Page 52 of One Minute Out

I want to just respect her for it and move on, but I am certain there is another part to her story that I haven’t explored yet.

My thoughts drift away from this, because I see her staring catatonically out the windshield. She’s thinking about something, her trembling lip has returned, and she’s on the verge of becoming unhinged right before my eyes.

I quickly say, “Listen. If something bad happens in there, if something goes wrong. If they take you in... I will get you out.”

She turns to me with bloodshot eyes that are as imploring as her words. “Please, Harry. Whatever happens to me. You have to find out what happened to Roxana.” She sighs now, and adds, “Don’t worry about me. Worry about her. You can’t just come in shooting people in a police station.”

That isn’t my plan, simply because it won’t work. I’m not the Terminator. “I promise that won’t happen. Just keep calm, play your role, and if I have to, I’ll play mine. Together we’ll find out about Roxana once this part is done.”

This seems to help to some degree. Talyssa fixes her gaze in resolution and then, without another word, she climbs out of the little car and walks off in the rain.

I watch her go, and I find myself picking holes in the parts of her story that don’t add up, and filling in the pieces with my own ideas of what might really be going on here.

SIXTEEN

At five p.m. Talyssa Corbu stepped through the doors of the main police headquarters, showed her credos at the front desk, and asked to speak to the highest-ranking person in the building. A smiling middle-aged and heavyset woman appeared and shook her hand, then ushered her into an office.

Even though the Romanian couldn’t read the citations on the wall, she got a pretty good idea that this lady was, in fact, the top cop here in town.

This meant that either someone lower on the totem pole was involved with the trafficking ring, no one in the police department here was involved in the pipeline, or this middle-aged female with an easy smile was, herself, involved in ferrying female sex slaves from the East to the West.

Talyssa didn’t see much likelihood in the last option at all.

In English the captain asked, “How can I help you, Miss Corbu?”

“Thank you for seeing me. I’m here in town looking into allegations that women are being trafficked through Dubrovnik for the purposes of sexual slavery.”

The woman blinked, but this gave away nothing to Talyssa, because Talyssa had no training to hunt for facial cues or body language that would tip her off as to whether the person she was speaking with was attempting to deceive her.

“This is an investigation being overseen by Europol?”

“Correct.”

The captain looked again at Corbu’s credentials. “It says you are involved in economic crimes.”

“That is true. I’m following the money, and it leads to traffickers, and it has led me, ultimately, to Dubrovnik.”

“I haven’t heard anything about this investigation. Who are you working with on the ground here? Our federal authorities?”

“I am here in advance of a formal investigation in Croatia. This is preliminary, more of a fact-finding mission.”

“You aren’t coordinating with anyone? That’s unusual, isn’t it?”

“Unusual, yes. Unprecedented, no.”

“May I see some of your evidence?”

Talyssa had been expecting this. She rubbed her sweaty palms together between her knees, out of the captain’s view, and she measured her breathing as well as possible. “The police chief in Mostar was kidnapped yesterday. I’m sure you heard about it.”

The chief replied, “Yes. Terrible, terrible thing.” And then she said, “His body was found in his home just a few hours ago.”

Talyssa Corbu was poleaxed by this news, and she did a poor job of hiding her shock now. “Oh... I... I just understood he was missing.”

The police chief regarded the Europol analyst curiously. “Europol is not terribly well informed, then.”

“I... I’ve been working, haven’t checked in with the office in several hours.”

“Well, let me bring you up to date. Apparently, Captain Vukovic was recovered alive yesterday, but then was killed sometime overnight along with two other police officers staying in his flat with him.”

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