The Third Woman

The man rising from the opposite side of the table was Otto Heilmann. A short man, no more than five-foot-six, with narrow sloping shoulders, he wore a loden hunting jacket with onyx buttons over a fawn polo-neck.

‘We will meet again, Fräulein Jaspersen?’

‘I expect so, if you wish.’

‘Perhaps you would consider coming to St Petersburg?’

Petra wondered where this stiff courtesy came from. Probably not from two decades with the Stasi. Nor from the last fifteen years of arms-dealing. She didn’t imagine there was much call for Heilmann’s brand of politeness in Tbilisi or Kiev. Or even in St Petersburg. Yet here he was, dressed like a benevolent Bavarian uncle, hitting on her with a formal invitation that fell only fractionally short of stiff card and embossed script.

She gave him her best smile. ‘I’d certainly consider it, Herr Heilmann.’

‘Please. Otto.’

‘Only if you promise to call me Krista.’

A small inclination of the head was followed by a reciprocated smile that revealed a set of perfectly calibrated teeth. ‘This could be the beginning of something very good for us, Krista.’

She watched him leave, a navy cashmere overcoat folded over his right arm. Outside, a Mercedes was waiting, black body, black windows, a black suit to hold open the door for him. Perhaps that was why he’d chosen Café Roma; black wooden tables, black banquettes, black chairs. Crimson walls, though. Like blood. A more likely reason for Heilmann to choose the place. Her eyes followed the car until it faded from view.

The remains of the day stretched before her. Nothing to do but wait for the call. More than anything, Petra’s was a life of waiting. Like a movie actor; long periods of inactivity were intercut with short bursts of action.

She drained her cappuccino and decided to order another. Twenty minutes drifted by. It grew busier as afternoon matured into evening; shoppers, businessmen and women, mostly affluent, mostly elegant.

‘Jesus Christ, I don’t believe it. Petra, Petra, Petra …’

She looked up and took a moment to staple a name to the face. Not because she didn’t recognize him but because he was out of context.

He misunderstood her silence. ‘Or are we not Petra today?’

John Peltor. A former US Marine. Still looking every inch of his six-foot-five.

‘Is this bad timing?’ he asked.

‘That depends.’

He glanced left and right. ‘Am I intruding?’

‘No.’

Clearly not the answer he was expecting. ‘You’re alone?’

‘Aren’t we all?’

‘Always the smart-ass, Petra.’

‘Always.’

‘I wasn’t sure at first. The hair, you know.’

It was the longest she’d ever worn it. Halfway down her back and dark blonde.

‘Kinda suits you,’ he said.

‘Do you think so?’

She didn’t like it: although it went well with her eyes, which were now green. She wasn’t sure Peltor had noticed that change.

He looked into her cup, which was two-thirds empty. ‘Want another?’

‘I’ve got to go,’ she lied.

‘You sure? It would be good to catch up again.’

Perversely, that was true. Social opportunities in their solitary profession were rare although it wasn’t the first time they’d run into each other by chance. Peltor wasn’t her type but that hardly mattered. How many of them were there in the world? Not the cheap battery-operated types, but those rare hand-crafted precision instruments. Less than a hundred? Certainly. Whatever their respective backgrounds they were bound by the quality of their manufacture and they both knew it.

‘How long are you in Munich?’ she asked.

‘Leaving tomorrow, around midday. How about tonight?’

‘Busy.’

Another lie.

‘Can you make breakfast? At my hotel. Say nine?’

Petra tilted her head to one side and allowed herself a smile. ‘You won’t be sharing it with some lucky lady?’

Peltor feigned wounded pride. ‘Not unless you say yes.’

Petra arrived at the Mandarin Oriental on Neuturmstrasse at nine. When she asked for Peltor at the front desk – ‘Herr Stonehouse, bitte’ – her instructions were specific: he was running a little late so could she take the lift to the sixth floor, the stairs to the seventh and then proceed up to the roof terrace.

It was a freezing morning, no hint of cloud in the sky. The sun sparkled like the Millennium Star over a roof terrace that offered an unobstructed view of all Munich.

‘Not bad, huh? It’s why I always stay here when I’m in town.’

Peltor was floating at one end of a miniature swimming pool. Petra had seen baths that weren’t much smaller.

‘I hope that’s heated.’

‘A little too much for my taste.’

