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23
Ðakovo, Slavonia
1 March
Thursday, 10:08 a.m. local time
Philip and Ellie sat in the rear seat of Jozef ’s 2005 VW Golf, each one of them taking in
their surroundings as they drove through the suburbs of Ðakovo.
Side-by-side rows of compact houses lined both sides of the street, most of them made entirely of brick, although a few had painted, plaster-covered fronts and brick sides. The wooden-shingled roofs were green-tinged from the moss growing on them, and patches of grass and squares of concrete that served as driveways were the only things dividing one house from another.
The road continued that way, pretty much a straightaway, until Jozef slowed down, turned the steering wheel, and pulled onto the concrete pad of an all-brick house, parking alongside an old-model Audi A4 sedan.
“We’re here,” he said in Croatian, unbuckling his seat belt as he did.
Ellie and Philip followed suit, climbing out of the car and waiting politely for Jozef to precede them.
Ellie translated as he spoke.
“My dear friends, Ivan and Helena Flego, live here. They are also Croatians with a proud Albanian heritage, but they are not part of my world. Do you understand?”
Philip waited for the translation. Once it came, he easily read between the lines. “They have no ties to organized crime and you want to keep it that way,” he deduced.
Jozef watched Ellie carefully as she supplied Philip’s reply. He was visibly pleased by what he heard. “That’s right. So here’s how things will go. You will hear the explanation I give them and what I’m asking them to do. You will act accordingly. You will do what you’re told and not ask questions or offer information. Is that clear?”
Ellie relayed that to Philip, who nodded again.
Satisfied, Jozef led the way to the door, which was opened by a round-faced woman in her late forties wearing a white blouse, dark, slim-fitting jeans, and a scarf wrapped decoratively around her neck. She greeted Jozef with a kiss on each cheek, then beckoned them inside and introduced herself to Philp and Ellie as Helena Flego. Ellie followed suit, providing the introductions for both herself and Philp. Handshakes followed.
A murmur of voices made Philip glance inside. Two teenage girls were seated at a table in the adjoining room, heads bent over what appeared to be their schoolwork. In between reading their textbooks and jotting down notes, they paused to point out paragraphs to a man who was obviously their father. When the girls spoke to each other, Philip could make out phrases of English, and he realized the girls were conversant in the language.
Ellie obviously heard them, as well, because, speaking in Croatian, she asked Helena if she and Ivan also spoke English.
A rueful look crossed Helena’s face and she answered Ellie’s question. At the end of her explanation, she angled her head to gaze proudly at her children.
Ellie turned to Philip. “In a nutshell, Helena said that she and Ivan know only what they’ve picked up from their girls. Only half of Slavonians speak English—the younger half of the population. Her girls are being taught English in school and are now fluent in both languages. They also know some Albanian.”
“That’s very impressive,” Philip replied.
Hearing the sound of voices coming from the entranceway, Ivan Flego looked over and realized that Jozef and their guests had arrived. He said something to his daughters and then rose, walking over to join the group. He wore dark jeans, a striped button-down shirt, and leather shoes, rather than the informal American sneakers.
He gave Jozef a hug and then turned and extended his hand to Philip and Ellie.
Once again, Ellie introduced herself and Philip and then explained that she was multilingual and spoke both Croatian and Albanian, so the choice of language was theirs.
“And Philip?” Ivan inquired in Croatian.
A small smile played on Ellie’s lips. “He speaks only English. So I’ll be the communicator.”
Ivan nodded his understanding.
“These are the people I told you about,” Jozef interjected, switching to Albanian. “They’re friends of my nephew and they need your help. Please let them stay with you today and overnight. As soon as possible, drive them to the two deserted farmhouses I referred to in our conversation so that they can get a good look at them—but from enough of a distance so you won’t be seen. Philip will probably need to return to the area on his own. I want you to have no part in that. He’ll have to arrange for a rental car.”
Once again, Philip was following the conversation via Ellie’s translation. And once again, he remembered Marc’s gut feeling that Jozef knew exactly where he was sending them. At this moment, he had to agree. The two deserted farmhouses had to be safe houses used by Sallaku’s men—something Jozef had clearly learned from the information-gathering of his own organized crime family.
“I’ll make sure to keep this initial trip short, but it won’t be a quick drive-by,” Philip qualified to Jozef. “We’ll need a few hours at those two farmhouses. Then we leave and it becomes my problem.”
