As she spoke he registered the same odd sensation he’d felt during his school days, when he’d come by to pick up his knapsack after the field trip to the mountains.
“Yes, he is safe,” Vlado answered.
“He had said he would be.”
“And you see him often?”
“Oh, yes, every month. He would come more often, of course, but he is so busy. He is important, you know, an important man in the city.”
No mention of the war, or of anything else out of the ordinary. Vlado wondered what, if anything, she knew of the goings-on outside her door other than the booms and roars that occasionally shook her home.
“And you have come from him? You are one of his people?” she asked, still connecting everything to the world that revolved around her son. “He has sent you with firewood? Or food?”
That explained the comforts of the home. So here was how Vitas had exerted his influence. Not for his own enrichment, apparently, considering the sparseness of his apartment, but for his mother. Keeping her supplied from across the river had been a trick, and probably hadn’t come cheaply. It explained the unfinished letter to his mother that Vlado had fished out of Vitas’s trash can. It also explained the cover story that Vitas had circulated. It would have been far easier to keep the lines of supply open, and secret, if everyone thought she was dead. It could also explain how he might have been able to burrow his way deeper into the maze of the art scheme. Anyone with enough connections to this half of the city to keep a house heated and fed would also have the means of tapping into the smugglers’ grapevine. In fact, as Vitas’s death had shown, he may have ended up feeling safer on this side of the river than he did on his “own” side, a feeling Vlado momentarily knew all too well.
That thought gave Vlado an idea, but he knew he’d have to proceed with tact if he was to act on it. It would require some careful lying to a vulnerable old woman, a thought that didn’t sit comfortably.
“Yes,” he said, finally answering her question. “Esmir has sent me. Only this time I have no firewood, no food. I was only to come check on you, and on the house. To see if you needed any repairs.”
“You’re wet,” she said, as if noticing for the first time. He was far more than wet. He was muddy and unshaven, stinking of the river and the storm drains. As she steered him by a mirror on their way to the living room he had been shocked by his appearance, and the fact his looks hadn’t sent her screaming back up the stairway told him more about her detached state of mind. Everyone but her son, he supposed, ended up cast in the same nondescript mold as far as she was concerned.
“Esmir takes care of me,” she said in a cheery singsong as she seated Vlado on the couch. He cringed as he lowered his soaked pants onto the fine old upholstery, though he also couldn’t help but notice the thick dust. The housekeeping was apparently still left to her, with predictable results.
“He tells me it is unsafe for me to go outside of the house. Criminals, shooting and robbing. He says there are a lot of them. So I am not to go into the streets, and he sends everything I need.” All was spoken with a note of motherly pride, as if she might be describing her boy’s good manners.
“I’ll make some tea for us, then,” she said. “Esmir always has tea first.” And she rose, gliding toward the kitchen. The ticking clock on the mantle said it was 11:30, and already you could hear the preliminaries racketing into motion, the rattling of machine-gun fire and a few mortar rounds, thumping and soaring. She seemed not to notice, nor did she seem fazed by the idea of a visitor at such a late hour. And with a pang he realized he might well be her last visitor of any sort for quite some time. Forever, even.
Vitas had been dead for less than a week, so there hadn’t yet been time for his absence to show up in her supply of firewood or on the shelves of her pantry. But it wouldn’t take long, and then what would happen?
When a war swallowed up a city you always heard first and last about the children, it occurred to Vlado, and their tragedy was undeniable; playmates killed by a shellburst as they sledded or played ball; orphans with sad eyes and no apparent future, hardened beyond their years.
Yet the young always had the resilience and energy to keep going, absorbing the blows by the sheer strength of numbers in the great clan of youth. No matter how many of their friends died, there would always be new friends to make. Those who made it through in one piece would always have another life to lead once the shooting stopped.
The old ones, however, ended up like this, or like Glavas, cut off and alone, collapsing from the weight of either fear or neglect, hanging on just long enough to die unremarked, or to waste away until life no longer mattered. One way or another, the war finished them.
There was no way of knowing how long Vitas’s mother had been like this, but based on what little Vlado had seen of her in previous years, he figured she’d probably been close to this state before the first shot was fired. Then her youngest son had died—Esmir would have broken the news of that, perhaps—and, if she’d still been clinging to the edge, that would have pushed her across.
At least she still had her house. Even if it was musty and layered with dust, with some plastic on windows here and there, it was mostly intact. And until last week you could say that she still had her chief protector, a son with enough connections to keep her warm and fed.
But now? The rot would begin, and Vlado doubted she’d have the awareness to do anything but slowly succumb to it.
He stood and stepped toward the fireplace, warming his hands, listening to the hissing of the teakettle from the kitchen. He placed another log across the embers, immediately regretting it. The less used now, the better. If she survived the winter perhaps the spring or a ceasefire might finally lure her outdoors, where she’d catch the attention of a neighbor, though he knew he was grasping at straws.
