by Anya Lipska
Bobek shrugged. Dropping his rucksack on the floor, he threw himself down on the sofa. ‘You’ve got Sky! Mega!’ he said, scooping up the remote control. ‘Is there any food, Tato? I’m starving.’
‘Sure,’ said Janusz: there was something bracing about the selfishness of youth. His eyes met Oskar’s and they shared an eloquent grin. ‘Uncle Oskar is threatening to make bigos.’
Epilogue
The air was so veiled in vapour that the only sign a second man had entered the steam room was the soft thunk of the heavy glass door closing.
The man, who wore only a white towel fastened round his waist, hesitated before stepping into the hot wet fog. Making out the outline of a stocky, dark-haired man, completely naked, sitting on the bench lining the wall, he chose a spot at right angles to him. For a long moment, the only sound was the burble of the steam machine and the tink tink of water dripping from the granite-lined ceiling.
‘Simeon, right?’ he murmured.
‘Towel,’ replied the stocky man.
Lifting his butt, he slipped off his towel and rolled it up, before handing it over.
‘That’s better,’ said Simeon, setting it to one side.
‘How do I know … it’s you?’
‘Because I’m the one who left the present for you in locker 101.’ For someone so well built, he had a surprisingly high-pitched voice. ‘You did remember the combination for the padlock?’
‘Yeah. Thanks.’
The steam cleared a little, and Simeon sized up the second man: early thirties, hair thinning at the temples, with a purple birthmark shaped like a thumbprint beneath his right eye.
‘Good. So where can we find what we’re looking for?’
The younger man’s naked knee started to dance up and down. ‘I don’t make a habit of this, you know,’ he said. ‘It’s just I’ve had some bad luck lately.’
Simeon just folded his arms. There came the low hissing sound of the steam machine starting up.
The guy murmured something, his voice so low that Simeon had to shuffle along the bench towards him. ‘Come again?’
‘He’s in Chicago … working for a construction company.’
‘Really. You’d better have more than that for thirty fucking grand.’ His tone was reasonable, but somehow that only made it sound more menacing.
‘I left the address and the GPS coordinates in the locker, like you said.’
‘Good. And what’s the new name?’
There was a long pause. ‘Terry Markham. Terry and Angelika Markham.’
A smile started to spread across Simeon’s face, before it was obscured by a cloud of steam. Getting to his feet, he picked up the wet balled towel and plopped it into the younger man’s lap.
‘Nice doing business with you.’
Glossary
To save bamboozling the English reader, the many Polish words and phrases scattered through this book have been anglicised by the removal of unfamiliar characters and accent marks – for which, apologies to Polish speakers. I hope the meanings are largely self-explanatory from their context, but readers have told me a glossary is helpful, too. So below is a basic guide to pronunciation, a list of translations from the text, and some Polish swearwords – not to be used in polite company …
Please note that Polish words take many alternative endings according to the number and gender of the addresser/addressee, to name just two of a long list of varying factors, so any apparent inconsistencies are (I hope) not typos, but a glimpse into the complexity of the language.
Pronunciation pointers
Janusz (Yan-ush) – ‘j’ is always a ‘y’ sound; ‘sz’ is ‘sh’
czesc (chesh) – ‘hi’. Similar to the Italian ciao. ‘Cz’ gives a harder ‘ch’ sound than the ‘sh’ of ‘sc’
Kasia (Kash-ah) – ‘si’ makes another very common ‘sh’ sound
Bohuslaw (Boh-hoos-wav) – in the Polish alphabet this version of l is written ł and pronounced ‘w’
wodka (vod-ka) – ‘w’ is always pronounced ‘v’
zurek (zhur-ek) – ‘z’ is often (but not always!) pronounced with a soft ‘j’ sound as in this, a kind of soup
makowiec (mah-koh-vee-ets) – the ‘c’ in ‘iec’ is actually pronounced ‘ts’ in this, Janusz’s favourite, poppyseed cake
Everyday expressions
nie (nee-ay) – no
tak (tak) – yes
prosze pana/pani (prosha-pan-ah/pan-ee) – please sir/madam/Mr/Mrs
dobrze (dob-zha) – okay
naprawde? (na-prav-dah) – really? is that right?
to prawde (toh-prav-dah) – that’s true
dzien dobry (zhin dob-ry) – good day
dziekuje (zhin koo-ya) – thank you
na zdrowie! (nazh-drovia) – cheers!
