Shopping with the Enemy Page 18

  ‘We will find them,’ Svetlana said, but her voice didn’t have its usual ring of confidence. ‘OK,’ she said, ‘The Hotel Brunswick. We try there first. Keep following signs for town centre and I will try to direct you.’

  At least the roads were quiet, Annie kept telling herself as she navigated the Beast up streets and along avenues, trying to negotiate traffic lights, tramlines and all the other hazards of a foreign city.

  She clipped the high kerb of a roundabout once and dragged the bottom of the car over several vicious speed bumps. These injuries to the Bentley made her cringe because one day, hopefully soon, the car would have to be returned to the Villa Verdina and she did not want to be around when Carlo and the chauffeur took a look at it.

  Thunk.

  As she pulled up for a red traffic light, she clipped the wing mirror against a railing.

  ‘Be careful,’ Svetlana warned.

  ‘I’m trying.’

  ‘This is the opera and the Hotel Brunswick is not far from here.’

  After a missed turning, a slightly heated debate and a U-turn across four lanes, the Bentley rattled to a halt outside exactly the kind of hotel Annie could have guessed Igor would frequent: an ornate, classical building with liveried doormen in top hats and tails.

  ‘I will go in and ask. You wait here,’ Svetlana instructed.

  ‘You’ll go in and ask?’ Annie repeated incredulously. ‘Do you think they’re just going to tell you at reception: yes, no problem, Igor the billionaire and his two kidnapped children are staying here?’

  Svetlana reapplied her lipstick, smoothed down her hair-do, then pushed open the car door and stepped out, clasping her clutch bag firmly.

  ‘I know all of Igor’s aliases and I know how to make hotel staff talk,’ she said firmly.

  Annie felt a wave of relief. Svetlana was back in action. With that kind of attitude and an alligator purse full of huge denomination euro notes, she was very likely to succeed.

  As Svetlana strode towards the hotel lobby, Annie reverse parked gingerly in a space she hoped would be big enough. A nasty scraping sound suggested that hubcap and solid Viennese kerb had suffered another bruising encounter.

  She leaned back in the seat and rested her eyelids briefly. Tired? Tired didn’t even come close, plus her shoulders and arms were locked solid after an entire day and night spent manoeuvring the Beast up and down the mountains.

  A luxury spa break?! Pah! She would need one to recover from this trip.

  When she opened her eyes again, she saw a woman a little way off leaning against a railing and looking at the car. She was in the highest heels, sheerest black 10 deniers and what looked like a very short black fur coat over a very short dress.

  ‘No, I’m not your taxi and I hope it turns up soon,’ Annie said to herself.

  Moments later, Svetlana’s high heels could be heard clacking down the pavement towards her. Annie reached over to open the door and Svetlana flung herself into the seat.

  ‘I have never been so insulted in my life!’ she declared. ‘They think I am some hotel hooker, like this one over here.’

  With that she pointed at the woman in the short fur coat.

  ‘Oh, is that what she’s doing? I thought she was waiting for a taxi.’

  Svetlana snorted.

  ‘I check all his names, they say no to every one of them. Then they look at me and say women like me are not welcome at the Hotel Brunswick. Can you believe this? I mean – I have stayed there! In the presidential suite! I show him my necklace and say what kind of woman do you think I am? Do women like this buy their jewellery in Cartier? He replies: “I believe so, ma’am.” Oh my God, I am so angry I just about kill him.’

  ‘Right. So Igor’s not there. What do we do now?’ Annie asked, trying to get Svetlana to refocus on their mission.

  ‘No. He’s not here. So we have to try the Hotel Mercure Centrum. But I don’t know, Annah, maybe this is too obvious. He have so many friends with homes in Vienna. Why would he not just go to private address?’

  ‘Plus, I was just thinking, there’s no church here,’ Annie added, ‘no square and no Konig-anything nearby. I’ve just checked the map. We have to trust Michael. He sent you those details because he was sure they would help. If they’d been at a hotel, he’d have sent you the name of the hotel, wouldn’t he?’

  ‘You’re right,’ Svetlana said quietly, ‘we must listen to Michael’s advice. Get out the map, we will study all the street names with Konig which coincide with churches and squares.’

