The Becić Connection

by Estelle Ryan

  “Marty.” Nikki waved her hand in a rolling motion for Martin to continue.

  “Hmm.” Martin looked up at the sky, to the left. Recalling information. “Ooh, he has a brother. Sebastien asked me last week to take over the job as executor of his estate. I was going to find and contact his family this week to start the process of sorting out his estate.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, but this is really all I know.”

  “I’ll get into this, Martin.” The sound of Francine typing on her keyboard told me that she was already looking into Goran Radja and anyone related to him. The sound stopped. “Now tell me, who’s the new guy with the sexy deep voice?”

  “Behave yourself, woman.” Manny shook the phone again, then tapped the screen to end the call. He pointed his phone at Luka. “Wipe that smug smile off your face. She’s mine.”

  “Oh, there’s no doubt about that.” Luka’s smile was genuine and relaxed. “Is it safe for Zork to get in touch with your woman or should we work through you?”

  Nikki burst out laughing. “Francine would scalp you for saying she belongs to anyone.”

  “Noted.” Luka winked at Nikki and turned back to Manny, his eyebrows raised as he waited for an answer.

  “I’ll get her to contact Zork.” Manny’s single nod was as tight as his tone. He was the only one irritated. Everyone else was smiling.

  Everyone else except me. Now that we’d found Martin and Nikki and they were both safe, I wanted to be back in my known environment. I was no stranger to travelling, but that had always been preceded by months of mentally preparing myself for all possible scenarios that would challenge my non-neurotypical brain.

  This impromptu trip had to end. I turned to Colin. “I want to go home.”

  “No!” Nikki stepped closer to me, her hand raised as if to stop me. “We can’t go. Not now. Florian said something bad is going to happen. We have to prevent it.”

  “Something bad?” Pink asked.

  “No.” I shook my head and couldn’t stop. It took three deep and slow breaths before I managed to control my movements.

  “Doc G. I know I can find what Florian was looking for. I just need a little bit of time and a place to work.” She stepped even closer to me, her expression communicating urgency and fear, ignoring Pink and Manny asking her about the threat. “Florian said that I had less than forty-two hours to find whatever he was looking for in the paintings. He needed something on these paintings so he could do something to stop this bad something. We’ve already lost half a day, so now there’s only like thirty hours to prevent this big bad something.”

  “That’s a lot of somethings, little punk,” Vinnie said.

  “I know.” She turned to him. “I wish I had more, but I didn’t want to ask too many questions.” Her breath hitched and fear flooded her features as she remembered. “I just wanted to get Marty and get out of there.”

  “You told them that you got the paintings out of there too, right?” Martin rolled his eyes when Nikki gasped.

  She turned to Colin and bounced on her feet. “Ooh. I forgot. I took both paintings when we left.”

  “Both paintings?” Colin’s face came alive with anticipation.

  “Yes. The Becić and the Račić.”

  “Where are they?”

  Nikki looked over her shoulder towards the ruins. “I hid them in case things went bad. I was going to use the art as a bargaining tool.”

  “Let’s get them.” Colin let go of my hand and took a step to the structure to our left.

  “Not alone.” Luka rested his hand on his holstered gun and nodded at Zork. “Stay here and stay alert.”

  “Yes, boss.”

  Luka took a step towards the ruins and smiled when Vinnie and Pink followed them. I watched as Pink held Nikki’s hand and she chatted to Colin about the paintings, all of them walking to the structure.

  “Doc?” Manny waited until I looked at him. “You with me?”

  “Of course I’m...” My lips thinned and I sighed when I registered his expression. “Thank you for your concern. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to feel so exhausted from relief that Nikki is well. And so worried about the implications of what she told us.”

  “You and me both, Doc. You and me both.” Manny shrugged and pushed his hands into his trouser pockets. “But we’re here and we might as well look into this bloody ‘something’ Nikki is talking about and stop whatever the hell this Floral idiot is planning.”

  “Florian.” I relaxed when his lips twitched in a smile.

