by Graham Brack
‘No problem. I hope you catch him. And when you do, I hope you’ll make sure the country isn’t put to the expense of a trial.’
Peiperová had been making more headway. After drinking more coffee than was good for her she had pieced together a coherent history from people who had known the Broukal family. She decided to call Slonský to update him before she drove back.
‘It seems that Magdalena was a model daughter. Her father was a respected mining engineer. He thought the world of her, she idolised him. There was never any suggestion of impropriety, just a very close father-daughter relationship. She was a daddy’s girl. She wasn’t so close to her mother but while her father was alive that wasn’t an issue. She held her tongue for his sake.’
‘Any siblings?’
‘No. The neighbours said she was a late baby.’
‘How do they mean, late?’
‘Her mother had been trying for a long time when she finally got pregnant. That’s worth noting because we’ll come back to it later. Magdalena married around 1982 when she was about twenty-two. She and her husband were very happy for quite some time by all accounts, but she wanted a baby and despite lots of medical help it wasn’t happening for her. She seems to have inherited her mother’s low fertility.
‘Anyway, she finally got pregnant when she was in her late thirties and carried the baby for about six months, but then she lost it. She became very depressed. The local doctor said he couldn’t discuss it in detail without a court order but he could at least confirm that. Obviously the neighbours couldn’t tell me anything about what went on in their household but it seems the whole thing broke them apart. She gave up her job with the kindergarten because being with children was making her feel worse.’
‘And the Director didn’t think to tell us that?’
‘It was about six months before Viktorie went missing. Maybe she didn’t connect the two.’
‘You’ve got a child that goes missing and a woman who badly wants a baby and she doesn’t connect them?’
‘Lots of women badly want a baby, sir, but very few go round stealing them.’
‘Fair point. So presumably at some stage she left the district to start a new life?’
‘Yes, sir. Nobody quite knows when, though. Her father died in 1999, just after she discovered she was pregnant. At some point during her depression she had an enormous row with her mother. The women I spoke to were at pains to stress that they only had the mother’s side of the story, but it seems they never spoke again, and because she cut off contact with her mother they don’t know any more about what happened to her. However, her doctor says he never saw her again after December 1999. Unless she abruptly stopped her medication she would have needed to see another doctor within about three months, so he assumes she moved away then, but he was never asked to send on her records.’
‘And that’s right on the time that Viktorie was taken.’
‘Couldn’t fit better, sir. She took Viktorie when she was leaving town.’
Slonský tossed the new information around in his mind. This resulted in a silence that Peiperová finally broke.
‘Are you still there, sir?’
‘Yes, still here. The question now is how she lived when she came to Prague. Let’s say she decides to leave and she grabs the girl. Is she really going to come to a new city where she knows nobody, doesn’t have anywhere to stay or a job? What would she do?’
‘I know what I’d do, sir. I’d head for a women’s refuge.’
‘Good thinking, Peiperová. When you get back here find out all you can about the options she had. If they’re too many for you to visit we’ll share them out between us. She may have used either the Novotná or Broukalová name, so we’ll have to check for both.’
‘Will do, sir. Is it all right if I do that in the morning?’
‘You work hard enough. I don’t expect you to give all your evenings up. Anyway, I can’t expect you to work when I’m having the evening off next week. I’m taking my wife out to dinner.’
‘That’s nice, sir. I hope you both enjoy it.’
‘So do I. It’s been a long time. I’m out of practice.’
Chapter 15
The following morning began with a considerable surprise. Officer Krob reported for duty.
‘I wasn’t expecting you until the first,’ Slonský told him.
‘I know, sir, but I had to use my leave up so I actually finished a few days early. I thought it might be helpful if I came in today so I could get up to speed before I start in earnest on Monday.’
This sort of enthusiasm surpassed even Navrátil’s. Admittedly Navrátil couldn’t turn up early because he didn’t know until his first day to whom he had been assigned, this being the inevitable outcome of Slonský’s attempts to get out of mentoring him, but Slonský was impressed with Krob.
‘This is Officer Navrátil. Pay no attention to that open and trusting expression. He is a considerable asset to this department. I expect great things of him, if he listens carefully to all the pearls of wisdom I dispense. He’ll take care of you. In a minute he’ll give you a tour of the building, organise your passes and your badge, and take you to the very hub of policing in the Czech Republic.’
‘What’s that, then, sir?’ Navrátil enquired.
‘The canteen, lad. It’s where we take on board the necessary calories that keep our brains ticking over. A good detective needs three things, Krob. He needs a good pair of shoes, a bottom that can withstand prolonged periods of sitting down and a mind to gather and process all that comes in.’
‘Yes, sir.’
The door swung open behind them to display Mucha standing with a large cardboard box in his arms. He indicated Slonský’s desk with a nod of his head.
‘Can you make some space? This thing is heavy.’
Slonský cleared an area by simply dumping the papers on the floor behind the desk.
‘What have you got there?’
‘Something that I think will make you very happy,’ said Mucha.
‘Is it Navrátil’s mother’s recipe for cinnamon buns?’
‘Better than that.’