  Annie didn’t like to tell her how long that might take. Instead, she brought out the map, turned on the interior light and smoothed the pages out between them.

  Just then Svetlana’s phone began to ring. Immediately, she snatched it up.

  ‘Is it Igor’s number?’ Annie asked.

  ‘No, it’s Elena,’ Svetlana said, sounding severe. To Annie’s knowledge, Svetlana and Elena hadn’t spoken since the boys had gone missing.

  ‘Maybe she has some news,’ Annie suggested. ‘Try and hear her out before you launch in with your tirade.’

  ‘All I want to do is kill her!’ Svetlana said, repeating the threat she’d made many hours ago.

  ‘Please just try and listen to her,’ Annie urged.

  Svetlana put the phone to her ear and barked out: ‘How can you have the nerve to phone me? How can you do this?’

  A little pause followed while Svetlana obviously waited to hear Elena’s response, but the next moment she was shrieking: ‘This is all your fault. Do you think Igor would have those boys if you hadn’t handed them over? And with their passports! I just can’t believe how stupid you have been.’

  A stream of very ugly sounding Ukrainian came next, then Svetlana clicked off the phone, letting out a sigh of fury and exasperation.

  Annie looked across at her friend: ‘So … that went well?’

  ‘I kill her,’ Svetlana repeated, with full melodrama.

  ‘Why was she phoning? To say sorry?’

  ‘She try saying sorry, but I cut her off. I don’t want to hear from her now. Is too soon. Maybe when I have the boys back. Maybe I can face talking to her then. You think Maria would have given anyone the boys’ passports?’

  Annie decided to leave the argument there. She looked back down at her map and said, ‘There’s a square not far from here with a church and a street called Konig Allee leading from it. We could try there first.’

  ‘Yes. Let’s go,’ Svetlana agreed.

  They parked in a side street, then walked into the heart of the pedestrianized square. It was elegant and stately even in the dark, maybe especially in the dark with the grey buildings asleep and the central fountain trickling quietly.

  ‘It’s a lovely city,’ Annie told Svetlana. ‘I wish I was here for a good reason and could enjoy it a little.’

  ‘As beautiful as Paris, but full of Austrians,’ Svetlana replied.

  The buildings on the square were four storeys high, divided up into countless flats. As Annie and Svetlana looked around, they wondered just how on earth they could find two small, sleeping boys here.

  ‘What do we do now?’ Svetlana asked.

  Annie wasn’t sure how to reply. She couldn’t suggest that they just sit on a bench and watch the comings and goings out of the flat entrances. That was too feeble for words.

  Svetlana reached into her clutch bag and brought out her embossed box of Sobranie cigarettes, so now Annie knew just how rattled she was.

  In her long raincoat, with her blonde hair up in a chignon, walking through this timeless Viennese square in the lamplight, smoking a cigarette, Svetlana looked like a heroine from a war movie.

  ‘We could start with the cars,’ she began. ‘We must see if we can find a car that Igor owns. If not, then we try the next square on the list with a church and a Konig-something.’

  ‘Do you know all the cars that Igor owns?’

  Svetlana thought for a moment and sucked on her gold-tipped cigarette. Exhalin
g smoke, she shook her head and admitted: ‘He loves cars. He owns many cars. But they are always the biggest, the most expensive and German. He would never own a French car – or a British car.’

  Annie pointed to the nearest side street and the long row of BMWs, Mercedes and Audis parked bumper to bumper.

  ‘So we’re looking for a top of the range German car … The problem will be working out which one is Igor’s.’

  Svetlana threw her cigarette to the ground and stamped on it, letting out a gasp of pure frustration.

  ‘I thought we would work out what to do. I thought we would get some more news … I thought we would win!’ she exclaimed. ‘Someone must know something. Why is no one telling me?!’

  ‘Maybe we should go back to the car. You could try phoning everyone again: Harry, Igor … Is there anyone else you can think of? Anyone who might have a connection?’

  ‘I think Elena maybe wanted to tell me an idea …’ Svetlana began.

  ‘Elena? What do you mean?’

