Smith

SIXTY FIVE

  ANGEL

  The Angel was only two streets away so they walked. Smith was still thinking about the young woman in the bar. He was sure he knew her; she might even be his sister, he could not be sure. He had the ominous feeling again; the feeling that something was about to happen. There was a queue outside the Angel. Smith looked at his watch; it was almost midnight, Tallinn time. Alec walked to the front of the queue, handed something to the man on the door and beckoned for Smith, Lucas and Stepan to follow him. Inside the night club it was warm and dark. The music was so loud that it would be impossible to talk. Smith followed Alec up a set of stairs to a private room with leather couches and glass topped tables. The music was not so loud in there. They were the only people in the room.

  “Have a seat my friend,” Alec said, “this is one of the benefits of having a lot of money; you don’t have to queue and you can avoid the crowds downstairs. We will not be disturbed in here. I’ll organise us some drinks.”

  Smith sat at solid wooden table. He looked around the room. There was a bar in the corner and a balcony that overlooked the dance floor downstairs. A man approached and put a tray of drinks on the table; he eyed Smith with suspicion. This is a country of ironies, Smith thought; the people are very open and generous and yet they do not seem to trust anybody. His phone beeped in his pocket. He took it out and looked at the screen; it was a Face Book message. He opened the message and gasped at what he saw. ‘I know you are in Tallinn’, it read, ‘and I know exactly who you are. Be very careful’. It was the woman he believed to be his sister, Moonface Wolf. Smith put the phone away and scanned the room anxiously. Maybe he was right, he thought, maybe the woman from the bar earlier was Laura.

  “Too much thinking can send you mad,” Alec said, “drink your beer and focus; this is not going to be easy. Do you think they are just going to let you take her away from them?”

  Smith was amazed.

  “How did you know?” he said, “are you a mind reader?”

  “Just incredibly perceptive,” Alec replied, “we need to approach this very carefully; Tallinn is an easy place to get lost in. It is an easy place to make someone disappear too if you understand what I’m saying.”

  “I think so,” Smith said, “you don’t think they’d harm a Policeman from England though do you? Surely there would be repercussions.”

  “My friend,” Alec sighed, “you are very naïve. These people will not hesitate to dispose of you and they will easily make it look like you had an accident. A car accident, drowning on the ferry to Finland maybe. Does anybody know you are here?”

  Smith thought hard for a while and realised that only Whitey knew he had come to Tallinn to look for his sister.

  “Only one person knows,” he admitted, “and he also warned me that this could be dangerous.”

  “Listen to me,” Alec said, “do exactly what I say and you will not be harmed. If that woman you saw earlier is your sister, it will be difficult to talk to her on her own. Also, if what Stepan has told me is true, you haven’t seen her for ten years?”

  “That’s right,” Smith said.

  “Ten years with these people will have altered the way she thinks; she’s not likely to want to just get on a plane with you and leave all this behind.”

  “So what do I do then?” Smith asked.

  “What we do is have a few drinks with these people and enjoy ourselves; this will not happen overnight.”

  Stepan and Lucas sat down at the table. They were covered in sweat and had obviously been dancing. Lucas grabbed one of the beers and drank half of it in one go. “They are playing some good stuff tonight,” he said.

  He put his arm around Stepan.

  “Why the serious face?” Stepan said to Smith, “drink and be happy you’re alive. The night is still young.”

  Smith smiled and finished his beer.

  “Where’s everyone else?” he asked.

  “Dancing of course,” Stepan replied, “that is what we like to do in Tallinn, drink and dance and forget everything else. Do you want to dance?”

  Smith frowned.

  “I’m not much of a dancer,” he said.

  “Get up,” Stepan ordered, “you’re going to dance. You don’t mind do you?” he said to Lucas.

  Lucas shrugged his shoulders in reply.

  The dance floor was full as Stepan literally pushed Smith into the middle of it. It was a Gay Bar but there were plenty of women dancing too.

  “Women feel safer in gay clubs,” Stepan shouted into Smith’s ear, “they don’t have to put up with the bullshit.”

