The Netscher Connection Page 2

  “You’ll have to pay me to not join you for a lángos.” Roxy winked at Nikki. “Those things are better than Vinnie’s tiramisu.”

  Vinnie froze. He turned woodenly towards Roxy, his eyes wide. “Never in my life have I ever been stabbed this hard in my back. And here I thought you loved me.”

  Their melodrama was boring me. This could go on indefinitely if there wasn’t a need for food or other means of survival. Nikki was now negotiating with Vinnie about her avatar. They’d discovered Drestia, the multiplayer game Vinnie had referred to, when we’d arrived at Émile’s villa. He’d received it for free at a business conference and had never been interested in playing it. The premise of the game had been the reason he’d suggested it to Vinnie and Nikki.

  I’d reluctantly given in and watched them for an hour after which I, again reluctantly, had admitted that it was an interesting concept. The players of the game were detectives—amateur and professional—who had to find a secret scroll in the tower room of a castle. They had to fight their way through each room in the castle and find a hidden key which would take them to the next room, the next level.

  Every evening after Nikki put Eric to bed, she would join Vinnie, Francine and Colin to play the game. Manny and I sat in the next room, reading. They were too noisy while playing the game and neither Manny nor I had any interest in this game. He’d called it a ridiculous waste of time. I didn’t agree. It gave the others hours of pleasure, which in my opinion was not a waste of time.

  “It’s decided.” Nikki punched the air in victory, then turned to me. “Sure you don’t wanna join us, Doc G? The dough is deep-fried, which means that not a single bacteria will survive.”

  “A single bacterium. Bacteria is the plural.” I lifted one eyebrow. “I truly hope I’m correct in assuming that you are jestin... You are. It’s not funny, Nikki.”

  She giggled. “It is. A little.”

  “Come on, punk.” Vinnie tugged playfully at her messy ponytail. “I’ll suffer through another lángos or three to prove my love to you. I might even give your baby back to you.”

  It took them another seven minutes of debating before Roxy stepped in. She took Eric from Vinnie’s arms and started walking away. As one, the rest followed her, still arguing about which of the several lángos stands and restaurants were their best choice. I inhaled deeply when they were out of earshot.

  “Too loud for you?” Colin chuckled. “They were too loud for me.”

  “They’re having a good time. It appears their relaxed state increases their volume.”

  “Especially Roxy.” Colin shook his head. “That woman can chat the ear off a donkey.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It’s a silly saying, love.” Colin took my hand, his smile soft. “Why don’t we go back to the gallery with the abstracts we both liked?”

  I didn’t move when he started walking and waited until he looked at me. “It’s not possible to talk any person or animal’s ear off.”

  “And that’s why I said it was a silly saying.”

  “Most sayings are silly.” I started walking. “And irrational. And most often impossible.”

  Colin pulled me closer to him and kissed the side of my head. “I fully agree with you.”

  I pulled away from him and gave him a displeased look when he laughed. He’d been in a light-hearted mood from the moment we’d walked into the first art gallery in Szentendre. It was his first time here, but he’d known about the historic architecture, numerous galleries and museums for many years. Having so many places representing the rich traditions of visual art within walking distance was clearly making him very happy.

  I enjoyed the art. But I had to admit that in some galleries I took more pleasure from watching the owner or artist interact with Colin than I did looking at the pieces. Nonverbal communication had so many nuances. Yet an overwhelming percentage of cues were universal. The lifting of cheeks and crinkling of the corners of eyes produced genuine smiles everywhere in the world.

  Our leisurely pace allowed Colin to peer into every shop window, sometimes slowing down to catch an extra glimpse of whatever had caught his eye. My interest was in the people sitting outside the numerous small cafés, sipping coffee. It was mid-week, which was to our benefit. The shops and streets were quiet, yet the service in the cafés was no faster than in the height of the tourist season. Émile had told us that unhurried service was the norm here.

