by David Barry
The tram stopped at various districts, passing anywhere estates that looked like retail parks in most parts of the world. As passengers got on and off the tram, I glanced over my guidebook every so often, keeping an eye on my quarry, but also vigilant in case his American minder got on at another stop. I found it odd, if not highly suspect, that the man who had followed me so obviously, not wanting to let me get away, hadn’t reappeared at the internet café.
After twenty minutes I spotted the blast furnaces of the steelworks in the distance, and then we approached the town where in the past most of the residents had been employed producing steel. The tram came to what looked like the central square of the town and I saw everyone on board about to alight, including the Russian I was following. I took my time tailing him, as the streets were not so busy as in Krakow. He walked determinedly along what looked like the main thoroughfare, from which branched many streets at angles like the spokes from a wheel or central hub. As I left the square I noticed it was named after Ronald Reagan, and guessed it might have had something to do with the Poles giving their Soviet rulers the finger after the glasnost era. I didn’t think it was to honour him as an actor.
Although I had to concentrate on following Eclipse and was determined to end his nasty hobby as an online paedophile, I did notice how in this district teeming with small apartments wherever you looked, the grass verges were well kept, and there was hardly any litter or graffiti.
Halfway along the wide main thoroughfare, Eclipse crossed the road and turned right. There were a few people walking in the same direction as him so I didn’t think it mattered if I walked close behind him, because I had made up my mind that as soon as he disappeared into a block of flats I would be right behind him to find out exactly where he lived.
When he was only a few yards in front of me, and still oblivious to being followed, he turned towards one of the entrances leading to a block of flats. I saw him take out a bunch of keys to unlock the main entrance, and I knew the only way I could get in and find out where he lived was to pretend to be one of the tenants, and hope he might not say anything to me in Polish as I followed him in. As he pushed open the door I leapt forward stretching my arm out to stop it from closing. There was no way he wouldn’t have noticed me now and he turned, nodded and gave me a polite smile. I returned the nod and smile, although it took me a huge effort, because I really wanted to flatten the little pervert. But that could wait, because I would soon know where he lived. After giving him a few minutes to get his breath back, I would surprise him and put an end to his nasty little empire of sleaze.
The flats were not high rise, and I might have been mistaken but as I walked along I noted they were five or six storeys high. I didn’t know if there was a lift. If there was, I decided I would brazen it out and join him for the ride to his floor. But I couldn’t see any lift, and I saw him walking towards the stairs, so I followed close behind, our footsteps echoing in harmony in the stairwell. It must have been obvious he was being followed. Strange. He seemed unaffected by my close proximity. If someone had walked close behind me all the way from the tram terminus, I’d have at least felt inquisitive enough to turn around to see who it was.
At the first floor he turned into a passageway and marched along to his front door. I carried on walking past him, noting the number on the door, and continued past all the flat doors to the other end of the corridor. I heard his keys rattle as he unlocked the door, then went inside and shut the door.
Good. I had him. It had been easy. Now all I had to do was work him over and scare the shit out of him, so he would think twice before embarking on anymore perverted troll behaviour. I knew I was going to have to be ruthless, make him suffer, so that he might need medical attention. But it was the only way to stop this monster from scaring young children. I braced myself, walked back along the passage, took a deep breath and knocked on his door.
It opened after a moment and the little pervert stood in front of me grinning cockily. His unflinching, arrogant attitude stirred in me a heaving anger and I stepped inside, ready to grab the sick deviant around the throat. It was then I noticed he wasn’t alone. There were three others, and one of them was the internet café proprietor.
He suddenly lunged forwards, spinning me round so I faced the other two, then locked my arms behind my back. A rock-hard fist smacked into my diaphragm knocking the breath out of my body, and another fist punched the side of my head. I blacked out.
Chapter 31
I couldn’t have been unconscious for more than a few minutes because I became aware of Polish being gabbled frantically, the voices excitable and questioning. They had sat me on a hard wooden chair, and hands fumbled behind me, tying my wrists together. My legs were already tied to the chair legs. My head throbbed from the blow to its side, the same spot as the laptop injury, and my stomach felt hollowed out and queasy. I heard footsteps on bare floorboards walking from behind me. Then I stirred and blinked, and they all four stopped speaking. As they swam into focus through my fogged vision, I saw the four of them standing in a semi-circle in front of me like a welcoming party. How stupid I’d been. Obviously I’d been set up. The Russian knew I planned to follow him here, Ludwik would have told him, and presumably the proprietor jumped in a taxi as soon as I’d left the internet café.
‘Who are you?’ Ludwik demanded. ‘What do you want with us?’
I stared at the Russian. ‘You must be Alexei, otherwise known as Eclipse.’
They exchanged looks, wondering how I might have known about this closely guarded secret. ‘There is no one here of that name,’ Alexei said. ‘You have made a mistake.’
I glanced around at the flat, and was shocked to find I was sitting strapped to the only chair in an uncarpeted room, devoid of any other furniture. Alongside one wall was a pile of neatly stacked cardboard boxes, which left me to conclude that the flat was used for storage purposes only. I wondered what was in the boxes, thinking it might be child porn, and my rage bubbled to the surface. I glared with loathing at the Russian.
