The Netscher Connection Page 7

  “Olivia is a lawyer who was looking into a last will and testament.” Colin ignored Andor’s resigned sigh. “She wanted to speak to Andor about a man who Andor is convinced died under suspicious circumstances.”

  “Who is this dead person?” Captain Palya looked at Andor.

  “István Koltai.” Andor straightened his shoulders.

  “What the hell!” Captain Palya got up and walked to Andor. “You and that stupid gut. How many more times must I tell you to never keep things from me? I can’t protect you when I don’t know what the fuck you’re up to.”

  “I didn’t want to come to you with just a theory.”

  “We’ve been over this, Garas! When you think you might have a thought, you come to me. Clear?” He waited until Andor nodded. “Now tell me everything.”

  This time Andor told his superior everything he’d shared with us at the villa. I saw no calculation or any indication that he was withholding information. While he was talking, Captain Palya walked back to his chair and sat down. When Andor finished his retelling, the older man didn’t say anything. He pinched his chin between his thumb and index finger, his elbow resting on the table. He was considering everything Andor had said. He sighed heavily. “Is this going to be like your Roma case?”

  Andor blinked a few times and took a step back. “Dear God, I hope not.”

  “What Roma case?” Colin asked.

  Andor swallowed. “In 2008 and 2009, eight people of Roma descent were murdered by a gang of Neo-Nazis. It shocked our nation, but it also led to accusations that the police had failed to protect this historically persecuted minority. I agreed. It was awful that a gang managed to kill eight people and wound many others in carefully planned attacks and were only stopped thirteen months after their first murder. The victims included a four-year-old boy. Four years old.”

  “And this idiot”—Captain Palya shook his index finger at Andor—“was still in the police academy when he started with his stupid gut.”

  I couldn’t abide it anymore. I pointed at Captain Palya’s face. “Your micro-expressions communicate respect, yet your words are outrageously condescending.”

  “Condescending. Hah!” His short laugh was genuine. “Nope, not condescending. Pissed off. After he made the entire police department look really bad, the higher-ups decided to give him to me. The gift that just keeps on giving.”

  I paid careful attention to Andor’s reaction, but observed no anger, resentment or even irritation. He was used to Captain Palya’s verbal abuse and the contradiction in his verbal and nonverbal communication. I was most confused. And intrigued by this dynamic.

  “I noticed a pattern and tried to get someone to pay attention to this,” Andor said. “Cap was the only one willing to listen to me. I was in my second month at the academy. Nobody took me seriously.”

  “Not even your father?” Manny asked.

  “I didn’t go to him.” Andor shrugged. “He wasn’t commissioner then, but he was fast on his way. When I applied to join the police, I knew that my dad’s high position would always count against me. I knew that if I was ever going to gain anyone’s respect, it would have to be because I proved myself to be able to function without the help of my father.”

  “What happened with the case?” Three weeks ago I had read a book about the two hundred thousand Roma people who’d been killed during World War Two. So much of history was focused on the horrifying loss of Jewish lives that the millions of other lives lost were often overlooked. From an article I’d scanned, I recalled that it was estimated that half a million to a million Roma were currently living in Hungary. I needed to know that the murderers of those eight people had been caught and incarcerated.

  “Oh, we caught those sons of bitches.” Captain Palya’s levator labii superioris muscles drew his mouth into a sneer. “But it took Garas’ non-stop nagging and sadly eight victims before anyone would admit terrorists were killing people because of their ethnicity.”

  “Don’t downplay your role, Cap.” Andor raised an eyebrow. “You nagged just as much as I did.”

  “And look where it got me!” He slammed his fist on the table. “Stuck with you. And a case that my gut is telling me is going to give me a bigger stomach ulcer that I got with the Roma case.”

  I decided not to comment yet again on the conflict between Captain Palya’s words and expressions. The short time in this conference room-style office had shown me that there was a deep respect between Andor and his captain. For reasons I could only imagine had to do with the politics within the police hierarchy, neither of the two men showed their true feelings towards each other.

  “So I have your okay?” Andor asked.

  “Like you would’ve stopped investigating if I told you not to pursue this.” Captain Palya touched his moustache. “Yes, you have my okay. But your first priority is to find this woman. If we still want our jobs, you’d better do it quick. And you’re running this case from here. And when I say here”—he pointed at the floor—“I mean from my office. Not from your car or your teensy flat or any of that crap you’ve pulled before. I want you here so I can keep an eye on the investigation.”

  I didn’t like that. I really didn’t. Not only was I in a different country and had agreed to work on a case far outside my comfort zone, I was now going to have to work from an unfamiliar space.

  “Doc?” Manny turned to me. “Is this place good for you?”

  Once I started shaking my head, I couldn’t stop. It took Colin’s strong touch on my forearm, the first four lines of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.1 in B-flat major and numerous deep breaths before I calmed down.

  “What will make it better for you, love?” Colin asked gently.

  “Nothing. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to work here. I don’t want to work with different people.” I raised my hand when all the men inhaled to respond. I took a moment to collect my thoughts and force more calm into my mind. “I know this case is important. I will find a way to work here.”

