The following afternoon the Troys were walking through the Innere Stadt, like a caravan, it seemed to Troy—all they lacked were camels and music and sunlight and shifting sands. They had walked from the Danube Canal, the length of Rotenturmstraße in the direction of St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
Someone was still following Frederick Troy, although in the absence of further paranoia he was now telling himself that someone was following Sasha Darbishire.
“We’ve picked up another tail,” he said to Rod.
Rod’s head jerked as though on a string.
“No, don’t turn around. We’ll get out to middle of the square and I’ll nobble him.”
“I’m getting fed up with this.”
“Leave it to me.”
He slowed his pace, let the family pull ahead as they passed the southern corner of cathedral, and as they reached the chapel on the far side, Troy turned and walked quickly back across the square to face his pursuer.
It was a little bloke, quite unlike the last. Short and tubby. A black winter overcoat and a rather tatty homburg, and shoes soled in leather that rang on the cobblestones. Not a hint of gum about the shoe.
They stood face-to-face, almost nose-to-nose.
Troy could almost swear the man was blushing.
“Look. I’ll tell you what I told the other chap. Fuck off back to London and tell my brother-in-law to grow up.”
“Sie sind Herr Troy?”
“What?”
“Herr Frederick Troy, aus London?”
“You know bloody well who I am.”
But the man didn’t seem to understand a word he’d said.
“Ja,” with exasperation. “Ich bin Frederick Troy.”
“Ich habe einen Brief für Sie.”
He stuck an envelope in Troy’s hand, turned on his heel, and walked away without looking back.
Troy watched in disbelief, felt as though he’d just been served with a summons, felt tempted for a moment to go after him and grab hold, to thump him as hard as he’d thumped the last dim-witted gumshoe, but the moment passed and he tore open the envelope.
No letter, no note, just a ticket for the Großer Saal at the Konzerthaus—Stalls seat D18, that same night.
KONZERTHAUS
GROSSER SAAL
LOTHRINGERSTRASSE 20, WIEN
_____________________
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
KLAVIERKONZERT 20 IN D-MOLL
SINFONIE CONCERTANTE IN ES-DUR
& SYMPHONIE 41 IN C, ‘JUPITER’
DIE MOSCAUER KAMMERORCHESTER
DIR. ANATOLI CHERTKOV
SOL. LAVRENTI KUTUZOV
D18
And he’d no idea what this was about.