‘Always the Marine, right?’

Petra looked at the board by the pool. Next to the date was the air temperature taken at seven-thirty. One degree centigrade.

‘Love to swim first thing in the morning,’ Peltor declared loudly.

‘I thought you people loved the smell of napalm in the morning.’

‘Not these days. How long’s it been, Petra?’

‘I don’t know. Eighteen months?’

‘More like two years. Maybe longer.’

‘The British Airways lounge at JFK? You said you were going to Bratislava. Two weeks later I was stuck in Oslo airport flicking through a copy of the Herald Tribune and there it was. Prince Mustafa, the Mogadishu warlord, hit through the heart by a long-range sniper. A Sako rifle …’

‘A TRG-S,’ Peltor added. ‘Won’t use any other kind …’

‘A 338 Lapua Mag from seventeen hundred metres, wasn’t it?’

‘Seventeen-fifty. What were you doing in Oslo?’

‘Nothing. I told you. I was stuck.’

‘Cute, Petra. Real cute.’

Peltor climbed out of the pool. Massive shoulders tapered to a waist so narrow it was almost feminine, a feature that reminded her of Salman Rifat, the Turkish arms-dealer. But where Rifat’s extraordinary physique was steroid-assisted, Peltor’s was natural. He exuded power as tangibly as the steam coming off his skin.

Oblivious to the cold, he dried himself in front of her, neither of them saying anything. It was an extravagant performance. A muscled peacock, Petra thought, as he reached for a dressing-gown. She wondered whether he was really running late or whether he’d orchestrated the display deliberately.

His suite was on the seventh floor. He emerged from the bathroom in a navy suit without a tie. Stephanie caught a trace of sandalwood in his cologne. Peltor wore a trim goatee beard at the same thickness as the hair on his head, somewhere between crop and stubble. He stepped into a pair of black Sebago loafers and they went down to Mark’s, the hotel restaurant.

Orange juice and coffee arrived. Peltor ordered scrambled eggs and bacon, Petra stuck with fruit and croissants. She said, ‘You running into me at Café Roma yesterday …’

He took his time, sipping coffee, playing with the teaspoon on the saucer. ‘Yeah. I know.’

‘And?’

He struggled for an answer, then looked almost apologetic. ‘All my adult life, I’ve had my finger on a trigger, Petra. First for my country, then for my bank balance. In that time, I’ve been the best there is. We both have. Different specialities, same environment. But nobody knows what we do. We have to lie to everyone. We can’t relax. That time at JFK – we were just a couple of business colleagues shooting the breeze in an airport lounge. A few stories, a few drinks. It was nice. But I didn’t think I’d get the chance to do it again. Then yesterday … there you were.’

‘A coincidence?’

‘I hope so.’

‘Someone I used to know said that a coincidence was an oversight.’

He sat back in his chair and held open his hands. ‘Shit, it happens, you know? You’re walking down a street somewhere – Osaka, Toronto, Berlin – and some guy calls out your name. When you turn round there’s a face you haven’t seen since the fourth grade back in Austin, Texas.’

‘Is that where you grew up?’

‘Never let your defences down, do you?’

‘Never.’

Peltor held up his hands in mock surrender. ‘Look, I saw you in Café Roma. I could’ve walked away but I didn’t. That’s all there is to it. I just thought we could talk again like we did in New York. You know, take a time-out. If you’re uneasy with that … well, then I guess you’ll leave.’

But she didn’t. Perhaps because she’d enjoyed JFK too. Taking a time-out, talking shop. Relaxing.

Peltor’s eggs and bacon arrived. The waitress poured Petra more coffee. The restaurant was mostly empty, the businessmen long gone, just four other tables occupied, none of them too close.

Gradually, they drifted into conversation. Nothing personal, not at first. They talked about Juha Suomalainen, a Finnish marksman whom Peltor had always regarded as a rival rather than a kindred spirit. Petra asked whether he was still active.

‘I doubt it. He’s been dead for six months.’

‘Who got him?’

‘Husqvarna.’

‘I don’t know the name. Sounds Nordic.’

‘Husqvarna make chainsaws.’

‘I’m not with you.’

‘Juha was at his home in Espoo. Up a ladder, cutting branches off a tree. Somehow he fell and the chainsaw got him. And before you ask, I was in Hawaii with a drink in my hand.’