  “Well, don’t hurt yourself trying.” Captain Palya jerked back when Manny, Colin and Andor turned furious expressions his way.

  “Doctor Lenard’s brain doesn’t work like ours, Cap. She needs an environment where she feels safe to work.”

  The captain slapped the weapon holstered on his hip and looked at me. “You’re safe here.”

  I didn’t answer him. I had no desire to educate someone about autism in all its variations.

  Colin’s hand tightened on my forearm. “You’re sure, love?”

  I looked around the conference room. “It’s empty. There’s no clutter. I can make it work.”

  “Oh, goodie. I’m honoured.” Captain Palya got up. “Now scram. Get out of my face. You’re not going to find Olivia Webster here.”

  “We’ll start at her hotel room.” Andor waved towards the door. “I’ve spoken to the hotel. They’re expecting us.”

  I frowned at Captain Palya, looked at Andor, then back at the captain. I didn’t understand their relationship. It was rife with nuances, sarcasm, misdirection and yet there was a sense of deep friendship between them. I was genuinely interested in the case Andor had presented and I also wanted to help find Olivia. But now I wanted to study the dynamics between Andor and Captain Palya. I needed to understand how such a relationship could work when the friendships I had were simple.

  As I followed the men out of the room, a strange emotion settled in me. It took almost the entire trip to the hotel for me to identify it as anticipation and excitement. How odd.

  Chapter SIX

  Olivia’s five-star hotel room was spacious and elegant. The hotel manager had confirmed that her legal firm had booked and was paying for the room. From what I’d learned so far about her, I wouldn’t be surprised if she could afford this on her own income.

  There was a small coffee table and two reading chairs in front of the window. Against the wall facing the window was a desk that had the usual hotel and tourist reading materials, but also a
novel and folder belonging to Olivia. Housekeeping had been in her room, so if there had been any evidence of a struggle or someone searching through the room, it had been removed. The king-sized bed was neatly made, the minibar fully stocked and the bathroom spotless.

  Andor opened his arms and turned around the room. “We’re not going to find anything here.”

  “Not true.” Colin walked to the wardrobe and opened the door. “If Olivia didn’t change completely, I’m sure we’ll find something here that can help us find her.”

  Manny walked into the room and I flinched. Even though the room was large for a single occupant, I still felt crowded. Not because of Manny or Colin. It was the presence of someone I didn’t know that was threatening to overwhelm my senses. Andor.

  Colin was removing everything from the wardrobe, going to each item individually before placing it on the bed. It turned the immaculate room into a chaotic mess. My mind did not appreciate the disorder. I needed something to occupy my mind so as to not give in to the threatening shutdown.

  I turned to Andor who was sitting at the desk, looking through the folder. One by one he took documents from it—a plane ticket, a printed-out hotel booking confirmation and a few leaflets for sightseeing tours. I studied him, analysing everything he’d revealed about himself, verbally and nonverbally. “You researched Olivia.”

  When he didn’t answer me, Manny walked over to the desk and grabbed the now-empty folder from Andor’s hand. “The good doctor is talking to you.”

  “Huh?” Andor looked at me. “Sorry, I wasn’t listening.”

  I almost rolled my eyes in a manner similar to Nikki and Roxy. “I don’t understand why you are lying.”

  “Bleep it. I keep forgetting you see everything. Fine. I admit that I researched Olivia.”

  “Why lie about it?”

  “Years of conditioning, I suppose.” He shrugged. “In the beginning, I would share my methods, but it freaked everyone out. Either I was working too much, researching too much, reading too much or doing something else too much. I realised that people were more comfortable accepting my method being my gut instinct rather than me spending hours and hours studying a case and making connections.”

  I understood that. My peers at university couldn’t accept that I gained immense pleasure from hours of study. I, too, had stopped talking about the time I spent on work.

  “What did you learn about Olivia?” Colin put a pair of light blue shoes on the bed. I looked away immediately. The sheer number of contaminants on the streets that we carried into our homes that were now on that stark white bedcover sent a shiver down my spine. I turned my full attention back to Andor.

  He bit down on his bottom lip and looked up, recalling a memory. “She’s thirty-eight years old, married and has two children. She travels a lot for work, which makes me think that she’s very committed to her career. Her social media privacy settings are quite high, so I didn’t learn much there. But the photos I saw there were all of her with her kids and husband. Everybody seems quite happy. And before you say anything, I know that those photos could be there to create an image that is not real.”

  I nodded. This was one of the reasons I found social media such a fascinating field of study. Many articles had been written, based on a great deal of research, that had proven again and again that the vast majority of people represented themselves on social media in a light that was not a true reflection of their lives.

  “She’s been working for Freeman, Scott and Associates for the last nine years,” Andor continued. “Before that she worked at a smaller, but also prestigious legal firm. She started there as an intern while she was still studying, then worked her way up the ladder. Freeman, Scott and Associates head-hunted her just before she was made partner in her first company. They offered her an immediate partnership as well as many other lucrative incentives to join them. She’s not disappointed them.”

  “How did you get that information?” Colin didn’t even try to hide the suspicion on his face.

