guess, what would you say this was all about?’
Charlie joined with Udo.
‘Yeah, come on, Jimmy. We’ve got time until we get to the station. What do you think it’s all about? You used to be a detective. Make a guess.’
So Jimmy thought out loud as the car headed back to the city. ‘Well, it’s not about what happened in Nyborg, about you thinking I was responsible for some nutty car bomb.’
Charlie was happy to talk.
‘No, it was never really about Nyborg. And it stopped being about me as soon as your name got mentioned.’
‘I think you’re ex-Intelligence, Stasi or KGB. Somebody the British thought worth paying money for. They set you up with a new identity and you fetched up in Nyborg because it’s a quiet, out-of-the-way spot, a nice place to live and a nice place to hide. But somehow your past caught up with you. The bomb was a warning – I’ve found you and I’m going to kill you. You shouted for help and got a hurry-up call to Hamburg. For reasons I still don’t understand you had me down for the bomb. When you met your contact you gave them my name and that’s when it stopped being about you. From then on it was about my past catching up with me. It looks like Nyborg let us both down.’
‘Very good, I’m impressed. And it was KGB originally but then it was Russian Intelligence. I still don’t know who you are or what you did but your name certainly carries some punch. You should have seen that bird rocket when she heard it. Come on, why not even things up, what’s your story? You seem to know mine, let’s hear yours.’
Jimmy could hear the false, friendly smile in Charlie’s voice. He was sure it would be on his face if he turned and looked, but he kept his eyes on the road.
‘Why don’t you go and fuck yourself, Bronski? I’m not going to tell you shit.’
Udo glanced in the r
ear mirror and saw the smile get wiped off Charlie’s face.
‘Enough, both of you. Enough.’
It was an order from someone who was used to giving orders. It was a voice you didn’t ignore. Udo drove on and Charlie sulked. Jimmy stared ahead and tried to look on the bright side, but it wasn’t easy. They went through the tunnel and along the dual-carriageway in an uncomfortable silence. Back in Lübeck, Udo pulled the car over in a side road near the railway station.
‘We’re here. Get out, Jimmy. Charlie, you take the car and lose it. Then get home any way you want.’ Charlie began to open the door. ‘The gun, Charlie, don’t forget the gun.’ Charlie pulled out his gun and held it out. ‘Very funny, the other one, the one in the plastic bag.’ Charlie put his gun away and took out the plastic bag and handed it over. Udo handed it to Jimmy. ‘Get rid of it in bits. Throw it into the sea when we get to Nyborg.’
They all got out and Charlie got into the driver’s seat. Udo stood by the window. ‘I wouldn’t hang about if I were you. This car is a bit conspicuous and Otto’s people will be looking for him. If you make it I’ll see you back in Nyborg.’
The Mercedes pulled away. Jimmy watched it go, then turned to Udo.
‘Will he make it?’
‘I wish I could tell you they’ll get him, that we’d seen the last of Yuri Kemedov. But no, he’ll make it all right. Charlie’s still good and he’s a survivor. And this is Lübeck, it’s not Hamburg or Berlin or anywhere like that. Charlie will get past Otto’s boys. They’re just violent amateurs. Charlie is and always was a professional.’
‘Like you?’
Udo looked at him. He didn’t look surprised. They began to walk.
‘How long have you known?’
‘I was sure when you gave me the route to Lübeck. It came out pat, too pat for someone who was a minor official in a small government department. You were never a clerk who did a “bit of smuggling on the side with a few friends”. It was your business. If you were East German that made you the police. The ones who caught the ones who did it.’
‘Or?’
‘Or something else. You didn’t strike me as any kind of ex-copper I’ve ever come across, so I guessed Stasi.’