With his eyes fixed like lasers on the dark arm of the branch below, he accelerated rapidly before hitting it with a heavy slap and continuing downwards with a tremendous whoosh of leaves and branches. His arms locked around it and he felt his chin grind against the rough bark with excruciating pain. The branch sank down dramatically and then recovered itself, as though appalled by the insolence of this primate. From the moment he got a hold of the branch, he wasted no time in moving farther down the gnarled spiny surface to relieve the strain on the limb and save it from breaking. By the time it had stopped its thrashing, he was already at the trunk … cut all over but still clinging on.
The main trunk was solid as iron, but the countless branches which sprouted from it slowed his progress and snagged his rucksack at every opportunity. Down the last eight metres he slid and twisted, until finally he swung from the lowest limb and landed in the soft deep shadow beneath. There was no moonlight here, nor plants … just the smell of dank earth and the silence of the garden. He was alive!
Chapter 32
Gus heard the phone being picked up and stiffened.
“Yes, Gus, I’m listening,” Zoltan said coolly into his mobile.
“Er, hi, Z. Sorry to call yer so late, but … er … I thought yer should know that we’ve aborted the assignment.”
“You have? Why?”
“Well … er … we made …”
“Is Sammy with you?” Zoltan interrupted.
“Yes. Yes, he is. I know that Viktor has him on a flight tomorrow night, and that …”
“Good … carry on,” Zoltan said impatiently.
“Well, as I was saying, we get down to the Hall, yer know, Strupe Hall, at about five this afternoon. I remembered it quite well as it happens … that line of trees is like a …”
“Yes, yes, and?” Zoltan said, cutting him off.
“Well, we arrived at the ’ouse at about five, and there was a lady on like the gravel at the front watching us as we drove in. So I stopped and told her we ’ad a delivery for a geezer called Mr Smythe. Anyway, we was chatting away, and Sammy was in the back giving the ’ouse a good eyeballing through the lenses. Bob was in the front with me. Anyway, we chatted for a bit … yer know, I was trying to buy time … and suddenly she got a bit foxy with me, if yer know what I mean.”
“Foxy? You mean she took shine to you?” Zoltan said incredulously.
“No, no, that’s not what I mean at all!” Gus said with a snort. “She turned a bit odd like, sort of a bit standoffish, for no reason at all.”
“And?” Zoltan said.
“Well, I tried to be friendly, but she wasn’t having none of it and made it clear that we should leave,” Gus said, feeling a sense of failure as he recalled it.
“Look, Gus,” Zoltan said sternly. “You were not there to make friends … you were there to get an understanding of what security the house has, and whether there was anyone there! For the love of Lenin, what’s got into you that you abort a job because you’re not liked!”
“No, no, Z. I’m not explaining myself proper,” Gus said, feeling embarrassed. “The woman was suspicious of us … yer know … she didn’t trust us. And when we left, we all chatted about it, and Sammy was adamant that she might call the police and get us checked out, or send the cops over later when he was inside.”
“I don’t understand,” Zoltan said peevishly. “Why was she suspicious? You were authentic delivery people in uniform. What is there not to trust … unless, of course, you said something to arouse her suspicions.”
“No, nothing,” Gus said sheepishly. “I … I just think it was the fact she was there on her own with us, and she felt a bit nervous about a van suddenly appearing out of nowhere at that time in the afternoon. Some people are paranoid. Anyways, she said her ’usband and two German shepherds were resident in the house whilst Oliver was away, so it didn’t look great.”
“Oh, I see,” Zoltan said softening. “Well, that does change the scenario. Guess you probably did the right thing, in that case. Viktor will understand you made correct decision.”
“That’s what I thought,” Gus resumed. “What’s the point in taking a risk when Oliver’s going be back in a day or two? We can take him out when he’s back in Battersea.”
“But how do we know he’s going to be back in a day or two? We don’t, do we,” Zoltan persisted. “He could be away for a month.”
“Look, Z,” Gus said, feeling suddenly more in charge. “We’re going to get Oliver one way or the other … he’s got too much going on to disappear for long. I bet yer he’s back within the week, and then we’ll have him!”
“Okay, let’s speak tomorrow,” Zoltan said resignedly.
“Sure thing … cheers, mate,” Gus said, and then waited for his boss to close off.
Chapter 33
The next morning, Petru came self-consciously into the breakfast room holding his rucksack and meandered through the tables to join Tarquin and Constanta in their corner. There were cuts and livid blotches all over his face and neck which caused a couple of late breakfasters to gaze at him in astonishment. He managed a small smile as he arrived.
“You look a mess, darling!” Constanta said, standing up and giving him a hug. “I’m so sorry.”
“If you want to eat, old fellow, you better order now,” Tarquin said, folding his newspaper.
“We told them you’d had an accident and needed some rest! How are you?”
“Painful … all over my body, Mr Tarquin. Scratches, bruises, cuts; the shower was really bad … had to turn the water to cool!”
“I’m sure,” Tarquin said, scrutinizing him.
“Did you sleep okay, darling? You were soo fucked last night. I never seen you so hungry. Had your own pizza and then half of mine!” Constanta said with a small giggle.