  He took his phone from his trouser pocket and grunted. “Let me start making calls. Bloody first call will be to Captain Bouvier in Strasbourg. We need more than his forty-eight hours. At least we have Nikki and that bleeding painting. Then I need to speak to the president. We need clearance to work the case here.”

  The rest of us stood in silence as he walked away, already holding his phone to his ear.

  “Excuse me.” Martin waved his hand until the quiet team member looked at him. “I know everyone else’s names. Not yours.”

  “Mikula.” A small smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “Mikula Cvetko.”

  Zork stepped closer. “He’s the talker in our team. I sometimes wish he would just shut up.”

  Martin laughed, then grabbed at his ribs. “No laughing. Please.”

  For a few minutes I watched Martin chat with the three Croatian men. Mikula’s English was almost accentless and spoken with quiet confidence. That described his entire demeanour. Quiet confidence. It was easy to dismiss introverts as lacking self-confidence or having weak personalities and being easy to manipulate. Often the opposite was true.

  And I was watching it in action. Mikula didn’t say much, but his nonverbal cues revealed how much he observed and processed. When he did speak, he didn’t waste words and showed an insight that came from seeing more than people would wish to reveal.

  Nikki’s laughter pulled my attention back to the ruins. She was walking back with the men. Colin was carrying a tube that looked like the one Nikki had used to take the Becić from the Chêne Gallery. Luka was following a few steps behind them, speaking on his phone. As soon as they were within earshot, it became clear he was speaking in Croatian.

  He looked up from his phone and narrowed his eyes at Manny, who was standing on the other side of the SUVs, also speaking on his phone. Luka nodded, then spoke a bit longer before ending the call. He looked at me, then at Colin and Vinnie. “Looks like we’re teaming up with you guys.”

  I’d known this was coming. Not only had I seen this in his nonverbal cues, it had been the logical conclusion to this situation. I stopped myself from dwelling on how much I didn’t want to be here. This case was interesting. The changes Nikki was supposed to find on the paintings intrigued me. As much as I didn’t want to be away from my safe routines, I wanted to solve this riddle even more.

  “Your boss spoke to you?” Manny asked Luka as he walked closer to us, putting his phone in his trouser pocket.

  Luka nodded. “We’re teaming up.”

  “A few ground rules.” Manny grunted loudly when Luka pulled his shoulders back, his friendliness disappearing. “Oh, for the love of Mary, none of that. What I wanted to say is that we are not in the business of pissing contests.”

  Colin stepped forward. “Millard has never been good at sharing his feelings. What he’s trying to say is that we want to work with you. Not against you, not for you, not behind your back. It would be best if we do this as if we are one team.”

  “Bugger off, Frey. I can speak for myself.”

  “Not as prettily as Colin, old man.” Vinnie snorted when Manny swore at him.

  Luka’s posture relaxed and he nodded at Colin, then looked at Manny. “I would like for us to work together as well.”

  “Then it’s settled.” Manny looked at me. “Francine says Émile organised accommodation for us.”

  “Where?” Zork asked.

  “In Rovinj.” Manny turned back to me. “Émil
e says it’s his friend’s villa and it’s as clean and almost as beautiful as his place in Hungary.”

  Manny was telling me this because he knew how hard it was for me to settle into any environment that didn’t have a certain level of cleanliness. His consideration towards me softened something inside me. I nodded.

  “Rovinj will work for us too.” Luka nodded. “We’re based in Pula and it’s only a forty-five-minute drive.”

  “Boss.” Bruno looked towards the north of where we were standing. “My sister has a house in Rovinj she doesn’t use. We can set up there, then we’ll be closer.”

  “Get it done.” Luka looked at his watch, then at Manny. “Send me the address of your place and we’ll meet in... two hours?”

  Manny nodded. “Two hours.”

  Chapter TEN

  “I’M IMPRESSED.” COLIN stopped at the bottom of the staircase and waited for me. He looked around the ground floor of the villa Émile’s friend had made available to us. “This is a beautiful place.”

  I agreed with Colin. The villa was large, clean and elegant. It went a long way to ease the anxiety caused by staying here and foregoing my routines and controlled environment. I stepped onto the wooden floor and took a moment to absorb the elegance of the open-plan ground floor.

