“Why didn’t you tell me all this earlier?”
“I really wanted to, honestly. You can’t even imagine how much. But it was too dangerous. And above all, it would have been stupid. I would have felt worried about you. If anything happened, you’d be an accomplice and could have gone down with the rest of us.”
“Then I’m going to New York too! I adore it, I’ve been there a hundred times!”
“No, that’s out of question. We don’t know how all this will end. We’re men and we can stand up for ourselves. Everyone joined in voluntarily and knows what they had gotten themselves into. The very thought of you ending up in a cell gives me cold shivers. So better not come. When UNICOMA is brought down, then we can be together as much as we like.”
“But I can stay in a separate place from you. We’ll have coffee together sometimes, for instance. What’s wrong with that? You have no right to say I can’t. Well, please?”
“Let’s not talk about that right now. We are alone together, strolling along the beach at night. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I’ve missed you so much!” Isaac turned towards Michelle, took hold of both her hands and added: “I love you.”
Michelle wound her arms around his neck and kissed him. At long last, not in a social way on both cheeks, but for real, the way Isaac had wanted for so long.
That night they did not go back to Monaco, they got picked up only by launch time. Isaac did not have time to take a good look at the gorgeous yacht or the huge bedroom. Drowned in Michelle’s tender embraces, he felt most content.
Chapter seven
“Where’s Isaac?” Pascal asked uneasily the next day when he arrived at the villa earlier than usual.
“He texted to say he’ll be back after lunch. He spent the night in Saint Tropez.”
“Doing what? I’ve got some urgent news.”
“If it’s urgent, out with it. What happened?”
Pascal told the others he had been summoned to the police station where he was questioned for a long time. What interested them most was why he had given money for the operation. They also inquired where he was on that night when he wasn’t at home. And the alcohol issue, certainly. Pascal had played a Veggie the best he could, answering briefly in monosyllables (the video that had been made of him when he was still a Veggie was really helpful). He didn’t really know how plausible this show was, though. The commissioner was very considerate, he had not pressed him at all.
“Oh, yeah,” Bikie chuckled. “He’s a real tender-heart for sure. But he keeps digging and just won’t let up.”
“Digging?” Link was surprised. “You mean this is not the first time?”
“No. Isaac’s been to see him once. But everything went OK. We thought there wouldn’t be any more questions.”
“That’s not good. Bikie, call Isaac and find out exactly when he is coming.”
Two hours later Isaac hurtled into the sitting room. Michelle followed him in, gazing around curiously. She said hello and sat down quietly in the corner.
Bikie gave Isaac an inquisitive look.
“She is in the loop,” said Isaac, answering the silent question. “What happened?”
“I was questioned,” Pascal answered. “Commissioner Pellegrini called me in. He suspects you of forcing me to pay for Vicky.”
“What about you not being a Veggie?”
“I don’t think he realized that. Or if he did, he didn’t show it.”
“What exactly was he asking?”
“Many things. Like where I was that night, what I was doing between Lyon and Paris, why I smelled of alcohol, why I gave the money for the operation. I said I didn’t remember that night. I thought maybe I’d been riding in a car. About the alcohol, I said I didn’t drink and I don’t drink at all. About Vicky, I said you’d been trying to persuade me for a long time and I agreed.”
“I see. And how did he find out that you were between Lyon and Paris?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he figured it out from my mobile. You switched it on at about nine when we were expecting a call from my administrator. That’s probably how he noticed.”
“Dammit,” Bikie grunted. “We left our own phones at home, but we didn’t think about yours. What a fuck up!”
“Okay, we’ll wriggle out of it somehow. What else did he ask?” Foreseeing another encounter with the commissioner, Isaac wanted to know all the details.
“Nothing else. I asked him if I was entitled to a lawyer under my contract. The commissioner gaped at me, of course. He was really surprised. He said there was no need for a lawyer. After all, I was the potential victim. At the end of the conversation, he gave me his card and wrote down his personal mobile number. Asked to call him after every time I see you. That’s it, now I remember! He asked me about the hospital and who we went there with. I said it was a friend of yours, but I didn’t remember his name.”
“Shit, Looks like the hospital’s snitching on us! Bastards!” Bikie was not that worried about having been spotted, rather consumed with rage.
Before Isaac had time to digest the information, his phone rang. It was Pellegrini, asking him to come to the station.
“Stay cool,” Bikie reassured him. We’ll think everything through right now.”
An hour later Isaac walked into the station harboring a couple of moves up his sleeve. Pellegrini was waiting. He greeted Isaac and started talking about Pascal without much further ado.
“So Pascal is completely OK, isn’t he? You haven’t noticed any changes recently?”
“No, nothing particular. What do you mean?” Isaac knew that he had to ask questions too. That way he might also fish something out of the commissioner.
“Why did he suddenly go and pay for your sister?”
Isaac was not taken unawares.
“I was trying to persuade him for quite a long time. Talked to him about ten times, and finally succeeded.”
“What persistence!”
“She’s my sister! I was ready to download my creativity for her sake!”
