Page 53 of Nobody's Hero

‘Koenig?’

He shrugged. ‘Bess’s academics disappearing is of concern.’

‘The other deaths?’

‘We’d have to look for ourselves. It’s possible to make a murder look like an accident, but three? That’s tougher to buy.’

‘Gut feeling?’

‘We take this seriously.’

Draper nodded. ‘That’s what I think. I’ll call Smerconish. Tell him we’re coming back.’

‘No,’ Koenig said. ‘We keep this to ourselves.’

‘Why?’

‘Because we have no idea who’s behind this. It’s possible someone in the intelligence world is involved. It might even be Smerconish himself.’

‘That’s ridiculous. He’s the one who sent us here.’

‘He also gave you a kill order.’

Which kinda took the wind out of her sails.

‘What do you suggest?’ she said.

‘Bess is right. We need to get back to the States. And we can’t fly commercial. Our passports will have been flagged.’

‘Howdowe get back then?’ Carlyle said.

Koenig pretended to think about it. ‘Gee, I wish I knew the CEO of a private intelligence company. If I knew someone like that, I might be tempted to borrow their plane.’

Draper sighed. ‘I’ll make the phone call.’

Chapter 56

‘Did you know any of the missing academics, Margaret?’ Koenig asked.

Draper was outside making her call. Carlyle had gone to the village shop to stock up on eggs. She wanted to make omelettes. She said it was brain food. Draper had said Koenig would need six eggs in his, not three. It had been the first time they’d all laughed at the same time.

‘I knew Stephen,’ Margaret said. ‘He occasionally guest-lectured at the London School of Economics. And as my expertise in cultural anthropology overlapped with his expertise in history, we sometimes had dinner together. He was a lovely man. Teeth like a witch doctor’s necklace. Breath so bad you looked forward to him breaking wind.’

Koenig chuckled. The way the British insulted each other as a mark of affection was very un-American. Taking the piss, they called it. As a rule of thumb, the politer they were, the more they disliked you.

‘Do you think he’s dead? You referred to him in the past tense.’

The rims of her eyes filled. She blinked away the tears. ‘I do,’ she said. ‘And I don’t think he died well.’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘They’re disguising murders as suicides and accidental deaths,’ she said. ‘But not one of the missing academics has been found. You seem like a thinker, Mr Koenig. Why might that be?’

He didn’t have to think for long. ‘Because you can’t disguise a murder if their fingernails have been pulled out. Even the precinct drunk is going to ask questions.’

Margaret winced. ‘There by the grace of God,’ she muttered.

Koenig patted her on the knee. ‘I won’t let anything happen to you, Margaret,’ he said. ‘You have my word.’