Authors: Michael Genelin
T
hey met at their usual spot, the Gremium Café in Bratislava. This time it was not hard to get Sofia to show up. Jana had simply told her that if she didn’t, her next stop would be jail. They converged on the café from Vienna: Jana traveled by train, and Sofia was driven by a reasonably priced limousine service. Jana toyed with the idea of accompanying Sofia, but decided that she didn’t want to spend that much time alone with her in the back seat of a car.
Jana arrived first and nodded to the manager of the Gremium. He looked worried when he saw her. Jana got a wave and a big smile from Karina, who bustled over, quickly cleaning the table and bringing Jana an espresso on the house. Her voice dropped to a whisper as she leaned over with the coffee. “The girls are still worried about Guzak. When are you going to catch him?”
Jana shrugged. “They’re scrubbing all the corners, hoping the cockroach will crawl out. So, soon, I would think. It would help matters if you would get word out on the street that I would like to talk to him.”
“Guzak?”
“Guzak,” Jana confirmed. “I will help him if he helps me. I have a task for him.”
Karina was lost. “He doesn’t like to work, except as a ‘you know what.’”
“Just get the word out.”
“Okay.”
The manager scowled his disapproval at Karina, then dropped his gaze, turning away, when he saw Jana watching him. Police officers are never loved, Jana reminded herself, except by the very young and the innocent. Minutes later, Sofia arrived.
“Nervous” was the word to describe Sofia. She moved constantly, licking her lips, smoothing imaginary wisps of vagrant hair, her words coming out in short, faltering bursts. She knew that Jana had discovered something, and the discovery did not bode well for her.
“Let’s get on with it!” Sofia demanded, glancing around the restaurant in an effort not to meet Jana’s eyes. “As you know, I have to get back to my work.”
“Sofia, I talked to Ivan Boryda’s wife.”
Sofia was jolted.
“And how is the bitch?” she finally got out.
“She sends back her hate.”
“Let her rot in hell.” She finally looked at Jana. “Okay, you saw her. She hates me; I’m going to get her man. What else did she have to say?”
“That you’re going to go to prison for corrupt practices and taking graft. She seemed particularly happy about how you are going to lose your seat in parliament and be drummed out of the party. Or even happier, as you’ve already lost Ivan Boryda because you never really had him. I ended the meeting having learned that you have been set up by a very manipulative lady.”
“Ivan hates her. He’s told me that over and over again.”
“Some successful marriages are made in hell.”
“You said I’ve been set up. How could that be?”
“The diamond.”
Sofia had not expected that.
Jana went on. She had to air it all out. “
She
sent you the diamond, Sofia, not Ivan. She wanted you to wear it at the party for all the world to see. She wanted Ivan to see it. She wanted the other guests to notice. Accordingly, when the rumors of your being corrupt came out, and she made sure they did, everyone would point to the diamond as proof.
Voila,
Sofia is no longer a rival for her husband. Poor Sofia is in jail.”
Sofia visibly wilted.
“If you had told me about the diamond when we met at this café earlier, we might have arrived at this point sooner.” Jana drank her coffee, signaling Karina to bring her another one. “When Ivan saw the diamond, he knew. He wouldn’t talk to you at the party, isn’t that right? And after that, but
before
the scandal of the love affair between the two of you was all over the media, he’d broken off your liaison, telling you not to call. Correct?”
A very weak “yes” fluttered across the table.
“Wearing the diamond frightened him,” Jana mused aloud, not really sure if Sofia could answer. “Why would he respond so immediately, and so forcefully?”
“I don’t know,” Sofia painfully admitted. She had an unexpected thought. “Maybe the diamond belonged to his wife?” Her eyes pleaded with Jana to say she was wrong.
Jana concluded, “No, not her diamond. But not his either. Otherwise he wouldn’t have responded as he did. Something else forced him to distance himself from you after he saw you wearing it.”
“Why? I would never have harmed him.”