  ‘Well, she said there was someone she’d spoken to. But I was so angry, I didn’t listen to her. It’s probably nothing. What does she know? She was just saying this to make me feel better.’

  ‘But you cut her off,’ Annie reminded her. ‘Maybe she did have something important. And now she’s so annoyed with you she hasn’t phoned back.’

  ‘Tschaaaa,’ Svetlana said and shrugged her shoulders.

  ‘Look, I know it’s hard to make up with your children when you’ve fallen out with them –’ Annie was speaking the truth here: ‘But sometimes, you just have to swallow your pride and get on with it. We aren’t always right, you know. Elena did not know the tennis coach was part of the kidnap plan, she must feel terrible about what’s happened.’

  Svetlana just shrugged again. But she did look slightly shamefaced now.

  ‘Why don’t you call her?’

  ‘I don’t know. I’m not ready.’

  ‘Right, I’ll phone her,’ Annie said briskly. Really, there wasn’t time for mind games. If Elena had information, then they needed it immediately.

  The phone against Annie’s ear rang with an unmistakable transatlantic tone. She realized that she was feeling well and truly rattled. She wanted to help Svetlana, of course she did. Would she have got behind the wheel of the Bentley and driven all this way if she didn’t want to help Svetlana?

  But sometimes Svetlana was virtually impossible to help. Unless you rolled over and did everything Svetlana’s way, there were times when you couldn’t get anywhere with her at all.

  ‘Hello?’

  She recognized Elena’s voice.

  ‘Hi, it’s Annie, I’m in Vienna with your mother.’

  ‘Hello, Annie.’

  ‘She’s just told me there might have been something you wanted to say. We’re lost, babes. We’re in the centre of Vienna without a clue. I don’t think we’ve got a hope of finding your brothers unless we can get more information. Michael’s managed to send us a couple of emails, but it’s not been enough to go on. So … if you have anything you think might help in any way at all, my love, just never mind the old dragon, cough it out and I might be able to use it. No one wants to see those little boys forced into military academy.’

  Elena’s voice sounded strained as she replied: ‘I never meant anything to happen to them.’

  ‘No, no,’ Annie assured her, ‘of course you didn’t. Everyone knows that.’

  ‘Svetlana does not know.’

  ‘Your mother is very stressed right now. Please don’t take anything she says too seriously because I’m sure she’s going to take it all back later.’

  ‘OK …’ Elena paused, but then came straight out with her information: ‘I know one of Igor’s men and I have an address in Vienna for you to try.’

  Annie almost dropped her phone with surprise.

  ‘You have an address!’ she exclaimed. ‘You know where they’re staying?’

  ‘I have an address in Vienna which Igor uses. I don’t know if that is where he has taken the boys.’

  ‘But it’s got to be. Does this man want something for this information?’

  ‘If Igor finds out and he loses his job … or worse …’ she added ominously, ‘I have promised that Svetlana will help him.’

  ‘That seems reasonable.’

  Annie glanced further along the square to where Svetlana was still striding along fiercely. Where was she heading? What was her plan now? Maybe she was too out of her head with worry to even know.

  ‘Thank you so much,’ Annie told Elena, ‘I’ll let you know if we have any luck. Is this man in London? Could he find out any more for us, if we needed it?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  Annie called out to Svetlana: ‘I need a pen and paper, or for you to type this address into your phone.’

  Svetlana swivelled on her heel.

  ‘Address?’ she repeated.

  ‘Yes, Elena has an address – that’s what she was trying to tell you.’

  ‘Then why did she not tell me?’ Svetlana asked so savagely that Elena must have heard.

  ‘I text it to you, Annie,’ Elena said and hung up.

  ‘You have got to stop!’ Annie shouted, glaring at her friend.

  ‘Stop what?’

  ‘Being at war with her! She made an honest mistake and she’s trying to put things right. You have to stop pushing her away and frightening her off.’

  Annie’s phone buzzed and she quickly looked at the message.

  ‘OK, here we go, look this up,’ she instructed. ‘Hopefully, it won’t be too far away.’

  Svetlana fumbled with her phone keypad, her fingers betraying her nerves. But within moments, she had a map on her screen.

