Chapter 18: A Tale of Two Antonias
Agency men picked up Adrian Dalca on Tuesday. There hadn't really been any difficulty in doing so. He never expected his old friend Anton to turn him in to the government. Partly because he hadn't really done anything yet.
"You can't arrest me!" Adrian fumed in an Agency holding cell. "I haven't done anything. This is wrongful arrest and imprisonment!"
"Oh, is it?" Lee asked. "How does conspiring in the abduction of a minor sound?"
"No one has been kidnapped," Adrian said.
"Yet," Francine said. She was sitting next to Lee, participating in the questioning of Adrian. Billy sat in the next room with Anton Petrescu, listening to everything. "But, that's because your friends screwed up."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"It was a clumsy attempt at kidnapping," Lee said. "Really amateurish. The girl knew your friends weren't who they said they were."
"What girl?"
"Antonia."
"No one has abducted Antonia Negrescu. She had breakfast at the hotel today and will be going out sightseeing with her father later."
"I'm sure that's true," Lee said. "Her abduction is scheduled for Halloween night, isn't it?"
Adrian sat silent and unmoving.
Lee continued. "We checked on Mihail Negrescu's schedule. He was scheduled to attend a costume ball on Halloween night. His daughter would be left alone in their suite. What was the plan, Adrian? Take a snack to the lonely little girl while daddy is out? Your friends, Stefan and Vasile, bought sleeping pills. They made sure that they were safe to give to a young teen. After they drugged her, they'd just have to get her out of the hotel."
"Or would they?" Francine practically purred. She smiled like shark at Adrian, whose eyes flickered nervously in her direction.
"I saw them buying tools and electronics equipment," Lee said. "What were they for? Disabling the hotel's cameras and security system?"
"Of course," Francine said. "They wouldn't want to be seen taking the girl to the room you'd prepared for them, would they?"
"Stefan and Vasile were experimenting the other night. They wanted to disable the security system on the fifth floor, but one of them made a dumb mistake. He started messing with the thermostat and nearly got caught."
"There were legitimate workmen at the hotel, repainting rooms on the floor above the one where Mihail Negrescu and his daughter are staying. But, that's not the full story, is it, Adrian?" Francine said. "Not all of the rooms supposedly being renovated have actually had any work done in them, and Potomac Renovations has informed us that their work is nearly finished even though you have two of those rooms still labeled as being 'under construction' for another week."
"That's why Stefan and Vasile Petrescu needed you, wasn't it?" Lee said. "Not only could you help them to get into the hotel so that you would have access to Antonia, but you could arrange for an empty room where Antonia Petrescu could be kept. Wouldn't that be something? Negrescu starts a search for his daughter, and she's right under his nose all the time. Or, should I say, over his head, on the floor above?"
Adrian said nothing. He stared at his hands, which were folded on the table.
"We've inspected the rooms, Adrian," Francine said. "Someone has been staying in one of the rooms. We found men's clothes there. Some of them were made to duplicate the uniforms worn by the renovations company. We also found the bottle of sleeping pills. Sooner or later, Stefan and Vasile will come back. Our people are waiting for them. If you tell us your story before they tell us theirs, things could go a lot better for you."
Adrian still wasn't saying anything. Like before, he'd been prepared to face questions about Stefan and Vasile, and although Lee thought that Francine was right when she'd first suggested that Antonia Negrescu had been their real target all along, Lee was going to have a difficult time proving it if Adrian didn't talk, in spite of what they'd found in that hotel room.
"You know, it was interesting that you decided right away that it we were talking about Antonia Negrescu when we mentioned that someone tried to kidnap 'Antonia,'" Lee said. "Why did you assume it was her?"
Now, Adrian looked puzzled. "What other Antonia is there? She is the only girl of that name staying at the hotel."
"We know that you were conspiring to kidnap her," Lee said, "but the girl who came the closest to getting kidnapped was Antonia Petrescu."
Adrian shifted nervously. "I don't know that name."
"Her father says you do," Lee said, his voice hard. "He says that he sent you a picture the last time he sent you a Christmas card. Would you like us to bring him in here to say so himself?"
Adrian glanced over at the mirror on the wall, and Lee could tell that he was wondering who might be on the other side of the one-way glass.
"Instead of sitting tight and waiting for the right moment to kidnap Antonia Negrescu as planned," Francine suggested, "your pals decided to complicate matters. They spotted their brother Anton and his family at the airport. They knew that if Anton had spoken to anyone in the Washington area, it had to be you. And, that's when you betrayed your old friend."
"I haven't betrayed anyone!" Adrian said, looking back and forth between his questioners and the mirror. "Is that why I am here? Because Anton accuses me of something?"
"You told Stefan and Vasile where to find Anton," Lee said. "More importantly, you told them where to find his daughter."
"No!"
"You were the only one who knew!" Lee said. "He trusted you, and you betrayed him! You betrayed his little girl!" The thought of it made Lee want to get his fingers around Adrian's throat and squeeze, but he reigned those impulses in.
"It isn't true!"
"Should we bring Anton in here?" Lee asked. "Should we ask him what he told you and what you said to him the last time you spoke?"
Now, Adrian was nervous.
"You made plane reservations for four people," Francine said. "We've been looking into your bank account, and in the last week, you purchased tickets on a flight to France for four people, two adults and two children," Francine said calmly. "Stefan and Vasile were going to take the girls to Europe. What were you going to do with them then?"
