TIME TO LET HER GO


He had waited for hours. She was taking her time. And then more time. Never before had the clock moved so slowly. Marius lit another cigarette. He only smoked when waiting for her. Nothing else made him so nervous. He paced back and forth on a clearing in a remote park, their usual meeting place. Where the hell was she? It was almost sunrise.

As always, he heard her car, but didn't notice her approach the clearing. One moment there was nothing but thin air above the grass, the next moment Anneke was standing there in the moonlight. Her ability to move without being noticed was uncanny.

"Where have you been?" he shouted.
"I'm sorry, Marius. There were people coming and going, I had to wait." She took off her small knapsack and cast it to him. Marius put it down and gave her a bundle of banknotes. "Here is your money."
"What do you mean? You don't even know what the stuff is worth."
"It doesn't matter."
"It's all right. I can wait as usual."
"There is no more 'usual', Anneke. This is our last job."

She stared at him with her eyes wide open. Almost trembling, she asked: "Are you going on alone?"
"Don't be ridiculous. You know no one else can sneak in and out unseen and unheard like you."
"And you know no one else can plan like you, see all the security weaknesses... We are a perfect team!" She had to swallow. Her eyes were filling with tears and her lips formed the word 'why?'
"It has become too dangerous. In fact, we can't meet ever again. You'd better return to Belgium and lie low."

Anneke stepped closer and touched his arm. "Marius, please! I really am sorry. You can punish me when I make you wait too long, but you can't send me away. How am I going to live?"
"Don't tell me you haven't saved anything in five years. You can't be so stupid."
"That's not what I meant."

Marius may have been a criminal mastermind, but he had never known what to do with a crying woman. He picked up the knapsack and headed for his car.

Anneke took out a pistol, wiped her tears and aimed at his back. "Marius!" she shouted with determination.
He stopped and turned around.
"My life has no meaning without you," she said so softly he could barely make out the words. "I won't let you just walk away after everything we've been through together."
"Will your life have more meaning when I'm dead?"
Anneke pointed the gun away from him and pulled the trigger. An empty bottle shattered into pieces. She let the gun drop and fell on her knees, sobbing.
Marius turned around and walked away.

* * *

"Good morning, sir!"
"Good morning, Oliver. What's this? An interrogation transcript?"
"Early this morning, a man named Marius Lennert walked in and claimed he was the Invisible Burglar."
"You don't say!" Chief Christensen leafed through the transcript. "You seem to have believed him."
"Sir, he provided all the details: dates, locations, item descriptions. Everything checks up. It has to be him. Besides, he had last night's take on him, reported stolen only minutes before he arrived."
"And he just came and confessed to everything?"
"He said he was tired of the criminal life."
Christensen snorted. "Now that the Albanian mafia is on his heels, he's suddenly tired, the dirtbag!"
"Well, he is sparing us a lot of work."
"Yes, but it's still embarrassing." There was embitterment in the chief's voice. "We couldn't catch him for five years, but when he stole from the Albanians, it took them a mere two months to make him fear for his life."
"He made the classical mistake – became too greedy," the detective said pensively.
"And now he'd rather be our prisoner than theirs."
"Who wouldn't?"
Christensen reached for the transcript again. "What about his buyers?"
"He refused to name any names. Anyway, he was practically falling asleep. Had been up all night."
"And working hard," Christensen said with contempt in his voice.
"Don't worry, sir, we'll make him talk."
"Well, at least there'll be no more burglaries, now that we have the perpetrator under lock and key." The chief smiled in spite of himself and handed the transcript back to the detective. "Carry on!"



(C) Olavi Jaggo
First published: 2022-12-15
This version: 2024-06-08




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