‘Now I know you’re lying,’ said Slonský. ‘There is nothing on earth better than Navrátil’s mother’s cinnamon buns.’
Mucha removed the lid of the box with a flourish and plunged his arm inside.
‘This,’ he said, ‘is the evidence box for The State v Petrovský. We hadn’t got round to throwing it out. And this is a copy of a video tape I think you’ve been looking for.’
Slonský goggled. ‘How did you find it?’
‘The ruthless application of logic, coupled with an appreciation of how the Czech bureaucrat’s mind works. Petrovský was charged with conspiracy to commit a robbery, remember? To prove that, the prosecutors would have to prove that there had actually been a robbery. And since they were asking for a six-year sentence they had to show it was an aggravated robbery, meaning that violence or threats were used. The easy way to do that would have been to show the video. But the original video was needed for the OII enquiry into Dostál’s handling of the siege. I know that enquiry was a complete fraud but the prosecutors didn’t know that, so they made a certified copy of the tape in case they couldn’t have the original when the trial was on. At some stage someone — probably Zedniček — threw out the original tape but he didn’t know that there was a copy.’
‘He does now,’ said Slonský. ‘I showed him one the other day.’
‘Where did you get that?’ asked a perplexed Mucha.
‘In a second hand shop. It was actually a tape of Swan Lake.’
‘And he didn’t notice the difference between a vicious armed bank siege and a bunch of woman in tutus tiptoeing around a stage pretending to be pond birds?’
‘I didn’t actually run the tape. I just waved it at him. Anyway, now we’ve got it, we’d better have a look at it. Just one question — why bring the whole evidence box?’
‘Because I didn’t want to s
ign out the videotape alone in case anyone is watching what we’re doing. I haven’t been a policeman for nearly forty years without learning that sometimes it’s better if other police don’t know your business.’
‘You’re wrong there,’ said Slonský. ‘It’s always better if other police don’t know your business.’
The whole party trooped to the Situation Control Room where Navrátil, who had already shown his mastery of the equipment, was tasked with putting the videotape in the player and turning the right television on.
The tape did not show the whole of the bank’s ground floor. It concentrated on the public area and the counter. The picture covered the part of the room behind the counter, but the private area extended in an L-shape down the left of the picture and there was a strip there hard against the wall that could not be clearly seen.
The relevant part of the tape showed the assault team entering the room and fanning out into an arc. Five could be seen at various points, but at the key moment there were three in a horizontal line across the screen. Slonský designated these 3, 4 and 5. 1 and 2 were on the left edge and were not always visible.
The two armed robbers each held a customer in front of them. At one point they each pushed the hostage away and were shot. The tape had to be run slowly to verify the sequence of events.
‘It’s a shame the tape is silent, sir,’ said Navrátil, ‘but the fact that the two robbers both push the hostages away at the same time suggests a countdown.’
Mucha pointed to policemen 4 and 5. ‘Those two have clear lines of fire, but of course they can’t know which one each will shoot at so they could be hit before they got a second shot in. But even people as thick as most bank robbers would realise that with a semi-circle of armed police around you, the game is up. It’s just a case of bargaining for their lives at this stage.’
‘Let’s not jump to conclusions,’ said Slonský. ‘That’s not our job. Peiperová, would you give Major Rajka a call and invite him to join us if he’s free? And if he isn’t free, suggest he makes himself free to come and see this.’
Rajka needed no second invitation when he heard what they were watching and soon joined them as they replayed the video.
‘We can’t be sure whether policeman 1 or policeman 2 pulled the trigger,’ said Slonský.
‘No, but for my purpose that doesn’t really matter,’ Rajka answered. ‘Dostál was the commander and he had an obligation to give a truthful account to any OII enquiry, which he plainly failed to do. As to the matter of unlawful homicide, I’d be passing that back to you, so you’re the one who’d have to make that call.’
‘Based on the way they fall, I think I could make a case for it being number 2 who shoots. The more difficult bit is proving that he knew the men were no threat. And of course the shooting of the third man isn’t on here.’
Lieutenant Dvorník appeared in the doorway.
‘I heard you might be in here,’ he began. ‘Is this that bank robbery you’ve been looking into?’
‘That’s right.’
Navrátil started the tape for the third time. Suddenly Dvorník became very animated.
‘Whoa! Go back!’
‘To where?’ Navrátil asked him.
‘Just before they let the hostages go. There! This is all wrong. Look at those two at the back. They begin to lower their guns. They know there’s no threat. In fact the one on the right looks like he’s applying the safety catch on his weapon.’
Slonský took no convincing. Dvorník knew more about firearms than he ever would.
‘Good enough for me. Did you want me for something?’
‘Yes — there’s some woman called Jerneková on the phone for you. She says it’s important.’
Slonský ran to Dvorník’s office and picked up the phone. Jerneková had rung off.
‘I’ve got the number she rang from on the pad,’ said Dvorník. ‘Why not call her back?’
Slonský dialled the number and was delighted when Jerneková picked up.
‘Sorry — I didn’t have any more money,’ she explained.
‘I’ll pay you back. What’s this about?’
