"So, that's your story?"
Detective Miklos looked at Roddy, sitting across the desk from him in the Bistritz Police Station. The man seemed perfectly harmless. An ancient British ex-pat, Roddy Williams had been a member of the Bistritz community longer than most people who had been born here. No record of any trouble with the law, past president of the Rotary Club, owner and operator of a local small business. Everything about him would suggest to any police detective that this is a person of good character whose word can be relied upon. And yet...
"That's exactly what happened? You haven't left anything out?"
Roddy appeared thoughtful, going over everything in his head. "No, that's everything."
"Okay," said Miklos. "Let's just go through it one more time, and if you don't mind I may just interrupt with a few questions."
"Oh, by all means," Roddy told him, and then repeated his story. "I received a call this morning from an old friend, asking if I could meet her for lunch."
"This would be Valeria Engel, the deceased?" the detective interjected. "Valeria Engel, the German corporate billionaire, is an old friend of yours somehow. You, a British expatriate operating a small souvenir shop in the mountains of Romania, know Valeria Engel?"
"That's right," Roddy answered.
"It must be an interesting story how you met," Miklos wondered.
"Oh, not really," Roddy said. "We met during the war."
"Now you see, this doesn't make sense to me. What would either of you be doing in Afghanistan, during a war, let alone both of you at the same time?"
"Heavens, not the Afghanistan war!" Roddy told him. "Before that!"
"The Iraq War then?" Miklos suggested. He continued as Roddy just shook his head and gestured to continue back. "Gulf War? Vietnam? Korea?"
"You left out the Falklands War," Roddy suggested.
"So you met during the Falklands War?" asked Detective Miklos.
"No," replied Roddy. "Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that."
Detective Miklos was starting to get a bit red around the collar. "Perhaps you could just tell me what war you are actually referring to."
"World War 2," Roddy revealed.
"The two of you met during World War 2?!" Miklos exclaimed.
"Not really during the war," Roddy attempted to clarify. "We actually met just after the war. It was 1946, and we were both attending a peace conference in Switzerland. I was at an evening affair and noticed her across the room. I took her a glass of champagne and struck up a conversation."
"And this led to an affair?" Miklos suggested, trying to determine motives.
"Not at all," Roddy replied. "It led to a pleasant conversation, but we were like chalk and cheese. Very different politics, as you can imagine."
"But you've remained in touch all these years?" asked Miklos.
"Actually no," Roddy explained. "I hadn't heard from her ever since. Until this morning, that is."
"So out of the blue, after almost seventy years, she calls you for lunch. And what did she say she wanted?"
"Oh, just something light. Maybe a salad, or soup. When you get to our age..."
"I meant," said Detective Miklos, gritting his teeth in an attempt to hold his temper, "What did she want, from you!"
"Oh, of course," Roddy replied. "She didn't really say. Just the name of a good restaurant. I suggested the Golden Crown, which really is one of the under-rated gems of this city."
"And you weren't curious why this woman would call you after so much time?"
"Well of course I was curious," Roddy told him. "But it wasn't any great mystery to be solved. I would meet her for lunch, and she would tell me. Detective, when you get to my age, your mind tends to dwell on many things. Mistakes of the past, missed opportunities, something as simple as the wrong word spoken to the wrong person at the wrong time. I've felt the same many times, thinking about people I haven't seen for years, and wondering if they ever thought about what happened between us. I assumed it was something we had discussed, something she or I said that had bothered her over the years, and when she told me we would have a good laugh over it."
"Let's go forward to the lunch at the Golden Crown," suggested the detective, realizing that whatever secret Roddy held, he wasn't going to give it up from this line of questioning. "From other accounts I understand that Frau Engel arrived first, with some young thug in tow."
"Dr. Engel, actually. And he was hardly a thug, Detective," Roddy told him. "When I arrived he was introduced as a business colleague. I'm sorry but I didn't catch his name."
"But you refused to sit at the table with them. You remained standing, and had a heated exchange. Then another thug arrived and forced you down behind the table."
"Bad knees."
"What? What does that mean?"
"Bad knees," Roddy repeated. "My knees don't always cooperate, and sometimes need to be coaxed into performing the task. As it happened I was unable to sit and actually had to remain standing. When Valeria's second colleague arrived he assisted me to sit at the table. And what appeared to be a heated exchange, I'm sure was just the exuberance of old friends seeing each other after some time."
"And this second colleague's name?"
"Sorry, didn't really catch it either."
Detective Miklos flipped through his notes. "So, by all accounts you then continued to have an 'exuberant' conversation. But I assume you will assure me it was all very friendly?"
"That's right," Roddy replied. "We had a lot of catching up to do."
"And the mystery of why she called after all these years?"
"She never got to it, I'm afraid. I suppose we will never know."
"Huh. Convenient," said Detective Miklos. "So let's deal with your exit from the restaurant. It seems, before even ordering, Doktor Engel decided to leave. It was at this point that her two colleagues grabbed you and dragged you through the restaurant."
"Very kind of them to help an old man like that," Roddy suggested. "Yes, Valeria became very concerned about a flight she needed to take later in the afternoon. We decided if it was such a concern, that perhaps we should leave and she could get some lunch closer to the airport."
Miklos consulted his notes again. "The owner of the Golden Crown, a Maria Fruehauf, said that she was afraid for your life. You were dragged against your will, toward the front doors. She called to another local, a Klaus Brandauer to stop them. That was when one of the colleagues threw a punch at Brandauer, starting a fight."
