Chapter 18
CARBONDALE, COLORADO
DECEMBER 10, 2010
Betsy called the American Embassy in Bratislava, asking how to locate a missing person.
“Has she registered with the embassy?” asked a bored male voice. She heard the ping of an incoming e-mail in the background.
“No, but she entered Slovakia on her American passport.”
“Name, please?” he droned.
Betsy could tell this man was not going to help her. She knew the type, the tone of voice, the desire to be rid of her quickly so he could update his Facebook.
She gave him her mother’s name, age, description.
“She was doing research in the Bratislava area, possibly also in Čachtice and Beckov.”
“I have no record of her registering with the embassy. Was she planning to stay more than a month?”
“Six weeks. I think.”
“She should have registered with the embassy if she was staying that long,” said the voice, with an admonishing tone. “I have no record of her.”
“Can you tell me how to go about locating her? Can you contact the police department in Bratislava, or the areas around Čachtice or Beckov?”
“No, that is not a service we offer. Besides, it might infringe on her civil rights.”
Betsy’s hand tightened around the phone receiver.
“Her what?”
“Dr. Path may have decided she wanted to remain in Slovakia without contacting anyone. We have to protect our American citizens’ rights.”
“You are a complete idiot, do you know that?”
“Excuse me?”
“No, I won’t!” Betsy said, punching the END-CALL button on her phone.
She held her head in her hands.
What should she do now? There wasn’t anyone else in her family to call for help. Betsy was an only child.
Her fingers reached for the old, worn address book. She dialed a phone number that had been blurred long ago with tears.
“Hello?”
“John? It’s Betsy.”
There was an awkward pause.
“Betsy? Are you all right?”
Oh shit. Why was she calling her ex?
“No! No, I’m not all right. Mom’s missing in Slovakia, she didn’t show up for her first class after her sabbatical. The dean called me. He hasn’t heard from her—”
“Slow down, Betsy. Your mom is missing in Slovakia?”
“That’s what I said.”
A pause. Those pauses she always hated because she could feel him thinking, processing information. Being so rational, damn him!
“Maybe there is a reason.”
A reason! A reason for what? Suddenly all the poisonous currents that had flowed through her during their divorce came flooding back.
“John! There is no reason, except that something bad has happened to her.”
Another pause.
“Betsy, pull yourself together. Let’s think. What communication did she leave?”
Deep breath. “Not much. I have an e-mail saying she was going to see Countess Bathory’s castle, outside Bratislava.”
“Countess who?”
“Bathory—she was some kind of sadistic freak during the early seventeenth century.”
“Historical research. OK, that sounds right.”
So typical of John. His mathematical mind filtering out everything but the facts. Betsy could almost hear the whirring of his brain, a computer starting up from sleep mode.
“She was writing a book—she never told me about it. She’s always stuck to Habsburgs and the Hungarian-Ottoman wars. Why would she write about some psychopathic monster?”
“Psychopathic monster?”
“This Bathory woman killed hundreds of young women. Tortured many more.”
He gave a low whistle.
“Doesn’t sound like your mom’s cup of tea.”
“And now—she’s disappeared.”
“Have you called the American Embassy?”
“They were useless.”
Another silence.
“You want me to come out there?”
“To do what?”
“To—to be with you, Bets. You sound like you’re losing it.”
“I’ve got to do something.”
“What? What are you going to do?”
“I—Oh, shit, John. I don’t know.”
“Give it a day or two. And—”
“And what?”
“Let me come out and see you.”
Betsy went through the appointment calendar on her computer and began cancelling everything for the next two weeks. While she was waiting for someone to answer or listening to an answering machine, waiting to leave a message, her fingers flew over the keyboard, searching for a flight to Bratislava.
It made more sense to fly to Vienna and take the train—it ran every hour and took only fifty minutes to cross the Austrian border into the capital of Slovakia—