Ineffable ꕥ Joost Klein ꕥ

29.

When Joost dropped Elke off for work that Friday morning, she was reluctant to step out of the car. Shards of glass still sat on the floor mat and Elke endured the morning chill through the open window. She had avoided looking at the bullet holes in the silver metal when getting in. As she opened the door and stepped onto the sidewalk, Elke looked back with crippling worry.

'You'll be careful, right?' she said. It was pointless to think that it was Joost's choice but Elke had to say something.

'I'm always careful,' he said from the driver's seat. 'Please stay in your office. Don't go out for lunch.'

'I won't...'

Joost offered a pathetic excuse for a smile just to be sure he would get one back. When he did, he pulled away from the curb and drove off down the street.

The usual workings of a Friday commenced and Elke did her best to put her heart into them. Her three meetings dragged by, her team had complicated questions that were troublesome to answer and Elke's from-home lunch was bland. She wanted to text Joost but she stopped herself. She didn't want to distract him or catch him at a bad time.

Instead, Elke texted Arabella. They settled on a double date for the following weekend at a restaurant in Amsterdam. It would be the first time meeting the man that Arabella now called her boyfriend. The plans made Elke feel better as by then, she hoped Joost and her would be looking back at now in a memory. The panels on his car would be replaced and a new window would be installed in the passenger's seat. Everything would be over by the next weekend.

—-

The burner phone sat in Joost's hand as Alanis waited for the loading bar to reach 100%. Her three screens displayed a map of the greater Amsterdam area, a list of all the calls and texts from the sim and the loading screen for the newest addition.

As soon as the phone line connected, Alanis would see exactly where its receiver was. Not just what street or within a 100-metre radius, but right down to the house number and coordinates.

As the bar reached the end, the loading box disappeared and Alanis swivelled her chair around. She faced the room where Apson, Donnie and Tantu sat around the metal table. The orange backpack rested by Tantu's feet, it's presence settling a heavy air over the room. At the furthest end of the table, Joost sat with the touchscreen phone holding the sim card.

Alanis nodded wordlessly at Joost. The screen lit up as his thumb swiped upwards and the recent calls were listed. Ever since a month ago, the collection of numbers and contact names sat in red. The only ones that Joost took note of was the repeated number that Alanis had seen on her screens mutliple times.

Roan had never set a contact profile for the number, something that he had been told to do. But with the amount of times the digits were called, it was obvious who Roan had been in constant contact with.

Pressing the number, Joost put the phone to his ear. The ringing tone did nothing to ease the silence and he could only imagine the discomfort in Donnie, Apson and Tantu. They had no choice but to sit and wait for Joost's side of the conversation. Alanis would listen but her attention would be on the map of Amsterdam.

'I was wondering when I would be hearing from you, Klein.'

Joost's jaw clenched at the direct greeting. He stared ahead and reminded himself that he couldn't slam the phone down within the first second.

'You had every opportunity to contact me yourself,' he replied, seeing Donnie's gaze move from the table top. The man had been desperate to be the one to make the call but it wasn't part of Joost's deal.

'You know that's not what we do in this business,' Nathan hummed. 'You should know that by now considering it's obvious I know where you live.'