“I don’t know the ‘why’ yet.” Jana looked intently at Sofia. “I need you to be truthful, Sofia. Did you tell Ivan that you had turned the diamond over to me? Did you tell him that you did it so your good friend Jana Matinova would find out where it came from?”
There was no more avoidance and denial from Sofia. Her emotions were chaotic, showing on her face. She tried desperately not to cry.
“I . . . thought he . . . should know.”
Jana waited a moment, before continuing, to allow Sofia to control herself.
“When you told him, he got frightened, and he told his wife, as he always does when he’s worried. After that, the anti-corruption group in our office began to investigate me for corruption. The captain in charge said a reliable informant had told him that I was involved in criminal activities. They searched my house; they searched me.
“I believe they were looking for the diamond. I suspect that this ‘reliable’ informant was Klaudia Boryda. There’s no better way to shift blame than by pointing the finger at someone else.”
Jana decided to give Sofia a bit of comfort. “You tell Boryda everything. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. All women tell their lovers things.” Jana paused, gauging Sofia. “Did you also tell him about the conversation we had the other day, when I informed you that we had evidence implicating him in a smuggling ring and several murders?”
Sofia folded her hands on her lap, as if waiting for her teacher to tell her what to do.
“I don’t know why I did, Jana. We . . . were working . . . and he asked me what was bothering me. He knew I was upset. And I . . .” She hesitated as if trying to decide what had motivated her. “I . . . just . . . it just came out.”
“Things often just
come out,
Sofia.”
“The diamond. Everything began to go wrong when I got the diamond.”
“Even without the diamond, these things fall apart sooner than later.”
Sofia sat, looking within herself, making an effort to control her emotions. “I don’t know where to turn, Jana. Maybe you should give the diamond back to me. I can flush it down a drain. Get rid of it.”
“Sofia, we have two days. Then I have to turn the diamond over to my supervisors. By doing this, we’ll show that we haven’t tried to hide anything. Both of us will have that going for us.”
“The newspapers . . . the TV. . . .” Sofia’s voice trailed off.
“Yes.” Jana nodded at the rest of the unvoiced thought. “They’ll come after you, and me. More pain. Sofia, I have to find out how the diamond originally got into Klaudia’s hands.”
“I don’t know!” Sofia’s voice was strong again. “I swear, Jana, I don’t know.”
“I have one more question, which you have to answer and answer truthfully. Otherwise, you lose me as a friend, and both of us may lose this battle. You understand?”
The little-girl quality had left Sofia; her posture was erect again. Her voice, when she spoke, was direct, her eyes focused.
“Ask me what you have to.”
“Good. Why did you see Kamin?”
Sofia closed her eyes and sat unmoving.
“Sofia, you have to tell me why you and Kamin met in your office. Was it because of Boryda?”
Sofia’s eyes opened again. “The Party needed money. We couldn’t win without it. We couldn’t keep the coalition together. Kamin had money. I met him at a party. He came over to me. He knew me, Jana. He remembered me, somehow. He apologized and said he had been drinking when the assault happened. He offered to make amends.
“I was shocked that he recognized me, shocked that he had remembered. We talked. He said he had heard of the Party’s need. He wanted to donate money, through me.” She looked at Jana, beseeching her friend to understand. “The Party, the people, we could accomplish so much more with the money. I accepted his offer.”
Jana tried to understand her friend. It was not up to Jana to judge her. She was the one who had been injured, and she was the only one who could decide whether to have dealings with Kamin. Sofia had made her decision. It was not the one Jana would have made, but it was Sofia’s choice.
He had known what to say. The physical force he had used on Sofia so many years ago had transmuted into another type of force, manipulation. How had he known what avenue to take to persuade Sofia? Where had Kamin found the words to compel Sofia to do what he wanted?
“Was Boryda at the party where Kamin approached you, Sofia?”
Sofia nodded.
“Had you told Boryda what Kamin had done to you when you were a child?”
Sofia rocked forward, then back, before she could force her words out.
“I told him.”
“I thought you might have.” Jana considered the new information. It led to another conclusion.
“That means that Klaudia Boryda knew as well.”
