“Détente?” George suggested.
“Don’t be a smart-ass,” Burim snapped and regarded George for a moment with narrowed eyes. “But, yeah, something like that. All I wanted to do was get to know her a little bit, but she’s too high and mighty to have anything to do with me, being a doctor and all.”
“She’s in terrible danger.”
“That’s how it’s to be, huh? Every time she’s in danger I have to see you?”
“Listen, her boss in Colorado—”
Burim held up his hand.
“Stop right there. You need to go with my guy here. He has to search you.”
“Search me why?”
“You don’t like it, our conversation is over. You understand what I’m saying?”
George did as he was told. The thuggish-looking man with Burim took George outside and into the back of a blue panel van. Another man patted George down roughly and very thoroughly. As he ran his fingers through George’s hair for some reason, he winked. Was this the uncle Pia had told him about? When he got back to the table, George didn’t ask. Burim had finished his soda.
“Okay, college boy. Tell me the story.” He pointed to the chair George had vacated.
George laid out the whole tale, as much as he knew, emphasizing that Pia’s boss, Zachary Berman, had come on to Pia sexually. He explained that Pia had become convinced that something weird was going on where she worked at a research company called Nano, and had put herself in danger by trying to find out what it was. The only thing she knew was that it somehow involved the Chinese because she, and the other doctor friend, had had a run-in with a stricken Chinese jogger who was also associated with Nano. Then when she apparently found out what it was, she had disappeared. “She texted a friend to say she was on her way to his apartment to explain what she learned, but never showed up. Since then no one has seen her. Myself and this other doctor friend are convinced she’d been kidnapped by her boss.”
“When did all this take place?”
“A few days ago. Monday morning to be precise.”
Burim glanced up at his colleague. “Sounds like the same thing as two years ago. Jesus Christ, the girl is impossible.” The colleague nodded. Burim looked back at George. “My daughter reminds me of my wife. She was a firebrand, too. And that is not a good thing. She pissed me off big time when I was struggling to get started. Neither of them showed me no respect.”
“Pia’s had a hard life. She was in those foster homes…”
“Careful, college boy.”
George swallowed hard but continued. “Those places made it very hard for her to connect with people. She doesn’t trust anyone, including me. She doesn’t have many friends; in fact I only know of two, myself and this other gay doctor.”
“Oh, please!” Burim said, raising his hands above the table. “I don’t want to hear about that.”
“The point that I’m trying to make is that besides myself and this other doctor, there is no one else to sound the alarm about Pia disappearing. Listen, if you are truly interested in getting to know her, it’s going to take years. If that’s what you want, it’s not going to be easy. It was never going to happen overnight like you wanted. You’ll have to be patient.”
“Why should I bother?”
“Because she’s your flesh and blood. She’s family. That’s why you went to save her last time. That was a pain in the ass, too, I expect, but you did it. Pia’s not the kind of person to bow down and say thank you in a situation like that. She has a lot of pride; that must mean something to you. She wouldn’t speak to me or see me for almost two years after I tried to help you.”
“Is that right?”
“Absolutely.”
Burim nodded. “Flesh and blood. She looks just like her mother, you know.”
“Your wife must have been a very beautiful woman when you met her.”
Burim looked at George and narrowed his eyes.
“You still in medical training?”
“Yes.”
“You becoming a shrink?”
“Hardly. No, I’m becoming a radiologist.”
“Then how do you know all this crap about Pia?”
“You don’t have to be a professional to appreciate what she had gone through growing up. The fact of the matter is she’s had a hard life, but she’s a remarkable person: intelligent to beat the band and beautiful. A lot of men are attracted to her, including myself, if you want to know. I’m really worried about her. I and this other doctor tried to get the Boulder police involved, but they are content to sit on their asses. There is no specific evidence that Pia was kidnapped. In fact they think they have evidence that Pia drove away, heading east, perhaps in a nonrequited funk, which is ridiculous. But the bottom line is that they are content to wait it out, saying that in most instances like this, the woman reappears. But I’m telling you, she is not going to reappear. This guy Berman took advantage of her, I’m convinced. I’m sure he kidnapped her. He may have molested her. Raped her. He may have killed her. This is Pia we’re talking about. Your daughter.”
George paused — he hoped to hell he wasn’t pushing too hard.
“If this Berman guy did kidnap her, where would he take her? Do you have any idea?”
“Not specifically. But the other doctor I mentioned has a friend who works out at the Boulder airport. Through him we found out that the Nano jet, presumably with Berman aboard, took off the morning Pia disappeared.”
“Where did it go?”
“The flight plan was to Italy. One of Milan’s airports.”
Burim stared out of the window a good minute.
“Flesh and blood,” Burim said quietly. “You wait here.”
Ten minutes passed, and George started to think Burim had walked out on him. Then he was back.
“What makes you think she has been killed?” he asked. “Or put another way, what do you think are the chances she’s already been killed?”
“I don’t think she has been killed. I think she is being held prisoner someplace, I guess in Italy.”
“The trouble is there are no Albanian clans in Denver. But that’s not a major problem.”
“What about in Italy?” George asked.
“No problem in Italy. I even lived there for a time on my way here to the States. It’s where I met and married my wife. We have a lot of people in Italy. Hell, it’s only fifty miles between Italy and Albania.”
“I hope to God you can find her and quick enough to save her.”
“Shit! I already did this once,” Burim said. “I guess I’m gonna have to do it again. But she better show a bit more gratitude this time, because there is not going to be a third.” His thin-lipped mouth managed a ragged smile.
At 11:10 that evening, Burim Grazdani sat in his premium economy seat in a British Airways Airbus bound for London Heathrow and looked at his watch again. His flight had been scheduled to leave five minutes before, but the flight attendants were still walking around checking passengers’ safety belts. Next to his house and car, this plane ticket was the most expensive item he had ever purchased legitimately, or semi-legitimately, since the name on the passport was not his own. Despite the price, he had been told by the booking agent he was very lucky to get even this ticket at three hours’ notice. There had just been a cancellation of a group booking and stand-by passengers had taken every spare seat but one. Burim booked the flight without even listening to the price.
George Wilson had sat with him in the restaurant at the Vince Lombardi Service Area on the New Jersey Turnpike for another half hour. Burim told George he had done the right thing. The police weren’t going to help; and George couldn’t. He needed professional assistance with the resources of the Albanian mafia. Burim hadn’t used the word mafia. Instead he had said family, but George knew what he meant.