Emerald (21 page)

Josef quickly wrote:
OK, if you be all right. If that’s what you want. I’ll meet you in the hotel bar at six for drinks to freedom
. He put his notebook away and turned to walk to his car when suddenly the Asian man who had been watching Tam closely during the auction walked out of the hotel and started toward Tam and pointed at him.

“Hey, I watching you.”

Josef turned back toward the man, walked toward him and gave him a signal to leave with his thumb. Confused the man started toward Josef, looked at his scared face and threatening demeanor, turned and walked on toward the parking area. Josef followed the man and he got into a silver Audi, slammed the door and rolled down the window. Quickly walking up beside the car Josef jabbed his thumb into the crease between Har Yat’s jaw and his ear and held the pressure point. The Asian man’s mouth froze in a silent paralyzing scream, the sensation of the grip akin to having a knife rammed through his brain. The man started to struggle as the blood supply to his brain was cut off. In only a few seconds his eyes closed and his head lolled to one side. Josef checked to see that his pulse was still strong, reached in and turned off the ignition and left.

On the sidewalk outside the hotel, another security man smiled at her and he smiled back. He paused at the corner of the hotel to see which direction the Asian would take, pulling a mirror from his purse, seeming to check his lipstick as he waited. Tam walked straight toward the parking lot across the street, and Hans followed to see which car he got into. A security man speaking on a walkie-talkie outside by the hotel door stopped Tam. Hans kept walking to not bring attention to himself. He heard the policeman ask Tam if he needed an escort back to his hotel. Tam answered that he did not. He would be fine. As Tam entered the parking area and opened the door of a red coupe, Hans rushed to his own car. He proceeded to follow as the man drove from the parking lot. There was too much security around to try anything there.

Miriam whispered again, “What do you think we should do?”

Looking around the still buzzing auction room, David said, “I’m not sure. I think Josef is taking care of Mr. Tam, and I don’t really think he needs our help, but I’m not sure why that other Asian man just left. That worries me.”

“And what about that woman who lost the bidding and just ran out? There’s something not right about her.”

“What do you mean something’s not right about her?”

“I don’t know, but she didn’t move like a woman when she rushed out of here.”

“Well she didn’t look like that photo of the killer we’re looking for. Let’s get “our toys” from Bulldog Metz, just leave and fill Servette in on the auction. I wonder why Hans didn’t show up?”

Standing outside the hotel front door Miriam called Servette and filled him in on what happened at the auction. Hanging up, she reported to David the Inspector suggested they go back to his office, have a cup of coffee and plot what to do next.

“What’s that wonderful coffee smell,” Miriam said as the two of them walked into the Inspector’s office. “Certainly doesn’t smell like police coffee.”

In the corner bending over a small table was Josef who rose up and walked over to the pair, a twisted smile from ear to ear on his scared face, carrying two steaming cups toward them. Max rose from in front of Servette’s desk and gestured toward the table.

“Josef and I are tired of struggling to down his police coffee, as you put it, and we bought him an early birthday present. David lifted the cup to his nose and took a deep sniff.

“Miriam, if I’m not mistaken this smells like the best coffee I’ve smelled since Café Tazza d’oro back in Tel Aviv. Miriam savored a taste of the large cup, “Now if I had one of their Italian granitas with it’s coffee-flavored crushed ice layers of frozen espresso and whipped cream I’d think I was back home.”

Servette laughed. “If it weren’t for Josef’s wonderful cooking I’d probably just stay in the office day and night. I don’t know why the boys went and bought that expensive espresso machine for me, but I suspect it was really for them and not for me. Now come sit down, enjoy your coffee and tell me about the auction.

After listening to what happened at the auction, Servette stood up, looked out of the window for a few minutes and asked, “So now what do we do since Hans didn’t show up? Josef, you said that Tam was just going to drive around for a little while and then go back to his hotel.”

“Yes and when I went to the hotel to meet him I was told he had checked out.”

“That’s strange,” Max interjected.

“Everything’s a little strange about that auction,” Servette said as his phone rang. As he listened his eyes got bigger and bigger and when he put the receiver down he said, “You think the auction was strange. Listed to what I just found out about our Mr. Tam.

