The Netscher Connection

by Estelle Ryan

  Chapter TWENTY

  This was my first visit to the residential part of Szentendre. I was not disappointed. The streets were extremely narrow, lined with hedges and trees obscuring the houses. It was still beautifully green. Only a few trees started showing signs that the season was changing. János Nagy’s property was one of the largest on the street, the hedge higher than those in front of the other houses. It was only the automated wooden gate that gave us some view of the front of the two-story house.

  The TEK team had arrived in two SUVs and one armoured vehicle, and were currently surrounding the property. More police officers were going from house to house, warning the residents to stay inside. I had the impression that this was the most activity this street had ever seen. The neighbourhood was quiet, only the sounds of children playing, dogs barking and the birds in the trees filling the air. And the sound of booted feet on the street.

  I was sitting in the SUV with Colin and Vinnie, parked in front of the house diagonally across from János’. Colin was staring at the house, his orbicularis oris muscles contracting his lips to thin lines. This case, this killer, was affecting Colin more than any case we’d worked before.

  “Dude!” Vinnie laughed into his phone. “Please tell the old man that. In those words. Hah. Okay, I’ll put you on speaker.”

  “Hi, Genevieve.” Daniel’s calm voice with a hint of laughter brought a feeling of warmth to my chest. As the leader of the GIPN team in Strasbourg, he’d played a pivotal role in the resolution of many of our cases. He’d also become a good friend.

  “Daniel. Is Nikki safe?” I knew Daniel would be honest.

  “Yes. She and Pink are in her room, changing Eric.” His voice lowered. “She’s worried about you.”

  “Why?”

  He chuckled. “I told her there was nothing to be worried about.”

  “How’s Pink?” Colin asked.

  “Happy.” He was quiet for a second. “Thank you for asking for his help on this case. It seems to have boosted his recovery a lot. I haven’t seen him this upbeat in a very long time.”

  “Tell them about the Budapest TEK team.” Vinnie shifted impatiently in the back seat.

  “I already spoke to Manny and reassured him that George and his team are really good. We trained with them last year at a European emergency response conference. You’re in good hands.” He paused. “Uh... I’m with Nikki and Pink and she’s nagging me to talk to you. I’ll put you on speaker.”

  “Doc G!” Nikki’s voice sounded as if she wasn’t close to the phone. “Have you found Lila?”

  “Yes.” Hearing Nikki’s voice brought the debilitating concern over her and Eric’s safety rushing back. I took a shaky breath. “You must stay safe, Nikki.” I didn’t know if I would ever recover if something were to happen to her.

  “Don’t worry about me, Doc G. Eric and I are in great company. Pink is busy moving all my personal photos and documents to a secure server with crazy passwords.” She cleared her throat and whispered, “And Daniel has three guns.”

  Vinnie chuckled. “Good. That will keep my punks safe.”

  “I miss you, Doc G. Eric misses you. Come home.”

  I placed my hand over my heart before I realised what I was doing. I leaned towards Vinnie’s phone. “We will be home as soon as we’re finished here.”

  “Stay safe and hurry.”

  “I’ll keep them safe, little punk.” Vinnie’s tone was gentle. “You just make sure the tiny punk doesn’t go into my room and try on any of my clothes. I don’t share.”

  Nikki laughed and made kissy noises, then proceeded to speak to Eric and tell him that his Uncle Vinnie was a selfish oaf. Despite the ridiculousness of that conversation, I smiled. It amazed me that Nikki could stay so buoyant while this life-changing danger loomed over her and Eric.

  Movement from the street caught my attention. Captain Palya and Manny were talking to a uniformed man who looked to be the TEK leader. I turned my attention back to the phone. “Have you been updated on everything, Pink?”

  “Yup, I have.” It sounded like he moved closer to the phone. “Francine and I are online and we’re ready to act the moment we have more info.”

