The Amber Knight (17 page)

Adam and Magdalena ate with Josef, but not in the Milan. Adam insisted on driving out to the suburbs as far from the tourist track, and his wife and sister’s likely orbits, as he could get. As always, when he shared a meal with Josef he found himself stuck with the bill, and also that of the guards, who had eaten at a separate table.

‘You’ll send a car first thing in the morning?’ Adam reminded Josef as the waiter poured out three complimentary coffees in appreciation of the tip he’d been given.

‘Six early enough?’

‘Make it half past.’

‘You’d better warn the driver to be prepared for an overnight stay,’ Magdalena cautioned. ‘Unless we’re lucky it will take us two or three days to check out the Wolf’s Lair; that’s time you haven’t got, Adam, if you’re going to put in a bid for the knight.’

‘My grandfather threatened to bring in someone else to run the Institute if I don’t secure the knight for Poland. Which reminds me, I’ll be out on my ear if I don’t make the call I promised him I would, right now.’ Adam checked his watch. He knew his grandfather had been serious about firing him if he didn’t contact Switzerland. And, with everything else that had been going on, he had forgotten. Hoping that his grandfather had given him a couple of hours’ grace, he went to a booth and dialled the bank.

Josef was peeling paper from sugar cubes and dropping them into his coffee when Adam returned to the table. ‘You have a hotel in mind for the overnight?’

‘There are plenty of hotels around the Masurian lakes,’ Magdalena answered carelessly.

‘German hotels?’

‘Why are you asking?’ Adam enquired suspiciously.

‘I like German hotels. The beds are clean and comfortable, they’re run like clockwork, and the food’s always good.’

‘I take it that means you’re thinking of coming with us?’ Adam stirred his coffee.

‘Mariana and I could do with a break.’

‘You two are talking?’

‘Only just. The problem is we never see one another long enough to do otherwise. I hardly ever have any free time, and when I do the children and Marta are always around.’

‘You won’t be able to guard Magdalena and romance Mariana at the same time.’

‘Magdalena has a guard, on a trip like this I’ll double the detail, but they’ll still need back-up.’ He glanced across at the officer who was sitting alert and poised next to the door. ‘He can drive you. I’ll follow in a second car in case yours breaks down.’

‘Mariana won’t be thrilled at the thought of an expedition to the Wolfschanze.’ Magdalena had been in school with Josef’s wife. Shopping trips excepted, Mariana had never walked a willing step in her life.

‘Oh, we won’t be going to the Wolf’s Lair with you. The guards will do that.’

‘While you…’

‘Check out the security of the hotel,’ Josef interrupted Adam.

‘Especially the bedrooms.’ Adam lifted his eyebrows.

‘Trust me. I’ll find us a good hotel. You know my car, Magda. I’ll be outside our block at six thirty. We’ll pick you up on the way, Adam.’

‘I’m staying with Magdalena.’

‘Really?’ It was Josef’s turn to raise his eyebrows.

‘There’s no “really”,’ Magdalena snapped, irritated by the expression on Josef’s face.

‘I saw the men in the black Mercedes, you didn’t,’ Adam reminded Josef, ‘and I’m not leaving Magdalena alone until you’ve resolved this case.’

‘Find me Brunon, and I’ll soon settle the case, and in the meantime Magda has police protection.’

‘So did Brunon when you had him locked in the cells in Piwna Street.’

‘There’s no room for either you or a guard in my apartment,’ Magdalena protested, angry at being discussed as though she wasn’t in the same room, let alone at the same table as them.

‘Don’t worry about the guard, we’ll give him a chair in the corridor,’ Josef asserted dismissively.

‘All I’ll need is a few inches of floor space in the boys’ room,’ Adam countered.

‘I have no bedding.’

‘We have some you can borrow.’ Josef earned himself a frown from Magdalena.

‘I can take care of myself,’ she insisted.

‘I’ve no doubt you can, but just this once, humour me.’ Adam left the table and Josef followed him into the men’s room.

‘That sighting of Edmund’s didn’t check out,’ Josef informed him.

‘You got blind policemen on street duty?’ Adam asked.

‘You know how crowded the main town gets. Dunst could have seen someone who looks like Brunon.’

‘If this guy resembled Brunon enough to fool Edmund, who knows him, why wasn’t he picked up and questioned by your people?’

‘Because it wasn’t him,’ Josef suggested caustically.

‘My money’s on Edmund.’