  “Her boss.” Andor shrugged. “Since he phoned my boss’ boss to force our hand in looking for Olivia, I thought I’d phone him to reassure him that she was our top priority.”

  Manny snorted and sat down on one of the chairs in front of the window. “You’re going to catch flak for this.”

  “I don’t think so. He was extremely happy to tell me anything I needed to help us find Olivia.” Andor looked at me. “I’m no expert in body language and such, but his tone and the consistency in his wording and his concern made me think that he cares deeply for her. He’s really worried.”

  “Did he tell you more about this case she was looking into?”

  “No.” He pressed the tips of his fingers hard against his temples and massaged. “I phoned him this morning at five, which was eleven in the evening there. He was at home and didn’t have access to any of her files. He said that he would send it as soon as he gets into his office this morning... well, our afternoon. He only knew that she was looking into a client’s last will and testament and that she’d seen something that had made her question an item that was listed to be inherited.”

  “That’s vague.” Colin put the last of Olivia’s clothes on the bed. She had packed wisely—pants and skirts that would easily match the elegant blouses now losing their immaculate appearance while all thrown onto one heap.

  “Tell me about it.” Andor reached for his temples again, but dropped his hands and sighed. “At least I got some info on her activities while she’s been here.”

  I took a step closer. “Do you know who she met?”

  “Not everyone, no.” He raised his eyebrows and leaned forward as if he was about to share extremely important information. “She arrived in Budapest three days ago after a direct flight from New York. As soon as she landed she booked into this hotel, then had a meeting with someone. Her boss couldn’t tell me who, because that information is also in his office.”

  I stared at his face. “You’re sceptical about something.”

  “Yeah. He said that he couldn’t remember where, or even if, he wrote down all the names she was spouting at him. I don’t know. It just sounded like he so completely trusts Olivia that he wasn’t really paying attention to what she was doing, only to whether she was okay.”

  “Did he give you any names at all?” I was growing impatient.

  “István Koltai.” He nodded when Colin turned from the cupboard to face him. “I asked him twice and both times he was convinced Olivia had spoken to Koltai.”

  “That means she saw him before he died.” I wondered what they’d discussed.

  “Exactly. Man, I really wanted to speak to her yesterday. But now I have so many more questions.” He sighed. “Olivia’s boss couldn’t tell me why she visited István, only that he remembered the name.”

  “We need to find out what she was working on.” Colin was right. It was becoming imperative that we knew why she was here.

  “Did you get any other useful information from Olivia’s boss?” I hoped he could provide more data.

  “Not much more, no. But you can be sure that I’ll be on the phone to Mister George Freeman if I don’t get an email or something by noon New York time.” He leaned back in the chair. “I finished my call to him just after half past five and decided that it was as good a time as any to phone István Koltai’s boss.”

  “And you wonder why people don’t like you.” Manny shook his head.

  “I’m not doing this to win popularity contests.” Andor shrugged in a manner that was becoming familiar. “After the CEO of Július finished complaining about the early hour, he told me that everyone was shocked about Koltai’s death. He said that he’d told Olivia the same when she phoned him the day after Koltai died. Apparently everyone in the office knew about his nut allergies. People were very careful with their lunches and snacks.

  “He said that Koltai was the perfect CFO. He was obsessively careful and always did extensive due diligence before approving funding for any n
ew project. Even though it frustrated a lot of the employees, he was so highly respected and liked that everyone accepted his methods. He was always fair and when he was presented with a well-developed or researched project or financing request, he would very likely approve the application.”

  “You’re not convinced.” It was quite easy to read that on his face.

  “You’re damn right I’m not convinced.” Andor tapped his index finger hard on the desk. “I don’t know. It’s just hard for me to believe that someone is or was that well-loved and respected by everyone all the time. I’m not saying it’s not possible. All I’m saying is that in my experience, the higher trees catch more wind.”

  “What do trees...” I thought about the expression, but didn’t want to presume that I knew the meaning. “Explain.”

  “Seriously?” He blinked a few times. “Okay. People in higher positions or more in the public eye are subjected to higher scrutiny and, more often than not, stronger criticism and even hatred. So, after I finished speaking to István’s boss, I phoned his personal assistant. It didn’t sound like she was lying when she told me that she really liked István and had enjoyed working closely with him for more than eight years.”

  “But?” Colin asked.

  “She said that he never talked about his family and whenever the topic came up, he was almost aggressive in the way he put an end to that discussion.”

  “Here you are!” Francine walked into the room, waving her tablet in the air. “None of you responded to my SMSes, so I had to track your sexy butts here.”

  “What are you doing here?” Manny slumped against the back of the chair. “I thought you didn’t want anything to do with the cops?”

  I took a step back, but bumped into the bedside table. The room felt too small for me. Even though Francine didn’t physically command a lot of space, her flamboyant personality made the room appear much smaller. The mess on the bed didn’t help. I took a deep breath and waited for her answer.

  She raised one shoulder and winked at Andor. “I dug a bit deeper into your life, Detective Garas. All my sources agree that you’re cool. So here I am.”