“I know … I was very hungry by the end,” Petru said. “I guess I burnt a lot of energy in that place; it was so weird.”
“Creepy?” she said.
“Sure! Just … just not like anything I seen before. It was like the place was alive … like it knew me and them were not together. It wanted my respect … but it also helped me to get out alive.”
“Odd,” Tarquin said, picking up the menu. “Look … choose something, and I’ll order it; we need to be fast.”
“Sausages, mushrooms, cheese omelette … toast?” Constanta said, pointing.
“Yes, looks good, thanks,” Petru said, leaning back and gulping down a glass of orange juice.
Tarquin went and ordered.
Half an hour later, Petru pushed his plate away and reached into his sack.
“Right, I think I’m ready to try and explain what went on in there yesterday and to show you the photos,” he said, flicking the camera on. “Go easy with me. I’m not really awake properly … feeling cloudy in my head.”
“Don’t worry, old fellow,” Tarquin said, putting a hand briefly on his shoulder. “You had a hell of a night, and I think you did brilliantly. We were just biding our time in the bushes.”
Constanta threw him a fleeting scowl.
“Okay, sweetheart, let’s see the show,” she said, moving her chair next to Petru.
“This is the big hall I was talking about, with the broken table, the piano, and the stairs.”
“Fuck me, it’s huge!” Constanta exclaimed. “So that’s where they were last night … at that piano?”
“Exactly!” Petru said. “Blocking my way.”
“Mmm … that did pose a problem,” Tarquin agreed as he eyeballed the screen. “God! What a beautiful place. What grandeur. That’s the home of true French aristocracy!”
“Okay, Tarquin, we get the message; you’re impressed!” Constanta said.
“I am … it’s positively stately. Look at that marble floor!”
“This is the kitchen, and this is the small room with the chest … you know, where I told you there were tools and stuff.”
“Okay,” Constanta said, staring at the image.
; After some more shots of the ground floor, they suddenly jumped to the garret.
“Okay, so you see the big crate there at the top of the stairs, well, here’s them unpacking it … and there’s some panels they took off which look like shit. I thought these were the chest at first, and I was thinking, this can’t be right … that doesn’t look worth fifty pounds! And then … just look at that!”
He moved back to let them both see the screen.
“Fucking hell! That’s our baby!” Constanta said with a huge grin. “What a beauty!”
“Good God!” Tarquin gasped. “What an exquisite piece!”
“When I saw that thing, I knew straight away it was the cabinet,” Petru said triumphantly.
“It just oozes money.”
“Sure does, darling, and we’re gonna get some of it, even if it kills me!” she said, raising her voice and causing the waiter to glare at her.
“Okay. So now we have some shots of the chest they brought up from downstairs … you see there,” Petru said, pointing with a fork, “that’s what was being put together downstairs. They put the cabinet into this last night.”
“Right … so they took it out of the crate it travelled in, and then put it in this thing,” Constanta said, frowning.
“Interesting,” Tarquin said, pretending to grasp what was going on.
“Well, Sherlock?” Constanta said, calling Tarquin’s bluff.
“Well … well, it would seem that there’s a reason for this manoeuvre,” Tarquin said with a grave expression.
“You don’t say, darling … what powers of deduction you have!” she said with a giggle.
Tarquin reddened.
“Well, there’s got to be a reason for doing this!” Tarquin said indignantly.
“Of course there’s a fucking reason, Tarquin … but what is it, for Christ’s sake. Why have they taken it out of one box and put it in another?”
“Well, the chest they put it in looks old,” Tarquin said, without quite knowing why.
“And? So? Who gives a shit if it looks old or new? There’s no one to see it apart from the guys who put it in there,” Constanta said forcefully.
“Perhaps they will take it somewhere else afterwards,” Petru said.
“That’s just plain crazy,” Constanta said. “You lift a heavy box to the top of the house with a cabinet in it and take another box to the top of the house, and you change them over and bring them back down?”
“True, it doesn’t make any sense,” Petru said. “There must be a reason for it being up there.”
“Perhaps they needed the exercise!” Tarquin said with a snort. “Look … I’m completely flummoxed.”
“Yes, that sounds like you, Tarquin. Now, c’mon guys … think! We need to work this out!” Constanta said in exasperation.
There was a pause in the conversation for a minute or so, during which Petru tapped the fork on the table like a drum.
“Right, I think it is something like this,” Constanta said eventually. “I think the cabinet is being hidden in the house out of the way for some reason, and at some point in the future, say in a couple of months or something, some other guys are going to come here and collect it. I don’t have a fucking clue why. It must be hidden or it could be stolen, so it is taken right up to the top in that old place.”
“But why not just put it in a storage place with security cameras if there’s risk of being stolen?” Petru said. “Why the big house in middle of countryside?”
“Because it must not be clocked by anyone, that’s why, Petru. No one must know about it,” Constanta replied.
“But who will know … it is just a box like many other boxes?” Petru persisted.
“No,” Tarquin interjected. “The house is important. There’s a reason it’s being there. Possibly there’s a very rich individual who’s going to buy the place, do it up and … and …”
“Yes, we’re waiting,” Constanta coaxed.
