BooksBarbecue
Back The Double Save as PDF
Chapters (63)
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. Acknowledgements

Home, home. His heart fairly leapt with joy. His tidy house and garden. Magda’s steady loyalty and affection. Both as housekeeper and – whatever it was they had – it was very pleasant indeed. If he had time, he would get her something at the airport as a token of his appreciation. A box of Swiss chocolates, perhaps. She would like that.

* * *

The departure hall was teeming with passengers, and he scanned the crowd. No sign of the man in the blue parka, or anyone he recognised from the clinic. They checked in for their flight without a hitch, though there was a moment when he thought Hélène might whisper to the ticket agent that she was being forced to leave the country against her will.

That neither of them had any luggage, not even a carry-on, elicited no surprise. The woman at the check-in desk merely handed over their boarding passes with a practised smile and wished them a pleasant flight.

They passed through security without incident. Mobs of vacationers, en route to their winter holidays, swarmed the departure hall. It would be raining in London. Or perhaps there might be a hint of winter sun. It felt like he’d been away for years.

Vidor checked the sea of faces. No one looked alarming. No beefy men in dark glasses with sidearms concealed under their suit jacket. At the departure board, he looked for their gate number. Their flight was on time. In a little more than an hour, he would be on the plane and nearly home.

***

A man next to Hélène on Vidor’s left glanced at his watch. Dapper in a grey cashmere coat and cobalt tie, he tapped Hélène on the shoulder. ‘Pardon me, but I believe you dropped something.’

‘Did I?’ Hélène peered at an embroidered handkerchief on the floor. ‘Oh yes, I believe that’s mine.’ Vidor released his grip so she could bend to retrieve it, and in that moment, an arm snaked around his neck and snapped his head back.

‘Hélène!’

But the man in the cashmere coat was leading her away. She looked back over her shoulder and gave him a sad smile. ‘I’m sorry,’ she mouthed. But it was too late, she had betrayed him, just like all the others. Stupid of him to forget about her phone. A quick text to Gessen would have been enough to torpedo his plans. It all happened so quickly. No one shouted or screamed. Two men in dark coats joined the man who had him in a choke hold, and together they marched him briskly through the crowd. Impossible to fight back. And what would be the point? He was the victim here, but they would drag him into a back room and treat him like a common criminal.

59