Sofia’s hands went to her face, then covered her ears. She couldn’t stand to hear any more.
Jana got up. It was best to leave Sofia alone for a while to absorb the appalling information she had just been given.
“The coffees are paid for. Leave a tip for the waitress. She’s a friend of mine.”
Jana left, glad for once to be walking into the cold air.
T
he small Petržalka substation was a place to keep drunks and petty criminals until they could be moved to the main jail, across the Danube in the central city. Most of the time, the transfers took place within hours. The substation was a cold, unfeeling place with exposed plumbing, dirty walls, and a toilet that didn’t flush properly and ran all the time.
Jana hadn’t visited it in years. When she walked in, she made a mental note to scream at the budget people either to close the place or totally rebuild it. It was not fit for human habitation.
Sabina sat inside one of the cells, wrapped in a blanket. She did not acknowledge Jana’s presence.
Jana, who had not yet had time to go home, was still lugging her Vienna overnight bag. She put it down on the least dirty part of the floor, then walked over to Sabina’s cell, signaling one of the guards to let her in. Sabina continued to ignore her.
“Sabina, we are not friends. However, we both have duties as police officers, and I’ve been designated to talk to you before the department takes action to terminate you. Let me warn you, as the regulations require, that you are subject to disciplinary action as well as criminal prosecution. Do you understand?”
There was no acknowledgement from Sabina.
“I must also tell you that if you refuse to speak to the officer delegated to question you—in this case, me—about an official investigation, the department has the right to dismiss you immediately, with loss of all salary and benefits. You would still be subject to prosecution by the attorney general for your criminal acts.”
Sabina began to pay attention.
“On the other hand, if you talk to me, the department will wait until the end of the prosecution, if there is a prosecution, and will take no action until then. In other words, if there is no prosecution, then you will not be fired. Understood?”
Sabina glanced at her.
Jana continued as if Sabina had replied in the affirmative, pulling out her small notebook, referring to her notes.
“Last night you went into my office and searched my files. They caught you on camera; did you know that?”
There was a blink of interest, accompanied by a shrug. Sabina let her blanket slip off her shoulders.
“You might have convinced the world that you were there for another reason if not for the film. I understand you made notes on the Guzak case, notes on the trip I took to Ukraine, and particularly careful notes with respect to the smugglers I’ve been investigating.” Jana checked to make sure Sabina was listening. “We have the notes you took. They were in your apartment. Of course they’re in your handwriting, so they’re very incriminating.”
Jana closed her notebook. “I’m sorry your career has to end this way.”
Sabina remained silent.
“I am not going to ask you how or why you got into this, nor how much money you were paid, or why you betrayed your comrade Ludovit so he was killed.”
Ludovit’s name produced an immediate response. Sabina reacted as if she had herself been assaulted. She physically attacked Jana. There was a brief struggle. The guards entered the cell and pulled Sabina away from Jana, knocking her to the ground. Sabina continued to struggle until she realized it was hopeless.
Jana waited a few moments to make sure Sabina was going to remain composed, then told the guards to put her back on her bunk. The guards hauled her up; one of them sat next to her and the other remained by the door. Jana sat next to her on her other side.
“Sabina, let’s be frank with each other.”
The woman snickered.
“You and I both know that anything you say, I’ll report, just as you would. However, I’ll give you a guarantee. If you answer one question, just one, I’ll report that you were completely cooperative, and that the department should wait until the attorney general has taken action before they take any further action against you.”
Jana waited while Sabina digested the offer.
She finally looked at Jana. “I did not have any part in killing Ludovit. He was my partner. I didn’t know he would be shot. I thought
you
had set him up to be killed.”
“Why would I kill him?”
“I don’t know. All I knew was that there were shots, and you were there. I figured you had to be responsible one way or the other.”
Jana opened her notebook to make another short entry. Sabina had not seen the shooter.
“Under the circumstances, not a sound conclusion.”
“You felt nothing over Ludovit’s death,” Sabina accused.