  ‘It doesn’t look far away. We drive the car there and … we should be there very soon … and then …’

  It was far from obvious what they would do when they got there.

  It was close to two o’clock in the morning. Knocking on the door and asking Igor’s men to hand over Michael and Petrov; well, that wasn’t going to work.

  ‘What if they have guns?’ Annie asked, suddenly anxious.

  She was all for doing everything she could to help Svetlana, but she wasn’t prepared to take a bullet for her.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  New York

  The waitress:

  Black short-sleeved mini shift dress (Banana Republic)

  White moccasins (Nine West)

  Dangly brass and semi-precious stone earrings (vintage)

  Total est. cost: $150

  NOW THAT THEY were in a booth in a gaudy Chinese restaurant, eating duck dumplings and drinking little cups of green tea, it seemed totally obvious to Lana that she honestly didn’t like Parker nearly as much as she’d thought she did.

  It had just been part of the whole: ‘Why can’t I be more like Gracie?’ thing.

  The same reason she’d bought a cute little yellow sun-dress, even though it made her look like the living dead. The same reason she now had four swing skirts and looked all wrong in every single one of them. She would give the sundress and the four skirts to Gracie.

  She would also try and give Parker to Gracie too.

  Gracie was Gracie. Inimitable. And if Lana couldn’t be Gracie, she would just have to try and be … much more Lana-like.

  ‘So …’ Parker began, munching his dumpling, ‘why don’t you tell me a bit more about Gracie? I think she’s cool. Do you know her well?’

  The bubble had burst. When she looked at Parker now, he looked like a friend, like a real person – even just a little bit like her brother, Owen. The whole gorgeous, dreamy, romantic hero bubble had absolutely popped. Whatever magical chemistry was required to make someone amazing to you, it was missing between her and Parker.

  ‘Gracie is a fantastic person,’ Lana gushed: ‘she’s my New York best friend because she’s just so fascinating. She’s like a fashion and design geek, she knows everything. I bet she could have named the Vronsky cube and t
old you all sorts of things about it that you didn’t even know. She’s cool.’

  ‘You’re really interesting too,’ Parker told her, dipping his next chopsticked morsel into soy sauce. ‘Well, OK, maybe I was a little dazzled by the whole “from-London” thing … I am obsessed with London. I already love everything about London and I haven’t even been there, so when you said you were from London, well, like I say, I guess I was dazzled.’

  ‘I was a little dazzled myself,’ Lana admitted with a shy smile.

  Parker landed the food in his mouth.

  ‘I think now that we’re going to be good friends,’ she added, ‘but maybe you should call Gracie. I mean, she hasn’t said anything to me, I have no idea what she thinks of you, but you two might find yourselves on the same wavelength.’

  ‘Do you think?’

  Parker was definitely looking interested.

  ‘Yeah – why not? You’ve both got that whole arty-quirky-creative vibe going on. I think you’ll find each other really cool.’

  ‘Arty-quirky-creative … You could be starting a whole new movement there.’

  Now it was Lana’s turn to laugh.

  ‘I thought she was seeing someone?’ Parker asked, his brown eyes fixing on Lana’s with a serious look.

  Lana realized she couldn’t lay it on too thick here. She couldn’t let Parker think Gracie was going to be a total pushover, he obviously had to believe he would have to do plenty of work to win her affection.

  ‘Well, to be honest, I think that ended recently. So you might find she’d like someone to take her to galleries. She loves, LOVES your designs. She really thinks you have a very special talent. So I think you two might find you have a lot to talk about.’

  ‘Really?’

  It was working. A sort of glowing look was coming over Parker’s face.

  ‘Did she know we were meeting tonight?’ he asked, sounding a little anxious.

  ‘Well …’

  Lana thought quickly. What was the right answer here? She had a feeling it was one of those moments when a white lie was called for. If it all unravelled later on, everyone would see she had been trying to do her best at the time.

  ‘Well no,’ she replied. ‘I was a bit confused about seeing you … I wasn’t sure if I wanted a friend or a date, so I kind of didn’t mention it. I mean, I was going to tell her all about it tomorrow, you know if things had gone … you know, differently. But now, I could say I bumped into you and we got talking and I said maybe you should give her a call.’