“Yes, yes. I remember. Very laudable. But even so, how did you manage it?”
“Manage what?”
“Well, to persuade Pascal. You didn’t threaten him by any chance?”
“My god! Of course not!”
“That’s strange. Going to download your energy was fine, but threatening a rich friend for a relatively small sum of money was not? Have you been drinking with him?”
“What are you getting at? I didn’t threaten anyone! Or get them drunk.”
“All right. But even so. Could you possibly remember the last words you spoke to him before he agreed?”
“I don’t remember. I implored him. I recalled lots of things we did together in our lives. Vows we made. And it seems to me, commissioner, that the questions you’re asking are too personal for a witness interview! Maybe I went down on my knees! Do you need to know that too? I can refuse to answer, after all. You know that I’m no idiot, far from it, and I might not have been at any interrogations before, but I’ve seen films and I more or less know my rights!”
Isaac got carried away in earnest and was about to start shouting.
“Calm down, Isaac. I’m doing my job. I’m not accusing you of anything,” the commissioner said very gently. “But that’s for the time being! And if I don’t understand something, I’ll keep asking as long as I like,” he added, suddenly raising his voice.
Pellegrini literally hovered over Isaac, who was not really expecting this abrupt aggressiveness after the soft beginning. Films are one thing and the real life is another. This was the first time Isaac had been in a situation like this.
He shrank away from the commissioner.
“I’d like to hire a lawyer. After all, I have that right.”
“You’ll hire one when I want you to. Or will you get the money from Pascal again?”
“Where I get my money is my business.”
Isaac tried to behave confidently, but he did not really know how t
o behave: whether to answer politely or aggressively, or not answer at all. He thought in any case it was best not to get the commissioner angry.
“Isaac, we’re not enemies,” the commissioner continued gently. “You raised your voice at me. I know how to speak loudly, too, as you can see. Let’s just get on with it calmly and peacefully. Everything’s all right, you haven’t broken the law, have you?”
“I haven’t.” Isaac was clearly glad of this change of course. He was afraid of being too impolite and getting himself charged with something like insulting an officer in the course of performing his duty or something of that sort.
“If you haven’t, then good for you! But what Pascal did is very unusual. Not really a Veggie style.”
“All people are different. And anyway, I got the documents for the patent on my invention. And I guaranteed that I would pay back everything down to the last cent sometime very soon.”
“Of course, people are different. If Pascal gave you the money, I am only for it. Why should I be against people doing good deeds? You’ve got a great sister. A fine girl. She will recover, you’ll see!” Pellegrini gave Isaac a friendly slap on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. She’ll recover.”
Isaac relaxed a little. If warm words about anyone could win his sympathy, then that person was Vicky.
“Have you ever thought of joining the police?”
Isaac had got completely confused by Pellegrini’s questions.
“I never thought seriously about it. But I like films about good cops,” Isaac added, just to be on the safe side.
Pellegrini grinned.
“Just another couple of minutes, Isaac, and then you go home, OK? As for me, I’m already getting hungry. Feel like going to a little Italian restaurant.”
Isaac was really glad that the interrogation was finally about to come to an end. He realized he also was ravenous and exhausted, so he shifted closer to the desk.
“Two minutes, I’ll finish filling out the papers and you can go.”
“Thank you.”
Commissioner Pellegrini wrote quickly and Isaac waited. The commissioner finished, slammed his palm down loudly on the desk, which apparently signified the end, looked at Isaac and suddenly asked in a casual voice.
“Tell me, where did you put the board from the computer?”
Isaac had probably slipped up somewhere. He guessed immediately that the commissioner had spoken to Elvis. Had Elvis given Isaac away or not? Apparently he had since Pellegrini had asked Isaac the question. And the cunning commissioner had slipped it in so underhandedly when Isaac was already thinking about where to go for supper. He wasn’t ready for this sudden U-turn.
“Surprised? I know everything, Isaac. I’m only interested in certain details. It was interesting to watch you lying to me.”
The commissioner raised his voice, speaking with regret and disillusionment at the same time.
“A lot of things depend on me. But your lying made me upset. I could help if you had done something stupid by mistake. But that’s not the case here. You clearly acted consciously and deliberately.”
Isaac felt like he was drifting. Thank God, he couldn’t say anything, his thoughts were in a hopeless tangle. There was only fright. “Sign,” said Pellegrini, handing him the sheet of paper.
“What is this? I didn’t do anything with any board. I don’t understand what you are talking about.”
“You understand perfectly well. Sign it. It is an undertaking not to leave the area. Or I’ll keep you here as a potential fugitive from justice.”
“What would I run from and where to?”
“From having lied to me.”
“I haven’t lied to you.”
“Of course not. Clearly you spent three weeks in Ibiza and Naples, as you testified the last time while your mobile phone roamed about Italy and even took a holiday on Sardinia.”
“What do you mean Sardinia?” Isaac asked, unable to stop himself, although he knew it was best for him not to say anything.
