‘Even should you succeed in getting the Vuksans out of Europe,’ she said, ‘they are leaving wreckage behind, and you will be swimming in it. Too many people know of your ties to these men, and they may refuse to believe that you have severed them completely. You have money, and property that can be sold. By all accounts your wife is a civilized woman who will behave honorably in the event of a divorce. You have fewer obligations here than you think, and a business is not worth a life.’

‘And what would I do in some Caribbean backwater?’ said Frend. ‘Drink too much, and seduce the occasional lonely tourist?’

‘There are men who dream of such a life.’

‘I am not one of them.’

She patted his sleeve.

‘I advise you to reflect upon it. Where did you park?’

‘I didn’t drive. I took a taxi.’

‘Why would you do that?’

‘I was being careful.’

‘I’d offer you a ride,’ she said, ‘but—’

‘But you’re being careful, too,’ he finished for her.

‘Exactly.’

Frend watched her walk away. Her silver coupe was parked by one of the silos. He did not recognize the make, but then he had never been very interested in cars. He took one last look at the cemetery as Kauffmann drove off. He hoped never to return there, and God forbid that he should ever be laid to rest in such a desolate place. He used the steps to knock the dirt from his shoes before heading back the way he had come, leaving the dead to sleep on in peace.

Chapter LXIII

Louis sipped a coffee at Kaffee Alt Wien on Bäckerstrasse while he waited for Angel to join him. The café was less grand than some of the city’s more famous nineteenth-century coffeehouses such as the Café Central or the Café Schwarzenberg, but Louis liked that about it. The walls were decorated with posters for bands of which Louis had never heard and recitals that he had no intention of attending, but the coffee was very good and the ambience was better still. Using his iPad, he accessed the Vienna Times, the online English-language newspaper, and read the report on the discovery of Hendricksen’s body. A police spokesman claimed that a number of definite lines of inquiry were being followed, which was probably true, and some progress had already been made, which was almost certainly untrue.

Angel had endured another awkward conversation with detectives that morning, but so far, his story appeared to be holding up. He’d also been asked to look at security footage of two people from the hotel’s cameras, but it was apparent to Angel from first glance that the male party was wearing a cheap but effective disguise. As for the girl with him, she kept her sweatshirt hood raised throughout, like a recalcitrant teenager. For the purposes of identifying culprits, the footage was worth exactly nothing.