“And … well … the cabinet will be waiting for him.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, searching Tarquin’s face.
“What I mean is … the cabinet had to be brought here now … for some unknown reason; perhaps the police were sniffing around Oliver’s house and it needed to be brought here prematurely,” Tarquin stammered.
“Hang on!” Constanta said excitedly. “Or perhaps Oliver uses the house as his storage place for valuable fake cabinets; you know, somewhere out of the way. There may be more cabinets in that place.”
“Yes … he makes them in UK and gets them across here for storage before he sells them. It’s just a way to avoid police. They raid his house and nothing … nada!” Petru said enthusiastically.
“Exactly! Sometime soon a dealer with rich clients will appear at the house and make him an offer! The house is his showroom! Guys, I think we may have worked out his little game!” Constanta said, giving Petru a high five. “The chateau is Oliver’s French showroom … his hideaway!”
“Could be, I suppose,” Tarquin said, twisting his mouth down. “Seems a very laborious way to sell fake goods; crossing the channel every time and driving into the middle of nowhere. And why all the changing of boxes at the top of the house?”
“Tarquin, he’s not coming over here all the time, for Christ’s sake, these things take time to build … he’s perhaps making one a year!”
“Possibly to order?” Petru said.
“Exactly!” she said.
“Bloody hell,” Tarquin said, gazing out of the window. “I suppose you could be right. He’s probably well known in the trade and wants these pieces away from his English operations as fast as possible.”
“Exactly!” Constanta said eagerly. “Now do you agree with us?”
There was a pause.
“Yes … possibly,” Tarquin said, looking at her. “You could have cracked it!”
“Well, are we three clever motherfuckers or what!” Constanta said, grinning.
Tarquin stood up and put his jacket on.
“So what do we do?” Petru said. “Go back up there and tell them we know what they’re doing and demand money?”
“No! Definitely not … not yet,” Constanta said forcefully. “We have to think. Like we discussed yesterday, we don’t want them to remove the fucking chest and … and … leave us looking stupid!”
“Look, we don’t know there are other pieces of fake furniture in there,” Tarquin interrupted. “Perhaps this is the only piece, and by the time the police arrive it would have gone missing.”
“Exactly! But we’re not going to tell the fucking police, Tarquin!” Constanta said with exasperation. “That’s the last thing we do.”
“Okay … good.”
“Guess you’re right, they would somehow make us look stupid and we lose everything,” Petru suggested.
“It’s exactly the same as the situation in Battersea, when you wanted to confront Oliver, darling. It wouldn’t work! They’d come out with some bullshit to the police. So we do not go to the house and threaten them … definitely not!”
There was a pause for a few moments.
“Yes … yes,” she said, gazing out of the window. “That’s the only way. We have to make contact with the Russian guys and tell them we know where the cabinet is and … and we want a payoff for the information!”
“Are you crazy, Constanta?” Tarquin said, raising his eyebrows. “Those guys have unfinished business with us, and next time they’re going to kill us!”
“For Christ’s sake, Tarquin, the only reason they want to kill us is because they think we are someone else … Oliver!”
“It doesn’t bloody matter what they think or don’t think … they still want to kill us,” Tarquin persisted.
“So Tarquin, we have to somehow get across to them that we are not the people they want!”
“And how the hell do we do that? We don’t have any phone numbers, addresses … and we certainly don’t have a clue who is hiring these guys,” Tarquin said, frowning.
“Tarquin,” Constanta said sternly. “Those guys do not want us dead.”
“Well, it bloody looked like it!” Tarquin retaliated. “And you said they did.”
“That was to shake you up … they don’t want us dead … it doesn’t make sense. They want the bloody cabinet!”
“Okay, then … how in the hell are we going to explain to these two nice guys, waiting outside my house when we get back, that we are innocent? They want revenge! You humiliated them, Constanta!”
“Are you complaining?” she said, grinning.
“No … I was impressed, to be frank, but—”
“Thank you,” she said.
“But, can’t you see this is going to be difficult to do? If they get hold of me and threaten me, I could just be talking nonsense to save my skin. People who are being physically threatened say anything. These guys are used to this, I’m sure. They won’t believe a word I bloody utter!”
“True, Mr Tarquin,” Petru said solemnly. “Be very careful with them.”
“This is where we have to be very clever, darling. Like the male spider moving towards the female … step by careful step. One foot wrong and … zap! We’re eaten for breakfast!”
“God help us,” Tarquin muttered.
She stood up.
“Shall we take a stroll around the square?” Tarquin said, looking at his watch. “I feel like a bit of exercise, and there may be a museum or something over there which could be worth a visit. Besides, I’m sure poor old Percy wants a walk.”
“You and your fucking culture, Tarquin!” Constanta said with mock annoyance. “C’mon, let’s go and see … there might be some nice shops. Go and get Percy.”
Tarquin disappeared upstairs.
“I’m gonna take it easy, if you don’t mind … catch some more sleep,” Petru said quietly, zipping up his rucksack.
The Freiburg Cabinet Page 26