“It’s the roaming, Isaac. Haven’t you ever heard of that old invention? Where you phoned from. Where you phoned to. Where you were. You lied, Isaac, and that’s included in the report. So read it and sign it. We’ll continue this conversation on Monday. And don’t even think of shooting off anywhere. I’ll find you quickly anyway and you’ll get an extra five for attempting to flee. Your gain is plain: the money for your sister. But what you did with the board and why you went to Sardinia still remains to be figured out. Perhaps you were Elvis’s accomplice after all, and Captain Nero just didn’t notice?”
The commissioner was clearly pleased with himself. In reality, he couldn’t have kept Isaac at the station because that required the consent of the prosecutor, and getting that on Friday evening was no easy matter. It could wait until Monday. Where would Isaac run to? His sister was here and he didn’t really have any money. And if he did run, that would be even more interesting. No, Pellegrini himself couldn’t be bothered to request a warrant from the prosecutor. Oh, that South of France! It would soften anyone into utter laxity. And then again, it is all guesswork as yet, unfortunately. Or rather, he was quite certain but did not have enough evidence for an arrest. There was a victim, all right, but he was a stupid Veggie, and working with him was really a drag! But never mind. Now that it was clear that something fishy was going on, the questions of the victim and the charge will fall in place eventually.
Isaac read the report of the interview. He broke out in a cold sweat at the part where he talked about Ibiza and Naples, and the commissioner made a handwritten addition that this was a lie. There were no any other notes. And even though his thoughts were confused, and it was hard to read, and his head was splitting, Isaac tried to remember as much about his answers as he could. It was strange, by the way that the commissioner had singled out the section with the lie in it. Isaac felt a brief flash of hope that it was just another police trick to exert psychological pressure on him.
At last everything came to an end and they let Isaac go. He walked home as if he were drunk. Bikie caught up with him about ten minutes after he left the station.
“Well then? How did it go? Why so long?”
“Not so great.”
Isaac stopped and leaned against Bikie. He was emotionally drained and was already eating himself away for being caught out like that. In retrospect, he realized that even if Elvis had given him away, his own word carried exactly the same weight as Elvis’s. He should have refused to admit anything and stuck to his guns. And the commissioner has also given himself away when he suggested that they were accomplices. Most likely it was a trick, and Elvis hadn’t told Pellegrini about the board. Or maybe the old commissioner, insidious as he was, had managed to trick him too? Damn, he’d thought he was well prepared. The team had worked through heaps of questions about Pascal’s behavior. But Pellegrini hadn’t even asked about that.
“Come on, tell me. I’m a total nervous wreck. Even the guys have already called twice.”
In reply, Isaac handed Bikie a copy of his undertaking not to leave the area. Bikie whistled.
“All right, just pull yourself together. Here, take a swig!” said Bikie, holding out a flask of rum.
The rum scalded Isaac’s throat, going down into him with an agreeable sensation, and he instantly felt shot away.
“We forgot about the roaming. From Sardinia.”
“I get it.”
“What else is important?”
“He knows I ended up with the card. The memory card. He called me out when I was getting ready to leave. I didn’t admit it, but he is certain. He definitely knows, but I can’t say from where. Maybe Elvis gave me away, maybe there were cameras at the police station. I don’t know, but he knows for certain that I have it.”
“What else?”
“He was surprised about Pascal and Vicky, but I was prepared, and I think I answered that perfectly.”
“Is there more?”
“I think that’s all.”
> “Try to remember, Isaac!”
“That’s definitely all. I read the report of the interview before I signed it, fifteen minutes ago.”
“OK. Never mind. Let’s go home quick. We’ll think of something.”
Chapter eight
The commissioner, who had trailed Isaac from the police station all the way to where he met Bikie, thought to himself delightedly: “And here’s another character. An accomplice. Bikie in person, from the look of things. So they’re working together. Well-well. He matches the description from the hospital. He was there with Pascal and Isaac.” Taking out his mobile phone, he entered a note: “Who is Bikie?”
After that, pleased with the interesting case and successful interrogation, he went to a restaurant and ordered a scallop carpaccio with truffle oil and his favorite lasagna.
The scallops were magnificent, but he had to wait a little while for the lasagna, as the Pulcinella restaurant was crowded. Pellegrini’s hunger reached its highest point, and when they eventually brought the steaming plate, the commissioner attacked it with a redoubled appetite, washing the food down with a light Provençal rosé. He was savoring his meal and the successful ending to the day when his phone rang. The screen informed him it was Pascal Dean.
Pellegrini chuckled contentedly and answered the call:
“Pellegrini speaking.”
“Commissioner, please, they’re threatening me!” he heard Pascal’s frightened voice.
“Who? Why? Who is threatening you?” the commissioner’s smirk evaporated.
“It’s Isaac. He called me. He is very strange! He’s gone crazy. Very aggressive! I think he’s drunk. I want to call the police!”
“Calm down! Everything will be fine! Right, hang on a moment. Can you lock all the doors?”
“Yes, of course, I can. I already have.”
Collective Mind Page 28