The Secret Crown (2010) (33 page)

‘If the evidence supports it, I’ll gladly—’

‘You’re not hearing me, Nick. There is no evidence. This shooting went down in the middle of the woods. Sure, you might find some shell casings and some bodies, but there’s no way in hell you’re going to figure anything out without my testimony - especially after the fire.’

Dial groaned. ‘What fire?’

Payne fibbed. ‘Those bastards torched the site.’

‘They,
what
? Why did they do that?’

‘I have no idea. Maybe you should ask them.’

‘I would if they were still alive.’

Payne smiled. It was why he had been willing to stretch the truth. ‘So, what do you think? Our testimony for their names? Personally, I think it’s a pretty sweet deal.’

‘For you.’

‘For everyone. Without my testimony, you won’t have jack.’

‘Yeah, well, that remains to be seen.’

‘I’m telling you, Nick. My friend is innocent in today’s events. He was hit early, and he’s been unconscious ever since. Plus, you’ll
love
the name of his rival. He’s a serious player in Germany. I’m sure his name will cause some boners in Berlin.’

Dial mulled over his options. If Payne was painting an accurate picture of the crime scene, the name of a suspect would jumpstart the local investigation and would do wonders with the German authorities. Any time multiple people were killed in a tourist town, there was more to worry about than the loss of life. The local economy was also at stake - especially with ski season around the corner.

‘Fine! Give me their names. But if I find out your friend started this bullshit, I’m coming after him. Then I’m coming after you.’

‘Damn, Nick, I just got chills.’

‘I’m serious, Jon.’

‘I’m serious, too. You’re a scary man!’

Dial couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Give me their names before I change my mind.’

‘You got it. The man you’re looking for is Hans Mueller. Have you heard of him?’

Dial nodded. ‘Of course, I’ve heard of him. He’s a major player in the world of smuggling. From what I’ve heard, he’s one sick bastard. If you cross him, you’re pretty much fucked.’

‘Which explains today’s ambush. Like I said, he considers my friend his number-one rival. Apparently, he’s been trying to take him out for a while.’

Dial gave it some thought. ‘Which means your friend is Kaiser.’

Payne grew silent. ‘Damn.’

‘What can I say? I’m good at my job.’

‘Honestly, I’m glad you guessed it. Now I can tell him I didn’t mention his name.’

‘Speaking of names, you promised me the names and addresses of Mueller’s men. Do you have those with you?’

Payne shook his head. ‘
DJ
has them. I’ll have him snap pictures of their
ID
s and send them to your office e-mail.’

‘That’s fine, but make it quick. The sooner I have them, the better.’

‘No problem.’

‘Is there anything else? Or can I get the ball rolling?’

‘Actually, there is one more thing. Probably the most important thing of all.’

‘Good Lord, what now?’

Payne laughed. ‘I wanted you to know we’re still planning to go to Oktoberfest. If you can sneak away for a day, we’d love to get together. Believe it or not,
DJ
said he’s buying.’

Dial smiled at the thought. ‘
DJ
‘s buying? In that case, I’ll see what I can do.’

Payne hung up as he strolled across the warehouse floor. Ulster and Heidi were nowhere to be seen, but Jones greeted him in the middle of the facility.

‘How’d the call go?’ Jones asked.

‘Not bad at all.’

‘Is it my imagination, or did I hear “Little Bunny Foo Foo”?’

Payne snapped at him. ‘Screw you.’

‘Screw
me
? What did I do?’

‘What do you think you did? Quit messing with my phone.’

Jones was surprised by the accusation. ‘Your phone? When could I have messed with your phone? Would that have been while I was driving the
ATV
from the ambush, or when I was hauling Kaiser down the mountain? Oh, I know! It was when I was flying the chopper here. Yeah, that’s when I had time to mess with your phone.’

Payne stared at him. It was obvious Jones was telling the truth. ‘Sorry, man, my bad. You’re always messing with my stuff. I just assumed it was you.’

