“Trust me. You do not want to test my patience,” Roman said. “I’ll give you one chance. Return all my money and I will let Andrew live.”
Frank tapped his fingers on the laptop on the table in front of them. “You can have your money back. I’m not interested in the money. All I want is for you to admit what you have done. I want you to tell me what you did to my daughter, and where her body is. Tell me those things, and I will gladly return your money. It’s done with a simple press of a button.” Frank pushed the laptop over to Andrew.
Roman observed Frank. He had studied many people throughout the years, some more messed up than others, but he always knew if someone was lying or telling the truth – and Frank Geitner was telling the truth. Money didn’t matter to him. He would be returning Roman his money, if Roman just told him what he wanted to hear.
“You give me your word?” Roman asked.
Frank nodded. Andrew was nervously watching the game being played out before his eyes. He had opened up the laptop.
“Ok, ok. I confess. I killed your daughter, Frank,” Roman said as he pulled his hands across his tired face.
“Did she suffer?” Frank asked.
“No,” Roman answered quickly. “I shot her. She died instantly.”
“Why did you do it?” Frank asked.
Roman shifted uneasily in his chair. He wasn’t sure what to say. “Because she stole money from me,” he finally said. “Nobody steals money from me.”
Andrew glanced over at Frank. It was obvious that he didn’t like the answer. Andrew was unsure, but he thought he saw some doubt creeping over Frank’s face. Didn’t he accept Roman’s explanation?
“I don’t believe you. Heidi would never have stolen money.”
Roman observed Frank. He was a wreck. The genius who had developed the Tuna Life app was a complete wreck of a man. He just wanted closure.
“Ok, ok. I accidentally ran into her when I was at my psychologist. Your daughter could have become dangerous for me. I’m dependent on respect. I have many enemies. So I killed her. I strangled her. But she didn’t suffer. She never suffered.”
“Where is she? Where is my daughter?” Frank asked with a voice about to break.
Roman straightened up his back. He was now back in the driver’s seat. “Give me my money back, and I promise I will tell you everything. I promise I will tell you where you can find your daughter, and all the other women,” he said. “Your daughter was the first one. But after her I realised that I couldn’t stop. I needed to get back to that feeling, that feeling of life ebbing out of a young body. I was addicted.”
Frank stared at Roman with true hate in his eyes. He had finally been given the confirmation he had been searching for all these years. Roman had killed his daughter.
Roman deserved to die. He definitely didn’t deserve his money back. But Frank wanted to find his daughter, he wanted to be able to put her in a grave. The police could deal with Roman. He was wanted all across Australia. Even if he did get his money back, he would never be able to spend a single cent. He would rot in prison. Frank gave Andrew a nod.
Andrew started hitting the keys on the laptop. It looked like he knew what he was doing. Forty seconds later he lifted his gaze. “It’s done. The money is back in your account on Gibraltar.”
Roman keyed in a number on his mobile. The voice on the other end, Andrew assumed it was Richard Smith, confirmed that the money had been returned almost immediately.
Roman returned the phone to the table.
It was time.
Inside the Hemp Embassy, the mood was gradually worsening. Yvonne had turned on a video on her laptop. Andrej’s muscular body covered most of the screen, another just as muscular man covered the rest. Andrej wore only a towel around his waist, the other guy was naked. The footage looked like it was from a hotel room.
“Turn it off,” said Andrej. He knew what would follow. “How did you get hold of that?”
“You’ve got Tuna Life on your computer.”
“What do you want?”
“Roman has abducted and killed several teenage girls. Is that something you want to be a part of? I can understand that you feel loyalty to your boss, but do you really know who he is?” Yvonne said. “I want you to put down your gun, and leave Nimbin. You don’t have to worry about Roman. We won’t kill him. When we have finished uploading everything we’ve got on him, nobody will ever respect him again. I’m giving you a chance, Andrej, a chance to avoid the same happening to you. And don’t even consider killing me. If I don’t give my friends a call in one hour, then five videos of you will be uploaded to the internet, and they will stay there forever. Think about what you have done the last six months, Andrej. This isn’t the worst we’ve got.”