  Colin slowed down and squinted into a shop window to our right. I took the time to appreciate the beauty surrounding me. Even though a few buildings were in clear need of maintenance, the flaking paint and very old wooden window frames added to the charm of this village.

  A row of trees lined the left-hand side of the street, bicycles chained to every single one of them. The buildings on our side of the street were mostly galleries and boutiques, a few of which had mannequins modelling their wares next to the open doors. On the other side of the cobblestone street, restaurants and cafés had welcoming signs and menus nailed to the walls.

  Only one restaurant didn’t have outside seating. All the others had a few occupants, giving me ample opportunity to indulge in observing people. Especially the guests at the three occupied tables outside the café closest to us and the one occupant of the café next to them. There were a lot of empty tables between them, affording them a sense of privacy. The couple at the table closest to the café’s door were involved in an argument. He was pointing angrily at the open guidebook on the table and she was gesturing at something behind him.

  Two tables away from them were three girls I estimated to be Nikki’s age. Their beer glasses were almost empty and their laughter genuine. All three had their mobile phones in their hands, taking photos of each other and selfies—all the while behaving silly. They were having fun.

  The older couple sitting in the corner rolled their eyes at the young girls, but smiled. In my youth, I’d never known silly moments like the ones the girls were experiencing now. I’d been home-schooled, had gone to university at a young age and had never had a neurotypical sense of humour. I also hadn’t had friends. I was happy for the three girls that they had this moment to create memories that they could treasure for the rest of their lives.

  Movement from the table at the other café caught my attention. I frowned. The man was sipping coffee, his posture relaxed while reading something on his phone. None of his nonverbal cues were genuine. He was not relaxed and he was not reading. His demeanour reminded me of when Vinnie or Manny were watching someone. The difference was my friends were much better at disguising their interest.

  He was in his late twenties, early thirties with an athletic build. His features and toned body would make him attractive to most women. That was why the three girls were now looking over at him and giggling. He didn’t pay them any attention. Even though he shifted deeper into his chair, lifted his phone and continued pretending to scroll through something on the screen, it was clear to me that he was watching someone on the other side of the street.

  Colin took a few steps to look at another display in the window. I followed him, but didn’t take my eyes off the man. His behaviour was disconcerting at best, alarming at worst. His eyes narrowed and he caught himself just in time not to straighten and betray his interest. I followed his gaze.

  The street on our side was empty but for a woman standing on the sidewalk, quite a distance from us. She had to be the one who’d caught the man’s attention. Francine would like her sense of style. She was wearing a pair of light green trousers, a white blouse and a fitted dark green summer jacket. Her shoes were made for walking, but appeared elegant and expensive. Even the styling of her long, blonde hair looked expensive.

  The large sunglasses and her hair being arranged so it covered most of her face made it hard to estimate her age. But it wasn’t hard to see the fear in her body language. Like the man, she also attempted to appear relaxed, but failed terribly.

  In a movement that was meant to be subtle
, but was very obvious, she scanned the street behind her. Her gaze flowed over the café patrons, but she didn’t notice the man. Mainly because he was now leaning back in his chair, appearing completely engrossed in whatever was on his phone.

  She hid a small shudder and started walking in our direction.

  “Maybe we should go in here, love.” Colin turned towards me. “They have a...”

  I looked at Colin when he inhaled sharply. He was staring at the blonde woman who was now about three metres from us. His eyes were wide, his mouth slightly agape. “Olivia?”

  The woman’s head jerked towards Colin and she froze. Her reaction mirrored Colin’s, just much stronger. She was now close enough for me to observe the micro-expressions on her face. Her eyebrows shot up above the top of her sunglasses and her mouth dropped open. “Jackson?”

  All three of us stood frozen for five seconds. I registered a myriad expressions flittering across her face, but didn’t have time to process them. My concern was mostly with Colin, whose breathing had increased and whose hand had tightened around mine to the point of discomfort.

