The soles of her high-heeled ankle boots clacked like spanking down the clinic stairs.
Feli ran outside, nearly stumbling over a woman trying to enter in her wheelchair, and in her excitement forgot to excuse herself.
Right, left. Straight ahead. She peered in all directions, pivoted around, and saw a half dozen Livios.
One was crossing Seestrasse, another was waiting at the bus stop smoking, two more were walking into a pharmacy one corner away.
In this drizzle, every third guy looked like a slim half-Italian with dark hair from afar.
Damn it. She didn’t get the best look at him, and dark trousers and a grey parka weren’t exactly distinguishing characteristics.
Crap, crap, crap.
Smashed fingers, stolen phone. There was more and more she’d have to confess to Janek. And less and less time until the ceremony.
Feli checked her watch and looked for the next taxi stand, then it occurred to her that she needed to block her phone immediately. Banking info, account access – it was all on there, though encrypted, but who knew what criminal talents pickpockets were capable of these days?
Angry now, she wanted to head right back to that doctor’s assistant and lodge a complaint with her, since Solveig knew the thief and had his info in their records.
On the other hand… She hesitated.
She probably wouldn’t learn much more from Solveig than that the guy was named Livio Kress. It wasn’t as if the woman could testify to his stealing her phone from her trench coat. Solveig would’ve said something right when it happened.
Hell, she hadn’t even noticed herself.
And all other information fell under patient privacy.
But Solveig did have a telephone.
Feli turned back for the clinic entrance and was about to open the door when her eyes landed on the display window of the pharmacy housed among the ground floor retail shops.
Bright, nearly white light streamed out between the window displays onto the wet rainy pavement. She saw a cardboard cut-out of a laughing woman happy about the effects of an athlete’s foot ointment, next to a rack of stomach drops. And in between, further inside the store: Livio.
That really takes some nerve!
He was leaning over the sales counter to a young female pharmacist with a short haircut, showing her a phone.
My phone.
Presenting it to her like a street vendor his goods. Grinning, with sweeping gestures.
The pharmacist was sympathetically shaking her head, which made him put the phone away. He’d obviously just tried converting it into cash on the spot. All Feli heard as she sprinted through the sliding front doors inside was: ‘Without a receipt, you’re not going to be able to anyway.’
‘Call the police!’ Feli shouted.
‘What?’
‘Say again?’
The pharmacist and Livio stared at her. The other customers did too, a man with a runny nose and an elderly couple, the woman leaning on a walker – all turned to Feli and eyed her in bewilderment.
‘That man just stole my phone,’ she said to the short-haired pharmacist and pointed at Livio.
‘He stole it?’
Livio blew up his cheeks like a puffer fish. ‘That’s a lie.’
‘Then what did you just stick in your pocket?’
‘You mean this?’ Livio pulled out her phone.
‘Oh, please. Now you’re even admitting it.’
‘No, I’m not at all. I found it in the gutter.’
The pharmacist couldn’t help rumpling her forehead, and Feli just shook her head.
‘You don’t even believe it yourself. You’re trying to pawn it off.’
‘Listen to me, please…’ Livio held out his hands to the pharmacist who, her eyebrows rising, said, ‘Should I really call the police?’
‘No!’ Livio shot back, then he said to Feli, ‘Please, think about it. If I was the one who stole it, wouldn’t I have headed for the hills? Would I be in this pharmacy? I didn’t know it belongs to you. I swear.’
‘Was he trying to sell it to you?’ Feli asked the pharmacist.
‘Not directly…’ She wasn’t sure what to say. ‘He only asked if I knew someone who might be interested.’
Livio clapped his hands, laughing. ‘A misunderstanding. All I was trying to find out was if any customers had reported it missing.’ He smiled his charming smile but Feli was anything but convinced.
‘I am certain that if I call the police they’ll have something on you. That right?’
Livio’s smile vanished, and Feli nodded in triumph.
‘Oh, did I hit a nerve? Explain all you want. You know what, I’m going to dial 110 now, and we’ll see what the authorities have to say about your lost-and-found story.’
‘Please, don’t do that.’
Livio stepped close to her and looked around. Once he seemed certain no one was listening, he whispered to her in desperation: ‘You’re right. I’m in enough trouble. Please. You have your telephone back. Let me go.’
‘Why should I do that?’ Feli snarled in anger. ‘You’ll just rip off the next person around the next corner.’
She punched 110 into her phone, turned away from him.
‘I can help you, that’s why,’ she heard him whisper behind her right before she pressed the green dial button.
She side-eyed him over her shoulder. ‘Help how?’
‘That photo, the one you were just showing Solveig.’ Livio pointed at her phone. ‘Please, leave the police out of this, and I’ll tell you who that is and where you can find the cab driver.’