“I was. Now I’m not. What happened to Alix?”
“I don’t know-she just… well, she just vanished.”
“When? The last time she came to visit me was around the middle of February.”
Trudi considered for a moment. “Yes, that sounds right. She walked out just before our big Valentine’s Day party. I was cross with her, leaving the rest of us to fill in. It never occurred to me she wasn’t coming back.”
“Had she been worried about anything?”
“Sure,” said Trudi. “Paying your hospital bills. She really loved you.”
“Tell me about the bills. What did she say about them?”
“Just that she didn’t know where she was going to find twenty thousand francs. It was really on her mind.”
“And the last time you saw her, the night you say she walked out: Do you remember what happened?”
Trudi took another sip of her drink.
“Okay, I remember. I’d been working a couple of hours before Alix arrived, and I was waiting for her to start work, so that I could take a break. I saw her come out from the dressing room, just over there…”
Trudi pointed toward a door set into the wall not far from where they were talking. There was a sign on it forbidding entry to customers.
“Then what happened?” asked Carver. “How did Alix seem to you?”
Trudi gave a quizzical little pout. “I don’t know, normal, I suppose-at first, anyway. But then suddenly she stopped completely still, right in the middle of the floor. She was staring at one of the tables, like she’d seen a ghost, you know? Then she turned and walked really fast, right out of the bar, toward our dressing room. I thought it was kind of odd, but I didn’t have time to think about it because I was serving customers. There was a problem because two men got up and left without paying and Pierre, the barman, was giving me shit for letting them do that, but in the end it didn’t matter because a woman paid their bill. Weird, huh?”
“Yeah, maybe,” said Carver impatiently. “But concentrate on Alix. When did you know she’d left the building?”
“About ten minutes later. She hadn’t come back and I still hadn’t had my break and I just thought she was being a selfish cow, so I went to look for her. But when I got to the dressing room, she wasn’t there, and her bag and coat were both gone. And that was the last time I saw her.”
“Go back to when you last saw Alix. She came out of the door. She saw something. What did she see?”
Trudi thought for a moment. Then she got up and said, “Come with me.”
She led Carver across the room till they were standing in front of the door from which Alix had emerged. Behind them, the man in the cheap suit had come to the bar and was settling his account with Pierre. From time to time, he glanced up to check out the pantomime being acted out by Trudi.
“Right,” she said. “Alix was looking over… there!”
She pointed across the room. Directly in her sight line there was a single small table.
“Who was sitting there?” asked Carver.
Trudi puffed her cheeks. “Oh, monsieur, it was many weeks ago-how can I remember one customer?”
“Start with the basics: Was it a man or a woman?”
“I don’t know!”
Carver could feel frustration rising inside him. He was close to losing his temper, but that would serve no purpose at all. As much to calm himself as Trudi, he spoke as gently as possible, coaxing her like a stage hypnotist.
“Take your time. Just close your eyes, relax, and try to go back to that night. There’s someone sitting at the table. Tell me about them.”
Trudi did as she was told. Her eyes had been shut only for a few seconds when her face suddenly came alive again.
“Of course!” she cried. “I remember now. It was the woman, the one who paid the bill for the two men I was talking about, the ones who ran out without paying.”
“That’s great,” said Carver. “Well done. Now, this woman, what did she look like?”
“Well, she had very dark hair, cut short, in a bob.”
Trudi framed her face with her hands to illustrate what she meant.
“How old was she?”
“Oh, quite old, maybe fifty. But quite chic… you know, for a Russian.”
“Hold on-this woman was Russian?”
“Yes, I think so. Her accent, it was a bit like Alix’s, and she is Russian, right?”
Carver nodded distractedly, no longer paying attention to Trudi. His mind was fully occupied trying to make sense of the Russians: the woman and the two men. Who had they been? What did they want from Alix? He had a strong sense that the answer was in him somewhere. He had the information he needed to solve the problem if only he could retrieve it. Like Trudi, he needed to close his eyes, relax, and think. He couldn’t do that now.
“Is that all?” Trudi asked, sounding disappointed that her information had not been met with more enthusiasm.
“Yeah,” said Carver. “Thanks. You’ve been great. But you’d better clear up.”
The other waitress was placing chairs upside down on top of the tables, banging them down hard, just to let the world know she wasn’t getting any help. Larsson had got up from their table and was standing by the main exit, waiting to go. The barman was trying to disentangle himself from the solitary drinker’s attempts at conversation. Carver heard him say, “You’ve got to leave now, my friend.”
Carver nodded farewell at the barman and gave Trudi a short, brisk wave as he started to walk out.
She called out, “If you find Alix, send her my love,” and he forced a smile to show that he’d heard.
He was feeling edgy again, just as he had on the train. It was the drinker, who was now turning away from the bar and following Larsson and Carver as they walked out. Carver didn’t like the look of him. Ever since he’d walked into the bierkeller, he’d felt that the man had been looking at him and trying to listen in on his conversations. He was being kept under surveillance-he was sure of it. He had to take action before it was too late.
As he walked through the main exit to the street, Carver slowed his pace, waiting for the sound of the door swinging open again behind him. He heard the footsteps of the man in the suit. Then, without any warning, he turned around, swiveling on his toes, then he took one strong, quick stride back the way he had come and punched the man full in the face.
He caught him right on the bridge of the nose, which crumpled under his fist.
The man gave a muffled cry of pain, held his hand up to his face, and staggered back through the door. Carver followed him, grabbing him by the collar and throwing him to the ground.
“What are you looking at?” he snarled.
The man’s eyes widened. He had been caught totally unawares. He was in pain. He was frightened, and he was baffled.
“Why did you hit me?” His voice was as plaintive as a bullied child. “What have I done?”
Carver could not answer him. He did not know what to say. He had attacked an innocent man for no reason other than his own paranoia. He looked up and saw Pierre running toward him, the waitresses looking on in horror.
Pierre stopped beside the wounded man, uncertain what to do next. He turned his head toward the women and said, “One of you, call the police.” Then he reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out the handle of a knife. He pressed a button and the blade flicked open.
He looked at Carver. “I know how to use this,” he said.
The man at Carver’s feet moaned in pain. Blood was seeping through his fingers and spattering his clothes.
Now the door crashed open again and Larsson was there, grabbing Carver and dragging him away from the scene.
“Get out!” he shouted and Carver’s legs started pumping, his feet scrabbling on the floor until he got some purchase, and he dashed out of the bierkeller after Larsson.
Pierre hesitated, not knowing whether to follow the two fleeing men or attend to the wounded victim. Then he hurried to the man on the floor, who was making a groggy, disoriented effort to get to his feet. The man let himself be led away from the exit, under a low stone arch, into a small, deserted office.