  Francine was sitting in the back of the second SUV with three laptops and her tablet. She’d suggested that we should engage with Lila as soon as we found her in an effort to get her to disable the traps she’d set in Drestia’s programming. Francine had hacked into the tournament’s server and had given Pink access. Together they were ready. But, as Francine had rightly pointed out, they didn’t know what they were ready for.

  We didn’t know who Lila was targeting and what the traps were supposed to do. Pink and Francine didn’t consider it wise to look around the coding of the game in case they set off one of the traps.

  A knock on the window next to me sent a small spike of adrenaline through my system. Captain Palya was standing next to my door, staring into the vehicle. When I didn’t react, he scowled and gestured for me to get out.

  Vinnie got out first and placed himself half in front of me when I got out. Colin joined us and took my hand. “What’s happening?”

  “TEK went in and found Lila. They’re asking what to do about her.”

  “What do you mean?” I didn’t detect any alarm, but his ambiguous statement didn’t give me any information about Lila’s condition or state of mind.

  “You’d better come and see this, Doc.” Manny nodded towards the open wooden gate.

  I inhaled deeply, pushed Mozart’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in B-flat into my mind and nodded. Colin and I followed Manny and the captain into the property. Vinnie walked behind us, his hand resting on his holstered weapon.

  There wasn’t much of a front garden. Only a narrow strip of lawn separated the house from the voluminous hedge. The grass looked like it hadn’t been cut in two or three weeks, but the garden wasn’t particularly neglected. Two TEK members were standing in the open front door, chatting. Their nonverbal cues were relaxed. They didn’t consider there to be any threat inside the house.

  They moved aside when we stepped onto the veranda and nodded respectfully at Captain Palya. The latter didn’t say anything, just walked straight through the house without even glancing into the other rooms. I couldn’t do that. Colin slowed down with me and also looked into the three doors leading to a dining room, formal sitting room and bedroom respectively.

  All three rooms looked clean but old. The curtains were torn in a few places, not from abuse, but rather from the fabric having grown weak over the years. Colin’s breathing changed a few times and I knew the paintings on the walls had got his attention. Artwork in old frames covered most of the surface of every wall. Each room looked like an individual art exhibition of the most famous masters.

  “Jenny, that Courbet looks authentic. My God. That Rubens too. They look like original works.” His voice was low, his mouth slightly agape. “But they can’t be. There can’t be this many masterpieces in one house. That Picasso is listed as lost. It was taken during the Second World War.”

  “Frey!” Manny’s whispered shout drew our attention to the back of the house. “Get your arse over here. You can look at the pretty pictures later.”

  Colin’s hand tightened over mine, but he nodded. We joined Manny, the captain and the TEK leader in the old-fashioned kitchen. They were looking out the window at the spacious backyard. Captain Palya’s corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major muscles contracted into a textbook expression of confusion. “What is she doing?”

  “Swinging.” It was obvious to me.

  Under an old oak tree, a young woman dressed in jeans and a red t-shirt was sitting on a swing, moving back and forth. Her hair was sheared close to her scalp and dyed dark blue. She had a row of earrings in her left ear and only a diamond stud in the other. Her olive skin sported a healthy summer tan. Her features were such that she could’ve passed for many nationalities. She was a beautiful young woman.

  Her feet pushed on the ground, sending
the swing even higher. She was studiously ignoring a man trying to engage with her. He was wearing a police uniform, but not the same as the TEK team.

  “Who’s talking to her?” Vinnie asked.

  “Rudolph Hajos.” Captain Palya didn’t take his eyes off the backyard. “He’s the best negotiator and interrogator we have.”

  “She’s not responding to him.” I didn’t understand why that man would continue to speak to her when her nonverbal cues so clearly communicated her disinterest in and disrespect of him. “You’re wasting time and antagonising her.”

  “Well, what do you recommend?” The captain turned around and put his hands on his hips. “We need information from her and fast.”

  “Doc and I will speak to her.” Manny lowered his brow when I started shaking my head. “Think about it, Doc. You will know what to say to her because you’ll read her reactions to everything. I’ll be there with you.”