Andrej scorned at the Tuna Life secretary with contempt. It would be so easy to snap her neck. “How do I know you will keep your word?” he asked.
“You won’t. But we have no interest in hurting you. It’s Roman we’re after. So, for your wife’s and son’s sake, I suggest you take me up on my offer.”
Andrej shot Vladimir a quick glance. Vladimir stared at him, gobsmacked it appeared, but he didn’t say anything. The guy was professional, or maybe they had something even worse on him?
“Ok,” Andrej said.
He had already a couple of hours ago started to question his loyalty to Roman. Maybe this was just the last little nudge he needed to justify his actions, to justify cutting his ties to Roman.
One could feel the tenseness in the room as Andrej pulled his gun up from his belt line, and placed it on the table in front of Yvonne. He was about to let go of the handle, when he heard the sound of a car approaching. In less than a second everyone in the room was on their feet, weapons drawn. Vladimir and one of the hippies squinted out the window. A grey Land Rover parked on the opposite side of the road. Vladimir fixed his gaze at the car, but he couldn’t make out how many people were inside. The door burst open, and out stepped the Gold Coast Times reporter, the bald fuck who had broken his nose.
Vladimir smiled.
“Who is it?” one of the hippies asked.
“Fate,” Vladimir answered.
Inside the Nimbin Hotel, Roman, Frank and Andrew were still sitting around the small table. Roman took a deep breath, as if he was collecting strength to finally reveal where he had hidden or buried Frank’s daughter. Then, without any presage, he grabbed onto the edge of the table with both hands, and pushed it up with all the force he could muster. The incident came as a total surprise to Frank and Andrew, who suddenly found themselves sprawled on the floor along with broken glasses and beer bottles.
In the neighbouring building Andrej heard the commotion and knew it was his signal. In front of him Vladimir was staring out the window at Scott Davis, the reporter, who was making his way across the road to the Nimbin Hotel. Andrej knew what was coming. They had trained for these situations before, Vladimir and he. They were coordinated. Vladimir would create a distraction, and Andrej would make sure that no one left the room alive. The unexpected arrival of the Gold Coast Times reporter had been the perfect diversion. But Andrej also knew that Vladimir wasn’t all that reliable. He had noticed the look in his eyes when Vladimir understood that it was Scott Davis who had parked on the other side. The smug grin. Vladimir was still harbouring a lot of anger for his broken nose. He had hardly stopped fondling it the entire trip to Nimbin; he had let it fuel his rage.
Andrej knew anger was dangerous.
Feelings were dangerous.
Feelings made people vulnerable.
On the other side of the road Scott Davis had also heard the noise from the Nimbin Hotel. He headed straight for the entrance.
With a swift movement of his right arm, Andrej hit the pistol grip against the temple of one of the hippies. As if on cue, Vladimir stabbed a knife into the belly of the other one. It all happened so fast that the hippies hadn’t had time to react. They were now lying in a bundle on the floor. Yvonne let out a short scream as she fixed her eyes at the cold and emotionless eyes of Andrej.
It was like looking into an abyss.
Andrej pointed the gun squarely at her head.
The hippie in the cowboy hat had Scott in his crosshairs when he moved towards the entrance of the Nimbin Hotel. He wasn’t sure what to do. The bald man had a physique like a torpedo, and he was therefore most likely one of Roman’s helpers, but there was something about his outfit that didn’t make any sense. A short-sleeved shirt and a red tie. Navy blue pants. No Russians would dress like that. Would they? He looked more like an insurance agent than a mobster. He couldn’t be certain though. He increased the pressure on the trigger.
Frank and Andrew were lying on the floor, staring up at the cold lizard-like eyes of Roman Bezhrev, who was standing above them with a broken beer bottle in his hand. Before Andrew even had time to understand what was happening, Roman swung his arm wide and slashed open Frank’s belly. Frank screamed in pain as blood splatter hit Andrew in the face.
A shot rang out, and they all turned their eyes towards the door. The door burst open, and the tall reporter from the Gold Coast Times came wobbling inside on unsteady feet. He seemed to hold one of his hands against a dark patch on his white shirt. And then he just collapsed onto the floor. A pool of blood seeped out on the wooden floorboards beneath him.
