Read Online The Heart of Hell by Alen Mattich - Free Book Online Page B

della Torre’s eyes, holding them, refusing to look away.
    “I . . . I don’t know.” Della Torre broke eye contact, focusing on his cigarette, trying not to look as though he was lying.
    “Yet you made an indication to her that he’d interfered with her plans, did you not?”
    “I could have been wrong.”
    “Weren’t you directed by your own defence minister to give Rebecca the utmost help?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did you?”
    “Within the limits of law.” Della Torre crushed the cigarette and lit another one straight away, breathing the smoke in deep. As he exhaled, it curled blue towards the high ceiling.
    “Law that permitted this man to organize murders around the world.”
    “Extrajudicial killing is as illegal in this country — in Yugoslavia — as it is in any civilized place. But many countries perform executions within the restrictions of law.”
    “Please, Mr. della Torre. In Yugoslavia your organization, the UDBA , practised extrajudicial killings for decades, all over the world.” Grimston hammered away in his polite but unyielding tone. “And the Montenegrin led those killings for at least three of those years, after having been involved directly for almost two decades.”
    “If I may correct your observations, my job these past five years was to investigate the UDBA ’s assassination program and to determine whether its killings were done within the scope of Yugoslav law or not. Most of the cases followed due process. Our due process. They were sanctioned by the presidency and the high court. You may not like it. I don’t like it. But capital punishment was as legal in Yugoslavia as it is in the United States. And practised.”
    “In the United States, people are given their say in court before they’re condemned to death,” Grimston said. “But we’re not here to debate American justice.”
    Della Torre shrugged.“Here, in absentia rulings are . . . were legal. I’m not sure about the current state of affairs in Croatia.” But he would have bet on the continuity of those laws from the Yugoslav state: in absentia justice and subsequent execution of the sentence.
    “Is Mr. Strumbić as morally fastidious as you are?”
    All during the conversation, della Torre had been working hard to keep his nerves in check. But that question almost made him laugh out loud.
    “The question seems to amuse you, Mr. della Torre.” Grimston’s expression was set hard.
    “The smoke tickled my lungs.”
    “Maybe you should think about quitting, then. But I’ll take it from your reaction that Mr. Strumbić is less scrupulous than you are on matters of ethics.” The American was needle-sharp.
    “I didn’t say that.”
    “No, no, you didn’t,” said Dawes. “But it doesn’t matter; this isn’t testimony. Just a little chinwag between old friends.” He sat back in his chair. Della Torre wondered whether he saw the American’s lips curl with the faintest trace of a smile. “Do you know where Mr. Strumbić is?”
    “No,” della Torre answered.
    “Where do you think he is?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Do you think the Montenegrin did to Mr. Strumbić what he did to Rebecca and the others?”
    Della Torre shrugged.
    “You don’t, do you. Is that because he helped the Montenegrin in setting them up?”
    Della Torre shrugged again.
    “Maybe that’s because you think Mr. Strumbić has fled the country? That maybe he’s gone . . . oh, I don’t know. To Britain?”
    Della Torre shot a look at Anzulović. Anzulović looked back, his expression blank, his eyes drooping. Maybe he hadn’t understood Dawes’s question. Maybe he didn’t know what they were talking about. Maybe.
    “I don’t know why you should think that,” della Torre said.
    Grimston watched della Torre closely. Della Torre held the man’s eyes for a long while and then looked away.
    “Mr. della Torre, we would appreciate it if you would testify to these and other facts in your statement to a United States medical