Petra pulled apart a croissant. ‘Well, statistically speaking, this is a risky business. You just don’t expect any of us to go like that.’

‘Right. Like Vincent Soares. Cancer. Wasn’t even forty-five.’

When Peltor talked about his time as a Marine, Petra was surprised to learn that he wasn’t the rabid jock-patriot she’d suspected he might be, although he admitted to missing the comradeship. But not much.

‘This is a lot better. Like owning your own business, know what I mean? You work hard but you got no boss busting your ass.’

As far as Peltor was concerned, she’d always been Petra Reuter, the anarchist who turned assassin. Originally, however, Petra had been created by an organization. And controlled by that organization. Petra was an identity handed to Stephanie. A shell to inhabit. And in those days there had been a boss. A man who had regulated every aspect of her life. But as time passed, flesh and fabric had merged and Stephanie had become Petra. Or was it the other way round? In any case, Petra had outgrown her fictional self. Now, both the organization and the boss were consigned to her past while Petra Reuter was more of a reality than she had ever been.

Peltor ate a piece of bread roll smeared with butter and marmalade. Petra waited for the predictable reaction: the grimace. He picked up the small marmalade jar.

‘Look at this, will you? Look at the colour. Way too light. Like dirty water. Too much sugar, not enough orange. And no bitterness. Marmalade doesn’t work unless there’s a trace of bitterness.’

When he wasn’t killing people Peltor liked to make marmalade. The first time she’d discovered this she’d laughed out loud. Later, when she thought about it, it simply reinforced a truth: you can never really know someone.

‘You still getting the same kick out of it?’ she asked.

When they’d last met, Peltor had explained what drove him on: the quest for perfect performance. It all comes down to the shot, Petra. Last contract I took was nine months from start to finish. All of it distilled into half a second.

There was no longer any trace of that enthusiasm. ‘To be honest, I’m not sure I’ll take another contract.’

‘That surprises me.’

‘I’m kinda drifting into something new right now.’ He tugged the lapel of his jacket. ‘Something … corporate.’

‘That surprises me more.’

‘It shouldn’t. You know the way the math works. I’ve had my time at the plate, Petra. And if you don’t mind me saying so, so have you.’

‘If you don’t mind me saying so, I’d guess you’re a decade older than me.’

It was more like fifteen years, but technically Petra was older than Stephanie.

‘It’s not about age. It’s about time served.’

She reduced her indifference to a shrug. ‘I’m touched by your concern.’

‘Don’t outstay your welcome, Petra. Most of the assholes out there – I couldn’t give a rat’s ass if they get wasted. But I like you. You got class. Don’t be the champ who doesn’t know when to quit.’

‘When it’s time, I’ll know.’

‘Bullshit. The people who say that never know. Know why? Because the second before they realize it, they find their brains in their lap.’

‘I’ll try to remember that.’

‘Just do it. Retire. Or shift sideways like I have.’

‘What is this venture, then?’

‘Consultancy I’d guess you call it. First-class travel, expense accounts, places like this. I swear, there are corporate clients out there – the biggest names – ready to pay a fortune for what we have up here.’

Petra watched him drum a finger against the side of his head and said, ‘Not quite the double-tap I’ve come to associate with you.’

‘Funny girl. Seriously, though, you can name your price. They pay off-shore, share options, anything you want.’

‘Now I’ve heard it all.’

‘You’re not too young to think about it, Petra.’

‘It’s not that.’

‘No?’

‘No.’

‘So what is it?’

‘You know perfectly well. It’s obviously already happened to you. But it hasn’t happened to me. Not yet.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘The moment.’

Peltor’s evangelism sobered into silence and she knew she was right.

She said, ‘The moment you know. But before that moment … well, you don’t just retire from this life, John. You know that as well as I do. It retires you. Sometimes after just one job.’

Beyond the recognition, she thought she detected a hint of regret in his voice when, eventually, he said, ‘Damned if you’re not right, Petra. Damned if you’re not right.’

Stephanie was still thinking about Peltor’s e-mail and the meeting that had prompted it back in September when her taxi pulled up beside the church of Notre Dame du Sablon. When Albert Eichner had told her that he was coming to Brussels to take her to lunch, she’d been faintly amused by his choice of restaurant. The exterior of L’Écailler du Palais Royal was the essence of discretion; premises that were easy to miss, the name lightly engraved on a small stone tablet beside the door, net curtains to prevent inquisitive glances from the street. As the chairman of Guderian Maier Bank in Zurich, these were qualities that Eichner appreciated more than most.

