by Peche, Alec
When they got off the train, they looked around at everyone else getting off, again not recognizing anyone, including Nick. Angela asked for directions to the windmills and they followed the tunnel under the tracks to the street. Several other passengers were also walking down the street, presumably going to the same destination. The skies were dry but threatening rain at any moment. Once they put their umbrellas to use, it would limit their visibility. Marie was wearing a rain poncho, so she would see better than the rest, but they were all targets.
After a ten-minute walk, they arrived at a bridge over the river Zaan that afforded them a view of the Dutch village with its working windmills. Angela was taking pictures. They proceeded into the village and entered the Zaans Museum. It was there that Angela noticed a single man in a gray trench coat hovering close to the exhibits they were viewing. That struck her as unusual, as it had been all family groups walking from the train station. She decided she would initiate a conversation and see what happened.
“Hello. These exhibits are really good. What do you think?”
Jill, Jo, and Marie all turned to look at Angela as she addressed the stranger.
“I don't speak English,” said the stranger in heavily accented English.
Angela wasn't deterred. She smiled and said in Dutch “Hello, my name is Angela. What is yours?” Angela was the best with languages among the friends and she often could speak a few polite phrases in any language.
The stranger just shook his head, and moved to leave. When he was gone, the four women discussed the stranger, deciding that his reaction was normal for a non-English speaker and they were just being paranoid.
They finished looking at the exhibits and moved on to the first windmill. A docent inside the windmill explained how it worked to grind spices and wheat. All four noticed the stranger was back and hovering behind them, not seeming to pay attention to the docent.
They left the windmill and moved on to the next one. The power generated by each windmill was used for a different purpose. Some had signs explaining what visitors were looking at; others had docents providing the explanation. It had started to rain, so the umbrellas were opened.
As the women were stepping out from the windmill, a dart came sailing their way and was deflected harmlessly off Angela's raincoat. Her coat was made from heavy waterproof vinyl that made it impenetrable to rain and, apparently, darts. No one saw the dart in the air; rather, Marie happened to be looking over her shoulder at Angela and she saw the dart fall to the ground.
“Hey, someone just fired a dart at Angela! Let’s get back inside!” yelled Marie as she pointed to ground while they hurried back inside the windmill.
“That was a lucky move,” said Jill.
“Whoever just fired at Angela went after the one person with the thick coat – the one person wearing a protective coat. I would have dropped to the ground with the dart sticking out of me, this rain poncho is so thin.” said Marie.
Jo looked around the entrance and said “I do not like this situation at all. How do we protect ourselves? Can we shut the door?”
Unfortunately, they could see that the door was chained open with a lock holding it in place.
“I wonder where Nick is, we sure could use some help.” said Jill.
“Does anyone have his cell phone number? Maybe we could call him,” suggested Jo urgently.
“Duh, I have it programmed into my phone,” said Jill locating him in her recent calls. “Let me call him.”
As Jill dialed Nick, the four looked for places to hide inside the windmill. Each of them climbed up and hid behind beams, boards, and the windmill mechanism.
“Hello?”
“Nick, it's Jill and someone has just shot a dart at Angela. We need your help now!”
“I'm following your dart shooter into the windmill. I’ll be right there.”
The four women were hiding but each kept an eye on the doorway. A stranger entered with a dart gun held at his side. He started looking around the building for his target, but no one was in sight. He began a methodical search getting closer to Marie. Meanwhile, a man quietly entered the building but he didn't look like Nick, although the man was the right height. He waited until he had a partition for protection, and then spoke in Dutch. They saw the dart shooter quickly turnaround and fire a dart where the man had been standing. The second stranger again spoke in Dutch and then they heard police sirens close by. The dart shooter ran out of the building and the second man stood in the doorway watching him go. Once he was satisfied he spoke in English.
“Ladies, you can come out of hiding. He is gone.”
The four women dropped to the ground and approached Nick. It was his voice, but he was wearing a good disguise. His hair style and color and his clothes made him look twenty years older. He also had applied bushy eyebrows and yellowed his teeth, but when you looked at the bright blue eyes, they found the Nick they knew.
“Did the police arrive? We heard the sirens.” asked Marie.
“Actually, that was a bit of trickery of my part. I have a ring tone on my cell phone that sounds like police sirens. I did call the police, but they are not here yet. This is the second tight situation that ring tone has helped me avoid trouble.”
“Nick, that was brilliant,” said Angela. “Did you get his picture?”
“No, I was trying to avoid his dart gun.”
“Let me check my camera - I might have his photo,” said Angela as she started reviewing her recent pictures. “I've started taking pictures of strange men...”
“Here we go, I thought I might have snapped a picture of him in the museum,” said Angela as she showed her friends the camera screen. “I am sure the dart shooter was the same man I tried to speak to in the museum. Do you guys agree?”
Her friends nodded their agreement as Nick viewed the man's picture. He had briefly studied the man's face during the few seconds of confrontation inside the windmill.
