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Back The Double Save as PDF
Chapters (63)
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  63. Acknowledgements

In the free hour before his session with Ismail Mahmoud, Gessen played the video of Ursula’s session with Vidor, listening impassively for a few minutes before turning up the volume and zooming in on his face. Broken, bones. Father, gone. Dry, desert. Nothing particularly remarkable there. Except maybe that bit about the father.

Though he was not as convinced as Ursula about the utility of word association results, as an addition to Vidor’s other assessments, they might provide a key piece of the puzzle.

Close to the end of the session, Vidor’s expression abruptly changed, and his voice took on a different timbre. Slight, but it was there. He flicked his right ear twice, and opened his eyes wide, as he stretched his hand towards the painting and cried out. On the tape, Ursula’s voice was tinged with concern. Are you all right? Gessen reset the video and played it again. That ear flick looked familiar. He’d seen it before, but where? In a session, or was it…?

He opened Vidor’s file and clicked on the video from Copenhagen, creating a split screen so he could view both videos at the same time, frame by frame. There was Vidor, mounting the dais, accepting the plaque from the Crown Prince, turning to the lectern to face the audience. And there it was, the ear flick, followed by a flash of anger as Vidor flushed red and began to shout. Gessen closed his eyes. That odd little tic had unlocked something in his brain. Rewind, go back. He’d seen that gesture before.

17

With deliberate care, Vidor unfolded the linen napkin and placed it on his lap. He was alone in the dining room and looking forward to a solitary breakfast when he spotted the English girl stepping through the door and heading his way. He was in no mood to chat, having awoken with the odd sense that, during the night, he had travelled a long distance through rocky and treacherous terrain.

While dressing, and groggy with fatigue, he’d been startled by a sharp knock on the bedroom wall, followed by a series of staccato raps. What had that idiot boy been doing? Probably sending cryptic messages as another way to insult him. The rage he felt left him so dizzy and weak he’d been forced to drop his head between his knees.