Chapter 28: Endings and New Beginnings

The following day I was off shift but Katarina was working from 11 a.m. I had intended meeting her at the hotel before she started work, but a better plan came to me. She was my fiancée but no one other than her, me, and probably Aunt Jelena, knew. I wanted the whole world to know; well, I’d settle for just Podgorica to start with, but short of having an aircraft trailing a banner above the skies of the city announcing the fact the simplest way was to buy her an engagement ring. Katarina would then be able to flash the ring to her friends, neighbours, and work colleagues. Right?

There was one slight problem. I had very little money with me. My earnings from escorting this season’s Cougars had been paid directly into my bank in Port–Vendres, and the only articles I had with me worth any money were the Longines Conquest watch given me by a grateful Cougar in Ancona for services rendered and the medallion given me by Mavis Nugent. The medallion would be difficult to sell as it was on the Italian government’s stolen property list; besides I intended keeping it to help fund buying a property for my hotel.

I reckoned the watch was worth 700 euros of anyone’s money, and as Montenegro used the euro I thought a trip to a jeweller and some bargaining wouldn’t go amiss. I asked Sofija at reception where the nearest jeweller was and she directed me to the Delta City Mall, which fortuitously was on the way to Aunt Jelena’s house in the Tolosi area of the city.

I was in the jeweller’s shop as soon as it opened at 8am. The surprised proprietor served me coffee as I explained my plan to exchange my Longines watch for an engagement ring. The man could have haggled his way to a gold medal if haggling had been an Olympic sport. Eventually, after several cups of Turkish coffee and an hour of haggling I got the ring I had set my heart on. The ring was a 9kt rose gold engagement ring with a round cabochon amber in an all-around setting with two brilliant cut H/SI diamonds either side. I’m sure the jeweller had the better deal, but I was pleased with the ring. I know amber is not a gemstone in the traditional sense but the colour of the one in the ring was an exact match for the colour of Katarina’s eyes. Clutching the box with the ring inside I took a taxi from Delta City Mall to Aunt Jelena’s house.

Katarina was concerned when she saw me, ‘What’s the matter, Rafe? I thought we were to meet at the hotel?”

I presented the box with the ring to her. “It’s an engagement ring. The jeweller says to come and have it altered if it’s too small or too large. I know it’s not a traditional diamond engagement ring but the amber matched your eyes and I...”

She hugged me, almost breaking one of my ribs. “Rafael Planchette, you are the sweetest man who ever walked God’s earth. I swear on the memory of my father, mother, and sister that I will be the best wife to you that any woman could be!” She then gave me a full blooded kiss before spinning on her heel and rushing upstairs sobbing.

I made to follow but Jelena put her hand on her arm. “Leave her be, Rafael. She is so happy and so sad at the same time. Give her time to compose herself.” She grinned at me “You are a sweet man, I agree with Katarina on that. I am so happy for you both.” She then kissed me. It was more a sexy snog than the sort of kiss an aunt-to-be should give but I enjoyed the feel of her full lips on mine. She pulled away, her breasts heaving and her eyes shining.

“If I didn’t love Katarina like a daughter I would take you to bed.” She said.

“And if I didn’t love Katarina to bits I would let you.”

We both burst out laughing as Katarina came down the stairs dressed for work.

She hugged me, this time sparing my ribs, and then showed Jelena the ring on her finger. “It fits like it was made for me,” she said, “and I adore the amber; it is even better than a diamond.”

Jelena agreed. “This ring is so different from a traditional engagement ring, and shows a great deal of taste on the part of your fiancé,” she said grinning. “In fact, he tastes rather good as well.”

Katarina laughed, “Hands off, Aunty he’s mine, and I am his for eternity.”

“And beyond,” I put in.

We left the house arm in arm but just as I was about to get on the back of Katarina’s scooter my portable phone bleeped.

It was the Chevalier. “Have you got the recording device in a safe place?” He said.

“It’s in my dirty sock drawer. No one in their right mind would dare go in there.”

I heard him chuckle. “I will be at the usual place in a half an hour. Can you get it to me then?”

“No problem,” I said.

“I will take that as an affirmative, Rafael.” At times the Chevalier could be really old fashioned.

Katarina dropped me off at the bridge. “I love you Rafael,” she said, after giving me a map with the route marked to the workshop.

“And I adore you, Katarina,” I responded.