  The villa was located in the heart of Rovinj’s Old Town, a mere few minutes’ walk from the famous marina and the Rovinj ferry port. From there numerous ferries came from and went to Italy on a daily basis. The streets here were all cobblestone and our villa was in the shadow of the eighteenth-century church of St. Euphemia, the patron of Rovinj.

  Colin pointed at the wooden beams on the ceiling. “You can see the owner paid a lot of attention to the details of the history of this building when he remodelled. Those beams look like the originals. And that stone fireplace is as authentic as the stone wall in our bedroom.”

  I was often overwhelmed by the generosity of the people in my life. When we’d arrived here, Vinnie had declared that after I chose my room, he was to get the biggest of the five remaining ensuite rooms. Everyone had turned to me and waited. I was humbled by how none of them considered it a sacrifice to accommodate my non-neurotypical brain. It had been hard to prevent tears from filling my eyes. Especially after such an emotionally draining day on too little sleep.

  I had chosen a room on the first floor. The light cream stone walls, pristine white bedding and towels appealed to my need for cleanliness and order. The wooden floors were bleached just enough to keep the room bright, but not enough to take away the natural warmth wood always added to a space.

  Vinnie had rushed up to the three bedrooms on the second floor, then back down and had taken the room next to ours, declaring it spacious enough for his ‘mighty physique’. No sooner had he claimed his space than he’d left the house in search of ingredients to cook dinner. He was now in the well-equipped kitchen preparing a salad to go with whatever was cooking in the two pots on the stove.

  Pink was sitting at the table watching Nikki carefully removing the paintings from the plastic tube. He turned as we made our way to the table. “Francine said that Émile said that his friend said”—he winked at Nikki when she giggled—“this house is more than two hundred years old.”

  “I love this fireplace.” Nikki didn’t look up as she laid out the first painting on one of the three large sofas surrounding the fireplace. That sofa was a deep green colour, the others blue and red, all dark colours. The wooden floor here was also bleached, contrasting beautifully with the dark sofas and dark wood dining room table and chairs.

  Movement by the front door caught my attention. Zork closed the door behind him as Luka walked ahead of him. Even though Émile had guaranteed Francine that his friend’s villa was much bigger than we needed, I’d only relaxed when we’d entered it. The high ceilings and well-thought-out furnishings created a space that felt both welcoming and uncluttered. This many people in one space didn’t bring on any feelings of claustrophobia.

  “That smells really good, Vinnie.” Luka put a small black sports bag on the dining room table in front of Pink. “I hope there’s enough for us too.”

  “I made plenty, dude.” Vinnie looked at the black bag. “Whatcha got in there?”

  Luka unzipped the bag and took out two handguns. He put one in front of Pink. “I had to choose for you, so I hope the Glock will be okay.” He pushed the other handgun away. “That one is registered in Colonel Millard’s name and yours in your name.”

  “The name on the registration is Pink?” Martin took another careful step down the stairs, a wry smile lifting his cheeks.

  Luka frowned. “No, the name on his registration is Pie—”

  “Thank you for this.” Pink’s loud interruption made Martin snort.

  Martin immediately winced and put his palm against his ribs. “This hurts.”

  “You’re an idiot.” Nikki put both hands on her hips and glared at Martin. “You need to go to the hospital, Marty.”

  “After dinner.” He looked at Vinnie. “Smells heavenly.”

  “When was the last time you ate?” Colin asked.

  “Yesterday afternoon.” Martin walked to the dining room table and sat down. “Someone offered Nikki a sandwich while those goons were beating me up.”

  “I declined.” Nikki turned back to the sofa and stared at the two paintings she’d placed next to each other. “I had no appetite.”

  “Now I do.” Martin stretched his neck to look at the stove. “How much longer, Vinnie?”

  “Ten minutes, dude.” Vinnie pointed a wooden spoon at Zork. “You can set the table and earn your food that way.”

  Zork pointed to the two bottles of wine he cradled in his arm. “This won’t be enough?”

