Vlado was impressed, wondering how Kasic could have dug up that item on such short notice. Surely Garovic hadn’t known. Yet, this was such a small town in so many ways, growing smaller by the day Fast work nonetheless.
“We went to the same school,” Vlado said. “But he was eight years ahead of me. And yes, I knew his younger brother well. He was a classmate. Killed just about a year ago.”
“Yes, a mortar shell through the roof. I remember. His whole family. Which left Vitas quite alone, I suppose. His mother was a Serb, you know. His father was a Muslim, although he would have nothing to do with those labels. He was a Yugoslav first and only, he used to say. One can only wonder what he’d be saying now.”
“You knew his father?”
“Somewhat. I met him a few years ago, just before his death. Not long after that his mother died as well.”
“So you think Vitas still had contacts in his old neighborhood.” Vlado asked. “And if he did, is that so unusual?”
“Not as such. It happens even now. People manage to get news back and forth, along with the gasoline and coffee. Sometimes even the phone connections pop back up for a while. It drives the army crazy when it happens, but there you are. I myself still know people over there. My paternal grandfather was a Serb, though my father and I were both raised as Muslims.”
Meaning, in reality, that he was probably raised neither as Serb nor Muslim nor anything else in particular until it came time to choose sides once the war began. Like nearly everyone else in the city, Kasic had probably thought of himself mostly as a Sarajevan, as set apart from those narrow-thinking rurals of whatever background. So, Kasic had thrown in his lot with the bunch that had pledged to preserve Sarajevo as it was, which happened to be the Muslim government of the new nation of Bosnia. So far he was backing the loser in the war, although neither that nor the Serb flavoring in his background seemed to be hurting his career advancement.
“My house was in Ilizda, you know,” Kasic said.
“I didn’t, actually.” It was a suburb now held by the Serbs.
“Yes, and a nice house, too. Big and comfortable. Probably some army commander garrisoned there now, propping his boots on my coffee table while his dog curls up on my bed.”
For a moment Kasic’s face had a faraway look, as if he’d looked across the office floor and spotted the booted general lounging at one of the desks.
“But with Vitas,” Kasic resumed, “I fear he may have had some channels open that were, at best, improper.”
“And at worst?”
“The conduits for illegal activity. Smuggling. Which, if it’s true, amounts to little more than providing aid and comfort to the enemy, not to mention considerable profit. The very people he used to rail against so convincingly had perhaps even become his paymasters. This is not for me to say conclusively, of course. That’s for you to discover in your investigation. I only want you to be aware of what is being said.”
“And where does this impression come from?”
“The same place as our other information,” he said, handing over the thin files. “From these four gentleman. You’ll find the butcher at Markale Market any day of the week. The cigarette man is on shift at the cigarette factory for another …”-he paused to check his watch, a massive model favored by the old Yugoslav People’s Army-“for another two and a half hours. So you can catch him there today if you like. The same is true of the two whiskey connections. Their addresses are noted in the file, and all four are expecting a visit.”
He paused, as if about to conclude, then said, “And now, whenever you’re ready, you can question me.”
Vlado was caught off guard. He shifted gears rapidly, wondering if he was being tested. He wasn’t ready to question Kasic just yet, and he wasn’t going to make a fool of himself trying. He needed to shift control of the conversation.
“Later would be better, actually. But I’d probably start by asking for a look inside that desk,” Vlado said, glancing at the space beneath Kasic’s elbows.
Now Kasic was the one who seemed suddenly at a loss.
“Yes, the desk,” he said. “I would have waited to move in, but things happen so quickly around here that I thought it best to get right on top of things. His business files, or at least the ones that had nothing to do with this case or with any of these activities, I’ve kept.”
Vlado started to object, but Kasic raised a hand, tilting his head, and said, “I know, you’d like to be the judge of that. But you’ll simply have to take my word. I know it’s not easy, but there are some things in our files too sensitive for anyone but our people to see at present. They have nothing to do with Vitas. They concern other investigations, and I don’t want them compromised.”
“Wouldn’t it at least be important for context. Perhaps I’d know better where the pieces fit if I can have a better look at the whole range.”
Besides, Vlado was curious, having felt shut out of things for far too long. He could feel himself easing into the rhythm of an investigation, could sense a thrumming in the back of his mind where the workings had been idle for months.
“I believe you’ll find all the context you need with those people,” Kasic said, pointing to the thin files in Vlado’s hands. “As for Vitas’s other things, I’ve kept them separate from my own. They’re right here.” He pointed to a large cardboard box in the corner of the office, taped shut. Which meant he or someone else had already gone through everything.
“I’ll also need access to his apartment. His car, too, if he still had one.”
“Of course.” Kasic reached into the desk again. “Here are his house keys. His car, I’m afraid, was destroyed a month ago. A direct hit on a building across the street while it was parked out front. And, Vlado, I know Garovic is nervous about all this. About the sensitivity of the case. That’s just the way he is. Let me deal with that. You go where you need to go. Ask what you need to ask, and don’t worry about stepping on any toes. Mine included.”
Kasic rose from behind his desk, his hand outstretched for a parting shake. As Vlado turned to go, Kasic placed a hand firmly on his shoulder.
“Vlado?”
“Yes.”
“A last word of caution.” Kasic paused. “There will be people watching you closely on this, and I’m not speaking merely of me and the U.N. Some of them I’m probably not even aware of myself, but suffice it to say that they have the means to influence any and all aspects of your life. They will want results, Vlado, and they will want them quickly. They will not wish to be told of some chain of evidence that drifts off into the hills to points unknown. They will want specifics, name by name.”
Somewhere across town a shell fell to the ground, driving home the point, and Vlado experienced a mixture of fear and exhilaration. Damir was right. No one had a map to lead them through this darkness, and anyone offering to light their way would, by nature, be unreliable.
“So, what are you trying to tell me, exactly?” Vlado asked, as they reached the stairwell.
“To keep your eyes open. To watch your back. And to be aware that now you’ve taken this case, there can be no turning back. And, that despite all of the help I would like to and, indeed, can offer you, in the most important sense you will be very much on your own.”
“I’m aware,” Vlado answered, trying his best not to sound as timid as he felt. “And I’m ready.”
“We are all hoping so,” Kasic said. And, with a smile, he turned back toward his office.
CHAPTER 5
Vlado’s legwork was exactly that. All the police department’s cars had been commandeered by the army, and Vlado’s own car, a brick-red Yugo, had long ago joined hundreds of other junked vehicles atop a parking deck near his house after a mortar round filled it full of holes and shredded its vital organs.
U.N. trucks had recently begun towing crumpled car bodies from all over the city, victims of every imaginable type of shot and shell. They’d been exploded, ruptured, battered, torn, burned, and perforated. Viewed from a hillside in the middle of town, the collection made a pretty sight, lumped together in a rainbow of color and an occasional glint of chrome, their ruin obscured by the distance, although here and there the burned ones stood out as ugly black smudges, like oversize gum wrappers that had been crumpled and held above a flame.