‘You disgusting bastard. How many children have you scarred and abused? Whatever you do to me will be nothing compared to what happens when they eventually catch you and stick you in prison. You know how much other prisoners hate paedophiles. Well, I hope you suffer for what you’ve done. I hope they crucify you. Fucking slowly over many years.’
The Russian threw the other three men a genuinely puzzled expression, shrugged hugely and muttered something in Polish. I got the impression that two of them, both lean, fit-looking men in their early thirties, spoke little or no English.
He turned back to me and shook his head.
‘I know nothing of what you say. So now you tell me who you are. Which agency you work for?’
‘I don’t work for an agency. I work for myself.’
‘He told me a lie about being a private detective looking for a man who got a girl with child,’ Ludwik told the Russian. ‘You want me to get him to tell the truth?’ He stepped nearer, his fists clenched. The Russian stopped him with a restraining hand.
‘Not yet. First of all he will tell me what he is doing in Krakow.’
‘Looking for Eclipse,’ I said, locking eyes with him.
The Russian frowned. ‘I don’t understand. Why you look for Eclipse?’
‘Because Eclipse has been threatening my daughter on the internet. And if you’re Eclipse, I think you had Tim Bayne killed.’
My accusation hit him like a thunderbolt. He opened his mouth in surprise and made a gurgling noise.
‘How much did you pay Chapmays to kill him?’
‘I don’t know anyone of that name.’
‘But you knew Tim Bayne.’
He paused thoughtfully, wondering what to tell me. ‘Yes, Tim was my partner...’ He laughed nervously. ‘...in crime. For years we make a fortune, and everything was good.’
�
�Stealing from banks?’ I suggested.
He shrugged and smiled. ‘Yes, but customers do not lose. Banks collect insurance.’
‘Which raises their premiums and they pass on the extra charges to the customers.’
‘And the bank executive’s rob the customers by getting fatter bonuses.’
Ludwik sighed impatiently. ‘We are not here to argue about banks. We want to know why you accuse Alexei of being a paedophile.’
The way things were going, I was starting to feel less sure about this. When they had knocked me out and tied me up, I thought at first these were ruthless men who would think nothing of torturing or killing me. Now I wasn’t so certain.
‘Because this all started when Bayne’s daughter Alice employed my detective agency to find out why her family was murdered. At the same time my daughter received sex threats from a man - someone in Poland using the name Eclipse.’
The Russian slammed a fist onto his chest. ‘Not me. I do not harm children. Never. It is someone who pretends to be me. Tim Bayne found out who he was and was going to... blow the whistle on this person. That is why he was killed.’
Just then we heard marching feet in the corridor outside, followed by a loud banging on the door.
‘Policji!’ came a yell from outside, then more words in Polish which I presumed were demands to open the door. The four men froze for an instant. Then the Russian and Ludwik turned to look at me, glaring menacingly, and even started to move towards me.
‘This has nothing to do with me,’ I said. ‘I couldn’t have known about this address before I followed you here.’
More door banging and yells from outside. The Russian looked towards the cardboard boxes and spoke in Polish to Ludwik. The four of them started to panic and Ludwik, moving towards the door, yelled something in Polish, perhaps demanding a search warrant. This was followed by angry cries from outside, more door banging, and then a loud splintering noise as the door burst open on its hinges and three uniformed policemen entered, their guns drawn. The four men in the room stepped back involuntarily and half-raised their hands. Stepping across the threshold past the broken door came two men in suits, one of them balding and middle-aged; the other much younger with spiky hair similar to Ludwik’s. I guessed they were plain clothes Polish detectives. While two of the men and Ludwik were handcuffed by the three uniformed policemen, the younger detective handcuffed the Russian, while the older detective spoke in a Polish monotone, words he had clearly said many times before as he delivered the statutory caution.
As he droned through the litany in a bored voice, a figure appeared in the doorway, like an actor stepping onstage and waiting for an entrance round of applause.
It was the American who had followed me from the internet café yesterday.
Ignoring me, he walked over to the cardboard boxes, raised the lid of one of them, nodded with satisfaction and addressed the senior Polish detective. ‘ATM skimmers. Hundreds of them.’ Pretending to notice me for the first time, and with eyebrows raised in mock surprise, he instructed the police to untie me. One of the uniformed cops untied my legs, while another undid the cords behind my back. The American came and stood in front of me when this was done.
‘Who the hell are you? And what business do you have with these men?’
‘That one there...’ I nodded towards the Russian. ‘He calls himself Eclipse on the internet, and he’s been targeting young children; he’s a sex predator. My daughter was being threatened by him.’
‘That’s not true,’ the Russian yelled. ‘I come from a large family - a happy family - and I have many brothers and sisters. I love children.’
The American flicked his head towards the Russian and told him to shut up. Then he spoke to me again. ‘It’s true that Alexei Varushkin is Eclipse, but I don’t understand where you fit in to this jigsaw. We’ve been after Eclipse for years, but...’