  “No.”

  “Bloody hell, Doc.” Manny shook his index finger at the backyard. “That female has already killed more than a dozen people. We know that she’s planning something crazy for tonight and we need to stop her. You have to talk to her.”

  I blinked at him. “I will talk to her. But not with you.”

  “You’re not bloody going in there alone.”

  “Colin will come with me.” I turned away to face the backyard. “Lila has been intimidated and discriminated against her whole life. By men. By forceful males. That man talking to her exhibits all the nonverbal cues of a dominant male personality. She won’t respond to it.” I turned back to face the men in the room. “She won’t respond to you either. Only Colin.”

  Vinnie snorted and punched Colin in the shoulder. “Softy.”

  I narrowed my eyes at Vinnie. “A man can be an alpha male and not overwhelm others. Colin is more sensitive to body language and linguistic nuances than any of you. He would know how to act around Lila to put her at ease. Your forceful nature would have the same result as that negotiator. She would become defensive and wouldn’t engage.”

  “You’re on, Frey.” Manny turned to me. “Make sure, Doc. Study her now and make sure she’s not a danger to you. I’m not bloody sending you out there with Frey if it’s not secure.”

  I didn’t need to study her. “She’s not a physical threat.”

  “It might be a good idea for everyone else to fall back.” Colin glanced back into the house. “They can secure the art in here. It’s worth hundreds of millions, if not more.”

  Captain Palya said something in Hungarian. I was sure it was yet again an expletive. “I’ll get more backup. Get what you need from that woman.”

  “We need to wire you up, Jen-girl.” Vinnie reached into one of the many side-pockets of his combat trousers. “Franny will have my head if she can’t immediately hear anything Lila tells you.”

  I took a step back. “I’m not wearing an earpiece. Or a wire.”

  “You should know better, Vin.” Colin took the small box from Vinnie. “I’ll wear the earpiece and mic.”

  It took three minutes for Captain Palya to clear the backyard and for Colin to test the communication devices. Once satisfied that he could clearly hear Francine and Pink, and they could hear our conversation in the kitchen, he looked at me. “Ready?”

  “As ready as I can be.” I would’ve felt more confident if I’d had a lot more information on Lila. But we didn’t have time for that.

  Colin and I stepped out of the house into the late afternoon sun. Lila was still swinging, but not as focused as when the negotiator had been with her. We stopped a metre in front of her and Colin put the two kitchen chairs he’d brought down.

  “So they send out a woman.” The corners of Lila’s mouth lifted in a smile as she studied me. But her cheeks didn’t lift and the corners of her eyes didn’t crinkle. It was a false smile.

  “I’m Doctor Genevieve Lenard.” I frowned. “How did you know to speak English?”

  Her eyes widened slightly. “I didn’t. I just wanted to irritate you.”

  “Like you did with the negotiator.”

  “He’s an idiot.” She glanced at Colin. “Like all men.”

  Colin sat down on one of the chairs. “I’m Colin.”

  “Are you the bad cop to her good cop?” She glanced down at his Italian loafers, then took careful note of his slacks and his tailored linen shirt. “You are way too pretty and well-dressed to be a cop. You were also outside that Udvaros prick’s house. With all the other pricks.”

  Colin smiled. “Yeah. The old man with the constant frown can be a real prick.”

  It was interesting to watch Lila respond to Colin instead of me. I wasn’t completely surprised. People seldom responded well to my presence. My natural nonverbal cues didn’t invite any form of social interaction, whereas Colin never had problems building immediate rapport with people. Without any formal training, he had an innate ability to read, understand and respond to the nuances of verbal and nonverbal communication.

  Lila and Colin stared at each other for a while. Colin was a master at deception and could mask his true reaction to people and situations very well. Lila was not that skilled. As she stared at Colin, myriad emotions flittered across her face, one of which was intense sadness.

