After the formalities all Anna and I wanted to do was go to bed and sleep for a week but instead we showered, put on our glad rags and headed for the city lights and the address Ranko had given us. We agreed we would not mention anything about Tom Kelling or Milos Mladenovic's will.
I would not bring up anything about Kashmir and Vlado's wish to get rid of me. Very few people other than Anna, Kelling and I knew anything different. I left a message for Rocco as we drove to thank him for his help and to reassure him that no Mladenovic incursion into his business in Australia was likely now or in the future.
We were ushered into a dimly lit dining room in an old building in Queen Street. It was elegantly furnished with antique furniture and set with white tablecloths and shining silver. The perfect place for the old-world diplomat that Ranko Mladenovic appeared to be. I wasn't at all sure that's what he was but that was his business. Since he was keeping our arses out of the fire he could playact all he liked.
We sat down with oversized menus, a snooty waiter and very good champagne. Little of consequence was said until after the first glass of fizzy and the hors d'oevres.
I was nearly bursting to find out why such a high-ranking official had come all the way to Australia. Was he really just reaching out to his only surviving Australian relative? Or did he know about Milos's will? Milos seemed to have some sort of dynastic feeling so when he was dying and included his unborn grandchild, did he also reach out to the son he'd abandoned a generation before? I started to speak but Ranko raised a hand.
`I have a few things I wish to add tonight after our ordeal this afternoon. First Goran, my bodyguard will recover. Secondly, no charges of any kind will be levelled at you by the Serbian authorities.'
I was amazed when he said that. Of course not. Apart from a bit of self-preservation that led to the unlawful imprisonment of the psychopathic Luka, we'd done nothing wrong. I kept my face still though. I was beginning to wonder if this urbane old man was really as benign as he made out. Or whether he was even with the Serbian government. He hadn't produced any identification and he was a Mladenovic after all. Even if he was who he said he was a billion dollars was a big incentive to abandon your principles.
He went on to explain that Milos had deserted his family and fled to Australia when the partisans came after him for his Nazi affiliation during the war. There was no divorce from his mother and when he checked he found Milos had produced two other children with a wife he was not legally married to.
Aha. `So what are you saying, Ranko? That Anna comes from an illegitimate branch of your family?'
`It would seem so, yes.'
`And you came all the way to Australia to check that out? Something to do with money, is it? Might I point out that Anna is provided for in her father's will, not her grandfather's. She wasn't born when he died.'
I knew I was being aggressive but we'd learned the hard way in dealing with the Mladenovics. He looked at me for a long minute.
`I realise that Mr Nichols. It's merely that there is a rumour that Milos Mladenovic, my father, may have left a will that has not been disclosed to the authorities in this country. I believe that is illegal, is it not?'
This was getting increasingly suspicious. `I'm afraid I don't know. You'd have to talk to a lawyer about that. And if it hasn't been disclosed why do you think we'd know about it?' He knew something. How much? We'd soon see. `Where did you get this information?'
`As I said, it is a rumour.'
We waited while the waiter served up our next course but I wasn't hungry anymore. The old man had to have talked to Michael Bentford. There was no other source of a `rumour' about unrecorded money from Milos Mladenovic. Michael Bentford only knew because Emily Kelling had blabbed about her grandfather's business. Had our new friend come to Anna's farm to cut him out?
I began to believe that if the firefight hadn't killed Bentford, Goran would have taken him out anyway. A dead Luka was a bonus. It was getting very difficult to stay calm and expressionless and Anna was carefully watching her plate which made me think she too was getting suspicious. I slipped my hand into my pocket and switched record on Rocco's burner phone.
A few minutes later she put her napkin on the table and stood up. `I'm sorry, Ranko, I don't feel very well. The stress of today has got to me. I'm afraid I have to go home now. Harry can you…please.' She strangled a small sob as she pulled me out of my chair.
The smile that stretched across Ranko's face was no longer benign. `But it's much too far to be driving all the way up there at this hour of the night. Allow me to offer you a room at my hotel. Courtesy of the Serbian government.'
`I don't think so, Ranko,' I said. `I'll be driving while Anna rests. Thank you for your hospitality.' Something hard dug into my back. A waiter stood closely behind me.