“Yes, I agree, that is his picture. Can I borrow your camera again to get a copy of the picture?”
“Sure,” said Angela handing over the camera.
“That's okay. Let me use my cell phone to take a picture of your camera screen. I think that will work.” replied Nick as he aimed his cell phone at Angela's camera screen.
A moment later, the women were viewing the copy of the picture on the bigger screen of Nick’s phone. They all looked up as police officers entered the windmill. On their heels was the supervisor for the site. They looked at each other and knew they were about to lose an hour of their vacation time. Of course, they could have lost their lives instead, so it was a fair tradeoff.
Fortunately, in his haste to depart, the dart shooter didn't grab the dart so the police had it for evidence. The officers got copies of the pictures and a statement from the four women. They had a hard time believing their full story. Nick helped established their legitimacy as one of the other officers contacted the police in Amsterdam to provide a more complete description of the situation.
By the end of the conversation, the Belgian State Police and Interpol wanted to meet with the women. They set up an appointment for a meeting in Amsterdam in two hours. They would have time to finish their tour of the windmills and get the train back to city for the meeting.
They spent another hour at the site with Nick trailing them, then headed to the train station. Once they reached Central station, Nick escorted them to the State Police Office where Interpol was meeting them. Interpol's headquarters were in The Hague, which was an hour's drive away. The group’s planned shopping excursion was going to get cut short.
Chapter 9
Nick and the women were shown into a conference room at the police station. It was their first visit to a European Police Statement and they would later agree that it pretty much looked like its American counterpart. It would never be on their tourist must-see list for any city in the world.
After introductions, they were asked to recount their experience with Laura Peeters, the inciden
t of the man following them two nights before, the pair of men in the red-light district, and the event that day at the windmill.
The police in turn provided them with the name of the assailant at the windmill. His name was Kenneth Lee Akselrod, a Belgian citizen, and he was wanted by Interpol for unlawful circulation of natural precious stones. The dart contained a substance used by veterinarians to subdue elephants in their natural habitat. The dose intended for the elephant would have rendered any of the four women unconscious. Mr. Akselrod had no history of violence merely activities related to precious stones. It was disturbing that he was stepping up his criminal activities.
“So what are your next steps?” Jill asked the police and Interpol representatives.
“We have several problems. This is a crime that crosses borders. For unknown reasons, you are a target of this group and need protection. We need to understand more about this syndicate, and you're leaving the Netherlands tomorrow for Brussels for four days before returning to the United States. My first piece of advice would be for you to immediately arrange for your return to the United States rather than waiting four days,” offered Inspector Berg.
“Our experience is that returning to the United States doesn't eliminate the problem, rather it just transfers it to another country. So we see no reason to cut short our vacation. Nick has agreed to help provide protection for us for the remainder of our vacation,” replied Jill.
“How is Nick protecting you? Do you realize that he is not allowed to carry a gun in the Netherlands? He will be able to carry one in Belgium, if he has one registered in his name. This is not like the U.S., with every private citizen owning a gun,” said Inspector Berg.
“In our last case in the United States, the only people using a gun on our behalf were the police, the FBI, and the Albania sniper who was after me, so I don't see that as different. My boyfriend, who also provided protection, has a black belt in hapkido, so again no guns. We would rather help you solve this case. We are really quite resourceful in solving crimes – it has been our team profession for the past five years,” responded Jill.
“I have a black belt in kickboxing,” said Nick, “so it sounds like you have the same level of protection as you would in the United States. I don't have a registered gun in Belgium, but my employees do, and so if there is a need for a gun, my company can legally meet that requirement.”
“We agree,” stated Marie, speaking for the group. “Let's talk about what is going on here and we'll share what we know about the players involved so far and what we think the motives are, and you can do likewise.”
“Will you provide us with the names and dossiers from Interpol of the two men we have made contact with so far? We will likely use different sources than you, so we may find different information. I can provide you with our standard contract, if that will mitigate any legal worries that you have,” said Jill.
Inspector Berg looked to Interpol for guidance. He had not expected this outcome to the conversation. He had thought he would be providing the women a police escort back to their hotel and on to the airport.
Interpol Criminal Intelligence Officer Graaf finally weighed in on the situation. Like Inspector Berg, he had not come into contact with aggressive Americans before, except as victims. The women were not behaving like victims.
“We have never had such a request before except from your government. Nothing you ask for is confidential, so I see no reason not to share with you. We have advised you to return to your country as we feel that is best for your safety, and we will pass that recommendation on to your embassy. Since you are ignoring our recommendation, you need to understand that we will be unable to provide you with the security you may need to stay alive. Please confirm that you understand your level of risk.”
The four women, after looking at each other, nodded in unison that they understood the risk. They were all optimists, and with Nick’s help, thought they could finish their vacation and help solve the Laura Peeters case. They would earn no income for their effort, but it might keep them alive.
