Case No. 2801

Lora Slámová

Table of Contents

Copyright

Chapter one: Missing foreigner, lost dog

Chapter two: Dead man in the river

Chapter three: Too many uncertainties

Chapter four: Shadows of the past

Chapter five: Lucky

Chapter six: Three thousand dollars, zero emotion

Chapter seven: The hard knock life of a pensioner

Chapter eight: Whispering of fear

Chapter nine: Face of love

Chapter ten: An American woman in Prague

Chapter eleven: Mr Albert’s secret

Chapter twelve: Cards are on the table

Chapter thirteen: Glimmer of the white lily

Acknowledgements

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

First Edition 2015

© Lora Slámová

Cover © Lora Slámová

© Mgr. Tomáš Zahradníček - TZ-one

ISBN: 978-80-87873-92-2 (ePub)

ISBN: 978-80-87873-93-9 (mobi)

ISBN: 978-80-87873-94-6 (PDF)

Chapter one: Missing foreigner, lost dog

Lieutenant Klamert gave me a call, asking if it was alright for him to drop by in an hour. I agreed. He arrived not even fifteen minutes later, all excited about the case he was currently working on, and started to talk straight away.

“It is quite complicated, Adrian. You must help me with that. I need you as a consultant. This case is really a tricky one. You don’t have anything urgent right now, do you?”

I had known Lieutenant George Klamert a long time and when he said a thing was complicated, it always meant an enticing offer to me – something like a riddle – and so I agreed.

“Listen, Adrian,” Klamert continued, “we’re going to drive to the small villa in Stodulky. I’m not telling you exactly what’s going on, I want your unbiased opinion.”

“Alright, as always, I’m going with you,” I replied, and we quickly jumped in the car.

Along the way, Lieutenant was telling me about the troubles he has been having with his adolescent son and how happy I am not to have any children. “The youth nowadays don’t know what they want, they all think making money is easy. And when he doesn’t have the newest cell phone, they laugh at him, for classmate Paul has one. So how am I supposed to explain it to him? I tell him to get a temporary job and he laughs at me, says that I’m an old fogey. Well, having kids isn’t easy, Adrian.”

“Yeah, small kids – small problems, big kids – big problems,” I smiled in reply.

“You are absolutely right, my friend,” he said and added, “we’re here.”

I looked out of the window. Our car parked in front of the house number 61. Full-grown trees behind a tall fence didn’t allow a clear view from the street. We stepped out of the car and Klamert rang the bell by the gate. I immediately noticed the camera system by the entrance. A voice of a man spoke to us through the door phone asking what we need. Lieutenant informed him we are with the police and after a short while the gate opened, revealing a beautiful, large house and a garden divided into two parts. One part was done in the style of a Japanese garden, while the other one was rather casual, with a small fountain, an old-fashioned bench and a big hammock. One look was enough to tell they have no kids here. Everything was too carefully organised, there was no sign of disharmony, let alone a small kid playing around. The door of the house opened and we were greeted by a tall young man roughly in his thirties.

“Mr Krejci, this is my colleague and consultant, Mr Adrian Les,” Klamert began, “he is going to help us with the investigation.” The tall man nodded in agreement and invited us in. He took us to a large reception room abound with antiques that displayed the good taste of the owner. A young woman, also around thirty, was sitting in an armchair and opposite to her a man – a foreigner at the first sight. Klamert continued, “Adrian, these are Mr Filip and Mrs Irma Krejci. This gentleman here is Mr Josh Martínez. He is a friend of Albert Brown, Mrs Irma’s stepbrother. May I ask you to describe the whole case one more time for my consultant, so that he could get full grasp of the situation?”

Mr Filip took the floor. “About a week ago, Mr Albert Brown – my wife’s stepbrother – and his friend Josh Martínez paid us a visit from the USA. They wanted to see Prague and visit Mr Brown’s sister. They were sightseeing, tasting Czech beer and everything went just fine until Saturday, when the unfortunate event happened. My wife’s brother took his dog for a morning walk and when they didn’t show up until the evening, we contacted police.”

“Since Saturday, there is no information or clues regarding Mr Brown, nor his dog,” Klamert added.

“Alright,” I began “I am going to ask you all a few questions, and try to answer as precisely as possible. Mr Krejci, where did you meet your wife first?”