  A vehicle honking behind us brought intense fear to Olivia’s face. She leaned to the side to look past us and gasped, her hand flying to cover her mouth. Colin and I turned around to see what she was looking at. It was a delivery vehicle, waiting to pass a group of tourists heading our way. None of the tourists exhibited any nonverbal cues that would elicit the response Olivia had had.

  I turned back. “She’s gone.”

  Colin took a few steps forward, his muscle tension increasing as he looked around the street for the terrified woman. She was nowhere to be seen.

  Everyone at the café tables was still chatting, giggling and arguing. But the man was no longer sitting at his table, pretending to be engrossed in his phone. He was gone too. I returned my attention to Colin. I’d never seen him this troubled about meeting someone from his past.

  He turned to me, regret, sadness and a deep concern etched on his face. “This cannot be good.”

  Chapter TWO

  Colin inhaled for the fourth time and I wondered if once again he was going to lose his courage to tell the others about Olivia. After a long conversation last night, I had convinced him that the man sitting at the café and Olivia’s nonverbal cues of fear warranted disclosure.

  “But seriously, dude.” Vinnie took another freshly baked croissant, put it on his plate and then took another one. After the first breakfast in Émile’s villa, the chef had had to double the number of croissants he baked. His chest had puffed when Vinnie had threatened him with physical harm if there were not enough of these pastries. I’d not been surprised that he hadn’t been intimidated by Vinnie. The nine bodyguards who were on the premises were of the same size as, if not bigger than, my friend. He bit into the croissant and closed his eyes for a second. Then he glared at Colin. “Last night was going to be our big win. We were going to get to the last level of the game and you completely flaked out.”

  “Yeah, it wasn’t pretty.” Francine lifted her porcelain coffee cup and raised one eyebrow. “You’re the one who got us to the door of the last level before. What happened last night? Everything okay?”

  Colin looked at Manny. “No.”

  “Oh, bloody hell.” Manny threw the starched linen napkin on the table. “What have you gotten yourself into this time, Frey? We’re supposed to take a break from all that rubbish.”

  “I wasn’t looking for it, Millard.” Colin took a calming breath, held it and exhaled slowly. “I never expected to see Olivia again. And don’t interrupt me with questions. If Jenny hadn’t convinced me to tell you, I wouldn’t. It’s not something I’m proud of.”

  Manny leaned back in his chair. “I’m listening.”

  Everyone was listening. Vinnie had even put down the croissant he’d covered in cherry confiture.

  Manny, Francine, Vinnie, Roxy, Colin and I were currently sitting outside on the large veranda around a beautifully set breakfast table. Émile was busy with an early-morning conference call and hadn’t joined us for breakfast. Nikki was packing the last of her and Eric’s things and was late joining us at the table.

  The air was fresh, but the sun was already warming up the day. It was going to be another beautiful early autumn day in Hungary. The weather pleased me. The days were still warm enough to wear summer clothes, the early mornings and evenings only requiring a light sweater or jacket.

  From the forest at the end of the vast lawn, birds were greeting the day and two deer were nibbling at the fresh leaves of Émile’s flowering peonies. No one was paying attention to this. Everyone’s eyes were on Colin.

  He pushed his hands through his hair. “Nineteen years ago, I was attending classes at Columbia University. I wasn’t registered at the university and I wasn’t working towards a degree, but I was interested in growing my knowledge base.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “That’s not important. After the first lecture, I met Olivia. Olivia Webster. She was the quintessential American girl next door. Blonde, blue eyes, great sense of humour, pretty, smart, an incredible love for life and genuine. Very genuine.”

  Six months after Colin and I’d become romantically involved, he’d told me about Olivia. By then he’d known that I found it extremely difficult to conceal the truth. I’d told him that it would be most stressful to lie if someone were ever to ask me about this. He’d laughed and said no one ever would and had proceeded to tell me everything. The same regret I’d seen then was on his face now.