‘I hate to agree with a woman,’ Josef retorted, smarting at Adam’s criticism, ‘but what would you do if someone did break into Magdalena’s apartment and tried to grab her?’

‘You’d be amazed.’

‘I don’t doubt it, but I’ll double the night guard outside the block just in case.’

Two armed policemen, one of them Josef’s lieutenant, Pajewski, were sitting in the corridor outside Magdalena’s apartment when Adam escorted her home. They assured Magdalena that her brothers were safe and confirmed that Josef had assigned a double guard to watch over them during the night. As Magdalena inserted her key into the door, Pajewski winked slyly at Adam, a gesture Adam only just managed to ignore.

Adam followed Magdalena into a room that served as both sitting room and kitchen. It was furnished in a style that hadn’t been seen in the States since the middle of the last century. A shiny, teak-veneered Formica worktop stretched along one wall, topping two white painted cupboards and a refrigerator. A grey and white gas cooker stood next to a sink, a gas water heater screwed to the wall above it. Despite the open window there was a strong smell of tripe and onions.

An old woman was slumped on a bed, one of two ineffectively disguised as sofas. Wiktor and Jan, Magdalena’s half-brothers, were sitting at a Formica table surrounded by piles of books.

‘This is our neighbour, Mrs Dynski, who looks after Wiktor and Jan when Maria and I aren’t here. Mrs Dynski, this is Mr Salen, the Director of the Salen Institute.’

‘Please, call me Adam.’ Adam shook the old woman’s hand and smiled at the boys to let them know that applied to them as well.

‘So you’re the American who pays Magdalena her wages?’ Mrs Dynski’s face had more cracks and crevasses than the Arizona desert, but her eyes sparkled like glass beads caught in candle-light.

‘Guilty.’

‘I can’t imagine what she does that’s worth so much.’

‘You already know my brothers,’ Magdalena interrupted.

‘Pleased to meet you again, sir.’ Both boys rose politely from their seats.

‘I’m glad to see you doing your homework.’ Magdalena looked over Wiktor’s shoulder at their books.

‘What’s Brunon done this time, Magda?’ Jan demanded. ‘We’ve had police officers following us everywhere, and they won’t tell us a thing.’

‘If they won’t tell you, what makes you think they’ll tell me?’

‘You have police officers following you too, one of them told us that much.’

‘I also have Mr Salen and that’s even worse. Jan, your writing gets more like a spider’s crawl every time I look at it. I can barely understand this essay.’

‘Most of the other boys print their work out on computers now,’ Wiktor said archly. ‘The school is selling off three of the old ones. Professor Jablonowski says they’re going very cheap. Brunon promised to buy us one when they came up.’

‘We’ll talk about it some other time,’ Magdalena said sternly.

‘They’ll be gone by the end of the week. Everyone is after them.’

‘I said some other time.’

‘When, Magda? You’re never here…’

‘I said some other time,’ she reiterated. ‘And it won’t be tomorrow. I have to go away again on business.’

‘You don’t want to go spending your money on a second-hand computer, especially if it’s been used as heavily as school ones are,’ Adam warned.

‘Jan and I have been saving for a new one, but at the rate we’re going it’ll take us twenty years, and by then they’ll be twice the price they are now.’

‘If you’re interested in computers, there’s one in my office you can use,’ Adam said. ‘I’m never there after three in the afternoon. Why don’t you call in after school, the Archaeological, not the Historical, Museum? The curator, Edmund Dunst, will show you where it is.’

‘You mean it?’ Wiktor asked excitedly.

‘I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t.’

‘That would be great,’ Wiktor enthused.

‘You have a printer as well?’ Jan, the practical one, asked.

‘A laser. In fact, come to think of it, there may be a computer coming up that you can have in a couple of weeks.’

‘If there is, it will be going for more than we can afford,’ Magdalena broke in sharply.

‘Edmund is upgrading,’ Adam protested. ‘He was going to throw it out. I’ll talk to him about it when we get back.’

‘We couldn’t possibly accept it.’

‘Trash from a skip?’ he questioned.

‘Are all the computers in the museum connected to the internet like Magda’s?’ Jan asked.

‘Whether they are or not, is no concern of yours,’ Magdalena lectured. ‘The museum computers are not there for you to play with. Now take your homework into your bedroom and finish it there.’

‘But Adam’s only just got here.’

‘It’s Mr Salen,’ she corrected, ‘and he’s staying the night.’

Wiktor opened the door that led into the second room. Three single beds, placed a foot apart were lined up in a row. Two wicker baskets at their feet left barely enough space to walk between them.