In a few moments the log was burning merrily with loud snaps and pops, smelling of pine resin. Vlado pulled off his wet shoes and propped them against the screen, then peeled off his wet socks and draped them across the top. He stood, arms folded, peering into the flames, into that little world of embers wavering at the bottom, and this was his pose as Mrs. Vitas re-entered the room. She was balancing a silver tray loaded with teapot, cups, a sugar bowl—full, to his astonishment—and a pair of small cakes.
“Please,” she said, “be seated on the couch. It’s where Esmir always sits.”
She took an opposite chair, a vacant smile on her face, while Vlado dipped quickly toward the cakes, mouth watering. He stuffed one into his mouth, his tongue snaking out to lap up any straying crumbs, and the sugary flavor burst in his mouth like a drug. He loaded three tea-spoons of sugar into the teacup. He would have spooned the rest into his pockets if he’d had half a chance, though he felt shamed by the temptation.
For a moment he had a sensation of descending into temporary insanity. To be confronted with all these comforts so hard on the heels of his harrowing day had pushed him onto an emotional ledge, and for a precarious moment it was all he could do to keep from bursting into tears. He contemplated what had nearly become of him at the river. Now he was here, blocks away, yet practically on another planet.
For the briefest of moments he considered staying. It would probably be easy enough to convince her that Esmir had assigned him to be her live-in caretaker. But he’d be just as powerless to keep the supply lines from drying up. The longer he stayed, in fact, the more quickly her wood, water and food would dwindle. Besides, he had work to do here, and he must do it soon. He blinked back his tears.
“What messages do you bring from my son?” she asked.
“I can only tell you that he is well,” he said, swallowing hard. “He gives you his best. He speaks of you often.”
It was exactly what she’d wanted to hear, and she smiled broadly. So far, so good.
“And he will be coming soon for a visit?”
Vlado looked down at the table. “Yes,” he answered, barely audible. “Yes, soon.” He looked bac
k up into her beaming face. Her eyes glittered, but her gaze was slightly off center, just as it had been during his visit to this same room years before, as if she were sneaking a look at something over his shoulder.
“He wanted to come this time,” Vlado said. “But his work made it impossible. So he said I was to come instead.” He weighed his next words, feeling it was important to phrase them just right. “He said that I was to check the house thoroughly, to see if anything needed fixing. He said I was to attend to all the business that he usually attends to.”
She seemed to brighten, to change expression, as if his words had unlocked some door. “Ah,” she said. “You will want to see his things, then. To check on his things. It is always the first thing he does after tea.”
“Yes. Of course.”
She smiled, seemingly happy to have gotten it right. Then they drank their tea, smiled at each other some more, and it was time. Vlado rose to his feet.
“Where should I begin?” he asked.
“In the cellar, of course,” she said briskly, as if dealing with a dolt. “It is where all his things are.”
Vlado weaved slightly as he stood. The sugar was just beginning to flare into his bloodstream, crawling like a slow lightning. The basement door was in the kitchen, with a full box of candles and matches on a facing countertop. He lit one and stepped carefully down the steep, narrow steps, shielding the flame with his left hand.
Cobwebs clung to his face, and from below he heard the skittering of mice, perhaps something larger, running for cover at the approach of his candle. This would indeed be a popular place with rodents, he imagined, probably the only house on the block with heating and a full pantry.
And down here in the cellar? He turned one way and saw an old coal furnace, still and cold. Even Vitas and all his connections hadn’t been able to provide that precious commodity. Across another wall were old tools, thick with dust and cobwebs, and Vlado began to despair of finding anything at all.
He stepped off in the next direction, and as he reached the far corner the light revealed two items that made his heart soar. Here, at last, were Vitas’s “things,” as his mother had put it. Although Vitas doubtless would have described them as evidence, the sort that one might collect from the captured headquarters of a warlord mobster.
One item was two small, wooden file drawers, the sort one finds in libraries and archives, and it was filled from front to back with index cards. Vlado flipped through a few and saw they were just as Glavas had described them, right down to his initials, scribbled at the bottom of each. There were hundreds, which meant that it must be about complete. This, at last, was the transfer file.
The other item was a wooden crate, about eight feet high, six feet across, and two feet deep, marked with a blue #96 at the top, just as it had been listed on the inventory forms in the ministry’s records.
He’d have to hand it to them, they took good care of their art work when they moved it out of the country. Crated to museum specifications no doubt. It probably would have been easy enough to learn just how from an idiot like Murovic.
Vlado wondered idly what sort of painting must be inside, but had neither the time nor the tools to find out. Of greater interest was the blue-and-white invoice sealed beneath a sheet of plastic across the outside.
It was a U.N. shipping form, cleared for transit to Frankfurt, addressed to the care of a Branko Jusic, doubtless their expatriated connection with his own ties to the shadowy edges of the art market, their dealer to the rest of the world. The Frankfurt destination meant it had a place on the American cargo flight that flew first thing every morning, four hours direct from Sarajevo to Frankfurt, local conditions permitting.
At the bottom of the invoice was the authorization signature, and it was no surprise to see that the order had come straight from the top: Col. Maurice Chevard, the signature a bit reckless, with a typical French overdose of dash and style. Vlado peeled off the form and placed it on the floor next to the candle.
