This Land is no Stranger Sarah Hollister (best biographies to read .txt) 📖

a particularly prominent feature of the species.”

The baron gave a smile and nodded. “I don’t wonder that you feel that way, knowing how you must have experienced the scum on the streets of New York City.”

“And the woman, she is Jimmy’s keeper?”

“The Roma are, as a people, excellent animal trainers,” the baron said, again sitting down beside Brand. “It is one of their traditional skills. Years ago they kept bears, a practice dating from the Middle Ages, perhaps even before. Bears travel well. It was a way for their trainers to earn a few coins in whatever town or region they found themselves.”

Hammar spoke. “That’s the stereotype, anyway. They were enslaved in Romania for some four hundred years. The Romani had to be creative about ways of earning money. They were skilled coppersmiths, tinsmiths, accomplished when it came to working silver. But surely, Baron Kron, you know more about their history than most.”

The baron laughed. “One thing I know is that the word ‘money’ in the Romani language is spelled ‘l-o-v-e,’just like love in English. Though they pronounce it ‘low-vey.’”

“I would suppose equating money with love is probably the real truth in any number of languages,” Krister said.

“Might you keep wolves, Baron Kron?” Brand felt the need to cut through what sounded to her like a bit of dueling between the two men.

“Please, call me Gösta, I insist.”

Brand nodded. “I have seen, twice since I’ve been here in Sweden, a creature I cannot identify, very large, dog-like, with light-colored fur.”

“Yes, we have gray wolves in Sweden, though I’m quick to say none are captive here at Gammelhem. There is a population nearby, in Fulufjället, the big park on the Norwegian border. They range widely, and a few times have ventured onto my land. We are not here that much in winter. This February visit is an exception. But our caretakers say they sometimes hear the howls at night.”

He cocked his head and switched accents, from Swedish to something approximating Romanian. “Listen to them—the children of the night. What music they make!”

He laughed. “Do you recognize the source? How often do you get a chance to hear an actual baron quoting a count? And Count Dracula at that, eh?”

Brand nodded, not willing to be distracted by the man’s dramatics. “Perhaps the gypsies in the camp by the river, they might keep a tame wolf, maybe a wolf-dog.”

“Ah, you must really guard your language, my dear. I know the word ‘gypsy’ is still acceptable in America, but here in this country is frowned upon by all our culturally sensitive citizens.”

“The Romani, then, in the camp by the river.”

“The Roma in that encampment are my guests.”

“We encountered a sort of shrine.”

“Yes.”

“You know of it?”

“Of course. I would be a poor landowner not to know of a monstrosity such as that erected on my property.”

“What does it mean?”

“I couldn’t say.”

“Are you aware the Romani community has lost many young women in recent months to human trafficking? The shrine seems to commemorate that fact.”

“You would know more about it than I do, Veronika.”

“I don’t think that’s true. I suspect you’re a man who knows more than he lets on.”

Baron Kron drained his champagne cocktail. “It is always refreshing to speak to an American, and even more bracing to speak to a New Yorker. I so rarely have the chance. You come right out and say whatever is on your mind, as contrary and impolitic it may be. Conversation with my countrymen is often indirect. It resembles more of a chess game. Whereas speaking with you, Veronika, I am reminded of a boxing match.”

“Why are they there?”

“They?”

“The Roma, on your land. A few days ago we encountered a host of them, children mostly, in the forest above Västvall.”

The Count sighed theatrically. “Virtue being its own reward, I normally do not like to trumpet my charity,” he said. “But since you force me I must confess. To a limited degree I have sponsored some members of the Roma community.”

“Sponsored?”

“Yes. We provide them with work opportunities, housing at times—although as you know they are a restless people. Perhaps you also know that this area, Härjedalen, is not my primary home. I come here to hunt. I hail from the south, near Malmö. I thought that to relocate members of the community here might relieve some of the pressure down there.

“Voluntarily?”

“Oh, yes, I do it quite voluntarily.”

“No, I meant, do they ‘relocate’ voluntarily?”

“I know what you meant. I was just pulling your leg, to employ the American phrase.”

The conversation was cut short. Three striking women entered from the opposite end of the room. They were all similar in appearance, young, Asian—Thai, perhaps, or some exotic international mix—and all impossibly elegant. This is what wealth can buy, Brand thought.

“My dears,” Baron Kron said, opening his arms expansively to greet them.

37.

The baron stood with Magnusson, his superintendent, watching the dumpy blue Saab leave the estate. It happened that the car followed immediately after the big Scania truck. Dollar Boy was heading out on another veterinarian run to Uppsala.

“Are you sure we should have allowed that pair to depart unhindered, Baron?” Magnusson asked. “I feel they were insufficiently disciplined.”

“You put in a call to the Vosses about them?”

“Yes. With the result that Junior Voss said he would immediately dispatch the two cousins, Ylva and Malte.”

The baron chuckled lowly. “That young woman, Ylva? With her on the job we’ll soon see Detective Brand and the Sami lawyer field-dressed and hanging by their heels in the big oak tree at Västvall village.”

Ylva and Malte Voss were famous within the family—and in the whole country, too—for being world-class biathlon competitors. Their style was a caricature of the mythological Nordic warrior.

Magnusson understood Gösta Kron preferred to have any nasty business conducted well away from the estate. Thou shall not sully thy master’s hands, was forever the rule. Still, Magnusson worried that the New York detective and her Sami ally would somehow escape the net.

“They enjoyed the animals,” the baron said mildly.

Before