He was at a table towards the rear of the restaurant, a solid man with a physique that had defeated his tailor. When she’d first met him his thick head of hair had been gun-metal grey. Now it was almost as white as his crisp cotton shirt. Each cuff was secured by a thick oval of gold. On his left wrist was an understated IWC watch with a leather strap.

Stephanie was wearing the only smart outfit she now possessed, a black Joseph suit with a plain, cream silk blouse. Chic and conservative, just the way she suspected she existed in Eichner’s imagination. As she approached the table he rose from his chair.

‘Stephanie, as beautiful as ever.’

Eichner was one of the few men Stephanie had entrusted with her original given name. As for the surname with which he was familiar – Schneider – that had been her mother’s.

A waiter in a blue tunic poured her a glass of champagne.

She said, ‘How long are you in Brussels, Albert?’

‘A friend of mine lent me his Bombardier. I flew here from Zurich this morning. I have to get back for a family engagement this evening.’

‘I’m flattered.’

‘Don’t be. You’ve earned it.’ He raised his glass. ‘To you, Stephanie. With our sincerest gratitude.’

It was three months since Otto Heilmann’s death. She smiled but said nothing. Eichner was right to be grateful. In the past, she’d saved him from personal disgrace and in return he’d consented to become her banker. This time, however, the entire institution had been under threat. In the first week of September, Eichner had implored her to come to Zurich. An emergency, he’d said. An emergency that threatened Guderian Maier. He’d let her fill in the blank spaces.

An emergency that threatens your arrangement with us.

Otto Heilmann. One of the very few to have become rich during the era of the GDR. Heilmann had links with Guderian Maier going back to the Seventies. When Stephanie had asked what kind of links, Eichner had reddened.

‘In those days, my uncle ran this bank. In the same way that he did when he first ran it back in the Forties.’ He’d paused to let her dwell on this, the gravity in his voice suggesting the subtext. ‘We do things differently these days. Heilmann doesn’t understand that. He’s of the opinion that a bank like ours will accept anyone’s money providing there is enough of it.’

‘I assume you’ve explained that this isn’t the case.’

‘As politely and as firmly as possible.’

‘But he’s not dissuaded?’

‘Unfortunately, no.’

‘Distressing.’

‘We can’t possibly be associated with an arms-dealer.’ When Stephanie had raised an eyebrow at him, Eichner had qualified himself. ‘Not like Heilmann. It’s simply out of the question. You know the kind of clients we have. The very idea of it is just too … appalling.’

‘I’d have thought your stand might have worked in your favour.’

‘On one level, possibly. But there’s something else. When the Stasi disintegrated, Heilmann headed to Russia and took what he needed with him. Information for his own protection, information for profit.’

‘Let me guess. You refuse him and he’ll find a way to incriminate the bank, tying it to the crimes of the Stasi.’

‘He won’t find a way. He has a way.’

‘The sins of the past …’

The traffic on Bahnhofstrasse and the ticking of the carriage-clock on the marble mantelpiece had provided the soundtrack to a moment of awkward truth.

Eventually, Eichner had said, ‘As I have already explained to you, Stephanie, we don’t behave that way any more.’

‘Yet you have me as a client.’

He’d smiled lamely. ‘The point is, my generation and the next generation have gone to great lengths to restore some honour to a very noble heritage. Despite that, if we had to, we would be prepared to face the potential humiliation he’s threatening. But it’s gone beyond that now.’

He’d slid a photograph across his desk. Stephanie had recognized Eichner at the heart of the gathering, his wife sitting to his right. A family portrait, the faces of their seven grandchildren scratched out by a sharp point.

‘Hand-delivered to this office last week. Six people in the bank have received similar material. Including my secretary.’

She’d told him not to worry. And when he’d raised the subject of her fee, she’d refused to discuss it. Consider it a gift, she’d said. From one friend to another.

Now, four months after that conversation, Eichner looked five years younger. ‘Shall we share a bottle of something good? The seafood here is fantastic but I hope you won’t be offended if we drink red wine. From memory, they have a very fine Figéac 93 but I think we’ll go for something a little better.’

