The Mortality Principle (5 page)

She'd jumped to the wrong conclusion.

“It's the murders,” the woman said. “You can hardly blame people for keeping away, I suppose. Who wants to go wandering around when people are getting murdered right outside their front doors? So, we struggle, and if the police don't find the killer soon, it will be too late for some of us.”

“Is it really that bad?” Annja asked.

She'd been in Prague nearly a week and had been so wrapped up in her own problems she hadn't even noticed. That was what Garin meant about living in the real world for a while.

She avoided mentioning just how close she might have come to the killer, hoping that the woman would fill in some of the details Garin had hinted at over breakfast.

“Oh, yes. There have been several of them. Poor homeless people found dead in alleyways and parking lots. Some huddled in doorways, their blankets still drawn up under their chins as if they were just sleeping.” The way the woman talked about it, it sounded like there were far more than four dead bodies that had been accounted for.

“Are the victims always homeless?”

The woman nodded. “Yes. Every one of them. There's nothing to say that ordinary people like you or me are at risk, but it has put people off coming into the city. The hotels are half-full where usually they'd be booked up at this time of year. It's worrying.”

“I've been here a week and I didn't even know about the murders until this morning,” Annja admitted. “Not that it would have made much difference if I had known. My bosses wouldn't have let me duck out of this trip. The way things are back home, I think they'd probably
like it if I came face-to-face with the killer. Better for the ratings than another show about the golem.”

“I've never understood why everyone is obsessed with that story,” the woman said. “It's just a fairy tale. One of the newspapers keeps trying to link the killings with that old story, too. They're willing to do anything to sensationalize the whole thing.” She shook her head sadly. “If you ask me, they'd be better off getting people to help find the killer or putting their efforts into making sure those poor souls had some kind of shelter for the night.”

Which, Annja knew, was not merely true; it was obvious. If a killer was targeting the homeless, the very best thing the city could do to protect its people was to see that they had somewhere to sleep that was safe. But it was also obvious, from a narrative point of view, for the journalists to build up a story that linked real life events to the myth. Myths had power—power to thrill, power to chill. Telling the story would not only increase the sense of fear gripping the city, but it would sell newspapers. And, judging by the suits back home, that was the only thing that mattered to some people.

She gave her thanks to her guide, accepting a couple of brochures that the woman offered her, and highlighted the village that she had suggested Annja visit. Annja slipped them in her bag and pulled out a twenty-euro note. The woman tried to wave it away, but Annja insisted on leaving it as a donation. If things were as bad as they seemed to be, there was no way that the woman could afford to refuse any money coming her way. Despite protesting, the woman put it into the donations jar beside the door.

Annja stepped out into the street.

She felt the warmth on her face that had been missing inside the building.

She might not have found anything new relating to her story, but she might just have stumbled onto the obvious angle for the story she had. People's macabre fascination with murder sold newspapers. And if it was good enough to sell newspapers, then it ought to be good enough for the network's suits. But would it be good enough to save
Chasing History's Monsters
?

Only time would tell.

A quick visit to the newsstand confirmed which newspaper had been carrying the stories that connected the vagrant murders with Rabbi Loew's golem.

Even though the words were incomprehensible, the front page of one of the papers in the newsstand's racks carried Loew's name and an etching in place of a photograph that detailed the golem's nighttime wandering through these streets. Unable to read it, she decided she needed a different course of action. Thinking on her feet, Annja noted the name of the reporter whose byline appeared underneath the headline: Jan Turek.

A call to the newspaper resulted in her being passed from person to person until someone was found who spoke a language they had in common comfortably enough to answer a few questions. Then she discovered that Turek wasn't on the staff at all, but was a freelancer, and the staff member was unwilling to pass on any contact details for him without knowing more about her and her credentials. She provided Doug Morrell's contact information and told the staffer he could check in with him. She hoped that being on staff with a cable television corporation in the US would be enough to persuade them to put her in touch with Turek. She gave
the staffer her number at the hotel and returned there to wait for Doug to confirm she was who she said she was.

When the phone rang she snatched it up and answered.

It wasn't Jan Turek.

It was the staffer, who confirmed that Doug Morrell had vouched for her, though he hadn't appreciated being woken up at six in the morning. Annja couldn't help herself, she laughed at that, having completely forgotten about the time difference when she'd given the staffer Doug's cell number. The woman promised to take a message and pass it on to Turek, but couldn't promise when he'd get back to her.

“He's not exactly the most reliable soul,” she explained. “Which is why he's not on the staff here. But I'll call him now and leave your message. He's more of a night bird,” the woman said, which Annja immediately corrected to
night owl
in her mind. “I think he sleeps for most of the day, so don't expect a call back from him for a while.”

“But he's definitely the man I need to speak to about the stories you've been running about the killings?”

“Oh, yes. Can I ask, are you looking to buy the story from Jan?”

“It's possible,” Annja said. She knew how papers worked. The reporter would have a lot of material that hadn't made it into the finished copy. Was there anything in there that would be of interest to her? Maybe.

“I'll make sure I tell him that. He's more likely to give you a call if there's a chance of money changing hands. You know how these freelancers are. If you don't hear from him, you might want to check out some of the places where people sleep outside. He's been talking to
a lot of the homeless people late at night. I think he's even slept on the streets himself a couple of nights this week in the hope that he might catch the killer himself. The police warned him off that, though, so hopefully he listened to them. To be honest, I don't like the idea of him out there. It's not safe.”

“Thanks,” Annja said.

If the man didn't call her back, she was going to have to go looking for him, but she would have somewhere to start, which was more than she'd had an hour ago. How many Jan Tureks could there be in the city?

