A Long Day's Journey Into Death (DI Buchan Book 4) by Douglas Lindsay

Author:Douglas Lindsay [Lindsay, Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Douglas Lindsay
Published: 2023-07-26T16:00:00+00:00

37

‘Boss,’ said Kane, on the phone again as Buchan sat in the VW on the way to see Harriet Blake.

‘How’s it looking?’

‘Been speaking to Eddie in finance. You know, DC Bar –’

‘What’s he got?’

‘Poznań Secure get murkier by the minute. They are one hundred per cent balancing on the edge of the law. Huge business, never pay tax. Profits safely secured all over the place. They have connections everywhere. They do government work, they do private business, they have some very unsavoury acquaintances. They whore themselves out to anyone and everyone, often enough to competing interests. And those government connections are enough to make sure that when they trip over onto the wrong side of the law, there’s someone there to make sure nothing gets done about it.’

‘There isn’t a situation on earth that the involvement of politicians can’t make a hundred times worse,’ muttered Buchan.

‘And our friend Maplethorpe was at Davos this year...’

‘Terrific. On holiday, or attending the World Economic Forum?’ asked Buchan glibly, and Kane laughed.

‘You guessed it. This man is a player. The serious kind, the most dangerous kind. No one knows who he is, there’s nothing about him on the Internet, he exists in the margins. But he has money and he has contacts, and with those...’

‘Come power,’ said Buchan. ‘And power without visibility means absolutely zero responsibility.’

‘Yep.’

‘Dammit,’ muttered Buchan. ‘Anything else going on? Any more detail on this lost Chopin manuscript Avercamp thought everyone was looking for? Savage thought she was wrong, by the way.’

‘Oh, nope, nothing. But... it’s just weird. These people are passing up a lot of stuff. Maybe there was nothing hugely valuable in any of the shops they raided today, but if they’d taken the time to sweep books into bags, across all nine shops, that’s hundreds of thousands of pounds worth. Probably millions. And they pass it all up for a Chopin?’

‘You’re projecting,’ said Buchan. ‘You don’t care about Chopin, doesn’t mean they don’t.’

He liked the idea of the Chopin, the objections of others making him like the sound of it even more.

‘I don’t think the argument’s about the Chopin or not, though. It’s about them passing up money. Crime syndicates are no different from any other business. They’re interested in money, that’s it. So this seems kind of weird. And if this Baltazar lot are as omnipotent in pan-European crime as they appear to be, you’d think they’d be able to fence some stolen books.’

‘Yep, I get that.’

He thought of adding something about not having enough information yet to make an accurate judgement, and typically decided not to bother.

‘Any luck finding any of the Bancroft bunch?’ he asked instead.

‘Nothing,’ said Kane. A pause, then she added, ‘Getting a strong, uneasy feeling about that, I have to say.’

‘Aye,’ said Buchan. Then, ‘Nearly at Blake’s house. I’ll call later.’

They hung up. Buchan changed down the gears. Usually when he drove a car other than the Facel he missed it, but not today.

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