He ordered for both of them, Iranian caviar with another glass of champagne, followed by grilled turbot and a bottle of Cheval Blanc 88. When they were alone again, he said, ‘That place you used to live – that farm in the south of France – remind me where it was.’

Her heart tripped. ‘Between Entrecasteaux and Salernes.’

‘Were you aware that it’s for sale?’

How many years was it since she’d been there? Four, perhaps? It felt longer. She’d rented it. The owner had been a German investment banker stationed in Tokyo. It was a beautiful place, a little run-down, terraces rising behind the house, olives, lemons, a vineyard falling away to the valley below, the house itself afloat on clouds of lavender bushes. She’d picked it as somewhere to hide from the world and had never wanted to leave.

‘The directors and I have discussed this and – with your permission, naturally – we have decided to acquire the property.’

Stephanie frowned. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘For you. As a token of our gratitude.’

‘I told you in Zurich that I would deal with Heilmann for free.’

‘Exactly so. And we would like you to view this gesture in the same spirit. Consider it a gift. From one friend to another.’

She reached across the table and took his hand. ‘Thank you, Albert. That’s so sweet of you. But I’ll need to think about it.’

‘Is that you, Petra?’

Ten-to-eleven. When the call came, she was sitting on the living-room floor, sorting through Marianne’s domestic bills, listening to Bright Red by Laurie Anderson. The track ‘Tightrope’ was on repeat.

Roland doesn’t know me as Petra. That was her first thought, quickly followed by another: it’s not his voice.

‘Who is this?’

‘Jacob Furst.’

Out of the blue. Or, to be accurate, out of the past.

Furst took her silence incorrectly. ‘You don’t remember me?’

‘Of course I remember you.’

Furst was an old man – in his late eighties now, she guessed – with each year etched into the timbre of his voice. Not surprising, given the life he’d led. And now she recognized the strangely distinct sound of that voice too; high and quavering, almost feminine.

‘I apologize for calling you like this but I need to see you. It’s urgent.’

Another thought was forming; this was Marianne’s mobile phone. How had Furst obtained the number? Through Cyril Bradfield, perhaps, a mutual friend. Stephanie felt Petra taking over, concern making way for pragmatism. ‘Where are you?’

‘Paris.’

Where Furst lived, so far as she knew. ‘I’m going away tomorrow but I’ll be back …’

‘Where are you?’

She felt Petra’s reflex, her mobile had a German number. Did Furst imagine she was in Germany, or did he know that she was in Belgium?

‘I’m right … here.’

He seemed to understand. ‘Could you be in Paris tomorrow?’

‘I could be just about anywhere tomorrow.’

‘I would never have called you if I’d thought there was an alternative but …’

From what she remembered of Furst, that much was true. ‘What is it?’

‘I can’t say,’ he whispered. ‘Not over the phone.’

‘Can it wait?’

The pause undermined the lie that followed. ‘For two or three days, maybe.’

Stephanie pictured Furst; a small man with a crooked frame and surprisingly large hands. Miriam, his wife, was taller and broader.

‘Tell me this: is it the same as last time?’

His reply was barely audible: ‘Almost.’

Almost?

She said, ‘I can’t promise you anything.’

‘Will you try?’

No. Instinctively, that was what she felt. Petra hated situations like this. Unsolicited, unprepared. But there would be no easy escape here. There was a barrier in the way constructed of obligation and sentimentality.

‘One o’clock. If I’m not there by half-past, I’m not coming. Shall I come to your home?’

‘No.’

‘Where?’

‘The place we first met. Do you remember it?’

Day Two

My carriage is almost empty on the Thalys train service from Brussels-Midi to Gare du Nord in Paris. Belgian countryside scrolls smoothly across my window at high speed, flat and brown beneath a grey sky, ploughed fields speckled with small woods and copses. The tops of the electricity pylons are lost in low, rolling cloud.

A woman in a dark red uniform pours me more coffee. In an hour I’ll be in Paris. In four, I’ll be hurtling through this same stretch of countryside in the opposite direction. In twelve, I’ll be at thirty-five thousand feet, heading for the Indian Ocean.

I’m not sure what I can achieve while I’m with Jacob Furst but I’ll manage something. Furst is a man with a fierce sense of honour; the kind of man to squirm under obligation. And he will feel obligated towards me, no matter how hard I try to persuade him not to be. The truth is, my debt of obligation is greater.