The Amber Knight (25 page)

‘You’re probably right.’ She glanced at her watch.

‘You’re exhausted. Why don’t you go to bed?’

‘Because I know I won’t be able to sleep. We’re so close, and yet…’

‘Sleep on it,’ he said. ‘If the Amber Knight’s anywhere for the finding, I promise I’ll do my damnedest to locate it.’

‘Adam, about earlier –’ the intensity of her look was more than he could bear.

‘Sleep on it,’ he reiterated dully.

‘I’m a senior police officer. You are obstructing my investigation.’ Josef eyed the raw recruit from the toes of his polished boots to the shorn hair beneath his brushed cap. ‘Do you know what that means, son?’ he confided in a conspiratorial whisper. ‘It means I can have your arse kicked from here to Warsaw. You’ll be lucky to get traffic duty outside a badger’s set after this.’

‘Very sorry, sir. Just following orders, sir.’

‘It’s not “sir”, it’s Captain Dalecka of the Gdansk squad. I suggest you make a note of the name. You’re going to be hearing it a lot.’

‘It wouldn’t make any difference if you were the President, sir,’ the absurdly young man replied in a faltering voice. ‘I’ve had orders to keep everyone out of this area.’

‘But we’re here for the autopsy. Surely someone told you that an autopsy is scheduled to be carried out here this morning.’

‘The only timetabled autopsy has been postponed, sir.’

‘I demand to see your senior officer…’

‘I’ve never seen Josef like this before.’ Magdalena edged closer to Adam as the captain’s face darkened in rage.

‘Looks like he’s been taking tips from Mariana.’ Adam stepped aside to make way for a man wearing more brass on his uniform than an English shire-horse rigged for a county fair.

‘Josef,’ the officer interrupted. ‘I thought I heard your croaking.’

‘Bronski, old friend.’ Josef clamped his hand on the officer’s shoulder. ‘Will you tell this young idiot I’m here for the autopsy?’

‘Come into my office.’

‘I don’t want to go into your office. I want to attend the autopsy and we’re already late.’

‘The body never reached here.’

‘You idiots lost it…’

‘Change of plans.’ Bronski walked down the corridor and opened a door. ‘Coffee for four,’ he shouted back to the rookie. ‘Please, come in, sit down. The lady should have the most comfortable chair,’ he suggested, as Josef was lowering his bulk into it.

‘Magdalena Janca and Adam Salen of the Salen Institute, this is Stephan Bronski, the most inept recruit the Polish Police force has ever had to cope with.’

Unabashed by Josef’s introduction, Stephan flashed a smile at Magdalena and took his seat behind his desk. ‘You been transferred to the stolen antiquities squad, Josef?’

‘Homicide, same as always.’ Josef sat on a hard chair.

‘If the autopsy on Krefta isn’t being held here, where is it being held?’ Adam asked.

‘The area institute for contagious diseases. We’re not certain yet, but it’s possible your Mr Krefta died of plague.’

‘Plague, as in foot and mouth?’ Adam looked inquiringly at Josef.

‘How do you know about the outbreak of foot and mouth?’ Stephan asked sharply.

‘This is the idiot who drove straight into it,’ Josef divulged.

‘Across country?’ Stephan looked at Adam with renewed interest.

‘You have heard of him?’ Josef asked.

‘Of his exploits, yes, but all I can tell you about Krefta is what the institute told me this morning. The forester who found Krefta’s body is in isolation, as are the police who handled it and the staff of the mortuary they stored the corpse in overnight.’

‘Come on, this is me you’re talking to.’ Josef left his chair to answer a timid tapping on the door. ‘Coffee? Good.’ He took the tray and shut the door in the rookie’s face.

‘Official…’

‘Official quack,’ Josef interrupted. ‘I know you, Stephan. Tell us more?’

‘You didn’t hear this from me, but rumour has it the corpse bears all the hallmarks of plague. Black malignant pustules, swellings in the groin and armpit, darkening of the skin…’

‘We get the picture.’ Josef dumped the tray on top of the files that littered the desk. ‘I don’t suppose you know if he was carrying anything interesting on him, like documents, or maps?’

Stephan pulled a fax from his in-tray. ‘They sent us a list of items found on the body. There’s nothing unusual. The passport and identity card are top of the list, which is why I contacted you. Unlike some people I could mention, I read the reports that land on my desk. You wanted to question him in connection with an art fraud?’