We shared a long, loving, kiss. Passing cars honked their horns in applause. They love lovers in Podgorica. Katarina sped across the bridge to work and I made my way to the workshop.The recording device was in my coat pocket although it had been in my dirty washing bag overnight. Fortunately I had given it a good airing before pocketing the device.

I easily found my way to the workshop by following the directions on the map. The Chevalier and Pierre were seated at the table by the lathe when I entered the building.

Pierre gave his snaggletoothed grin when he saw me. “I thought I was going to have come in with all Glocks blazing when the bleeping started.”

The Chevalier shot him a quizzical look. “Why, what happened?”

Pierre told him how the scanner had bleeped and the Chinese had become suspicious. “You would have been proud of him, Maurice. Calm as anything he says, ‘Oh that’s just the ice box. It’s powered by batteries’. Then, when the Dragon Lady says to switch it off and the scanner starts clicking Rafael says. ‘That’s the Flemings effect, residual magnetic induction what’s causing that.’ Cool as cucumber he was.”

“Is that true, Rafael, did the device set off the scanner’s alarm?”

I nodded. “I knew the ice box would set...”

The Chevalier, his face white with anger interrupted me. “I was assured by the boffins at the Quai d’Orsay if the device was switched off there would be no indication. I’ll have their guts for garters. You could have been killed.”

“The recording machine didn’t set off our alarms when we tested with it switched off,” Pierre butted in. “Them Slant Eyes must have better scanning gear than we use, Maurice. But our boy was up to it. Bloody good show, Rafe. You would have been an asset in the Legion. Brains and guile always beats brute strength and ignorance.”

The Chevalier looked at me with what could be tears in his eyes. “Believe me Rafael, if I thought for one minute that trolley would set off the alarms even when the recording device was not switched on I would never have agreed to send you in to the room.”

“All’s well as ends well,” I said. To be honest I was rather embarrassed. First Pierre practically saying I was as good as a legionnaire, and now the Chevalier near to blubbing for putting me ‘in harm’s way’. “So what happens to the recordings now?” I said to move the conversation on and away from me.

“Pierre is taking the device to France tonight. The data on it will be analysed and hopefully the future plans of the South American drug lords, the Bulbul crime syndicate, and the Chinese government will be made clear or at least clearer, and we might get some name dropping during the conversations.”

“Especially after lunch,” I said. “They drank enough to float the US Seventh and Sixth fleets combined; some secrets would have been let slip.”

“Let’s hope so,” the Chevalier said and stood up. “We have an early start tomorrow. I’ll have a taxi pick you up at the hotel at eight and we can...”

“I’m not coming back with you to France, Chevalier. I’ve met a girl, in fact I’ve asked her to marry me, and I’m staying in Montenegro!”

For the first time since knowing him I saw the Chevalier astounded, speechless, and shocked. ‘Absolutely gobsmacked,’ as my brother-in-law would describe the condition. His mouth fell open, and he actually gabbled before regaining his self-control and composure.

“What ... who ... when? Why can’t this girl travel with us? I could delay our journey until she has got her travel documents arranged. Who is this girl? You have been working in the hotel since we arrived in Montenegro, how on – of course, she’s a chambermaid or a waitress at the hotel. You can only have known her for a week or two; what do you know of her?”

“She is a Chef de partie, and I love her with all my heart and soul, and what is fantastic is that she loves me with all her heart and...”

“I’ll bail out here, Maurice. I’m not one for this lovey dovey stuff,” Pierre said. He disappeared out the door carrying the recording device and I don’t think the Chevalier realised he had left as he was still staring at me, bemused now rather than curious.

I continued with what I had been saying. “I first saw her in the hotel kitchen when I began working at the hotel, but it was when I visited you at the workshop that I fell in love with her. She gave me a lift on her scooter and...”

“She knows about the workshop and the trolley?”

“No, of course not. But she knows I am – was – a gigolo and still wants to marry me.”

The Chevalier slumped into a chair. “I can’t go back to France without you; your mother would kill me.”

Another first! The first time I had ever seen the Chevalier looking scared. He pulled himself together. “Why can’t she travel to France? She can apply for a visa. It would only take a week for out embassy here in Podgorica to issue...”

“She’s banned from entering any EU country because of her family. She mentioned a place called Srebrenica and said you would know about it.”

“Srebrenica! What’s her name?”

“Her name is Katarina Mladić.”

The Chevalier swore, something he rarely did. “Merde. Is she any relation to Ratko Mladić?”