Ron Base - Tree Callister 03 - Another Sanibel Sunset Detective by Ron Base Read Free Book Online Page A

woman with whom I am very much in love. This woman change my life. I have had many women, but no one like this woman. The week comes to an end. I drive to Miami. Business. Three days ago, I am back on the island, on Sanibel. I phone her. No answer. I go to her place. It is locked up. No sign of her. She has disappeared into the air.”
    Zoran slumped forlornly in his chair: the lover confused and hurt. “I don’t know what to do. How many detectives on this island? Only one I can find. You. So I come to you. You go to Key West, and you find her.”
    “You think she’s still in Key West?”
    “She is not here.”
    “Okay. I’ll need a name and a photo,” Tree said. “And any other information you have on your friend.”
    “You want photo, Mister Detective Callister? I give you photo.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a four-by-six photograph and handed it to Tree. Zoran, his big gut folding over his swimming trunks, posed on a Key West beach with a woman in a bright red bathing suit. The woman was wearing sunglasses. Tree looked at the photo and then looked at it again. No. It couldn’t be.
    He glanced up at Zoran. “Tell me who this is,” he said.
    “Her name is Elizabeth Traven,” Zoran said.
    Tree shook his head. Was he really hearing this?
    “What is wrong with you?” Zoran demanded.
    Tree threw the photograph onto the desk. “Who are you, Mr. Zoran?”
    “I am most valuable of things.” He reached into his pocket again and this time produced a wad of one hundred dollar bills that he threw on top of the photograph.
    “I am a customer. You go to Key West, Mr. Callister. You find my Elizabeth. You will find out why she disappears like this. Maybe she no longer wants me, I don’t know. You will find out. If you do not want to do this, then you will discover something else about me.”
    “And what is that, Mr. Zoran?”
    “It is not a good thing to disappoint me,” he said. “It is not a good thing.”
    “That’s not a threat, is it Mr. Zoran?”
    “How could you imagine such a thing?”
    “Because I’d hate to start off a relationship with the client threatening me.”
    “You find my Elizabeth.” Zoran said it like it was a marching order.
    “When you were in Key West, where did you and Elizabeth stay?”
    “A hotel. The Southernmost. You know it?”
    Tree nodded. “How do I get in touch with you?”
    Zoran stood and for the first time since he entered the office, he smiled. It was not a nice smile.
    “I will contact you, Mister Detective Callister.”

8
    According to the Google search engine, Javor Zoran was once in charge of Serbian president Slobodan Milošević’s personal security detail. After Milošević’s arrest, Zoran had been investigated by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. Prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to bring him to trial; a decision The Washington Post said defied credulity.
    There was little doubt Zoran had ordered the deaths of dozens of civilians. The question of prosecuting him hung on whether those murders were committed on such a widespread and systemic basis as to constitute a crime against humanity. The prosecutors at The Hague had concluded they did not. Therefore, Zoran was allowed to go free—a travesty, the Post said.
    A Time magazine story speculated that during his time with Milošević, Zoran was being paid by the CIA. That would help explain, said the magazine, why no charges had been brought against him. The piece suggested he had emigrated to the U.S. with the help of the spy agency.
    Tree picked up the photograph of Zoran with Elizabeth Traven. If he hadn’t been holding the photo in his hand, he would not have believed it: a Pakistani spy and a Serbian war criminal. How did she get mixed up with these characters? He immediately felt ridiculous for even asking the question. It was Elizabeth. The possibilities for trouble were beyond imagining.
    But why had she disappeared? To get herself out of the mess