Chapter 6
“He dropped a pin at the location where he wants to meet.” Cate opened the map app and pulled up directions to that location from where they were sitting. “Shit,” she said, pushing to her feet. “It’s a fifteen-minute walk from here. We only have thirteen minutes to get there.”
“You up for a late-night jog?” he asked, tossing enough euros onto the table to cover their tab.
“I have to be. I don’t want to be late and miss this opportunity.
” Cate stared down at her cell phone, orienting the map to match the direction they were facing, then turned until she was moving toward the pin on the map.
She took off at an easy jog, determined not to run out of steam halfway there.
She focused on the map, glad Draco was with her and able to keep an eye out for their safety.
For all she knew, this could be a setup.
After several blocks and multiple turns, Cate slowed, knowing that when they turned onto the next street, they should be close enough to see the spot Brunner had chosen, maybe even see the man himself. She stopped at that corner and glanced toward Draco. “Are we good?”
He nodded. “No tail. Let me see the map.”
She held it up for him. “We shaved four minutes off the time to destination.” She was breathing hard, but it was manageable and already returning to normal.
“Let me go first,” Draco said. “Follow, but a little behind me so we don’t look like we’re together.
Brunner knows I’ll be with you, but we can’t be sure he isn’t setting you up for another kidnapping.
” He captured her cheeks between his palms. “Don’t wait too long.
I don’t want you out of my sight for more than a second. ” Then he bent and kissed her.
Cate’s heart fluttered.
When he pulled away, she stared up at him. “What was that for?”
“I couldn’t resist,” he said. “One second and you follow, got it?”
She nodded. Before he could round the corner, she grabbed his hand and yanked him back to her.
He frowned. “Did I forget something?”
“Yes. This.” She leaned up on her toes, wrapped her hand behind his head, and pressed her lips to his in a quick, hard kiss. Then she stepped back, her hand falling to her side.
He gave her a crooked smile. “What was that for?”
“I couldn’t resist.” Cate reached out, physically turned him toward the corner and gave him a firm push. “Don’t make this weird.”
He chuckled and winked over his shoulder at her. “Too late.” Then he was gone.
Cate didn’t wait the full second. As soon as he was out of sight, she missed him and the way he made her feel.
He made her feel safe.
And so much more.
Cate rounded the corner, her gaze automatically seeking Draco’s tall form. He stood several yards away with his cell phone pressed to his ear. Cate couldn’t tell whether he was actually talking to someone or using the phone as a prop to stop walking and wait for Cate to emerge.
Knowing Draco had her back, Cate scanned what appeared to be a city square that might have been a marketplace in the past with a cathedral at the far end and busy restaurants on three sides. The pinpoint on the map indicated she should cross to the restaurant at the far side of the square.
People sat around outdoor tables, enjoying their meals and conversations by candlelight and soft overhead strings of light woven between the slats of pergolas. The outdoor seating extended each restaurant’s capacity, allowing for more people than the interior spaces could accommodate.
Cate walked across the open space, not liking being exposed to whoever might be watching her approach. She tried to blend in with groups of folks, weaving their way through the tables spilling out onto the square, all the while keeping Draco in her peripheral vision and scanning faces for Brunner.
As she approached the pin’s exact location, Brunner was nowhere to be seen.
Though she was far too jumpy to sit, she found an empty table and perched on the edge of the chair, ready to spring up at any sign of danger.
Her gaze swept the crowds and the shadows cast by the buildings.
Draco had moved closer, taking a seat at the far end of the restaurant adjacent to where Cate waited.
A glance at the clock on her cell phone showed that she’d arrived two minutes early for her assignation. Cate’s leg bounced, every nerve stretched tight.
A waiter stopped at her table, stood between her and her view of Draco and spoke in German.
Too anxious to attempt to focus on translating, and impatient for the man to leave and clear her line of sight, Cate assumed he’d asked what she’d like to drink. “Wei?wein, bitte.”
The waiter gave a curt nod.
As soon as he stepped away, Brunner appeared and slipped into a seat with his back to the building, his gaze darting around the square.