“I keep my feelings to myself during an investigation.”
“I don’t like you, Matinova, not even a little bit. I never have.”
“You’ve made that absolutely clear.”
“You have a question for me? Just one question, and one answer, and the department will take no action until after the attorney general decides what to do. I keep my salary; I keep my benefits? Is all that correct?”
“Pending the action of the procurator’s office.”
Sabina mulled the answer over. “Okay, what’s your question?”
“Who told you to search my office last night, and what to search for?”
“That’s two questions.”
“There may be two questions but there’s only one answer to them.”
“The agreement will be honored?”
“I’ve already said it would.”
“Klaudia Boryda.”
Jana was shocked.
Sabina saw her response. “Surprised, aren’t we?” Sabina gloated.
Jana could see that Sabina was telling the truth.
“Did you tell her that I was going to Switzerland before I left?”
“That’s another question. Our agreement means I don’t have to answer it. So, piss on you.”
Jana agreed. She had contracted for only one question. “I might be able to get you more from the department if you continue to answer my questions.”
“It’s over. Get away from me.”
The set of Sabina’s face told Jana that she was finished cooperating.
Jana put her notebook away, thinking of Klaudia Boryda. Despite what Jana knew about her, she’d had no idea she was involved this deeply. This meant that Klaudia was involved in the Guzak killings, the smuggling ring, and Guzak’s escape. It also had to mean that both the deputy minister and Kamin were involved.
There was one consolation.
It probably ruled out Sofia.
Jana left the cell, picking up her suitcase. The two officers locked the cell behind her. Sabina came to the bars.
“They know about you.”
“Who?”
“Important people.”
“I expect so.”
“It’s larger than you think.”
“That may be.”
“They’re going to kill you.”
“I hope not.”
“Right this minute, they’re coming for you. Be sure you glance around when you step outside.” There was pleasure in Sabina’s voice. “Be afraid.”
Jana walked out.
The jail looked even worse on the outside: cracked masonry, peeling paint, rusty metal. If jails were places that should advertise “Stay out of here if you know what’s good for you,” it communicated that warning very well.
But it was not alone in its ugliness.
Jana was on the outskirts of the old, neglected, and decrepit housing development called Petržalka. The high-rise buildings were an enclave of low-income families, a jungle of structures that trapped every one of the households that lived inside it.
Jana began walking toward the Carrefour supermarket area, where the taxis stopped. She had not gone twenty feet before she realized she was being stalked. The absence of noise made it clear. Like the creatures in the African jungle, the resident animals living in this jungle knew when the predators were on the hunt, and went silent.
Jana set her suitcase down, opened it, and rummaged through her clothes, pulling out her gun, making sure that whoever was watching her knew she was armed. They would hesitate, perhaps think twice about coming after her. Jana checked the gun, made sure a shell was in its chamber, and slipped it back inside its holster in the small of her back. She began walking again, setting a steady pace, staying away from the buildings, then taking to the streets, using the parked cars as partial cover.
Jana was nearly at the market when she saw the woman. She stood at the other side of the huge market’s entrance, out of the way of the large crowds of people coming in and out. The woman casually read her paper, a cart full of groceries in front of her so that she blended in with the other shoppers. If Jana had not recognized her, she would have passed close enough for the woman to have shot her at point blank. She was the woman Jana had seen in Vienna, in the café with Kamin. Jana had watched them brutally kill a man on the street. She was part of a team of human hunters. That meant her partner was nearby, perhaps behind Jana, ready to attack if the woman distracted Jana enough so that he could succeed. Jana hazarded a quick glance to her rear as she snapped the safety of her gun off. She estimated the time it would take her to get to the entrance of the market, assuming that before she could go inside, the woman’s partner would appear. The man must be in the lot, among the cars, and he would fall in behind Jana at the last minute. There was no doubt in Jana’s mind that they would use the same method that she had witnessed in Vienna.