She was more than capable of looking after herself no matter who she found herself up against. But it was still seven or eight hours until it would start to get dark, and another six or seven until it was the right time to go hunting the killer, which made as much sense as hunting for the journalist who was writing about him.

That meant she was at a loose end.

She had time to kill.

She had exhausted the research she had brought with her three times over, but now she had another angle to chase. She decided to check the internet to see if there were better reports about the killings that had made it into the international press. Worst case, she could run Turek's reports—assuming they were online—through a translation app and at least get some sort of idea what theories he was putting forward. It wouldn't hurt to know just how much fear he was causing with his pieces, either. That was where the comments sections came in.

She headed back to the hotel, assuming Garin would still be occupying himself for a while yet.

From outside, the hotel was an unassuming building.
It had been a Dominican monastery back in the golem's day. Now it offered her space for quiet contemplation. Both the businessmen and the tourists had long since left, leaving the foyer empty. Annja walked toward the desk, which was between her and the single flight of stairs that led to the first floor where her room was. The receptionist looked up and smiled, returning to her work when Annja turned toward the stairs.

A middle-aged couple talking rapidly in German emerged from the stairway and walked straight to the reception desk without giving her a second glance.

Annja climbed the stairs two at a time, eager to get to work now that she had something to focus on.

She passed Garin's room, hearing voices behind the door. No doubt he was charming the waitress with talk of his jet airplane and a trip to Paris for champagne and strawberries that evening. That was his usual technique when it came to sweeping women off their feet: leave them dizzy with the heady rush of a life barely even imagined. If not Paris, maybe it would be pizza in Rome or Venetian ice cream, gazing out over the Lido. How many times in the past few years had Garin tried to impress her the same way? More than enough was the answer, though in truth he'd never impressed her more than that very first time they'd come face-to-face as she hunted the Beast of Gévaudan. He'd saved her life that day. To Annja's way of thinking that was more impressive than traveling half the world to dine at some fancy five-star restaurant, but as she'd quickly come to learn she was pretty much one of a kind.

She smiled to herself as she moved on to her own room.

Two hours sped by with Annja reading the various reports. It wasn't easy, the language barrier present even online, but she managed to track down more and more articles on the internet—though, painfully, as the translation site had a habit of turning the original Czech articles into gibberish.

She could have taken them to a translation service, but that would take time and cost money and probably only serve to annoy her paymasters. Or she could have asked around for a person who was fluent in English—fluent enough to give her a real idea of just how emotive the language in the articles was.

Of course, she had an ace up her proverbial sleeve. Roux. The man knew so much and had seen so much more. Even if he didn't have the answers, he would know someone who did. And in this case, he had no agenda, no wish to gain anything from her requests for help. That was the primary difference between the old man and Garin. Garin was like the song: he was his first, his last, his everything. He
always
put the interests of Garin Braden ahead of the interests of others. It wasn't just about being selfish, it was about being himself. You didn't live six hundred years of decadence
without picking up some bad habits along the way. It was only inevitable that centuries of getting neck-deep in fecal matter and somehow emerging smelling of roses gave you a warped perspective on life. Roux was different. She didn't know why—on a fundamental level—that should be so. But it was. The only thing she'd noticed, and it was through years of quiet observation as opposed to direct confrontation, was that Roux welcomed the idea that he might not live forever whereas Garin dreaded it.

The old man might come across as cantankerous at the best of times, but he was the rock she could rely on while all else around her floundered. And he wouldn't ask for anything else in return, even if he wasn't completely enthusiastic about getting involved. That was another sign that age was catching up with him. She'd noticed it time and again since what had felt like Garin's ultimate betrayal beneath the Pass of the Moor's Sigh. He'd taken that hard. It wasn't just that Garin had shown his true colors; it was that maybe, just maybe, Roux had finally accepted that he couldn't change his former apprentice's nature.

She played with the phone for a moment. Roux was the touchstone that linked both of the lives she lived. He was a constant in an ever-changing world.

She punched in his number and waited for the phone to ring.

“To what do I owe this pleasure, my dear?” the old man said. There was no hint of surprise in Roux's voice.

“How are you doing?”

“Much the same as I am always doing,” the old man replied. “As wonderful as it is to hear from you, I take it this isn't a social call? What can I do for you?”

“How good is your Czech?”

“Written or spoken?”

“Written,” she said, unsurprised that he'd made the distinction rather than dismiss her question straightaway.

“Fair,” he said. “As long as it's not too technical. What are we talking about?”

“A few tabloid articles. I'm sending you the links now.”

“I didn't say that I
was
going to help you,” Roux chided lightly. “Sometimes you take things for granted.”

“You also didn't say you weren't going to help me,” she said, wishing that he would be a little more obvious when he was feeling prickly. Some sort of code word would save a lot of misunderstanding. “Let's try again. Will you help me? Pretty please, O great and powerful Roux?”

There was an audible sigh that he exaggerated for her benefit, which guaranteed he'd read the articles for her.

“All right. Send the links. I'll call you back once I've had the chance to digest them. I assume we aren't looking at
War and Peace
here? I have a busy day ahead of me.”

“There shouldn't be too much,” Annja said. “I'm only interested in the pieces that refer to the golem.”

“The golem?”

“Yeah, you know, Rabbi Loew… The Golem of Prague…”

“I'm not a simpleton, Annja, I know exactly what you're talking about. I just don't understand what your interest in it might be. After all, it's a fairy tale.” He paused for a moment. There was an anguished tone lurking beneath his voice when he continued. “I've
always thought that you considered what you do to be a proper job. Something worthwhile. Not frivolity. Was I wrong?”