‘Well, it wasn’t me.’

‘In that case, I feel bad about my revenge.’

‘Your revenge? What did you do?’

Payne smiled. ‘I invited Nick to Oktoberfest and told him you were buying.’

Jones shrugged. ‘As far as revenge goes, that was pretty weak - especially since Kaiser’s paying for our trip anyway.’

Payne glanced around the warehouse. ‘Speaking of Kaiser, I think we should clear out of this place as soon as possible. There’s no telling what he’s storing here.’

‘I couldn’t agree more. We’ve already loaded the crates into Petr’s chopper.’

‘All of them?’

Jones nodded. ‘Nothing against Richter and Huber, but I think the gold will be a lot safer at the Archives than it would be here. Besides, I think Petr wants to examine it more closely. He’s hoping it will provide some insight into Ludwig’s treasure.’

‘And Heidi?’

‘I don’t know about Petr, but I’d love to examine her closely.’

Payne rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. You think she’s attractive. How long are you going to keep this up?’

‘With her, I’ll keep it up all night!’

Payne started to walk away. ‘Let me know when you grow up.’

‘Says the man with “Little Bunny Foo Foo” as his ringtone.’

Payne flipped him off and kept walking towards a small office in the back of the facility. He heard voices coming from the room. He assumed they belonged to Heidi and Ulster. The door was partially closed, so Payne knocked on it before he entered.

‘Come in,’ Ulster said.

Heidi was sitting next to him on an upholstered couch that reeked of cigarettes. She had a bottle of water in one hand and a tissue in the other. From her bloodshot eyes and damp cheeks, it was obvious she had been crying, although she tried to cover it up. As soon as she saw Payne, she tucked the tissue into her pocket and wiped her cheeks with her sleeve.

‘Are you all right?’ Payne asked.

‘I will be once I get something off my chest.’

He folded his arms in front of him. ‘Go on.’

‘Sit down, if you’d like.’

‘That’s okay. I’m fine right here.’

She nodded in understanding. If she had been in his position, she probably would have acted in the same way. ‘This is hard for me, Jon. I mean, if you knew anything about me, you would know how tough this is for me to do. I don’t like to admit it, but I come from a long line of ill-tempered, stubborn people. My parents were that way, and so were my grandparents - on both sides of my family. You should hear us during the holidays. Either we’re sulking in silence, or we’re at each other’s throats. There’s no middle ground with my family.’ She glanced at him, but he said nothing. ‘Anyway, as hard as this is for me to say, I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry.’

‘For what?’ he asked.

‘For the way I acted on the chopper. For even being on the chopper. Everything you said was one hundred per cent correct. I can understand why you got so mad.’

He pointed at Ulster. ‘What about Petr?’

‘What about him?’

‘Did you apologize to Petr?’

She nodded. ‘I did. I told him I was sorry for tricking him into bringing me.’

Ulster confirmed it. ‘Her apology was quite eloquent. It moved me to tears.’

‘Me, too,’ she admitted.

Payne pointed at them. ‘You’re back on good terms?’

They looked at each other and nodded.

‘Then I’m good, too.’ Payne turned to leave the office. ‘Chopper’s leaving in five.’

‘Excuse me?’ she blurted as she sprang off the couch.

He turned back and faced her. ‘What’s wrong now?’

‘What do you mean it’s leaving in five?’

‘Did I stutter? The chopper is leaving in five minutes. Please be on it.’

‘Where’s it going?’ she demanded.

‘Switzerland.’

‘Switzerland? I’m not going to Switzerland.’

Payne laughed. ‘Really?’

She folded her arms in front of her chest. ‘Yes, really.’

‘You’re telling me you’d prefer to stay here? By yourself?’

She took a deep breath. ‘Yes.’

Payne laughed louder. ‘You’re such a hypocrite.’

‘A hypocrite? Why am I a hypocrite?’

