The Good Thief's Guide to Berlin by Chris Ewan

Author:Chris Ewan [Ewan, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781250002976
Google: Yx32LKQOsOUC
Amazon: 1250002974
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 2013-08-06T07:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FIVE

I didn’t sit down. I was too wired. But I did step away from the door and cross back to the window. The wind and the drizzle hadn’t let up at all. It didn’t look as if they were going to anytime soon.

Freddy lowered his arms and fussed with his shirtsleeves. He wiped his forehead with the palm of his hand. I’ve seen people with severe allergic reactions look more relaxed.

“There’s something else,” he said. “Something I haven’t told you just yet.”

Oh, joy. Words I really didn’t need to hear.

“It’s about Jane Parker. You remember her?”

“I tend to recall most people whose underwear I’ve riffled through.”

“Well,” he said, “she’s disappeared.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Completely vanished, I mean. She never turned up at the embassy function on the night you broke into her hotel room. The ambassador received the mayor of Berlin at nine o’clock, but there was no sign of Jane. She hasn’t shown up for work. She’s not answering her phone.”

I frowned. It wasn’t something I’d expected to hear. But it wasn’t altogether surprising, either.

“It’s no big deal,” I said. “She had a top secret file stolen from her. She probably thinks she’s in trouble.”

“But she doesn’t know it was stolen.”

“Of course she does. As soon as she got back to her hotel room she’d have discovered that the file had been swiped. She probably panicked and went on the run.”

“You’re not listening to me. She never returned to the hotel. We checked. I had men positioned there as soon as I received the text Victoria sent me. Their job was to detain her. They didn’t know why. They were working for me on a strict need-to-know basis. But she never showed. And we interviewed the hotel staff. Nobody saw her anywhere close. Not in the lobby, or the bar, or the restaurant.”

Freddy rested his hands on the edge of his desk, elbows locked, as if he was bracing for an impact.

“Listen,” he said, “when you first got in touch to say you’d found the stolen item among her things, it seemed to fit with her no-show at the function. But now we know you hadn’t really found what we were looking for, her disappearance makes no sense at all.”

I hummed. I hawed. I even plucked at my lower lip.

“Sounds fishy,” I said.

Freddy threw up his hands.

“But I wouldn’t put too much faith in what the hotel staff tell you. They’re not the most observant group of people. Have you asked to review the footage from their security cameras?”

“We can’t.”

“Why ever not?”

“Because the CCTV might show you breaking into her room. And that’s the last thing I need.”

“Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Well, I have. I’ve barely stopped thinking about it. It’s not going to look very good if the police become involved.”

More words I didn’t like the sound of. Freddy was becoming a regular scaremonger. “The police? Why would they care?”

“Because the hotel management are aware that she’s missing now. I gave our men permission to speak to them and request access to her room.

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