His hair stood on end, and the lines around his eyes were deeper.
Dark shadows made crescents beneath his eyes.
“You are alone?” he asked, his tone so low Cate had to lean in to hear his words.
She gave a slight shake of her head. “My man is nearby in case this is a setup.”
Brunner’s brow creased in a heavy line. “I am not here to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt anyone.
” He briefly met her gaze before continuing his surveillance of the people in the square.
“I cannot stay long. I might have been followed. My life is no longer my own, and I fear for my family. They do not deserve what I have brought upon them.” He shook his head.
“I should not have come. You should not have come to the bank.”
Cate frowned. “Then why did you come tonight?”
“The woman you spoke of, the one in jail?” Again, he shook his head. “She is safer where she is.”
“She didn’t kill Marcus Calloway,” Cate insisted. “I believe he’s still alive.”
Brunner nodded, drew in a breath and let it out, as if in an attempt to calm his frayed nerves. “I have managed the Alpenhorn account for the past year. I moved money in and out of that account based on handwritten instructions.”
“Does Marcus Calloway own the account?” Cate asked.
Brunner darted another glance her way and then went back to his obsessive scanning of the square full of people. “Herr Calloway was never the owner of the account.”
“Do you know if he is alive?” Cate asked.
Brunner shrugged. “If he is dead, I do not think his wife killed him. The foreign partner would have done the job. Herr Calloway cheated him.”
“Foreign partner?” Cate touched the banker’s arm. “What foreign partner?”
“Mein Gott.” Brunner stiffened, his face blanched and his gaze locked on something or someone in the square.
Cate followed the direction he was facing.
“They’re here,” he said, his voice shaking as he pushed to his feet. “I shouldn’t have come.”
Cate stood in front of him, blocking his escape. “Who’s the partner? Who owns that account?”
He shook his head. “I shouldn’t have come.”
When he started to step around her, she shifted to block him.
He bumped into her and stumbled.
Cate reached for his hand to steady him.
Brunner pressed something into her palm and whispered what sounded like, “Remember one-five-seven.” Then he darted away.
Cate spun to follow.
One minute, Brunner was there. The next, he was gone, having disappeared into a crowd of Japanese tourists, led by a guide carrying a flag on an extension rod.
She ran to the edge of the group that had converged in a tight knot, as they entered a narrow street. Desperate to stop Brunner, Cate pushed through the throng.
Draco appeared at her side, gently moving people aside to make a path for Cate. “What happened?”
“He was about to tell me who owned the Alpenhorn account when something or someone spooked him. Before I could stop him, he’d bolted.”
Emerging on the other side of the large group, Cate scanned the street, the shadows and the people walking back to their hotels. None of them were Brunner. “He’s gone,” she said. “Damn it.”
Draco stood close to her, turning all about, his gaze sweeping the area. “Someone spooked him. Maybe he had the right idea to get the hell out of there. We should do the same.” He cupped her elbow and hustled her to the next street, looking over his shoulder as they turned.
“Anyone following us?” Cate asked, struggling to keep Draco’s pace.
“Not that I could tell, but I’m not sticking around to let them catch up.”
For the next ten minutes, Draco guided them on a zigzagging path through the streets.
When Cate thought she couldn’t go any further, Draco finally slowed and led her through a hidden gate into a private garden.
“Why are we stopping here?” she asked.
“I spotted this gate yesterday. As far as I can tell, there were no cameras pointing at the gate, and from what I can see now, there aren’t any inside.
” He led her through an ivy-clad arch to find that the garden was much larger than it appeared from the gate.
At the far end was the back of the ruins of an old church or monastery.
The grounds weren’t completely overgrown, indicating someone had been maintaining them recently.
City lights reflected off the low-hanging clouds, lighting their path through the trees, bushes and arbors.
In one corner, a tree rose high over a stone wall. A wooden bench stood in the shadows beneath.
Cate sank onto the bench, leaving enough room for Draco to drop down beside her.