He flipped again through the file drawers, and as he did so, the Orthodox New Year began. It was midnight. In a few moments the bombardment was proceeding in earnest. He paused for a moment to listen. It must be quite a sight, he thought, the red tracers arching into the night, the shellbursts that looked pretty as long as you didn’t bother to consider what happened afterward. He wondered for a moment what Mrs. Vitas must be doing upstairs, what she must make of all this. There was no movement on the floorboards, and he imagined her sitting placidly by the fire, its lights dancing in her vacant eyes. He pictured Vitas himself seated on the couch, all those visits with their tea and idle chat, probably mostly about schooldays, with no talk of war or death. Or, more likely, Vitas himself had never come at all, had only sent supplies and these items in the basement via trusted intermediaries. Trusted only because they were well paid.
Vitas himself might have appeared only in the form of a letter, a note on one of those sheets of cream-colored bond. But in his mother’s mind, that had been enough, as good as a visit.
Vlado thumbed through the cards, finding that many had been roughly check-marked, perhaps denoting the items that had already been shipped. By rough calculation, totaling the assessed value for each such item, he figured that about eight million dollars worth of art must have been moved by now. Even accounting for the cut rates of the black market in stolen art, it was a lucrative venture, and, from the number of unchecked cards, was still continuing, courtesy of Markovic’s own list, probably at a brisker pace than ever considering the approaching UNESCO deadline. He wondered what Murovic would think when he began to find all of his precious pieces missing, if he’d feel at all betrayed by his old pals.
As he looked again at the crate, he pondered the magnitude of what Vitas had accomplished. He must have moved heaven and earth to get these out of the ministry’s property room and across the river. He must have known as soon as he’d seen the items at Zarko’s headquarters exactly what they signified. For all Vlado knew, that might even have been what precipitated the raid. No wonder Kasic had done all he could to ensure that Zarko would be silenced. It would have solved his problem even as he enlarged his own cut of the profits. He’d then managed to rub out most of the paper trail that connected him to the deed, though he’d trusted too greatly in a small bit of correction fluid.
Vitas’s only miscalculation had been concerning his own safety, and now his mother would pay the price as well.
Vlado found nothing further in his search of the room. He used rolls of U.N. tape and plastic, left by whoever had covered the broken windows, to bundle up about fifty of the cards from the file box, taking care to include several that had been check-marked and some that hadn’t. He also wrapped the invoice, taping both bundles several times to ensure they’d stay waterproof, then stuffed them into his satchel before covering it, too, with tape and plastic.
Then he headed back up the steps, blowing out the candle as he reemerged into the light at the top.
She was still seated on the couch, fully awake. But now she looked at him in a slightly different way, as if pleasantly surprised to see anyone at all emerging from her cellar.
“I know you,” she said suddenly. “You’re Vlado. You’ve forgotten your knapsack. You left it at our place in the mountains last night. Husayn speaks of you often,” she said.
It was the name of Esmir’s younger brother, killed a year ago.
“He is a good friend of yours, isn’t he?” she said.
“Yes, he is.”
“When you see him, tell him to come home,” she said, in a tone more admonishing than pleading. “It is time for him to come home.” Her expression became stern, that of a mother scolding her boys as they strolled up toward the front steps, long overdue for dinner.
“Esmir too,” she said. “It is time for both of my boys to come home.”
“Yes,” Vlado said again, at a loss for any other words. He’d hoped to make his way up to Esmir’s old room, to rummage around for some dry clot
hes, but he saw now it would be best just to leave. He’d make do with what he had.
“I’d better go now, then,” he said, “if I’m to see your sons.”
“Yes,” she said in a drifting tone. “We’ll look for your knapsack later. But would you like some tea first? Esmir always has tea first.”
“No. I’m afraid I have to go now.”
He edged toward the door, half expecting her to try to stop him, or to implore him to go and find her sons immediately. He feared she would cry. But her expression was as blank as when she’d first laid eyes on him.
“Esmir wanted me to tell you one more thing,” Vlado said. “He said that it is safer now outside, but only early in the mornings, and that tomorrow morning he would like you to go and see your neighbors, to get in touch with your friends again. To let them know you are all right.”
“Yes,” she said, smiling. “My friends. Yes. I’ll have them over.”
Vlado wasn’t certain if such people even existed anymore, except in her own imagination.
“You must ask them for food, or firewood, if you run low,” Vlado said. “Esmir may not be able to provide any for a while.”
“My son provides all of that. He’s an important boy at his school. You know him, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Vlado said. “Yes, I know him.”
He opened the door, glancing quickly in both directions to make sure no one was in the streets. A few shots still spattered in the hills, but the whole block seemed empty. Not a single light was on except in this house. He turned to say good-bye.
“Thank you for everything,” he said, but she seemed not to have heard him.
“Tell them to come soon,” she said, scolding now. “Tell my boys.”
He backed down the steps and strolled away, heading in the direction he’d come from. He looked back only once, just in time to see her shutting the door, a smile of satisfaction on her face.
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