Inside the Hemp Embassy, Yvonne was preparing herself to die. She had totally miscalculated Andrej. She had believed he would give up Roman the instant he realised what they could do to his life. How they could ruin his entire life. She hadn’t even had time to reveal what they had on Vladimir. And that was not a pretty picture either. Vladimir was a true psychopath. She hoped Andrej shot her in the head, that he didn’t let Vladimir do his thing to her. She closed her eyes.
And then she heard a low
svush
, followed by a soft thump.
When she opened her eyes, she could see Andrej stand with his gun aimed at the place where Vladimir had been standing only seconds earlier.
Vladimir’s body lay slumped on the floor, with a gaping hole in his left temple.
“Prepare to meet your slut of a daughter,” Roman said, as he approached the helpless Frank with the broken beer bottle in his hand. Frank looked up at him, fear covering his face. He hadn’t predicted that Roman would be so quick on his feet. He was a fat and unfit guy, he didn’t have any weapons, and his Russian goons would surely have abandoned him the instant Yvonne had given them the rundown of what she could do to their lives. But Roman had surprised Frank. He was a warrior, a predator forced into a corner, and Frank should have realised that unpredictable things could happen. Roman glanced over at Scott Davis, who was attempting to drag his incapacitated body along the floorboards, leaving a thin stripe of red behind him. Roman had no idea what Scott was doing there, but he didn’t pose any threat. Andrej must have seen him make it for the door, and shot him in the back. Roman pulled Frank’s head up buy the hair, and positioned the broken beer bottle against his throat. With horror, Andrew realised that he was about to see Frank be murdered in front of his eyes. Mafia-style, Jihad-style.
Without thinking he pulled out the 3D printed gun he had hidden in his belt line. At the last minute he had decided to bring it to the meeting with Frank. At that stage he still didn’t know whether Frank was behind more than the hacking of a couple of government agencies in the eighties. Andrew had even considered the possibility that Frank was involved in the missing girls’ cases on the coast, that he was a serial killer.
With shaking fingers Andrew inserted a bullet and the metal firing pin into the Liberator. He had taped both of them to the back of his belt, so that anyone swiping him would assume it was the metal in the belt that triggered a reaction from the metal detector. Andrej had done exactly that and cleared Andrew.
Andrew pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.
Roman, still holding the bottle to Frank’s throat, looked over at Andrew, wondering what he was doing. When he saw the plastic gun, he didn’t hesitate. He threw the broken bottle and hit Andrew square in the head. Then he walked over and kicked him in the face.
Andrew could feel he had lost some teeth where he lay, the taste of blood filling his mouth.
The Liberator, the gun made entirely out of plastic, lay next to him. He knew he should try to reach for it, but there was no strength left in his body. There was no point anyway. In the corner of his eye he could see Roman slowly cut Frank’s throat.
“You’ve seen what I’m capable of. If any of those videos are ever released on the internet, then you and everyone you love are dead. It won’t help to hide. I will find you. I will find your family. I will find your friends. And I will kill them all.”
Yvonne nodded. She was staring straight into the silencer of Andrej’s gun.
“And one last thing, I’ve seen what
you
are capable of. Erase me. Remove any traces of me and my identity. Let there be nothing linking me to Roman.”
Yvonne nodded. “I can do that.”
Andrej unscrewed the silencer of his gun, and stuffed the gun down his belt line. He fished out the keys to the green KIA from his pants pockets, and slowly exited the Hemp Embassy.
Andrew raised his left hand. But Roman pushed it away, and pointed the Liberator at Andrew’s head.
“Tuna Life….who could have known a stupid mobile app was going to ruin everything. That a bunch of nerds were going to be my doom.”
He positioned the gun so that it was facing Andrew’s face.
“Just do it. Get it over with,” Andrew said. He had finally come to terms with the fact that he wasn’t leaving Nimbin alive. He was about to be executed. He had reviewed his life after being sacked from Tuna Life. Truth be told, he was actually happy he had left Avensis Accounting when he did. Even though the Tuna Life adventure wouldn’t have a happy ending, it was still the most important thing he had ever done in his life. For once he had taken a chance, and he had created something important, something that made an impact on people’s lives.