“It was during my traineeship in New York, in 2010. We married a year later and we moved to Prague for good.”

“I suppose that your wife understands Czech, right?” I asked.

“Yes, I am having a hard time pronouncing some of the words, but I do understand,” Mrs Krejci replied.

“Very well, Mrs Krejci, have you been in touch with your brother back in New York?”

“No, he has been living in Arizona. Our father had another woman before he met my mother. After the divorce, he left his son and moved to New York. That is where he met my mother and that is also where I was born. I haven’t known about my stepbrother until my father got seriously ill and wanted to say goodbye to him. Then I have sent him a letter and invited him to visit us.”

“So that was the first time you have seen your brother. When exactly was it, Mrs Krejci?” I asked.

“Sometime in early March 2012, both I and Filip went there for a visit and there I have seen my brother for the first time.”

“Thank you, Mrs Krejci, may I ask someone to interpret the questions for Mr Martínez?”

Mr Krejci took the floor “Yes, of course, you can go on questioning, I will be interpreting.”

“Thank you,” I replied and continued, “please, ask Mr Martínez, how long does he know Mr Brown.”

Mr Filip did what I asked and interpreted the answer. “About twenty years, we have almost grown up together and we were going to the same school. Then we both got training in car mechanics and went on working in that field.”

“What else can you tell me about Mr Brown? Does he live alone? What about his mother?” I continued asking.

“Sir, his mother died about 20 years ago and he was living with us, which is why we are almost like brothers. When he came of age, he found himself a modest apartment and hived off.”

“Thank you, I have no more questions for now,” I turned to Mr and Mrs Krejci, “what can you tell me about the dog?”

Mr Filip took up my question. “He is a relatively small dog, his name is Borny. He is a Charles Spaniel, my wife got him from her parents during our last year there – well, I think it was 2011 – and we have moved to the Czech Republic shortly afterwards.”

“Then the dog has an ID chip. I mean, he crossed the border and was on a plane, right?” I remarked.

“Yes, but we do not know the number,” Mr Filip swiftly responded.

“Strange, isn’t it? You need to have some papers for the dog, and even though you don’t recall the number, it needs to be recorded somewhere.”

Mrs Irma joined the conversation. “The thing is we cannot find the dog’s papers.”

“One more thing: Did your brother know the dog and did he take him for walks regularly?”

Mr Filip probably wanted to behave like a good husband and so he took up the answer. “It was the first time, but our Borny is very friendly. And he wanted to help us, you know, it was a beautiful, sunny morning and he said we would have a breakfast together after they come back.”

“Ok, I get it. And since when are you missing the papers?”

“We don’t know exactly. We have only found out now that we need to report a lost dog,” Mrs Krejci replied.

“I am done for now. What do you think, Klamert?”

Lieutenant looked at me. “Yes, that is all for today.” We said goodbye and as soon as we got in the car, George said impatiently, “What do you think, Adrian? A can of worms, isn’t it?”

“You are too sceptical, Lieutenant, sometimes the most complicated question hides in a simple answer.” Klamert’s look was giving away that he did not understand and so I continued, “If I am right, we are looking for a missing man and a lost dog.”

“Well, I know that since Saturday, but what are you going to tell me about it?” Lieutenant added with anticipation.

“My friend,” I smiled, “when someone does something for the first time and it suddenly turns into such a problem, it is never a coincidence. The dog must have meant something to him or to someone else. Which is why you are now solving a case of a man gone missing on a walk together with his dog. This surely cannot be a coincidence. If we assume someone assaulted the man near the house, the dog would have come back, yet that hasn’t happened. Therefore I stress it again: you must find either the dog, or the man.”

“You haven’t helped me much so far. It seems even more complicated now,” Lieutenant mumbled.

“Don’t worry. I am going to help you as much as I can. And another thing, have you put up the pictures and details about the missing dog around the neighbourhood and the social networks?”

“We have put up the pictures, but I did not think about focusing on the dog when we have a foreigner missing.”

“A big mistake, my friend, start a search for the dog immediately. We have to find him.” Klamert gave me a surprised look, but he was fully aware that whenever he invites me to cooperate on a case, I am always right. We said goodbye in front of my house and promised to stay in touch.

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