"Maria is an old friend of mine, and of course she worries about me," Roddy said innocently. "What was simply two young men assisting an old man may have looked like an abduction to her. I'll speak to her, and set her mind at ease."
"So why did this colleague start a fight?"
"Well, I hate to speak for what a man I really don't know may or may not have been thinking," Roddy said. "But when Maria shouted 'Stop them,' it sounded very much to me as if she said 'Stop him'. The man may have heard the same, and assumed she wanted Klaus stopped. He may have assumed Klaus was there for some nefarious purpose, and he responded as anyone would to a call for help. I know, it was a terrible mistake, both Klaus and this man thinking the other was up to no good, and fighting to protect others from harm. If only I had spoken more quickly, perhaps it could have been avoided."
"Yes, you didn't speak up," said Miklos. "You were, in fact, dragged through the restaurant by the second thug at the instruction of Doktor Engel, with a gun pointed at your back, as witnessed by numerous restaurant staff and patrons. You were taken through the kitchen where the staff were also threatened at gunpoint, and when you found escape was blocked by police at the back entrance you ran through the restaurant again leaving chaos in your wake. Does any of this sound familiar?"
"I'm sure Doktor Engel was merely frightened by the fighting, and the man was simply trying to get his employer and her friend out of danger. When we got to the back door I finally had a chance to tell them, Klaus is my friend and the fight was a horrible mistake and we should go back."
"At gunpoint?"
"There was never any gun, Detective," Roddy assured the man. "I believe the man was some sort of mechanic, and before we left the table he had been discussing some repairs he intended to make to their car. He pulled out a wrench, and I suppose as we moved through the restaurant he still held it in his hand."
"So it was only a wrench, not a gun?" said Miklos. "And when witnesses saw him hit Brandauer with a gun, he was actually hitting him with a wrench?"
"I'm sure that never happened, Detective, although some may have seen it that way in the excitement. I seem to recall Valeria and I telling everyone to stop fighting, and the four of us left as quickly as possible to avoid further trouble. If we had known that Klaus had collapsed behind us, I'm sure we would all have stayed to ensure he was alright."
Miklos looked over his notes from interviews with the other witnesses. "Well, that's a truly unique point of view. So enlighten me as to what happened after you left the restaurant."
"Valeria and I had had so little time together, I suggested that I could drive her to the airport and we could discuss old times in private on the way. She agreed, and dismissed her two friends. Then as we continued toward my car, Valeria fell to the ground. We said a few words, last goodbyes or words to that effect, and she died."
"There was a gun found at the scene."
"Yes, I saw that. I planned to tell the police officer who found us, but he noticed it right away. I was rather worried what might happen if some child found it. I'm glad it will be handled properly now, though."
"A gun, found within a few feet of where Valeria Engel dies, moments after a dozen witnesses say she abducted you at gunpoint. A gun, not a wrench, Mr. Williams. A gun which, according to you, was just lying there and which was completely unrelated to any of the previous goings on. That doesn't sound at all suspicious to you, if not downright preposterous?"
"Well, put that way I suppose it does," Roddy agreed, becoming slightly miffed. "But I'm not sure what you are suggesting. You want to believe that I was kidnapped by Valeria Engel. But then do you propose that I overpowered her two bodyguards, such that they dropped their gun and fled, leaving their employer dying in the street at the feet of her arch enemy of a lifetime? Which story sounds credible to you, Detective?"
Detective Miklos stared at Roddy. He simply stared, waiting, watching for any sign of nervousness, any indication that Roddy might decide to change his story. It was a technique he had seen used many times, with consistent results, on CSI Miami. American TV. Except Roddy did not flinch.
"Sometimes these things work, sometimes they don't," the detective finally thought to himself with a shrug.
"Alright then," Miklos continued aloud. "You're free to go, Mr. Williams. We may come around to speak with you again, if that's alright."
"That should not be a problem," Roddy replied. "May I use your phone to call my granddaughter to come pick me up?"
"Ask at the front desk and they'll take care of it."
Roddy left, and an officer approached Detective Miklos.
"So, did you hear all of that Dancescu?" Miklos asked the officer. "What did you make of it?"
Dancescu shrugged. "Sounds like maybe things got blown out of proportion," he suggested. "He had a reasonable explanation for everything that happened. Case closed."
Miklos appeared thoughtful. "Yes, except there were so many reasonable explanations, for so many things that happened. Everyone else saw a gun, everyone else heard arguing, everyone else saw him dragged against his will. And yet he has a completely different, completely reasonable explanation for everything. I don't like it. Something is wrong with this Dancescu, I can feel it."
"Well, we can't arrest someone for being kidnapped," Dancescu said. "And if he says he was never kidnapped, it's going to be hard to press charges. I don't see any other crime here. I don't see any way forward with this one."
"Oh, there is a crime here," Miklos informed him. "We just don't know what it is yet. Kidnapping may be part of it, but whatever else is going on, Williams is in it and he's in it deep."
"So what's our next move then?"
"We need more information. Has the coroner seen the body yet? I want a full autopsy, in case this was more than just a natural death."
"The body's in the hospital morgue, but I don't think the doc's been in to see it yet. I'll tell him what you want."
"And put a police guard on the morgue. Something is going on, and I want to take no chances."