‘Wiktor, take the mattress from Brunon’s bed out on to the balcony. Jan, get the spare bedding…’

‘You said you didn’t have any spare bedding,’ Adam reminded her.

‘I lied.’

‘Either way, I don’t need anything, it’s warm enough,’ Adam asserted, disliking the fuss his arrival had generated.

‘Get the bedding,’ Magdalena repeated, disregarding Adam’s protest.

‘I’ll get the dice out after we’ve finished our homework.’ Wiktor dragged a foam mattress across the living room floor. ‘Brunon taught us this terrific game. We’ll show you how to play it, Magda.’

‘You’ve school tomorrow, Wiktor,’ Magdalena reminded him.

‘Magda, we’re out of toothpaste,’ Jan called from the bathroom.

‘And soap,’ Wiktor chimed in.

‘Here.’ Adam unzipped his case and threw his toilet bag at Jan. ‘There’s soap and toothpaste in there.’

‘Maria’s always complaining that you never remember to buy the essentials, Magda,’ Mrs Dynski grumbled. ‘And you know soap and toothpaste are cheaper in the bigger stores in Gdansk.’

‘It’s my fault she hasn’t had a chance to do any shopping,’ Adam apologised. ‘I dragged her off to Kaliningrad.’

‘And had an accident or so young Josef Dalecka said. The boys were worried out of their minds.’ Mrs Dynski glowered at Magdalena as though she didn’t believe a word of Josef’s story.

‘The car broke down,’ Magdalena said, not entirely untruthfully.

‘I suppose you’re hungry,’ Mrs Dynski muttered.

‘We’ve just come from a restaurant.’

‘Where you’ve eaten fancy food that has no nourishment at a price that would feed a family of four for a week. The sooner the Communists come back into power, the better. They’ll put the rents down to what they should be, and get everyone back to work. Proper work, not this tourist rubbish where people are expected to work for tips, not wages. Then there’ll be no more street gangs hanging around corners with nothing to do all day except plague old ladies, steal things that don’t belong to them and make mischief.’ She wagged her finger at Adam. ‘You and your American ways! Lot of nonsense. Shops crammed to the ceiling with useless kitsch people can’t afford and don’t need, but are persuaded to buy by stupid advertisements on the television. And what happens when the penniless idiots see the goods in the shops? They become discontented with what they have. Democracy, Bah!’ She stared at him, daring him to contradict her.

‘We’re very tired, and we have to be up early tomorrow. I’m afraid I have to go away again for a couple of days, Mrs Dynski,’ Magdalena apologised. ‘Will you and the boys be able to manage until Maria gets back?’

‘And if we can’t?’ Mrs Dynski challenged.

‘I’ll get someone in to help. Mrs Milosz…’

‘…is a lazy slut. I’m not in my coffin yet. You do what you have to, I’ll see to everything here.’

‘We can look after ourselves tonight if you’d like to sleep in your own apartment,’ Magdalena suggested pointedly.

‘Maria would never forgive me if I left you alone with a strange man.’

Adam pretended he hadn’t heard the old woman.

‘He’s not strange, he’s my employer, and we’d hardly be alone with the boys in the next room.’

‘It wouldn’t be proper. That you, a married woman, should even suggest such an idea.’ She eyed Adam as though he was livestock on offer. ‘What you do when you go off on these little “trips” of yours…’

‘We work, Mrs Dynski,’ Magdalena said firmly.

‘I’m sure,’ Mrs Dynski pronounced sceptically. ‘But now the boys are in their room I’d appreciate peace and quiet so I can watch television. Nothing but noise around here, morning, noon and night. Noise, noise, noise!’ She leaned forward and switched on an LCD television that was worth more than the rest of the contents of the apartment put together. After what Magdalena had told him about her husband, Adam assumed it was one of Brunon’s acquisitions.

Magdalena pushed aside a thin white curtain that looked as though it had been made from a bed sheet. She opened a glass door, and beckoned Adam on to a concrete platform three feet wide, and seven feet long, its wrought ironwork sides covered and roofed in by sheets of corrugated plastic.

‘Interesting effect,’ he commented. ‘Bit like a cloudy fish tank.’

‘The cloudy is for the benefit of Maria. She doesn’t like living on the twentieth floor.’

Adam pulled his bag after him and laid it on top of the sheets and quilt Jan had spread on the mattress. ‘High enough to avoid the pollution.’

‘But not private. When the living room light is on, anyone looking up from below can see your shadow.’