The Ben Hope Collection: 6 BOOK SET. Scott Mariani

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       Chapter Twenty

       Vienna

       That evening

      Kinski was pacing up and down in his living room. His nerves felt like broken glass and he could feel a migraine coming on. His hands shook violently and his stomach churned.

      Where was she? Who had taken her? Was this a reprisal for someone he’d put away? He thought of some of the cold bastards he’d dealt with over the past few months. Ran through their names and faces in his head. He knew what they could do to her. He’d seen what they could do.

      If they harmed her he’d kill them. Kill every last one. Kill everybody.

      He fell into an armchair with his head in his hands, crying and trembling. Then he paced again and slammed his fists into the wall until they bled. Max the dog watched him nervously from his bed in the corner.

      The phone rang and he leapt at it. This was it. Ransom demand. He lifted the receiver with a shaking hand.

      Somebody trying to sell him roof insulation.

      ‘Fuck you.’ Kinski slammed it down.

      He was startled by the noise outside of a car pulling away, then a moment later he heard the doorbell. He raced to the door and ripped it open just in time to see the black Audi speeding away down the street. He didn’t get the registration.

      Clara smiled sweetly up at him from the doorstep. ‘Hi, Daddy. Hey, Maxy.’ The big dog had jumped out of his bed and was all over her, licking her face, wagging the stump of his docked tail. She turned her face away from him, laughing as she trotted into the house.

      Kinski pushed Max away. He threw his arms around Clara and clasped her hard against his chest.

      ‘You’re crushing me.’ She wriggled back and looked at his face, puzzled at his expression. ‘What’s wrong with you?’

      ‘Where have you been?’ was all he could say.

      He sat her down in a chair and made her tell him everything. She didn’t understand why he was so upset, what the big deal was. Franz was nice. He said he was a friend. A cop, like her dad. Dad had asked him to look after her for a while. They had ice-cream in a nice café. Franz was funny He told her stories that made her laugh. No, he didn’t touch her. He never touched her at all, except to take her hand to lead her into the café. No, she didn’t remember the name of the café or the street where it was. It was just a café somewhere. What was wrong?

      Kinski listened to all this and his head hung lower. ‘What does Franz look like?’ he asked. He tried to keep the fury out of his voice.

      She shook her head, as though it was a silly question. ‘He’s big like you but not so fat.’ She giggled.

      ‘This is serious, Clara.’

      Clara brushed back wisps of sandy hair and looked serene. ‘He’s old. He must be forty. Probably even more.’

      ‘OK. What else?’

      ‘He has a funny ear.’

      ‘What do you mean, a funny ear?’

      She made a face. ‘Kind of horrible. Like it was chewed up or something.’

      ‘Scarred?’

      ‘I asked him what happened to it. He said a big old parrot landed on his shoulder and tried to pull his ear off. He acted it out. It made me laugh. I liked him.’

      He wanted to slap her. ‘Don’t you ever do that again. I mean it, Clara. The only car you get in is our car or Helga’s. Do you understand?’

      She lowered her head, sniffed and wiped away a tear. ‘Yes, Daddy.’

      The phone rang again. Kinski answered it on the second ring.

       ‘Herr Kinski?’

      ‘Who is this?’

       ‘Just listen.’

      ‘OK, I’m listening.’

       ‘This is a warning. Stay away from the Llewellyn case.’

      ‘Who are you?’

      ‘Next time that pretty little girl of yours won’t be coming home smiling.’

      Kinski bit his tongue and tasted blood. The line went dead.