‘Who is we?’ I cut in.
He looked down at me like a specimen on a plate. ‘My name is Jackson Headley.’ He took out his wallet, flipped it open and showed me his badge.
I stared open-mouthed for a moment. ‘FBI!’ I said. ‘What the hell has this to do with the FBI? Is this some sort of security issue?’
He smiled for the first time, like someone confronting total naivety. ‘This has nothing to do with security. It is theft, plain and simple. These men have distantly robbed banks in America of millions of dollars over the years.’ He inclined his head towards the Polish detectives. ‘And along with the co-operation of the Polish police, I’ve been sent over to see if we can put an end to this drain on our resources. Not just in America, but globally. But the question still remains, where do you fit in to this scam?’
‘I told you, this Eclipse is a sex predator.’
‘Not true!’ Alexei yelled.
‘I find this hard to believe,’ the FBI man went on, ‘because we’ve had him and his accomplices under observation for some time now.’
I fumbled in my pocket for the flash drive and offered it to him.
‘What’s this?’
‘It’s a complete transcript of our investigation into Eclipse’s affairs. If you don’t believe me, read it and you’ll see I’m telling the truth.’
He took the flash drive and pocketed it. Then he nodded to the Polish detectives.
‘Search him, gentlemen.’
The detectives pulled me into a standing position, and a stab of pain streaked through my head where Ludwik had walloped me. I gasped, but they ignored it as they frisked me. They found my passport and flipped it open.
‘Frederick James Weston,’ said the senior Polish detective. ‘And your occupation is given as company director.’
The FBI man snorted. ‘Which means nothing.’
‘So what happens now?’ I said.
He raised his eyebrows as he stared at me. ‘These men will be taken, questioned and charged. But I assume you’re asking about your own predicament. I will read through the details of your investigation into Eclipse, and we will hold your passport to make certain you stay in Poland until our own investigations are complete. Which hotel are you staying at?’
‘The Golden Tulip.’
‘I suggest you stay there until we contact you.’
‘When will that be?’
‘Hopefully, tomorrow some time. Meanwhile you’re free to go.’
The Russian stared at me as I shuffled towards the door. His eyes were defensive, pleading with a childlike innocence. But I knew how manipulative and cunning paedophiles could be and I dismissed his imploring look as that of a scheming bastard.
I stopped at the door and turned back. ‘What happens if I’m stopped and asked to show my passport?’
‘Mention that it is in my possession,’ said the senior detective. ‘Inspector Jakub Dabrowski.’
And that was that. There was nothing for me to do except to catch the next tram back to Krakow, wondering how long I might be kept in Poland.
Chapter 32
Tuesday 15 October 2013
I awoke with another bad headache and felt like something a dog might have regurgitated. My sleep had been disturbed by fearful thoughts following my phone call to Michelle. I told her Eclipse was now in a police cell, but she went on to tell me that Olivia received another threatening message around 5.15, and as the Russian was in police custody from mid-morning it seemed doubtful he could be the culprit, unless he had another accomplice helping him. I gave Michelle a feeble explanation, telling her not to worry, because sometimes internet servers can be slow responding, and perhaps it was one from when I observed him on the computer in the café that morning. But I found it difficult to reassure her, mainly because I was not convinced myself. I went to bed with a bruised head and brain, knowing I would spend a fitful night seeking answers.
Because I eventually fell into
a deep sleep in the early morning, I almost missed breakfast. I had just finished a croissant and coffee when Jackson Headley, the FBI agent, loomed over my table.
‘Mind if I join you?’
I nodded and gestured to a seat opposite. ‘Coffee?’ I offered.
‘No, thanks. It’s coming out of my ears.’ He slid a hand into his inside pocket as he sat down, took out my passport and flash drive and placed them on the table in front of me. ‘I read the report, and made copies, and we have no reason to keep you here.’
‘What about the Russian? What have you done about him?’
He sighed deeply. ‘He’s rich, with a healthy Swiss bank account. He’ll get the best defence lawyer available. The skimmers we found at that flat he’ll either deny knowing anything about, or he’ll plead guilty to possession, claiming he had no intention of selling them or using them, and was merely storing them on behalf of another mysterious Russian national.’
‘I don’t care about him stealing from banks,’ I began, but he raised a hand to stop me.
‘After an intensive interrogation of all four men, we don’t think they had anything to do with this other business - the murders and the internet threats.’
He dropped his voice to a soft spoken and sympathetic level. ‘I know this is hard to accept, Freddie, but I think there’s someone still out there masquerading as Eclipse.’
‘And did you discover from the real Eclipse why Tim Bayne may have been killed?’
‘Alexei Dabrowski has a theory, although he can’t prove it.’
‘OK. Let’s hear it.’
‘Tim Bayne as you know partnered the Russian in their criminal activities, making millions by scamming banks and controlling a huge ATM skimming empire. Then he thinks his partner stumbled on something really nasty on the internet. He thinks it may have been something to do with child abuse and Bayne was working to expose it and destroy it.’
