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them to get the hell out of Dodge? If she told them she had it from a reliable source that Hess had moved to Argentina, would they believe her?
    She walked into the living room and stopped short. What if it wasn’t her mother and Margaret at the door? What if it was the shooter or the phantom who’d left the doll? She eyed her purse with the Smith & Wesson still inside.
    The caller buzzed again, longer and more insistently. She pushed the button on the intercom. “Yes?”
    â€œReiner Hess. I am here to speak with Frau Calms.”
    She caught her breath. Now what?
    â€œHello? Is this the apartment of Dinah Pelerin?”
    â€œYes. Wait, please.”
    She went out into the hall and pounded on Geert’s door.
    After a minute, he materialized in a cloud of smoke.
    â€œGeert, I have company downstairs. I don’t know what he wants and I don’t want to meet him alone. Will you come over and stay for a few minutes? Just in case?”
    â€œ Ja , sure. If you don’t like, I will bounce him.” He stubbed out his cigarette and followed her across the hall.
    She spoke into the intercom. “Come up now, Mr. Hess.” She buzzed him in and held her apartment door open.
    Geert slouched onto the sofa and hitched his pipe-stem arms across the back.
    Hess took the steps to the second floor two at a time. He had chiseled features, arrogant blue eyes, and a bristly head of pale hair that reminded her of a hedgehog. Geert would be no match for this well-muscled hunk if he became threatening.
    â€œYou are Frau Pelerin?”
    â€œYes. Won’t you step inside?”
    â€œ Danke .” He projected a brash sexuality and looked too young to have been one of Cleon’s contemporaries. Then again, the drug business was an equal opportunity employer and Cleon had probably recruited plenty of muscle from Generation X. As he entered the room, he slung a sidelong glance at Geert. “Who are you?”
    Geert didn’t rise or offer to shake hands. “I am Geert Hendrik. Do not try nothing funny, I am warning you.”
    Hess frowned. So did Dinah. She had expected a touch more discretion from Geert.
    Hess leveled his blue eyes on Dinah. “Is Frau Calms here?”
    â€œNo, she isn’t.”
    â€œHendrik, I would like to speak with Frau Pelerin in private.”
    â€œI am not going noplace.” Geert unhitched his skinny arms from behind the sofa and rocked forward. “I have seen you before. At one of the massagesalon brothels in Oranienburger Strasse, nicht wahr ?”
    The veins in Hess’ neck bulged.
    Dinah reconsidered the wisdom of inviting Geert’s help. “Will you have a seat, Herr Hess?” She moved away from the foyer table and motioned him toward a chair. “Would you care for coffee, or a glass of iced tea?”
    â€œI’ve come to bargain with your mother. She said she would be here.”
    â€œShe’s on her way home to Georgia, actually. I took her to the airport this morning.”
    â€œYou are lying. She came to Berlin to bargain. She will not leave until she has what she came for.”
    â€œYou’re wrong. Someone tried to kill her and she left.”
    â€œYou can’t fool me. She is like Cleon Dobbs, greedy and cunning. She will have what she wants.”
    It was one thing for Dinah privately to question her mother’s integrity, quite another to hear this gorilla insult her. “My mother said you were a lawyer, but you don’t act like one. You act like a thug. What exactly did you do for Cleon Dobbs?”
    â€œAsk your mother, why don’t you?”
    â€œI will, if and when she returns to Germany.”
    His lip curled. “I have no time for games. She has something I want and I am willing to pay. Four hundred thousand Euros, no more. This is not the Orient. In Germany, we don’t haggle. Tell her to be at the Müggelturm tonight at nine o’clock and bring the item she wishes to