"I wasn't going to do anything!" Adrian said. "Stefan and Vasile-" He stopped talking, realizing he was giving everything away.
"Kidnapping is a serious offense," Lee said, "Stefan and Vasile were leaving the country. You would have been left to take the blame here. What do you think the two of them are going to say when we start questioning them?"
"It was their idea! I wanted no part of it." Adrian half turned in his chair so that he was speaking toward the mirror.
"Go on," Francine said.
"You're right. Stefan and Vasile approached me months ago and asked for my help. Some friends of theirs helped them to falsify their passports so that they could come to this country. Don't ask me which friends because I don't know. They knew that I worked for a hotel in New York. I had told them that I was considering transferring to a job here in Washington D.C. because of the higher pay. They urged me to take it because it would help them with their plans."
"Which were?"
"As you said, they wanted to kidnap Antonia Negrescu. They knew that her father was bringing her here. Mihail Negrescu is responsible for the deaths of many people fighting to free our country. He has been getting perilously close to uncovering important members of the resistance movement. Stefan and Vasile wanted to put pressure on him to drop his investigations."
"What were they going to do with Antonia Negrescu?"
"We were going to hide her at the hotel for a few days. We figured that it would be the last place anyone would look because she would have been abducted from there. Then, they were going to take her to France, and then to Romania."
"And then?"
"I suppose they would have let her go eventually, when they got what they wanted. I really don't know."
"Most kidnappers eventually kill their victims," Lee said in a low, menacing tone. "If they were worried about Mihail Negrescu learning about members of their group, why would they let her return home to tell him what she knew?"
Adrian shook his head. "If they wanted her dead, why take her home? They would have let her go."
"They would need to keep her alive for a time so they could provide proof to her father that they had her, pictures of her holding current newspapers, that kind of thing," Lee said. "But, once she was no longer useful to them . . ." He let Adrian finish the thought himself.
Adrian protested, "They never said anything about killing her!"
"Why would they?" Lee asked. "They told you just enough to get you to do what they wanted. And, they got you to tell them where to find their niece as a bonus."
"Well, they wouldn't hurt their niece," Adrian said. "She's . . . well, she's their niece!"
"But, they were going to take her to Europe, too, weren't they?"
Adrian nodded reluctantly. "They didn't tell me that at first. I found out after Anton called me to ask me if I knew why Stefan and Vasile were here. They had always resented it that their brother wouldn't join the fight to free Romania."
"So, what was going to happen to Antonia Petrescu?" Francine asked.
"They were going to take her home. She is a Romanian girl! She belongs to Romania."
"She belongs to her parents, who are here," Lee said.
"I didn't like the idea of kidnapping her, but I had already agreed to help them with Antonia Negrescu, so I had to agree to this, too. Besides, the girl has family in Romania," Adrian said. "They wouldn't harm her! They would take care of her! Stefan and Vasile knew that if Antonia went home to Romania, Anton and his wife would follow. They just wanted them to come back and fight for their country."
Lee was disgusted. Two Antonias. Two girls, about the same age, both with dark hair and dark eyes. Both targets because of people who wanted to manipulate their fathers, in one way or another. One of them probably would have been kept alive by her relatives. The other probably would have been killed eventually. This stooge who was part of it all either didn't realize or just didn't care. Maybe one Antonia was just as good as another to him, and one more or less in the world wouldn't make any difference in his eyes.
"This interview is over," Lee said.
He and Francine had all that they really needed from Adrian for the moment anyway.
"What about me?" Adrian asked. "What are you going to do with me?"
"That's not our decision," Lee said.
"I want a lawyer!" Adrian called after them as they left the room.
"What are you going to do with him?" Anton asked Lee and Francine.
"It's up to the courts now," Francine said. "Even attempted kidnapping is a serious charge, and there are two minors involved."
Anton sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I would never have told him anything about my family if I'd known that he was a threat to my daughter. Years ago, he was a good friend. Or, so I thought. You'll find my brothers and bring them in?"
"Yes," Lee said. "As far as we know, they haven't learned anything about Adrian's arrest, so they will probably return to the hotel to continue their plot."
"What will happen to Antonia Negrescu?" Anton asked. "Does her father know about this?"
"We've alerted him to the threat, but we didn't tell him anything about you or your daughter," Francine assured him. "As soon as we told him, he immediately canceled the rest of his visit here, and he and his daughter are currently on their way home. His Antonia is safe, and he has no idea that you're even here."
Anton shook his head. "I have to admit that I have hated Mihail Negrescu for years. Stefan and Vasile are correct that he is the tool of an oppressive government. If the plot had been against him alone, I might have even agreed to it as Adrian did. But, Antonia Negrescu is just a child. She isn't at fault for anything that her father has done, and she shouldn't have to suffer for it. I'm just glad that her father loves her and will protect her."
"She might grow up to become a better person than her father," Lee suggested. "Children have many possibilities."
Francine gave him an odd look but said nothing.
Anton looked worried again. "Suppose Stefan and Vasile have learned that Adrian has been arrested and that the Negrescus are gone? They would know that I probably informed on them. They might come after Antonia again."
"I don't think it will come to that," Francine said, "but the Agency will protect you and your family."
