“Do you think I’d be able to see that CCTV footage? I want to see if he came with anyone —”
“I… I’m not sure…” The guy looked at his watch. “Shit. I’m late. Totally up against it tonight. Three of my bar people just called in sick. What about if you come back —”
“I’ll help you,” Leo said.
“What?”
“If you let me look through these CCTV images now, I’ll help you set up for your event tonight.”
The guy narrowed his eyes. “You ever worked a bar before?”
“Sure, loads of times in England.” Leo lied.
“Alright,” he said, stepping forward with an outstretched hand. “I’m Lance. Good to meet you.” Leo introduced himself. “Help me set up and then we’ll have a look through the CCTV. If you stay for the shift, I’ll pay ya. You’ll not work for nothing.”
“Deal,” Leo said, shaking Lance by the hand.
Lance explained what Leo needed to know as they walked through the dark nightclub.
“This is room one,” he said. Angular speakers hung from the ceiling and lights bristled from the corners. “This is where the Space Camels will be playing later. Proper techno. You been to Berlin before?”
Leo shook his head.
“Then you’ve never heard anything like it. Make sure you get in here and have a listen. It’ll change your life. Out here’s the main bar. We’ll sort this one out and get one of the others to do the rest —”
“How many bars are there?”
“Three in total, but this one’s the biggest. I’ll have you with me here so I can help if needed. First, we need to get these empties taken out, then stock the fridges.”
The next two hours flew by as Leo and Lance shifted crates of empty bottles, filled the fridges and replenished the spirits. When they’d finished Lance poured them both a beer.
“Another good thing about this place,” Lance said, handing Leo the glass, “drinking on the job is pretty much encouraged. I’m not sure I could do it without it."
“Yeah, you must have seen some sights,” Leo said.
“Totally. Right, let’s have a look at this CCTV. Bring your beer.”
Following Lance through the club, Leo looked into the two smaller rooms where different DJs would play later that evening. Lance stopped by a curtain and turned to Leo.
“This is something I’ve never seen anywhere but in Berlin. Every club here has one.” Lance pulled aside the curtain and Leo peered in. Two sofas faced each other at either end of a small space which, when the curtain was dropped, would be in complete darkness.
“What do people use it for?” Leo asked, instantly feeling stupid for his innocence.
“I know what I would use it for.” Lance grinned. “You wait until you see some of the women.”
Lance flicked a knowing nod to Leo, all Leo could think about was Allissa in the figure-hugging dress.
At the end of a passageway, Lance unlocked a door. Leo followed him inside.
In the centre of the room, a table was strewn with documents. The walls were covered with posters from previous events.
“It’s never as glamourous as you’d think,” Lance said as Leo looked around the office. Lance sat at the desk and lifted the screen of a laptop. “You know, in films, where someone goes to see the nightclub boss, and he’s got that real swanky office. It’s never like that in reality.”
“Yeah, really disappointing,” Leo said. “I bet you don’t even pull people’s fingernails off in here either.”
“Afraid not. Fill in loads of spreadsheets though.”
Lance logged into the computer and the CCTV system’s control panel appeared.
“All these CCTV systems are cloud-based now. It’s a lot easier than it used to be. What dates and times are we looking for?”
Leo gave Lance the date and time he expected Minty to have left the club.
“I’ll go to ten minutes before then we’ll run through it at speed. You tell me if you see him.”
Leo scrutinized the people on the screens shuffling to and from the club. It must have been a busy night.
“What’s that,” Leo said, noticing a man walk from a different direction as everyone else.
“That’s a fire escape. We use it for staff to come and go during the night and the DJs are brought in that way. Customers shouldn’t be using it, though. Is that him?”
Leo squinted at the image. It was a small man, pale-skinned and with what looked like a long thick coat hanging from his shoulders.
“No, it’s not. It just looked unusual. Carry on.”
As the man in the green coat wandered away, another man appeared.
“Pause again,” Leo said, scrutinising the height, size and hair colour. “That’s him, I think. I’m sure of it. Just hold there for a second.”
Unlocking his phone, Leo noticed it had been on silent and he’d missed a call from Allissa. He cancelled the notification, brought up the camera and took a picture.
“Can you scroll back? I want to get a picture of that other guy too.”
Lance scrolled the video back and Leo took another photo.
At that moment a thunderous bass rumbled through the walls of the building. It shot through Leo’s spine. In a panic, he looked around the office.
“Don’t worry,” Lance shouted, putting a hand on Leo’s shoulder, “that’s just the guys making sure the sound system’s working properly. The main dancefloor is just through this wall.”
Leo took a deep breath to calm himself.
“This definitely isn’t like the movies,” Leo shouted above the noise.
41
“Why did you choose to meet him here?” Anafisa asked, swinging the Maserati Levante from the main road and into the suburban district of Charlottenburg.
Borya liked being a passenger in the Maserati. Lots of people drove cars, but Anafisa mastered the car. She moved through the gears with such speed that Borya was pinned to the seat.
Maybe when I have my Rolls Royce, Borya thought, I’ll get Anafisa to drive me around in it.
“It just seemed like a good place. In the middle of nowhere. No one would think of it, right?” Borya removed the pipe from his lips and exhaled.
