“I need the CCTV footage of Alija Park from the last five months.”
“I… I… can’t give that to you, M. It’s illegal.” Her words hold absolutely no weight right now, and I am at my wits' end.
“Fine.” I turn my attention to Oliver, and I talk loud enough for her to hear. “Who is the closest to Sloboda Street number fifteen?”
“Enes, he is about two minutes out.” Yes, Enes is almost as good a sniper as Adam.
“Kanita, one of my best snipers is on his way to your house, and I will give him particular orders.” I motion for Oliver to have Enes stand on the lookout and have his scope on her big house.
“M, please no.” I can hear her talking like she wants to cry. Her emotions are not my fucking concern. Oliver motions for me that Enes has positioned himself and waits for the order.
“CCTV footage.” No time to waste.
“I can’t—” While she is listing reasons she can’t send me the footage, I give Oliver the signal for Enes to proceed. Not my fucking problem that she lives all alone in a secluded house, which she paid for with bribe money.
“…and that’s why I can’t give it to you. I’ll lose my job!” Before I can say anything, I hear a loud screech from behind the line.
“What the fuck was that?!” She is out of breath, and it’s like she forgot who she works for.
“You won’t lose your job, you are very valuable. But, I won’t repeat myself.” I try to compose myself. “CCTV. Footage.” I hear Kanita go to her computer and work on it. After a couple of minutes, I receive an encrypted file in my email via an undetectable channel.
“I have sent you—” I don’t let her finish.
“If you ever try to disobey me, I’ll kill you myself.” And I hang up. Usually, I'm calm, but now is not the fucking time.
“Got it, M. It will take a while for me to go through the footage because Hana is studying,” Adam announces.
“Fine. Take those two boys and look for any clues.” I point to Oliver and Josh. Oliver stands up from his seat and kisses Josh on the top of his head.
“Come on, sweetheart, let’s get to work.” His playful manner will never go away, especially not with Josh. He stands up and follows Josh to Adam’s workstation, aka my living room table.
“Men, I don’t think I’m being serious when I tell you all that we need to act fast. I think Marco will escalate right now because what gives him power was taken away,” Sara exclaims as she taps her pen against my kitchen table. We all turn to listen to her.
“I think he will become desperate and prolong the torture of his previous victim. To feel something.”
“Sara, we have to go through all the footage first,” Adam tells his girlfriend. I take out a cigarette and light one up.
“To speed things up, check the footage of the last day of each month and the day after between 3:30 and 5 p.m.” Adam and the guys nod at me, and they get to work. I go and sit on one of the kitchen chairs. Sara looks at me with disgust.
“How can you smoke that thing around your gorgeous vest?” Sara nods toward the vest I wore to the wedding. This vest is special. Lana touched this vest.
“I’m never going to rewash this vest, she touched it.”
“You are even worse than Adam.”
“Not possible!” Adam screams, then winks at her. Oh, dear God.
“Where is Lana anyway?” I check my tracker on her, and she is now on her way home. I show Sara, and she nods approvingly. The rest of the night goes by smoothly, and just after midnight, the men are done. Adam, Oliver, and Josh join Sara and me at the kitchen table.
“So, what do you have? Who is driving the car?” Nobody says anything, and Oliver gives me one of his puzzled looks. Both he and Josh look at Adam, and he mouthsassholesto them. He is obviously apprehensive about telling me what is happening.
“Okay, so, a man is driving, and he has a tattoo of a serpent on his ring finger.”
Oh shit.
“M, what is it?” Josh asks me as I stare into nothing. I motion for them to continue reviewing the footage. The car has been driving for a long time along abandoned green roads—which is typical for Bosnia. There are many places where roads are unkempt, yet people still live there. It’s their way of being secluded and still included in society. They want to live close to the city, but not so close that people can count their nose hairs.
The footage ends, but not my thoughts.