Jana had to surprise the two killers before they could act. She took a few more steps; then, when she saw the woman put her paper down and begin walking toward her, Jana dropped her overnight bag to the ground and broke into a run, heading for the market’s massive entrance. To her left, Jana saw rapid movement in the parking lot. She had to deal with the woman first. Jana paused, took quick aim, then snapped off a shot at the woman, who stopped and crouched behind a line of shopping carts. Jana had gained a few seconds. Her partner would be unable to catch up with Jana before she got into the market. She took off at a dead run again.
Carrefour was a massive complex of goods. The French company that owned the mega-market undertook to supply all of life’s material comforts except cars—which they stocked parts for—and funerals. Televisions, clothing, groceries, building supplies, the store was chock-full of goods, a one-stop-shopping experience. It was a cavernous structure. And it was filled to overflowing with people.
As soon as Jana entered, she realized she had a problem. She could not shoot in a crowded area like this, but those chasing her would. The shot that Jana had already fired was having its effect. People were milling about like a herd of cattle frightened by lightning and thunder. When they saw Jana with a gun in her hand, they began to flee in all directions.
Jana ran down the center aisle. People paid less attention to her as she moved deeper into the store. They were too intent on filling up bags, baskets, and shopping carts. A child stared at Jana as she went past, noticed the automatic in her hand, and tried to call it to the attention of his otherwise preoccupied mother, who was more interested in the variety of hair rinses on the shelves.
Jana reached the back of the market and went through a door to the storage area. Goods were piled on shelves all the way to the ceiling, busy employees running around, forklifts cruising, everyone hustling.
There had to be a loading platform in back, where trucks pulled up and workers offloaded merchandise. She saw natural light at the back of the storage area, an opening to the outside world, and ran for it.
As soon as she emerged, the first shot was fired at her. Her life was saved by the unexpected intervention of a large forklift. The bullet ricocheted off its metal sides. Jana spun and darted down the delivery dock. She had underestimated the gunmen. The two in front were the stalkers; the hunters in the rear were there to shoot her.
Jana dodged in and around the litter of crates. Workers scattered or simply stared at her open-mouthed. She was weaving around a particularly cluttered area when she ran into one of the people stalking her.
He had climbed onto the platform to try to locate her. He was as startled as Jana when they suddenly confronted each other. The man snapped a shot at her at the same time that she fired. His shot went wide. Jana thought she had hit him, but didn’t wait to see. The others behind her were gaining ground. Their aim would be better.
Jana took the only way out. A large open-backed truck was moving away from the platform, its merchandise offloaded. Jana leaped the gap between the dock and the truck and dived behind the few boxes that remained on the truck floor.
Prone, Jana looked around the edge of a box and saw one of the gunmen frantically searching the platform, joined quickly by the two who had followed her from the front of the store. Relief flooded her. They had not realized that she was in the truck.
Jana stayed behind the cartons until the truck rolled across the Nový Most bridge, over the Danube and into town. She jumped off the back of the truck when it stopped for a light in the area near the Carlton in the southern part of the Old Town.
Sabina was right. They were coming after her.
Thirty minutes later, as Jana was walking into police headquarters, she remembered her overnight bag, abandoned in front of the mega-market. She called the Carrefour’s manager on her cell phone. He was courteous, but sorry to report that no one had turned in the bag. There had been a problem at the market, so things were a bit disorganized. A terrible shooting had occurred, and the police were looking for witnesses. If onlookers had information, the manager told her, the police were asking for them to call. He proceeded to give her the number for the police that he had been given. It was Trokan’s cell number.
She called it. Trokan was still at the scene. Yes, he told her, he had her bag. It had been picked up in front of the Carrefour. It seemed there had been a shooting in back of the market. Could Jana, by any chance, have shot anyone today?
She told him she had.
It might have saved him some time and trouble, he suggested, if she’d telephoned him about it earlier. He was angry. To prove how angry he was, he hung up on her. Jana called him back. This time he listened very politely, then told her to wait at the station for him.
Before Trokan returned, Jana wrote up her reports on the Carrefour event, as well as on what she had learned from her Vienna trip and her conversation with Postova.