  The music was not to Smith’s taste. He hated electronic, computer generated noise but he made an effort for Stepan’s sake. He spotted the woman from the bar. She was dancing with another older woman. She looked over at him and smiled. Smith did not know what to do so he concentrated on trying not to look too ridiculous while dancing. The music stopped abruptly and another song began. The crowd of people on the dance floor screamed and many more people barged in to dance. Smith did not recognise the music but it seemed to be very popular here. There was barely room to dance and Smith was getting thirsty so he decided to leave and go back upstairs. He had left the dance floor and was walking towards the stairs when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned abruptly and saw the woman standing there. She put her hand in his and headed back to join her friends. Smith thought she looked nervous. He opened his hand. The woman had given him a piece of paper. He looked around him before opening the note but he could not see anything suspicious. Nevertheless he put the note in his pocket and decided to read it in the toilets where nobody could see. He pushed his way through the crowd and opened the door to the toilets. There were a few people inside so he entered one of the cubicles and locked the door behind him. He took out the note. He realised his hands were shaking. What he read in the note did nothing to calm his nerves. ‘There is a door to the left of the bar downstairs, it said, ‘it leads outside to an alley. Meet me outside in ten minutes. L.’ Smith put the note back in his pocket and walked back upstairs.

  “You look pale my friend,” Alec said as Smith sat down.

  “I don’t like crowds,” Smith lied, “they freak me out. I’ll feel better after another beer.” He took a beer from the table and drank heartily. He looked at his watch.

  “Do you have somewhere to be?” Alec was very astute.

  “Just wondering what time it was,” Smith replied, “it’s one in the morning.”

  “Still early then. Just relax and enjoy yourself.”

  “You’re right,” Smith thought of something, “I’m going to dance again; these gay bars are not too bad.”

  Alec looked at him suspiciously as he left the table and walked down the stairs.

  Smith found the door to the left of the bar and opened it. The sweat on his face felt like it had frozen instantly. He closed the door behind him and looked around. He walked out into an alley behind the club and listened for something that might tell him he was not alone. The door blocked out the music coming from inside and the alley way was completely silent. This is a bad idea, he thought. He had the feeling that something was going to happen again, something terrible. He had decided to go back inside the club and get very drunk when he heard something. Something that sounded like trouble. The door opened and a man walked out. He shut the door behind him and just stood in front of it without saying anything.

  “What do you want Jason Smith?” a voice came from the shadows.

  It was the strange voice; the one that seemed to come from many different places. Wolfie, Smith thought.

  “What do you want”? He said again, this time he was much closer.

  Smith turned round and saw him emerge from the darkness and take another step closer. He had two men with him and they did not look like they were going to ask Smith to dance. Smith braced himself for trouble; the adrenalin was flowing and his heart was pumpi
ng more blood around his body.

  “Where’s the woman?” Smith asked.

  Wolfie took another step closer.

  “What do you want with her?” he said.

  “I just want to talk to her, she gave me a note.”

  Wolfie laughed. He had a fake laugh; it sounded like he had borrowed it from a gangster movie.

  “I know exactly who you are Mr Smith,” he said, “do you think I’m stupid; I had you checked out the moment you set foot in Estonia, now I’ll ask you again, what do you want?”

  Smith looked at the men on either side of Wolfie; they were obviously there to intimidate and they were succeeding. They were both taller than Smith and they looked like they were no strangers to violence. He decided what he was going to do. There was no hope of beating them in a fight and making a run for it was impossible. He was surrounded.

  “I’m here to find my sister,” he said defiantly.

  “Your sister died ten years ago,” Wolfie said, “the ocean swallowed her up.”

  Smith gasped.

  “You took her,” he said, “I know all about it.”

  “Leave her alone,” Wolfie warned, “you don’t know what you are getting in to.”

  “I want to speak to her,” Smith was insistent.

  Smith saw Wolfie’s face change. He lifted his head as a signal to the man standing in front of the door. Smith felt his arms being forced behind his back and Wolfie and his associates came closer. The man was incredibly strong.

  “You shouldn’t have come here Jason Smith,” Wolfie said, “although there are worse places than Tallinn in which to die.”

  What happened next did not seem real. Smith watched in horror as one of Wolfie’s men opened his coat and took out the gun. Smith was no expert on guns but he did recognise the long pipe at the end that acted as a silencer. He handed the gun to Wolfie.

  “You shouldn’t have come here,” Wolfie repeated.

  He pointed the gun at Smith’s head.

  The door opened behind them.

  “That’s enough!” Alec shouted, “Let him go.”

  Wolfie still had the gun pointed at Smith’s head.

  “He’s Police,” Alec said, “that will only make trouble.”

  Wolfie lowered the gun and handed it back to his bodyguard. Smith was still in the grip of the other man. Wolfie came closer and stuck his face as close to Smith’s as possible. Smith could smell alcohol and tobacco on his breath.

  “Consider this a warning,” he said, “If I even think that you’re trying to get in contact with your sister again I will kill you first and then I will kill your sister.”