`No, Mr Nichols, I don't think so. Please sit down. We don't want to upset Borislav. Put it away, Borislav. Now my dear little cousin, come and sit by me. I'm afraid you won't be going home tonight and unless you do as I say, Mr Nichols here won't be going home at all, ever.'
We'd jumped straight out of the saucepan into a furnace.
`Then you're not from the Serbian government, I take it?' I asked sounding like I was asking the way to the toilet.
He threw back his head and laughed. `Well, what I said about not knowing about the Mladenovic business until I was older was true. And I was in government and criminal finance investigations. It's just that when I found out that I was family, naturally I joined the firm.'
`Naturally. Is that why Luka was so shit scared of you? And why Bentford ran to the city after you arrived. I thought it was Vlado who came and since they were planning to kick him out…well, no wonder they were frightened.' My aim was to keep him talking long enough for us to work out how to get out.
`I wouldn't bother looking around for escape, Mr Nichols. You may have noticed that this is a private dining room. There'll be no help for you here.'
I hadn't even been aware that I was looking around but if I kept talking maybe he wouldn't notice Anna as much. I had to hope that because of his age and culture he would underestimate her. I gently put my foot on hers under the table and got a responding pressure back. We were simpatico.
`All right, what do you want from us, Ranko?' I suddenly remembered the news clip I'd seen on TV the day before yesterday of the Serbian delegation arriving in Sydney. Maybe Luka hadn't orchestrated the second attack on Tom Kelling.
`Before you go on Ranko, can you tell me how you were in the news with a Serbian delegation arriving in Sydney just a day or two ago? I mean if you're not government any more…'
He smiled. `Did I say I wasn't with the government? I'm sure I didn't. I just said I was with the Mladenovic family firm now. That's as well as. I'm still the government's man in criminal finance investigation, I just don't investigate us.'
`But surely your people must see that?'
`My dear Mr Nichols, you are a true baby in the ways of the world, aren't you? Money has a way of blinding people; you must know that.'
I certainly did. I'd see all too often what corruption did. Anna's family company was a classic example of that. Anna was staring at Ranko in amazement. A smile stretched across her face and she nodded slowly. Ranko's head tilted and he raised an eyebrow as he looked at her.
`Ranko,' she said, `I'm not sure what is in my grandfather's will and I don't know how to find out, but I assume it is a lot of money or you wouldn't all have come here. But maybe we can join forces to look for it. If I've got this right, you and I are the last of the Mladenovics, it seems silly to be making threats when we could just…share.'
Oh, good girl, I thought. Well done. That'll lower his guard, for sure. Unless…an awful thought flashed into my mind and was instantly banished when she turned and smiled brightly at me. `Don't you think, Harry?'
My hand which had been sliding towards my pocket and Rocco's speed dial, stopped. Good thing too because the large Borislav had moved around the table and was standing right next to me. It also meant he was standing between Anna and me.
Ranko leaned back, dabbing his mouth with his napkin. `Well, well. Now we have a little entrepreneur. Michael never mentioned that possibility to me.'
`Because he never mentioned any of this to me. Perhaps he could have saved himself if he had.'
`Perhaps.'
We all knew that wasn't true. Michael was doomed the moment his cousin found out about his scheme.
`You see he was threatening to kidnap me when you arrived. I didn't know this was what he wanted or I would have considered it. As I have now. What do you think, cousin Ranko?'
`The old man in Sydney. He knows the code but the old fool had a heart attack before he could tell us.'
I couldn't help it. `So it was you, not Luka who attacked Tom Kelling?'
Anna put a hand on my arm. `Don't upset yourself Harry, he's recovering so it will all be okay, won't it Ranko? He trusts me,' she simpered slightly, `he said I was my mother's daughter.'
`I heard she tried to kill you.'
`She was ruthless, yes and we didn't get on…' Get on?…`but I appreciate that strength. I hope I have it too.' He was still sceptical and while Anna was probably safe, I wasn't. She continued. `But if you want me to help you, you have to agree to two things.'
He tapped a finger on the table. `What did you have in mind?'
`One, that you leave Harry alone. For a start, Tom Kelling trusts him too and you know how old men don't think women can do anything on their own?' I swallowed hard at that one. `He thinks I need Harry there before he'll trust me with anything sensitive. And anyway, I love Harry and I won't do this if he's harmed in any way.'