przepraszam (prruh-shuh-prasham) – sorry/excuse me (polite form)
Other words and phrases in the text
ani o jote – not one jot
barszcz – beetroot soup
biszkopty – biscuits
brawo – bravo, well done
dyskretny – discreet
dziadzia – grandfather
glupek – fool, idiot
honorowy – honourable
kapitulowali – capitulated; surrendered
katastrofa – disaster
kochanie; moj kochanie – beloved; my beloved
kolego – mate, buddy
komiczne – funny, humorous
kotku – diminutive of cat (kot) i.e. little cat; endearment
maluszku – little one
misiu – teddy bear; endearment
mniam mniam – nom nom/yum yum
naturalnie – naturally; of course
niemozliwe – impossible
okropne – terrible
piekna – pretty, cute
psychol – nutter (offensive)
sklep – shop
smaczny – delicious; tasty
solidne – solid, reliable
spoko – okay
straszny – creepy
szmalec – literally, lard; slang for cash. Probably from the Yiddish schmaltz
tato – dad
zlom – scrap metal
skomputeryzowane – computerised
moj tygrysku – my little tiger; endearment
Poles love diminutives of names and ‘ek’ is one of the commonest, giving something akin to Johnny, Billy etc. So Janusz becomes Janek – (Yan-ek); and Bohuslaw, Slawek (Swah-vek). There are a host of other variations: e.g. someone with the name Kasia, which is already a diminutive of Katarzyna, might also be affectionately called Kasiek, Kaska, Kasiulka and Kasiunia …
Swearwords, insults, and exclamations
dupa blada! (dupa blah-dah) – pale arse! An exclamation that defies translation.
dupe (dupa) – literally, arse; can also mean idiot, fool, twat
dziekie – thank God!
gowno (goov-no) – shit
jaja (yah-yah) – balls
kutas (koo-tas) – prick
kurwa, (koor-vah) kurwa mac (koor-vah mash) – literally, ‘whore’ and ‘whore mother’ but used as an all-purpose intensifier like ‘fucking’. Among Polish workmen, kurwa seems almost a conversational condiment …
mega – cool
pedzio (ped-zhio) – offensive term for a gay man
skurwysyn (skoor-vis-in) – literally, ‘son of a whore’ or ‘son of a bitch’
skurwiel (skoor-veel) – fuckhead
chuj (hoo-ey) – literally, prick, but the closest Anglo Saxon equivalent to this, the worst possible term of abuse, would be cunt.
Notes and Thanks
Many readers might be surprised to learn that it was three Polish codebreakers who first broke the German air force Enigma code in the early thirties, laying the groundwork for Turing’s later breakthrough on the German Navy code – work for which they have only recently received any recognition. Hugh Sebag-Montefiore’s Enigma is excellent reading for anyone interested in th
e story.
There are so many people who helped me to create this third book in the series.
Thanks go to finance veteran Paul McNamara for his advice on money laundering and the world of Russian finance; and to IT forensics whizz Jonathan Bonnick for the computer security and hacking info.
I am indebted to Anja Majek who not only checked the Polish grammar and spellings but was also an invaluable source of evocative phrases and sayings. My personal favourite: ‘clean as a teardrop’. I’m sorry I’ll never grasp all those Polish endings, Anja.
My dear friend DS Paula James has once again been a great help on police life and procedure, while gracefully accepting that fiction inevitably involves missing out some of the more tedious parts of the process. Many thanks, too, to a certain female firearms officer, who must remain nameless, for giving me inspiration and advice on Kershaw’s latest (mis)adventures. Any departures from proper procedure are, as ever, down to me.
I am also very grateful to the Polish Cultural Institute, and its lovely head of literature, Magda Raczynska, for its unstinting and generous support of my work; to the fine folk at Merseyside Polonia; and to Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Festival – aka Harrogate – the unmissable summit of the crime writers’ year.
The many friends, readers and fellow writers who’ve supported me, spread the word, and put up with all the moaning and angst, are too numerous to thank here, but here’s a few … David Mark, Mark Billingham, Martyn Waites, Barry Forshaw, Stav Sherez, Sarah Hilary, Mari Hannah, Katherine Armstrong, Jamie Lee Nardone, Malcolm McKay, Emlyn Rees, James Craig, Lynn Roberts, Asia – aka A.M. Bakalar, and Selina O’Grady.
Huge thanks and farewell to my former publisher Scott Pack, who has now left the building, and hello to my new one, that minx Minna Fry. A heartfelt thank you to Lucy Dauman for her fine editing, and another to the tireless Cicely Aspinall.
Finally, loving thanks to my dear husband Tomasz Piotr, who, when asked whether the character of Janusz is based on him, replied that he fears he’s more likely to be the inspiration for Oskar.
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