‘Well, two things. First, if you were serious about the police thing, I’m up for it.’
‘That’s good to hear. I’ll send you the papers.’
‘But the bigger thing is I remembered something about Magdalena. She doesn’t have any family left, but she was very close to Petra Novotná.’
‘Should that name mean something to me?’
‘Her husband’s sister. If she had nowhere else to go, she might have got in touch with Petra.’
‘I thought she’d divorced the brother?’
‘The brother divorced her. But he loved the woman she was. It was the woman she’d become that he couldn’t live with. It doesn’t mean Petra would feel the same way.’
‘I’ll look into it, thanks.’
Slonský returned to the Situation Control Room. Rajka had left but the others were still watching the tape.
‘Any more ideas?’ he asked.
‘Only that I should take this to the technicians and get a digital copy made in case this disappears again,’ Navrátil answered.
‘That would be good,’ Slonský agreed. ‘When you’ve done that, I want you to give Peiperová a hand. She’s tracking down any Prague hostels or refuges for women to see if we can discover where Broukalová was staying when she came here. I want you to find out if there are any refuges or hostels near Most where she could be staying now.’
Krob wasted no time. ‘Can I help?’
‘Krob, you certainly can. I have no idea how but Navrátil will tell you. Go with him.’
Navrátil felt there was a potential impediment to Krob’s involvement in the enquiry. ‘Sir, he hasn’t got a desk.’
‘He can use mine for now. I’ll use Lukas’s old desk until such time as the buildings mob get that wall knocked down. Just don’t let him change the PIN number on the answerphone. It’s taken me years to learn that.’
The junior officers dispersed and Slonský was left with Mucha.
‘You did well,’ said Slonský. ‘I’m afraid I forget to say that to you sometimes.’
‘That’s true.’
‘Sometimes I take you for granted.’
‘That’s true too.’
‘If you ever feel like joining the detective team, just let me know.’
‘I will.’
‘There’s just one catch. You’ll have to have a sex change. Don’t blame me, it’s police policy now, apparently.’
‘I doubt the wife would notice,’ sniffed Mucha, and returned to his post at the front desk.
Later that afternoon Slonský returned to his office to find two men in overalls making chalk marks on his wall.
‘Are you here officially or just a graffiti team who have forgotten to buy spray paint?’ he asked.
‘We’ve got orders to knock a wall through.’
‘Right through? The length of the wall?’
‘Almost. It’s a big job so we’ll need you to move out for a couple of days. They’ll have to get a custom-made steel beam fabricated to take the weight. We’ve got to put in some props, take out the space for the beam, lodge that in place then rip out the wall underneath. Start Friday night, finish Sunday night. Once we’ve got the beam, of course. Here’s the estimate for the work.’
Slonský looked at the proposed hit to his budget. ‘How much would a cat flap be?’ he asked.
‘I dread to think what our phone bill will be this month,’ Slonský pondered.
‘That’s not your problem,’ Mucha replied. ‘Unless they’ve started docking the departmental expenses out of our wages and not told me.’
Slonský took another bite of pastry. ‘Peiperová and Navrátil must have a knowledge of women’s refuges second to none. I think they’ve rung most of them. Speak of the devils…’
The two young officers, with Krob trailing behind, were entering the canteen. They collected cups of cof
fee and responded to Slonský’s invitation to sit with him.
‘I thought this might be a private conversation,’ Navrátil explained.
‘I have no secrets from you, lad. Or, more accurately, I have plenty of secrets but I wouldn’t tell Mucha about them. He knows enough already.’
‘That’s my pension plan you’re talking about,’ Mucha expostulated. ‘My little black book of secrets about my fellow officers. I’m relying on that to keep me in sandwiches for my first day of retirement.’
‘What are you going to do when you retire, old friend?’
‘What have you heard?’ Mucha asked suspiciously.
‘Nothing! I mean, when the time comes, which I hope will be a long way off yet.’
‘I don’t know. Sit around the house getting in my wife’s way, I expect. Occasional forays to meet up with old mates. Digging a big hole in a patch of wasteland large enough to take the wife’s sister if I ever find I can’t take any more and run amok.’
‘You need a hobby.’
‘Says the hobby guru. When have we got time for hobbies?’
‘Good point. But with this new hand-picked team of bright young things beneath me I am confident that I’ll soon have nothing to do most of the time because they’ll mop it all up. I’ll just sit in Captain Lukas’ old office signing expense claims and processing requests for leave.’
‘You’ll hate that.’
‘Only if I grant them. If I don’t allow success to spoil me and carry on being my old self I anticipate a lot of job satisfaction out of saying no. For a start, I’m thinking of making everyone work all day on 21st June next year.’
Navrátil and Peiperová exchanged glances. That was the well-publicized date planned for their wedding. They decided not to rise to the bait.
‘Are you getting married in uniform?’ Krob asked.
It didn’t take them long to tell you all about it, Slonský thought.
‘I don’t know,’ Navrátil replied. ‘I hadn’t thought about it.’
‘Only if you do, I suppose Officer Peiperová would have to as well.’