Butcher of Belgrade

Nine

“We’re after the same man,” I said to Ursula.

She looked at me quizzically as I hurried with her back to the station entrance. “What do you mean, Nick?”

“There isn’t much time to explain now. Richter is involved in big-time theft, and he has stolen something very valuable to my government in order to sell it to the Communists. That’s why he was on the Orient Express.”

I could hear the sound of European police sirens as we rushed through the station. There was a crowd around the room where the police had tried to detain Richter. Outside, the Orient Express was getting ready to pull out.

“I’m going to leave you here, Ursula. Tell the police nothing of my involvement if you can avoid it. Check in at the Majestic Hotel at Obilicev Venac 28, and I’ll meet you there later. Meanwhile, check the hotels and try to locate Richter. If you do find him, don’t try to take him, wait for me.”

“When will I see you again?” she asked. “Where are you going now, Nick?”

“There’s somebody on that train who might be able to tell us where to find Richter,” I said. “So I’m going back aboard. I hope to get back to you later today or early tomorrow.”

She smiled. “I am glad our work will keep us together for a while,” she said. “Good luck until I see you.”

“Same to you,” I said.

I reached the platform just as the train was pulling away, and hopped aboard. Blonde and lovely Ursula waved from the doorway, and then she turned to greet the uniformed Yugoslav police.

In just moments the train had cleared the station, and was gliding back out into the Yugoslav countryside. While in Belgrade, the train had taken on a dining car, which was now the last car on the train, behind the sleepers. That made one more place where I would have to look for Eva Schmidt, and it was where I found her. She had just ordered breakfast when I approached her table.

“I ought to put a bullet in you right here,” I said. “But I’m going to give you one last chance. Get up and go to your compartment. I’ll be right behind you. And no tricks this time. You try something like the last time, and I’ll kill you without further discussion.”

She hesitated a moment. Then she rose and walked down the aisle of the dining car. I dropped a few bills onto her table for the waiter and followed. Soon we stood before the door of her compartment in Voiture 5.

“In,” I ordered.

She unlocked the door. We entered, and I locked it behind us. “Now, what would you like to know?” she asked acidly.

“How to find your lover.”

She smiled a hard smile, and ran a hand through her dark hair. “That might be very difficult now. Hans will conclude his sale very shortly, and then he will be a very wealthy man. He will change his identity again and continue to elude the fools who harass him.” She laughed. “And we can thank your government for all of it.”

I did not like to be laughed at, nor to be called a fool. “You have a way of pressing your luck,” I told her. “Where is Richter staying in Belgrade?”

Eva put a smile on her face. She began to disrobe while I spoke to her. I didn’t know what she expected to accomplish, but she was soon down to her pants and bra. She had a ripe, full figure.

“If I give you that information, I would take the challenge from your job,” she told me.

She locked her eyes on mine as she removed the bra and exposed her breasts.

“You can also be nice and tell me where Topcon headquarters is located,” I said to her, watching her now as she slid the black lace panties down over white hips. She was trying to distract me with sex, and she was a lot of woman.

“Maybe we can make some kind of compromise,” she purred at me, standing there completely nude. She moved over to me and touched me with her breasts.

“What kind of compromise?” I asked.

She moved her body slightly against me. “You will settle for less than all the information you want, and I will give you a little present instead.” She moved her tongue slowly across her lips.

“I can take the present anyway,” I reminded her, feeling her hips move against me.

“Yes. But it would not be the same, would it? Not the same at all.”

I let the corner of my mouth move. She was good. She and Richter made a smooth team. He had probably used her on other Topcon missions. “And if I were willing to compromise, just what information would you give me?”

She moved the hips more insistently, and it was damned distracting. “I cannot tell you where Topcon headquarters is because I do not know. Richter does not take me there. But I will tell you that he is checking into the Excelsior Hotel in Belgrade at Kneza Milosa 5. I will tell you because he will not be there long, and you will probably not get there in time to find him anyway.”

Her hips insinuated themselves closer to me. I put my hand around them and felt the soft flesh move under my touch. I grabbed her chin with the other hand, pulled her to me, planted a savage kiss on her lips. She stood there saucer-eyed and breathless. Then a look of confusion and frustration came into her eyes. She had been in control a moment ago, she had been guiding the action, but suddenly she had lost that control.

I did not release my hold on her chin. I grabbed it in a tighter grip. “You’re lying, honey,” I insisted.

The confusion changed to apprehension. “No...”

“Oh, yes. I can see it in your eyes.” I released her chin, but still held her to me with the other hand. Then I reached into my jacket and drew out Wilhelmina. I stuck the muzzle up against her left breast and sunk it into that soft flesh.

“This isn’t like before,” I told her. “This time I’ve run out of patience. Now you listen carefully. I’m going to find out where Richter is hiding out in Belgrade whether you tell me or not. Do you really want to die just to make it a little tougher for me?”

The fear she had shown before had returned to her eyes now. I could tell she was thinking about what I had said. She glanced down at the pistol pressed against her bosom, and then she looked into my eyes.

“The Sava Hotel,” she said quietly.

I watched her face, and I was convinced. The Sava Hotel was the kind of place Richter would pick — small and out-of-the-way.

“And Topcon headquarters is in Lausanne, isn’t it?”

She looked quickly at me and then away. I pushed the muzzle of the automatic harder against her breast. She gasped.

“Yes,” she answered quickly. “But I honestly don’t know the address.”

I took the gun away and replaced it in its holster. “I believe you,” I said. “And now I must leave you and get off at the next station.”

She had not moved away from me. “You do not wish to accept the other part of the arrangement I offered you?”

I ran my hands over the full hips and kissed her mouth. She seemed hungry for me. But I had other things on my mind. I turned and pulled her scarf off a wall hook.

“I’d enjoy it, I know,” I admitted. “But I must put business before pleasure, at least sometimes.”

I brought the scarf up to her face, and she looked at it questioningly. Then I pulled it across her mouth and tied it at the back. She was suddenly squirming and hitting and making muffled sounds through the scarf. I grabbed her naked body, picked her up, carried her to the bunk and threw her on it. I thought I saw an expectant look come into her eyes for a moment, but I tied her to the bunk with her own belts and clothing. In a moment, she was spread-eagled on the bunk and glaring at me.

“There won’t be much need for a conductor or porter to beat your door down until you cross the border into Bulgaria,” I told her. “And that’s not until late today. By then, I’ll have reached the Sava Hotel.”

Her eyes flared hatred at me, and she mumbled something in German through the scarf.

“Don’t feel too badly about being tied up,” I smiled at her. “Just try to think of my alternative.”

I left her tied nude to the bunk and locked the compartment door after me. Then I went to Voiture 7 and my compartment to retrieve my small piece of luggage. I was ready to get off at the next whistle stop which came soon after.

Now, I had to get back to Belgrade in the hope that Richter had gone to the Sava Hotel despite his being wanted by the Yugoslav police. I had to find out if he still had the radio in his possession.