T
am turned right, glancing quickly at the briefcase on the seat beside him. He turned right again and headed down the wide thoroughfare he knew went across town away from the hotel where he stayed. He would get another place to stay tonight and seriously think about his next step toward freedom. He knew that he told Josef that he would meet him at “their” bar after he went to his hotel, but somehow he still wasn’t sure about Josef. Had their meeting in that bar just been a happenstance, or something else - - - he wasn’t sure. With the emerald in his possession, he just couldn’t take a chance. Something about Josef bothered him, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

Hans stayed back in traffic and followed the red coupe keeping several cars between them. He was easy to spot in traffic moving along the boulevard. They drove for several miles at regular speed before Tam turned off the highway onto a hilly district of the city. He drove up the curving road, slowed at a fork for a few seconds, deciding which road to take. He turned to the right heading higher along the winding road with large brick and stone homes nestled below and back among tall trees. Hans could wait no longer. The road itself was secluded. He pressed the accelerator and sped up alongside Tam motioning for him to pull over.

Tam glanced at the woman from the auction who pulled alongside him and he wondered why she was motioning him over. This was strange. Could she be another Triad member keeping watch on him? He sped up but the woman stayed right beside him. As they neared some tall cliffs on his left, Tam drove faster and shifted down. The road had gotten steeper; the hilltop loomed into view up ahead. There was no space at the edge of the road for him to pull over, even if he’d wanted to and there wasn’t any barrier between the road and the sharp drop-off. Suddenly, a car came around the curve in front of him. Hans had to pull back and let it pass then he sped up again, but this time she rammed the side of Tam’s car. Tam pressed heavily on the accelerator trying to get away, but Hans stayed alongside and swerved crashing against him. Tam panicked and drove even faster. As he rounded the curve, he expected the road to level out - - - but it didn’t - - - it kept curving into a hairpin. Han’s car slammed against him again and Tam hit the brakes and skidded. The car went out of control, sliding while he kept pressing the brakes.

His car skidded off the edge of the pavement and kept going until the right front wheel was over the embankment. Then it slowly nosed over the cliff turning over as it plunged downward banging into a jutting rock ledge below before it crashed almost into the backdoor of a house far below and came to a stop upside down, the wheels still spinning.

Hans jumped from his car, slipped, loosing a shoe and limped to the road’s edge hiding in bushes by the roadside marker, watching Tam’s car start to smoke. It was too far to climb down and get his emerald and while he watched, two people rushed out of the house to see what just crashed into their back yard. They bent down looking in the car at the passenger. One began pulling the driver out while the other ran back into the house. Hans smiled broadly, smoothed his dress and got back in his car and driving on toward Geneva.

Har Yat walked away from the reservation counter at Hotel du Fontaigne into the lounge area and plopped down heavily in overstuffed chair. He had no luck convincing the clerk behind the counter that he was a cousin of Tam Stratton and wanted to wait for him in his room and surprise him. He said he had just flown into Geneva on his way to Rome on business and his cousin didn’t know he was here. The reservations clerk would not let him into Tam’s room, and told him he would have to wait in the lobby for Tam. Yat had no other option and eventually dozed off.

Startled, he woke, looked at his watch, and couldn’t believe he’d slept for almost an hour. He rising, he walked back to the reservations counter and asked the clerk to ring Tam’s room. When there was no answer, he asked again if he could wait in Tam’s room, but the answer was still no. Har headed toward the hotel coffee shop to get something to eat while he waited. As he passed the newspaper rack by the coffee shop’s door he grabbed a afternoon newspaper, and followed the waitress to a table.

Har, after reading the menu, ordered both, coffee and tea, a croissant and two fried eggs, sunny-side up. Unfolding the paper he began to scan the columns to see what was going on in this country. When his food arrived he mixed the coffee and tea with milk and began to eat. He had just finished his meal and was on the fourth page of local news when he looked up at the TV screen over the counter and saws a car turned upside down resting beside a house. The newscaster said that the accident had just occurred and then the picture image changed to several police standing beside the overturned car talking to an elderly couple. The man pointed up on the side of a hill and said that all he knew was hearing a huge crash outside his back porch and when he went out to see what had happened found this car in his back yard with an Asian man in it unconscious. He was able to pull the man out of the car while his wife called the police. That was all he knew. The newscaster said that the man in the crashed car had not yet been identified and had been rushed to University Hospital. The reporter said there would be more on this story in the five o’clock news. Nothing really of interest to Har, except for the man in the crash being Asian, so he went back to his newspaper and ordered a second coffee and tea.