‘Unless I’m mistaken, didn’t you just apologize for your temper and your stubbornness? Thirty seconds later, you’re back to the same stubborn behaviour.’

‘I’m not being stubborn. I’m being smart. Like you said, I have no business being on your chopper. I figure the sooner I get away from you, the safer I’ll be.’

‘You still don’t get it, do you?’

‘Get what?’

‘What you’re mixed up in?’

‘Apparently not.’

Payne pointed at the couch. ‘Please, sit down.’

‘Why?’

‘Why? Because I’m sick of arguing with you about every little thing. If this is going to work, all of us need to be on the same page. Personally, I’d rather thrash it out now than fight with you all damn day. I just don’t have the energy.’

Heidi nodded and took a seat next to Ulster. ‘Okay.’

Payne pulled up an office chair. ‘Tell me, do you know where you are?’

She shrugged. ‘Somewhere near Innsbruck.’

He made a buzzer sound. ‘Sorry. Wrong answer.’

‘No, it’s not. I recognized the city when we flew in.’

‘Actually, it’s a wrong answer for a completely different reason. It’s a wrong answer because your response could have gotten you killed.’

‘What? What do you mean?’

‘I mean, the man who owns this warehouse would be furious over your response. If his guards had been smart, they would have blindfolded you so you wouldn’t know the location of this place. But they were dumb, so now you’re a threat to his whole organization.’

‘Whose organization?’

‘A man you don’t want to meet. Which is why I can’t leave you here. For the time being, you’re far safer with us than you would be alone - at least until I have a chance to talk to him.’

Ulster nodded. ‘The Archives are protected by a team of armed guards around the clock. In addition, we recently installed a large panic room with enough food and water to last a month. If anyone comes looking for us, we’ll be perfectly safe until November.’

‘Not that we’re expecting trouble,’ Payne assured her. ‘In fact, I just got off the phone with my contact at Interpol. They’re already hunting the man responsible for today’s skirmish. With any luck, they’ll have him in a day or two. After that, everything will be fine.’

‘Then what?’ she demanded.

Prior to falling asleep on the flight to Austria, Payne had given the topic a lot of thought. If the violence in Bavaria had nothing to do with the contents of the bunker and everything to do with the gang war between Kaiser and Mueller, then the odds were pretty good that they could search for the treasure without any additional bloodshed. He’d still keep his guard up until he was back in America, but he figured as long as they stayed away from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, they didn’t have a lot to worry about.

Payne said, ‘If you’re up to it, I thought we could look for Ludwig’s treasure. It would be a shame to stop our search because of a little ambush.’

Her eyes lit up. ‘You mean it?’

‘I don’t see why not. From what Petr says, you’re one of the leading experts in the field. Of course, you’re the one who told him that, so who knows if it’s true?’

She put her hand over her heart. ‘I swear, it’s true!’

‘We’ll find out soon enough. That is, if you’ll be joining us.’

She nodded enthusiastically. ‘Yes, I’ll be joining you.’

‘In that case, you need to promise us something: no more games.’

‘I promise, Jon. No more games.’

Payne stared at her. She seemed sincere. ‘I’m serious, Heidi. If we catch you in a lie or feel you’re manipulating us in any way, you’ll lose our protection. Do you understand what that means?’

She gulped. ‘Yes, I understand.’

Payne smiled. ‘Good. The chopper leaves in five.’

Kusendorf, Switzerland

(82 miles south-east of Bern)

The Ulster Archives was nestled against a sturdy outcrop of rock that shielded the wooden fortress from the Alpine winds that roared through the region during winter. Nut-brown timber made up the bulk of the chalet’s framework and blended perfectly with the broad gables and deep overhangs of the roof. Square windows were cut into the front facade at regular intervals and were complemented by a triangular pane that had been carved under the structure’s crown. A large picture window ran vertically through the middle of the chalet, giving people on the main staircase a spectacular view of the Lepontine Alps.