Ivan Jelić is already some distance from Tri Lovca when the C4 explodes, but the force of the blast still rocks him, and he seeks support from a wall. He looks back to see a cloud of dust and smoke rising from the direction of the restaurant and hears screams and shouts. None of these is likely to be coming from Tri Lovca itself. The blast has not only torn Nikola Musulin apart, and killed everyone on the ground floor of the restaurant, but has also brought the old building down in its entirety, an unanticipated effect which contributes to the minor injuries caused to passersby, although miraculously there are no fatalities beyond the occupants. This is good news. Skadarlija is a tourist street, and it has been made clear that collateral damage must be kept to a minimum.

So, Tri Lovca is no more. Nikola Musulin is no more. They are now of the past.

All is was, all is were.

Chapter XIII

Following the warning from Ross about Armitage’s dealings with the Vuksans, Louis deliberated late into the night before making a series of calls to the Netherlands. The difficulty was that De Jaager, the man about whom he was most anxious, was also his principal contact in the country. De Jaager’s phone went directly to voice mail, which was not unusual: De Jaager, like Louis, preferred to use his cell phone as a mobile answering service, since he regarded the device as being for his convenience, not that of others. Louis then tried Paulus, De Jaager’s nephew, driver, and man-at-arms, and when that number rang out, he resorted to calling Anouk, Paulus’s mother and De Jaager’s sister-in-law. Her phone also went to voice mail. Anouk was in her seventies, so it was not surprising that she might have chosen to turn off her phone before she slept. As for Paulus, his cell phone rarely left his side and was always on. He was his uncle’s right hand and was rarely far from him. Louis tried Paulus three more times over the next hour, until finally the phone stopped ringing, suggesting either that it had been turned off or had run out of power.

Logically, Louis should not yet have been worried. Unlike Charlie Parker, he was not a man to chase after phantoms. But he had learned to trust his instincts, and they told him that something was very wrong.

He had one more person to whom he could turn: the big Dutchman, Hendricksen, who worked as an investigator in the Netherlands, although lately he was devoting most of his time and energy to tracing missing artwork. Hendricksen had no great love for De Jaager, regarding him as a crook, if only on the basis of the company he kept. But Hendricksen was principled and owed Louis a favor, since Louis had helped track down the man responsible for killing one of Hendricksen’s colleagues.