you off? That’s why you quit?”
“Yeah. The timing could’ve been better. Me and Sofi and all that, but I have to admit, I’d been starting to worry it was bound to catch up with me.” Finn laughed at a reality that still seemed out of kilter with his own view of his actions. “I could go to prison.”
“I doubt that very much.” Harry smiled, his alternate theory not needing to be voiced. Then he looked suddenly decisive, as if it had all been settled. “We’ll sit down and talk about this one day, properly, but our priority now is getting Katerina to safety.” She watched more attentively at the sound of her name. “She can stay here. But the quicker you sort things with Naumenko, the better for all of us.”
“I’ll do my best.” Finn took his wallet out and emptied all the notes onto the table. “Buy her some clothes—she’s got nothing.”
“Put your money away, I can buy—”
“Just in case they’re watching your accounts. I give cash to Sofi all the time, so they’d think nothing of me drawing a few thousand extra krooni here and there.”
“Okay, fair point.”
“Katerina.” She looked at him and he said, “You’ll stay with Harry for a few days.” Harry translated and she nodded as if being given important instructions. “You’ll be safe here, but you mustn’t leave the apartment. Soon, I’ll take you to a Russian friend, a good man who’ll help you. If you want to go home he’ll help you do that.”
Her reply came back, simply put and all the more mournful for it, and Harry translated, “She says she has no home.”
“Then he’ll find a good family for you to go to, or—he’ll help.”
Finn stood up, gesturing for her to stay sitting, but as Harry stood too she said hesitantly, “Finn. Thank . . . Thank you.”
Finn nodded, but at the door he said to Harry, “If there’s a problem, or if you think they’re looking like investigating you—”
“I’ll just point them in your direction.” Harry laughed. “I know, if there’s a problem, I’ll call. But there won’t be. We can do this.”
Finn nodded and thought back to the body in the church, to the blood gulping out onto the floor. He’d seen people killed before, but that made it no less mystifying to contemplate the life he’d ended himself.
“I killed someone, Harry. How about that?”
“Well, you could say you killed someone, could say you saved someone—depends which way you look at it. Just a shame it wasn’t Karasek himself.”
“I’ll leave that job for you.” Finn started to walk along the cor ridor. “See you tomorrow.”
“Usual place, usual time,” said Harry, and closed the door.
Finn started down the stairs, at a loss as to what he’d just done. He’d guarded that secret so carefully for so long and yet he’d just given it up, albeit to someone he could trust—someone he thought, or hoped, he could trust—and all because of a girl he didn’t know, a girl for whom he had also killed a man. But she needed help, it was as simple as that, and those two acts had been the only way he’d seen of giving it. What else could he have done?
Chapter Five
For the last half an hour he’d been thinking about Arnaud Amaury. More specifically, he’d been wondering if he could make a case for Arnaud suffering from Asperger’s. Here was a man who’d struggled to connect with the people, who’d been ridiculed and humiliated but who, when faced with an intractable religious problem, had hit upon a chillingly logical solution without any recourse to human emotion.
The Cathars had been a small but growing heretical minority, dispersed among the wider population, indistinguishable from them. And that wider population had been unwilling to surrender people they’d probably known their whole lives.
That had been Amaury’s problem: how to identify the Cathars. To a man who believed that true Christians had nothing to fear in death, the solution was simple—put the entire city to
“Yeah. The timing could’ve been better. Me and Sofi and all that, but I have to admit, I’d been starting to worry it was bound to catch up with me.” Finn laughed at a reality that still seemed out of kilter with his own view of his actions. “I could go to prison.”
“I doubt that very much.” Harry smiled, his alternate theory not needing to be voiced. Then he looked suddenly decisive, as if it had all been settled. “We’ll sit down and talk about this one day, properly, but our priority now is getting Katerina to safety.” She watched more attentively at the sound of her name. “She can stay here. But the quicker you sort things with Naumenko, the better for all of us.”
“I’ll do my best.” Finn took his wallet out and emptied all the notes onto the table. “Buy her some clothes—she’s got nothing.”
“Put your money away, I can buy—”
“Just in case they’re watching your accounts. I give cash to Sofi all the time, so they’d think nothing of me drawing a few thousand extra krooni here and there.”
“Okay, fair point.”
“Katerina.” She looked at him and he said, “You’ll stay with Harry for a few days.” Harry translated and she nodded as if being given important instructions. “You’ll be safe here, but you mustn’t leave the apartment. Soon, I’ll take you to a Russian friend, a good man who’ll help you. If you want to go home he’ll help you do that.”
Her reply came back, simply put and all the more mournful for it, and Harry translated, “She says she has no home.”
“Then he’ll find a good family for you to go to, or—he’ll help.”
Finn stood up, gesturing for her to stay sitting, but as Harry stood too she said hesitantly, “Finn. Thank . . . Thank you.”
Finn nodded, but at the door he said to Harry, “If there’s a problem, or if you think they’re looking like investigating you—”
“I’ll just point them in your direction.” Harry laughed. “I know, if there’s a problem, I’ll call. But there won’t be. We can do this.”
Finn nodded and thought back to the body in the church, to the blood gulping out onto the floor. He’d seen people killed before, but that made it no less mystifying to contemplate the life he’d ended himself.
“I killed someone, Harry. How about that?”
“Well, you could say you killed someone, could say you saved someone—depends which way you look at it. Just a shame it wasn’t Karasek himself.”
“I’ll leave that job for you.” Finn started to walk along the cor ridor. “See you tomorrow.”
“Usual place, usual time,” said Harry, and closed the door.
Finn started down the stairs, at a loss as to what he’d just done. He’d guarded that secret so carefully for so long and yet he’d just given it up, albeit to someone he could trust—someone he thought, or hoped, he could trust—and all because of a girl he didn’t know, a girl for whom he had also killed a man. But she needed help, it was as simple as that, and those two acts had been the only way he’d seen of giving it. What else could he have done?
Chapter Five
For the last half an hour he’d been thinking about Arnaud Amaury. More specifically, he’d been wondering if he could make a case for Arnaud suffering from Asperger’s. Here was a man who’d struggled to connect with the people, who’d been ridiculed and humiliated but who, when faced with an intractable religious problem, had hit upon a chillingly logical solution without any recourse to human emotion.
The Cathars had been a small but growing heretical minority, dispersed among the wider population, indistinguishable from them. And that wider population had been unwilling to surrender people they’d probably known their whole lives.
That had been Amaury’s problem: how to identify the Cathars. To a man who believed that true Christians had nothing to fear in death, the solution was simple—put the entire city to
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