  “I was young and far too cocky. I’d known that no one ever succeeded in my line of work—”

  “You mean stealing art?” Manny asked.

  “—when they became emotionally involved with anyone, yet I didn’t walk away.” Colin turned away from Manny and faced the others. “Liv and I started talking after class and soon we were meeting for coffee. A year later, we were engaged.”

  “What the fuck, dude!” Vinnie got up and pointed at Colin. “We’ve been friends for seventeen years and you never told me.”

  “Or me.” Francine’s quiet voice emphasised the hurt visible on her face.

  “Well, I for one think that you don’t have to tell everyone everything.” Roxy grabbed Vinnie’s hand and pulled him back into his chair. “What’s in the past is in the past.”

  “Except when you meet your past in Szentendre.” Colin didn’t continue.

  “Okay, so you saw her here.” Roxy lifted one shoulder. “What’s the big deal?”

  “No, no, no.” Francine leaned forward and glared at Colin. “You’ll answer my question before you answer the questions of someone who’s wearing canvas shoes with designer pants.” She lifted her hand and held her palm almost in Roxy’s face when the latter inhaled to say something. Still glaring at Colin, she lowered her brow. “What happened to the engagement?”

  “I broke it off three days before the wedding.”

  “Dude!”

  “Holy hell.”

  “Shit, Colin.” Francine’s eyes were wide with shock. “You left her at the altar?”

  “He didn’t.” I took Colin’s hand and squeezed it the way he did for me when I needed support. “He ended the relationship three days before.”

  Francine leaned back in her chair. “That’s as good as leaving someone at the altar, girlfriend.” She looked at Colin. “Why?”

  “I loved her.” His soft laugh held no humour. “And I didn’t want to hurt her. She knew me as Jackson Roanne, a young art dealer who travelled the world and had no permanent office or residence. Ten days before the wedding, someone I highly respected and who had taught me quite a few tricks of the trade died. In the six years I’d known him, I’d never known he had a family. His wife and three teenaged children found out after the funeral that everything they’d thought they’d known about my associate had been a lie.

  “They discovered that the FBI had been investigating him and everything they’d owned was bought with ill-gotten gains. And that he’d had another w
ife. The second wife in turn also didn’t know anything about this wife and three children. Long story short, I took a good, hard look at my life and realised that I never wanted to be the cause of such devastating betrayal. Not for Liv.”

  “Did you disappear or did you do this face to face?” Roxy sat unmoving. She was the newest member of this inner circle. Her openness and lack of judgement had helped her settle in and become well-respected within a very short time.

  “This is the most difficult part.” Colin dropped his head back and closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he faced the group again, shame was now woven together with the regret on his face. “This is one of those actions in my life that I truly wish I could do over. I don’t know how I would handle something like that now, but definitely not the way I did. I left her a note.”

  “Oh, God, Colin.” Francine put her hand over her mouth. Her eyes filled with tears. “That poor woman.”

  Colin pressed his lips tightly together and nodded his head. I hated seeing him this distraught.

  “You kept an eye on her, didn’t you?” Manny took Francine’s hand and interlaced their fingers.

  “I did.” Colin swallowed once, pulled his shoulders back and looked at Manny. “I needed to make sure she was okay. And she was. Well, after about two months. The first weeks were terrible. She was devastated. The few times I saw her were from a distance, but it was easy to see that she’d lost weight, wasn’t sleeping well and generally just looked awful. I hated myself for being the cause of that.”

  I knew why Colin despised causing someone else’s pain, but it wasn’t my story to tell either. I was just once again intrigued at how our life experiences influenced every part of our future. This event in his life was one of the reasons Colin had insisted on there being no secrets between us. It had also made him overly cautious about never being the cause of my distress.

  Colin laughed softly. “Then she got angry. I remember one day watching her shout at a taxi driver who’d nearly knocked her over. She ranted for almost ten minutes. That was when I knew she’d be okay.”