“I will contact our office in Brussels, and inform them of the direction of this case. They may wish to contact you further. I wish you the best of luck.”
It was afternoon and they wanted to grab lunch, then shop. Nick planned to stay covertly in the background, meeting with them only in the privacy of their hotel room. He would change his disguise each day to reduce the likelihood that he would be recognized by the men tailing the women.
They stopped at a café featuring sandwiches and pastries. Jill checked her email and found that Inspector Graaf had indeed emailed them the information of the men that had tailed them, as well as the dart shooter. He also provided them with a name and contact number for the Interpol office in Brussels. The Inspector ended the email with another request that they return to the United States, which they planned to ignore.
She also had an email from Nathan, her boyfriend, that he would be joining them in Brussels. He would arrive there later that day. There were over seventy-five wineries in Belgium, and he had a few clients that he would meet with to discuss projects. He also planned to add his hapkido skills to Nick’s protection measures, which would give the women additional security. He had been learning over the past several months how negligent they could be about their own safety. He planned to work 10 percent of the time and guard the women the other 90 percent of the time.
Nathan had even gone so far as to contact Nick since Jill had mentioned him in an email. He liked Nick so far, and they had worked out a plan to keep the women safe. Jill and the others would hopefully remain ignorant of these actions. He didn’t want their vacation wrecked with anxiety about their safety, but he was in love with Jill and would make sure he did everything in his power to keep her alive.
They finished their lunch, paid the bill and stepped out into sunshine. Their plan was to visit the main open-air market to view the flowers and other items for sale. Then they were moving on to an area called Nine Little Streets to aimlessly wander through the many Dutch stores. None of them needed anything; rather, it was more curiosity about what was for sale.
It was a relaxing afternoon, especially after the scare that morning at the windmills. They each found something small to take home for someone and had a fun time figuring out European sizing in women's clothes. They ended the afternoon with a quick stop at a purse museum. It seemed an appropriate way to end several hours of shopping.
They stopped in at a pub, ordered beer and sat back to watch every-day Dutch citizens going about their lives. Jo and Angela relaxed in the fading sun of the day. Marie, the multi-tasker, used the pub’s wireless Internet connection to do some more research on the two gentlemen who had tried to harm them. Jill, likewise, was doing the same. Angela was playing a game with Jo, speculating which of the strangers in sight was Nick in disguise.
They pulled out a map to figure out where in the city they had wandered to and how to get back to their hotel. They were planning to chill out in their hotel room for about an hour before heading out to a restaurant that Nick had recommended. He would join them in the suite and let them know if anyone had been following them throughout the afternoon.
They heard a knock on their door a few minutes after they returned to the suite. Nick had called from the lobby to let them know he was coming up.
“Hi Nick,” said a smiling Angela. “Are you thoroughly bored from following us around all afternoon?”
“Actually, it takes a lot of energy to follow you guys, stay in my disguise, and observe everyone around you to see if anyone looks dangerous,” said Nick with a sigh of relief as he sat down.
“So was anyone following us or otherwise acting suspicious towards us,” asked Jo?
“I don't believe anyone was following you. After the incident at the windmills, and the time spent at the police station, you may have been hard to follow. I think you may be at risk for being followed to the restaurant. After you all entered the hotel, I observed the street, but saw
no one watching the entrance,” Nick replied.
“Not to question your professional abilities, but, did you pick up on the guy with the dart gun before he went after us this morning?” asked Jill.
“That's a fair question. I did find him suspicious and was closing the gap on the distance between us when I saw him pull out the dart gun. I am very grateful that in addition to Angela’s coat being water repellent, it is apparently dart repellent. Then Jill called me on the phone as I was running toward the windmill. I quickly found the police siren sound bite and got ready to play it upon entering the building. You know the rest of the story.”
“You ladies walked all over Amsterdam this afternoon and I am sure I would've noticed the same people at the different locations that you walked to. I also took some cell phone video of different groups of people that were near you, and I plan to review it this evening to see if anyone looks out of place,” Nick explained.
“Nick, all of us are really appreciative of your surveillance today,” said Jill. “Don't think by our questions that we are ungrateful. I got word that my boyfriend, Nathan, is landing in Brussels this evening, so we will have a second guard in that city.”
“What time does your train depart for Brussels tomorrow?” asked Nick.
“We don’t have tickets,” replied Jo. “We were planning to just show up at the station when we felt like it in the morning. I understood that trains depart hourly for Brussels, so if we have a little wait when we get there, it is no problem.”
Nick thought these American women were very unpredictable. One moment they were aggressively asking for information from Interpol, and the next moment they couldn’t be bothered picking a departure time from Amsterdam. Hopefully that unpredictability would help keep them alive.
“I am starving,” announced Marie. “Are we ready to head out to the restaurant for dinner?”
Nick stood up, walking toward the door of the suite. “Ladies, give me ten minutes. I want to change my disguise, and check the hotel lobby and street for any suspicious characters.”
