And we will do so alone, thought Radovan. We have no wives, no children: I by choice – in another life, I might have been a monk, for such appetites of the flesh have always been alien to me – and you, Spiridon, because you killed your wife Andjela for cheating on you with Andrej Buha. Monster though he was, his touch was still preferable to yours, or maybe her hatred for you eventually became inseparable from her hatred for herself. Perhaps this is why you were so intent upon avenging yourself on De Jaager, because he deprived you of the possibility of revenge, leaving you with only Andjela to hurt. You took your time with her. When she was dead, your desire for any woman vanished, and you became like me. So yes, we will end our days like the lonely men we are, speaking of old times and old blood, for they are one and the same to us.

‘I need to sleep,’ said Radovan.

‘It’s all the worrying you do.’

‘Yes,’ said Radovan, ‘that must be it.’

Behind his brother, Radovan watched Luca Bilbija and the last member of their group, Aleksej Marković, mount the stairs, and soon after he heard movement from above his head.

‘I thought we were leaving,’ said Radovan.

Zivco Ilić returned to the kitchen. He held a nail gun in his hand.

‘We are,’ said Spiridon, ‘but there’s just one final task to accomplish.’

Chapter XII

The Skadarlija locality of Belgrade was once known as the Šićan Mala, or the Gypsy Quarter. Founded in the middle of the nineteenth century, it gradually became the haunt of writers and artists, giving it a bohemian character that persists to this day. Like many such areas in great European cities, it has now become popular with tourists, attracted by the character of its cobblestoned streets and its traditional inns and restaurants.

One of the less well known of the latter is Tri Lovca, or ‘The Three Hunters’, which sits at the atrium end of Skadarlija. It is more expensive than its neighbors, yet also less prepossessing from the exterior. Its front door is kept locked and patrons must ring a bell to gain access. All guests require a reservation, which can only be made by calling an unadvertised number. Tourists who try the bell in the hope of securing a speculative table are informed that, regrettably, none is available – assuming they speak Serbian, which, being tourists, they probably don’t. The words will therefore be entirely beyond their understanding, although the substance of them will not. The waiters, of course, also speak English. Among them, the staff of Tri Lovca are fluent in ten tongues, although this fact is known only to a select few diners. The waiters, the maître d’, and the chefs may communicate only in Serbian, but they listen in a variety of languages.