  “What are we doing here, Lila?” Colin’s tone was gentle. He leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees, his hands dangling.

  “Waiting.”

  Colin raised one eyebrow. “For the disaster you set up for the tournament?”

  “Huh.” She put her feet on the ground to stop her movement. “You know.”

  “Not everything.”

  Colin’s honesty had the desired effect. Lila’s shoulders relaxed even more, her hands no longer gripping the swing ropes tightly. She liked him. “What do you want to know?”

  “How did you find all the paintings in the house?” Colin’s question didn’t surprise me. Knowing him, it was not only because he was truly interested, but also to establish a baseline with Lila.

  “It was in the house.” She raised one shoulder, but her attempt at nonchalance was not successful. “Do you know whose house this is?”

  “It used to belong to your great-grandfather. János Nagy.” Colin paused. “Is that how you found the house? You looked into your great-grandfather’s history?”

  “You’re smart for a pretty man.” Her condescension was an obvious effort to regain distance. “Yes. I first wanted to take care of everyone who’d made my life hell. But then I started thinking about the bigger picture. I remember the stories my granny used to tell about the wonderful life she had before her father died. Before those bastards took everything from us.”

  “Szabo, Szell, Koltai and Udvaros.” As Colin named the grandfathers, Lila’s nostrils flared, colour creeping up her chest.

  “You know what they did, right? They took everything from us. Everything my great-grandfather had worked for. And why? Because his wife was Romani. They didn’t like her. Didn’t approve of her.”

  “That should never have happened.”

  “You think?” Her voice rose. “Did you know they made it look like my grandfather had asked them to protect his life’s work from falling in the hands of those degenerates?” She spat out the last two words. “We are not degenerates.”

  “No, you’re not. You are an extremely smart and successful young woman.”

  “If only all those idiots realised it, they wouldn’t be dead.”

  “You’re talking about Ms Taikon and the other people you killed?”

  “I didn’t kill them.” Her nonverbal cues told me she believed what she’d just said. “I only hastened what was coming to them in any case. All of them had their health problems. Why not find a way to make it bigger and better so they could stop hurting people?”

  “They really hurt you badly, didn’t they?” The empathy in Colin’s tone was reflected in his expression.

  “I was ten years old when that Taikon witch dragged me across the classroom b
y my hair. She shook bunches of hair from her fingers and told me she would have to disinfect her hands. Then she made me disinfect the classroom. To get rid of my Roma dirt. She told me I shouldn’t bother trying to disinfect myself, because I would never get rid of the dirt of my race.”

  Her pain triggered emotions in me that didn’t feel comfortable. I was intimately familiar with discrimination. My parents hadn’t handled my non-neurotypical condition well. They’d permitted endless medical tests and experiments to cure me. I couldn’t recall my mother once holding me with the love Nikki exhibited when she handled Eric. All because I was different. I wasn’t going to break the momentum Colin had gained with Lila by telling her how deeply I understood her suffering.

  “What did Andor Garas do to you?” Colin asked.

  “Oh.” She shrugged. “He was getting too close. He was going to ruin everything and I needed more time.”

  “So you tried to kill him?”

  “Nah. I just slowed him down.” Her laugh was disdainful. “People have no idea how much information they give away online. I only had to gain access to his private email to find out about his allergies. He really complains about it a lot. That was the easy part. It always is. The fun, but harder part was to find ways to make his allergies worse. The security in his apartment is not very good. Only two locks? It was too easy to get in there and swap his meds.” She paused. “He isn’t like the other men. He’s surprisingly nice for a man. And smart. I underestimated him. He worked much faster than I anticipated. I decided to let him live.”

  “What about Olivia Webster?”

  She thought for a moment, then her eyes widened. “The lawyer from New York. Yeah. That was a surprise. I didn’t expect someone from America to link Szabo, Szell and Koltai. I followed her closely and got worried when she came here. I was about to do something to slow her down as well, but then she just disappeared. So I decided to let her live as well.”