  “Hmm. Maybe.” Vinnie turned to Luka. “Did you bring me a weapon?”

  “Of course not.” Luka shrugged. “If you gave me your full name, I could’ve registered a gun in your name.”

  “As if.” Vinnie shook the spoon at Luka. “You set the table.”

  Luka chuckled. “Okay then.”

  Nikki smiled as Luka walked to the kitchen and followed Vinnie’s instructions. She turned back to the paintings on the sofa. Her smile disappeared. “It breaks my heart that I had to roll up these masterpieces.”

  Colin walked closer. “Any damage?”

  “A bit.” Nikki pointed at the centre of the Becić landscape. “Some of the paint here cracked and I’m sure there’s some flaking.”

  I stood next to Colin and looked at both paintings. I couldn’t see any obvious damage to either. But I didn’t have the expertise Nikki and Colin did.

  Colin leaned in and narrowed his eyes. “Not too bad.” He studied the other painting.

  The Na Seini by Račić was simple, but beautiful. Quiet. A bridge dominated the scene with two people, presumably men, sitting under the arch of the bridge, on the riverbank. Both faced away, towards the faded skyline in the background. The colours in the painting were strong, but not vibrant. It was a calming scene.

  Nikki pointed at the top left-hand corner where the bridge disappeared off the edge. “That damage is new. I don’t know if I did this to the Račić or if it was there before. I just grabbed it on my way out. I tried to be as careful as possible.”

  “This should never have happened to you, Nix,” Colin said softly.

  “I can’t believe I’m the one who caused any damage.” Nikki’s voice wobbled. “Man, this sucks.”

  “No one would blame you for any of this.” Colin gave her a sideways hug. “You did what you had to.”

  “Nix.” Pink waited until she looked at him. “You’re much more important than a painting.”

  “Intellectually, I know that.” She closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head. “But these paintings represent so much history.”

  “Tell me more about these two.” Zork was sitting next to Pink and leaned back when Luka put a plate in front of him. “About the paintings and the artists.”

  “Beci�
� and Račić lived quite different lives.” Colin straightened. “And died quite different deaths. Račić committed suicide in his hotel room at the tender age of twenty-three, Becić died at the age of sixty-seven. Račić didn’t have a charmed childhood education, whereas Becić attended a private art school and also studied law for a short while before he gave it up for art.

  “They met in Munich at the Academy of Fine Arts when both of them studied there for three years. Hmm... that was around 1905. In the years they were there, the two of them became close with Oskar Herman and Miroslav Kraljević. Their work was strongly influenced by Manet and Goya and in turn they influenced Croatian artists from that era.

  “The year after Račić left Munich and moved to Paris... well, that was his last year. Becić went to Zagreb after Munich where he died in 1954. Becić’s self-portraits were also very different from Račić’s. Becić painted simple self-portraits, but always showing a full expression. Račić’s self-portraits were much more contemporary. Both were incredible artists.”

  “You’ve been doing some reading, dude.” Vinnie put the lid back on the smaller pot.

  Colin smiled. “I have. My knowledge of these guys was basic.”

  “Your basic is my exhaustive knowledge,” Pink said.

  “Same goes if you and I compare IT knowledge.” Colin’s smile widened when Pink nodded.

  “True dat.” Vinnie took the pots from the stove.

  “These paintings are supposed to be telling us something.” Nikki gave the paintings one more glance, sighed and walked to the table. We followed and sat down. Nikki stood next to Pink, her arm around his shoulders and his around her hips. “The little I learned in art history wasn’t enough, so I checked out Becić before I started on that painting. But I didn’t really look deep into the Munich Four.”

  Colin waited for me to sit before he also sat down. “The Munich Four were known for the strong tonal forms in their works. They got their influence or inspiration from the classical painting of Spanish and French masters. Their joint identity of style didn’t have any literary, moralistic or historical framework. It was pure, concise artistic expression, which was quite the opposite to French Impressionism which was all the rage then. These four Croatian artists individually and as a group influenced Croatian Modernism.”