Allmen and the Dragonflies by Martin Suter

Author:Martin Suter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781939931573
Publisher: New Vessel Press
Published: 2018-04-17T16:00:00+00:00

35

Around midday Allmen pressed his doorbell.

“Hello?” came Carlos’s voice, suspicious.

“Soy yo,” Allmen answered.

“Don John …” he heard Carlos say, then the line was cut and the buzzer sounded. Allmen took the section of the path toward the villa then turned off down the smaller path to the gardener’s cottage.

The door was open, as always, and Carlos was waiting in the vestibule. Allmen could see immediately something was wrong. Without waiting for his greeting, Carlos said, “Don John, le esperan. You have a visitor.”

“Who is it?”

“Un señor.” He gestured toward the living room with his chin.

Before he even saw him, Allmen knew who was waiting for him; he was standing in the half-open door. Now he opened it fully. Without a word he held his open hand out to Allmen. When Allmen failed to react immediately, he waved it up and down, demanding.

Allmen managed to get his coat off, with Carlos’s help, before reaching into his top pocket for his remaining money. He counted out five thousand-franc notes into Dörig’s paw.

Dörig stood still as a pillar of salt and waited for the rest.

Allmen looked through his pockets, found two hundred-franc notes and a fifty and placed them with the larger notes.

Dörig said, “Twelve thousand, four hundred and fifty-five.”

“Do we have any more money in the house, Carlos?” Allmen asked casually.

Carlos went into the kitchen and returned with the two thousand-franc notes Allmen had slipped into his household accounts. Allmen placed them on the immobile, outstretched hand.

Dörig waited.

“The rest will follow in the next few days,” Allmen said firmly.

Dörig turned his hand ninety degrees. The notes fell to the ground. “No one palms off a Dörig,” he said quietly and menacingly. Then he placed his right heel on the arch of Allmen’s foot and shifted his entire weight onto it.

Allmen yelped.

“Friday. Same time. Same place. Or else …”

Dörig went to the door and stood there. Carlos got the message and opened it for him. Dörig handed him a tip of ten centimes. Carlos closed the door behind him, threw the coins in the trash can next to the coat stand and bent down to gather up the notes from the floor.

Allmen was hopping on one foot, rubbing the other.

“No one palms off a Dörig!” he kept muttering in disgust. “A Dörig!”

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