What was it he’d said — “I found you in Kathmandu, didn’t I?”
Of course, he was right. But he didn’t need to search on his own anymore. They now had each other. They were in this together.
Allissa hit Leo’s number and held the phone to her ear. The ringing tone sounded distant.
Allissa felt a sting of worry as, after ten rings, it cut to nothing. She hoped he wasn’t in danger. She switched to the ‘Find Your Phone’ app she and Leo had both installed on their phones. They’d installed and tested it a few weeks ago in the flat and were impressed by its accuracy. The blue dot told Allissa that Leo was somewhere near Kreuzberg.
If he won’t answer his phone, Allissa thought, I’ll just have to track him down.
56
Leo was watching the door the man had gone through when he heard his phone vibrate on the table. He glanced at it and saw that Allissa was calling. She would have now landed in Berlin.
He picked up the phone and was just about to answer when he saw the door across the street open. The man in the green coat stepped out. Leo shot to his feet, paid for his coffee, and stuffed the phone away. He would have to talk to Allissa later.
Leo watched at the door for the man to get ahead of him and then stepped out into the falling darkness. Families now dined in brightly lit restaurants, and groups of men sat smoking outside bars. Smoke curled upwards in thick white clouds. A few of them noticed Leo as he passed. Some even followed him with their eyes, darkened to shadows by the distant streetlights.
Ahead, the man in the green coat turned right. Seeing a gap in the traffic, Leo hurried across the road and followed him. This road, like the last, was broad and busy. Lined on the right-hand side with bars and cafes, on the left, it opened onto a gloomy expanse of parkland. Music and people from one of the bars spilt onto the pavement. A peel of laughter from a group of men startled Leo as he passed.
The man in the green coat crossed the road and walked into the park. Crossing after him, Leo gazed into the gloom. The hazy sun had melted into a sky of angry red.
Another cheer from the drinkers at the bar shook Leo into action. He couldn’t give up now. Clenching his fists, he took a deep breath of the cooling night air and walked into the Volkpark Hesenheide.
Despite the darkness, Berliners were still out in force. A man ran past Leo, his breath billowing in the night. Leo looked left and right for any sign of the green coat in the unquiet night. There was none. The man had melted into the gloom.
Fifty metres into the park, the city’s light surrendered to the park’s turbulent dusk. Leo paused and looked around. Streetlights cast the occasional island of light. Ahead, a cyclist shot through one like a moth in the night. The lawns lay in vast swathes of black. Leo squinted. Was that the sway of the green coat? He couldn’t see anyone. Darkness like this could hide anything. He’d seen the man enter the park no more than two minutes ago. He must be nearby. Leo had to keep going.
Percussive heartbeats rattled between Leo’s ears. He wasn’t sure if it was his impending dread of the situation or some geographical peculiarity, but he now felt like he couldn’t see anything at all.
Ahead of him the park’s lawns sprawled through the darkness. After a few steps, Leo heard voices. Glaring into the blackness, he saw a group of ghost-like figures. They were just floating grey outlines. The orange tips of their cigarettes danced like fireflies. Leo looked for any indication the man with the green coat was there. None of them seemed the right size or shape.
Leo turned from the group and followed the path deeper into the park. Grabbing his phone, he looked at the park on the map. The park spanned numerous city blocks and included playing fields, a café, and somewhere, now buried amongst the trees, an outdoor cinema.
The night hung thick all around him. Facing back to the darkness again, Leo heard something move. It was close, but he couldn’t see it. He resisted the urge to use the light from his phone.
It moved again. Then slowly, insidiously, a person came into view, a tall, thin man whose eyes glimmered from some distant light. It wasn’t the man Leo had followed. This man was too tall.
Leo’s anxiety rose. His muscles stiffened, and tightness consumed his chest.
“Möchtest du etwas?” the man said.
Somewhere behind the man, Leo sensed more movement. They weren’t alone.
“I’m… I’m…” Leo stuttered, his voice weak. He breathed deeply. He tried to control the panic which burned his chest and stung his vision. Each muscle attempted to fight against the temptation to run.
“You want something?” The man spoke again, switching to English.
Breathe in and out. Focus. Calm.
“You want hashish? Charlie?”
“No, I…” Leo’s thick tongue stumbled over the words.
Then Leo spotted something through the darkness. A figure moved, swaying towards them through the trees. It was just a dark shape in the gloom, but the height and build were right.
“I need to see Minty Rolleston,” Leo said, loud enough for the figure in the darkness to hear.
“You want Charlie?” the man repeated. In the gloom behind the man, Leo saw the figure had stopped moving.
“I’m looking for a man called Minty Rolleston,” Leo said again. “His parents sent me to find him.”
As Leo spoke a light appeared. It was nothing more than a small torch, but it stung Leo’s eyes as it shone towards him. A voice followed in a thick Russian accent.
“How do you know Minty Rolleston?”
Around Leo, shapes melted and formed from the darkness. The first man disappeared, and a smaller shadow surfaced from the gloom. Leo squinted against the light. Leo fought