“Hopefully, we’re not being recorded here.” Draco turned until his knee touched hers. “Based on your attempt to follow him, I take it Brunner didn’t give you the name he said he would.”
Cate’s lips pressed into a tight line. “No, he didn’t.” She told him everything Brunner had said. “I think he was about to tell me the name of the foreign partner when he spotted whoever scared him.”
Draco frowned. “He thinks Calloway is dead?”
“No,” Cate said. “He thinks that, if he’s dead, it would not have been his wife, but the partner Calloway cheated.
” She paused. “Although I didn’t get the name he was going to share, I didn’t come away empty-handed.
” She uncurled her hand. “He pressed this into my palm before he ran and said, Remember one-five-seven.”
Draco activated the light on his cell phone and shone it down on a flat brass key with a pattern of notches. “A key?”
“To what?” Cate shook her head.
Draco took the key, turned it over, and studied it for a moment. “It’s a key to a safe deposit box. When he told you to remember one-five-seven, he was giving you the box number.”
“Do you think the box is in Brunner’s bank?” Cate asked.
“Probably, or he would’ve told you the name of another bank.”
Recalling how white Brunner’s face had turned, Cate shook her head. “Unless he was more worried about saving his own skin than filling me in on the details.”
“At least he owned up to the existence and the management of the account. Tomorrow, we should track him down and get him to tell us the rest of the story.”
Cate nodded, tired and dispirited. “In the meantime, we should call it a night.” She pushed to her feet, shoved the key into her pocket, and sighed. “We were so close. Just one more minute, and he’d have given me the name of the other partner.”
Draco slipped an arm around her waist as they walked back to the gate and left the garden.
They didn’t arrive back at Hotel Bieri until after eleven o’clock.
Draco was reaching for the doorknob when his cell phone chirped. He dug it out of his pocket and frowned down at the screen. “It’s Hammer.” He looked up, his gaze meeting Cate’s.
A chill slid down the back of her neck. “What happened?”
“Dmytro has a routine that tracks 117 calls to the Kantonspolizei. Someone placed a call about a body floating in the Limmat River.”
Cate’s eyes narrowed, her immediate thought going to Marcus Calloway. “Do they know who it was?”
Draco nodded, his jaw tightening. “Based on the wallet they found in his pocket, they identified him as Stefan Brunner.”
Cate gasped. “Brunner?” She shook her head from side to side, her brow knitting. “Did they determine the cause of death?”
Draco frowned down at the text message. “The investigating officer is calling it suicide.”
A cold, sick lump settled in the pit of Cate’s belly. “No way. He had too much to live for with a wife and two kids.”
“Which leads me to believe that it wasn’t suicide.” Draco’s frown deepened. “Whoever made sure Brunner found his way into the river has someone on the inside with the Zurich police force.”
“Wow,” Cate said, feeling as if she’d been sucker punched, guilt leaving a sour taste in her mouth. “If we hadn’t shown up at the bank and mentioned Alpenhorn, he would be home with his family.”
Draco pulled her into his arms and rested his chin against the top of her head. “You can’t blame yourself. He brought it on himself by getting involved in the first place.”
“The professional in me knows that. The human in me can’t imagine what his family is going through.”
“I have to admit, I didn’t like leaving you out there on your own,” he said. “Scared the shit out of me.”
“But you did—and you had my back. I appreciate that.” She rested her cheek against his chest, grateful for his warmth in the chill night air, which had grown even colder.
Cate’s heart hurt. Brunner’s wife had committed her love and life to a banker, expecting he was in a safe career field and would come home to her and their children every night. Because of the choice he’d made, he’d left his loved ones behind.
If she committed her heart to a man like Draco, he was even more likely to be killed in the line of duty than a banker.
No, no, no.
She couldn’t be that woman, waiting for her husband to come home, not knowing if he would. Her arms slipped around Draco’s waist, holding on as if it could keep him from leaving her. If only it were that simple.
“Suicide,” she murmured against his shirt. Suicide of her heart.
Draco snorted. “Suicide, my ass.”