‘So you’ve proved you’ve got a good memory. Can I see?’

‘Be my guest.’ Stephan handed him the list.

‘ID card – passport – name – address – occupation, amber-smith – brown trousers, green jacket, grey pullover, shirt, socks –’ Josef ran his finger down the list until he came to the end of the clothes. ‘One key, no ring, that’s it. You can’t give us more?’

‘They said on the telephone this morning it looked as though he’d died where he was found. There were brambles and dirt in his shoes and grass wound around his fingers as though he’d been trying to claw his way to the road. It could be connected to the other cases.’ Stephan handed round the coffee cups.

‘What cases?’ Josef asked.

‘The foot and mouth you talked about earlier.’

‘The animal bodies? Were they deer or cattle?’

‘Animals, so that’s what they told you.’ Stephan shook his head. ‘They were human. Found in a wooden hut. The remains bore the same marks, black malignant pustules. That’s why the area was cordoned off. The Institute of Contagious Diseases said it was plague.’

‘And was it?’ Josef pressed.

‘You know the authorities, particularly in a tourist area. As far as I know they’re still doing tests.’

‘You misled us,’ Adam reproached Josef.

‘I only repeated what I was told. How many were found in that hut?’ Josef asked Stephan.

‘Two, both men. There were no ID cards, and we found nothing to indicate who they were, or why they were in the hut. But we have descriptions.’ He rummaged through the papers in his tray. ‘Here we are, both heavy build, middle-aged, brown haired and eyed. Fingerprints are being checked, but as there was no indication of foul play we saw no reason to mount a full scale investigation. The contagious diseases boys took over. Cordoned off the area…’

‘And kept it quiet,’ Adam murmured.

‘At the beginning of the tourist season, you bet your sausage we kept it quiet. There was no risk to anyone outside the area, and everyone inside the area was quarantined.’

‘We have first hand experience of that.’ Adam looked at Magdalena.

‘How can you say there was no risk when you could be talking about plague?’ Josef demanded.

‘If it is plague, the contagious diseases boys have it under control. What I’ve just told you is supposition, and confidential. Sorry, Josef, can’t do more, you know how it is.’

‘I need to speak to the people in the isolation unit,’ Magdalena insisted.

‘They don’t talk to anyone,’ Stephan protested. ‘Besides, what would you tell them? The rumours I told you? All you’d succeed in doing is making trouble for yourself and, incidentally, me, for telling you as much as I have.’

‘We know Krefta identified the Amber Knight. We have photographs of him with the coffin,’ Magdalena reminded him.

‘I’ve seen the photographs,’ Josef agreed.

‘And the legend says that everyone who looked on the corpse of Helmut von Mau was struck dead. Don’t you see?’ Magdalena looked at the police officers. ‘Supposing he died of…’

‘Plague!’ Adam exclaimed.

‘No one’s going to buy medieval fairy stories,’ Josef snapped. ‘And even if they did, I’ve never heard of a plague that can survive seven and half centuries.’

‘Some medieval scholars believe that at least one of the plague outbreaks that swept across Europe in the thirteenth century wasn’t plague at all, but anthrax.’

‘And anthrax spores can survive for centuries.’ Adam followed Magdalena’s train of thought. ‘There’s an island off the coast of Britain that was used as a testing ground for World War II experiments in biological warfare. It’s still sealed off, contaminated by anthrax spores, and likely to remain so for centuries.’ He pulled the photographs of the knight from his briefcase. ‘Feliks said something about fissures in the surface of the amber. He thought they might have been caused by frost or damage when they moved the knight out of the castle because amber can become brittle once it’s been polished and exposed to the air for any length of time.’

‘If those fissures run as deep as the body it’s feasible that spores could have risen to the surface,’ Magdalena said authoritatively.

‘Anthrax is airborne?’ Josef ran a finger round the inside of his collar.

‘At least one type is airborne,’ Magdalena confirmed. ‘That’s why some medievalists believe in the anthrax over plague theory. Bubonic plague is passed on by rats and physical contact between victims. Even rats didn’t travel far in those days. Give them an environment with enough food and they stay put.’

‘Like the surfeit of corpses you get in a plague outbreak,’ Josef observed gloomily.

‘Quite.’

‘And few people travelled further than a day’s journey from their village…’

‘Apart from soldiers like Helmut von Mau,’ Adam broke in.

