The Amber Knight by Katherine John

dollars a time have to be a better investment of time and resources than three hundred dollar earrings.’
    ‘You’d need a body, Feliks,’ Adam reminded him.
    ‘This is Poland. They’re commoner than amber nuggets if you know where to look.’
    Adam started to protest, remembered Rat, and waved goodbye.
     
CHAPTER SIX
     
    Adam found Josef waiting for him in his office in the Historical Museum, coffee cup in hand, wearing an even gloomier expression than he had in the Milan.
    ‘Feliks told me last night’s amber shipment has gone missing.’ Adam shrugged off his jacket and hung it on the back of his chair.
    ‘So much for trying to keep anything that happens in this town quiet.’ Josef reached for the coffee jug and poured Adam a cup. ‘Have you also heard that Brunon Kaszuba’s skipped custody?’
    ‘You let him go?’
    ‘Not exactly, although we couldn’t have held him much longer.’
    ‘After he dropped fifty thousand dollars in the casino?’
    ‘Gambling is a stupidity, not a crime. He refused to shift from the story that Rat gave him the money, and as we had no evidence to the contrary, we had to take his word for it.’
    ‘But Rat was murdered.’
    ‘While Kaszuba was in custody, and you can’t get a better alibi than that. All we had to hold him on was the fracas in the casino and you know how reluctant casino people are to prosecute. Kaszuba’s a good customer.’
    ‘So he walked?’
    ‘We were going to release him at midday, but he beat us to it. When the duty officer took down the morning coffee he found an empty cell.’
    Adam sat back in his chair and rested his chin on his fingertips. ‘Could Kaszuba’s fifty thousand be connected to the missing amber shipment?’
    ‘How?’
    ‘You’re the detective.’
    ‘If Kaszuba took the amber, which seems unlikely given that he was gambling in the casino before the loss was discovered, he would have had to move like lightning to negotiate and collect on the sale by two in the morning. Now if it had disappeared last week, I might have bought a link with the sudden re-appearance of your knight.’
    ‘When did the amber go missing?’
    ‘All we know from Melerski is that it was loaded on to a boat in Kaliningrad yesterday afternoon and it wasn’t on board when the ship came into Gdansk this morning.’
    ‘It’s shipped in?’
    ‘You didn’t think they brought it in overland?’
    ‘I’ve never thought about it at all. Brunon and Rat could have stolen the amber to order.’
    ‘And got paid up front?’ Josef questioned sceptically.
    ‘What about the crew? Didn’t they see or hear anything?’
    ‘Probably.’
    ‘They’re not talking?’
    ‘When I said the boat came in, I should have mentioned that it was towed in by the coastguard. The crew and the deck had more holes in them than a tart’s knickers, courtesy of a Heckler and Koch sub-machine gun, according to ballistics.’ Josef finished the coffee in his cup and poured himself another.
    ‘Isn’t that an army gun?’ Adam asked.
    ‘I doubt whoever fired it was wearing a uniform. There were three bodies on board, but as someone said in the station this morning, that’s three less for us to worry about.’
    ‘Russian or Polish?’
    ‘Who cares? I don’t see a tie-in between Kaszuba’s fifty grand and the hi-jacked amber shipment. Instinct tells me Kaszuba’s money came from a killing. It wouldn’t be the first time he and Rat had “retired” someone for cash.’
    ‘I thought the going rate was a couple of hundred American.’ Adam held out a cup and Josef filled it for him.
    ‘Depends on the subject.’
    ‘If the subject was important why entrust the job to third-rate hoodlums like Kaszuba and Rat?’
    ‘I was sorting this nicely in my mind until you walked in.’
    ‘Then you’re letting the vodka do your thinking for you.’
    ‘And I think I’m encouraging an amateur to get above himself.’
    ‘You’re here for the coffee?’ Adam switched the almost empty