‘The anthrax theory makes sense, doesn’t it?’ Magdalena looked to the men for confirmation.

Stephan sat back in his chair for a moment, then picked up the telephone.

Time crawled at a Trans-Siberian train’s pace while Stephan’s calls were shunted from one extension of the Institute of Contagious Diseases to another. All Josef, Magdalena and Adam could do was fidget, listen, and stare out of the window at the uninspiring view of the car park. After twenty frustrating minutes, during which Bronski got precisely nowhere, Josef pulled out his cigarettes and Adam his cigars.

‘No smoking in this building and especially my office,’ Stephan warned.

‘Then we’ll go outside.’ Josef moved to the door. ‘Call us if anything happens?’

‘Don’t hold your breath.’ Stephan settled back in his chair as Adam and Magdalena followed Josef out of the room. The rookie, who’d been joined by Magdalena’s police escort, was still standing guard over the empty corridor, but the foyer was crowded with people reporting petty crimes and property thefts.

‘Democratic Poland,’ Josef observed, as he fought his way past the queue into the comparative peace of the car park.

‘You wanted to join the EEC.’ Adam leaned next to Josef against a low wall that marked the boundary between the station and a small, unkempt park.

‘I can’t understand why it’s taking your friend so long to get through to whoever’s in charge,’ Magdalena complained, standing next to Josef rather than Adam. ‘If I’m right and Krefta and the other two victims did die of anthrax, then anyone who goes near the Amber Knight is in danger of catching and spreading the disease. The sooner the whole area where Krefta and those other bodies were found is quarantined, the sooner that risk can be contained.’

‘Seems to me they’re doing a pretty good job of containing it already.’ Josef lit a fresh cigarette on the stub of his old one. ‘They looked after you, Elizbieta and Adam all right, didn’t they?’

‘I suppose so,’ she allowed grudgingly.

‘Just out of interest, how are they going to get those anthrax spores out of the amber if the knight is contaminated?’ Josef asked.

‘I don’t know much about anthrax but I’d say it would be madness to even try.’ Adam looked to Magdalena for confirmation.

‘If the spores have been released because the amber is decaying, Adam’s right. The knight will have to be destroyed.’

‘You couldn’t skim the top with amber to reseal it?’ Josef asked.

‘You’d have to check that out with Feliks but I doubt it will be tried, because no museum would be prepared to take the risk of causing an outbreak of anthrax. And there’d be no point in skimming it if the knight will never be put on public display.’ Magdalena paced restlessly alongside the wall. Two of their police escort, who’d remained in the second car while they’d been in Stephan Bronski’s office, opened the car windows and scanned the surrounding area.

‘So all those telephone calls I made…’

‘Who made?’ Adam interrupted.

‘The department made,’ Josef amended irritably. ‘Not to mention all the man hours your escort spent chasing around the Wolfschanze yesterday, could all be for nothing?’

‘Could be,’ Adam agreed.

‘If Magda is right, this is it. The end of the road. Even if the Amber Knight was wheeled in here right now on a cart pulled by two gift horses, you wouldn’t be able to exhibit it?’

‘Not if it’s contaminated,’ Magdalena agreed tersely.

‘The exercise hasn’t been entirely wasted,’ Adam commented. ‘As a serving police officer you have to do something to earn your pay.’

‘I like tidy jobs with no loose ends. And there’s been nothing but frayed edges for the last week. Rat’s murder, the three unidentified men who were shot on the boat when the amber shipment and Mafia money was hijacked, two officers killed outside Magda’s apartment, and now you tell me that even if by some miracle we should find the Amber Knight, it’s likely to be worthless.’

‘You could always donate a corpse so Feliks could make a copy.’

‘You wouldn’t be a party to fraud?’ Magdalena reproached him.

‘Why not, if it will pull the crowds into the museum?’ Adam teased. ‘I doubt that one in a thousand would be able to tell the difference between a copy and the real thing.’

‘I’d know,’ she said seriously.

‘You’re a purist.’

‘Josef?’ Stephan called from his office window. ‘Gdansk on the telephone. The Historical Museum for a Ms Janca.’

‘I told them I’d be here.’ Magdalena set off across the car park. One of their police escort left the car and followed her.

‘Wait!’ Adam cupped his half-smoked cigar in his hand.

‘For God’s sake,’ she snapped. ‘No one’s going to try anything in the car park of a police station.’

‘You thought the same about a crowded apartment block, remember,’ Adam called back.