A fifth officer joined them then in plainclothes. He was more polite than the others, and he ignored Olivia while he honed in on Joachim, and sat very close to him, to unnerve him.
“Why are you traveling under an alias?” was his first question.
“I’m not. Joachim von Hartmann is my true name.”
“No, it’s not,” he accused, never taking his eyes off Joachim’s for a second. “Isn’t your name Javier von Hartmann? Why the fake first name?” Joachim knew his guess had been right then. And this would only be the beginning.
“Javier von Hartmann is my brother. My identical twin brother. I haven’t seen him in twenty-five years.” The officer looked surprised by that but tried not to let it show. He glanced over his shoulder at one of the others and then back at Joachim. Olivia was staring at Joachim.
“If that’s true, do you know where your brother is now?”
“No, I don’t. I’ve heard rumors from time to time when I inquire, that he’s in Colombia now, and has been there for many years. The last time I spoke to him was twenty-three years ago. My mother and I moved to Paris when I was seventeen. My brother stayed in Buenos Aires to finish school, fell in with bad associations, and disappeared. No one I know has seen him in more than twenty years. I saw him the last time when I was seventeen and spoke to him for the last time at nineteen.” Joachim was fighting back tears as he said it, which he didn’t want Olivia and the officers to see. Losing Javier had been the heartbreak of his life, and now his brother was still causing trouble for him.
The man in plainclothes pulled a large photograph out of a file then and threw it on the table in front of Joachim. It looked like a photograph of Joachim in prison garb, with a heavy beard. But it was the same face. Olivia could see it too, and she was shocked.
“Is this you?”
“No, it’s not,” Joachim said in a hoarse voice.
“If what you say is true, are you aware that Javier is a member of one of the most powerful drug cartels in South America? He has escaped from prison twice. Our agents have died at his hands.”
“I’m not aware of it, and I’m sad to hear it, but I’m not surprised. I think he was pulled into whatever he’s doing by some very bad people, and he’s one of them now. Neither my mother nor I have heard from him in all these years.”
“How do you know—and how do I know that this photograph isn’t you? It’s a great story, about an identical twin. Maybe that’s you,” he said with his face an inch away from Joachim’s.
“I know it isn’t,” Joachim said quietly. “We are not exactly identical, we are what’s called mirror twins. We have the same marks on opposite sides.” He gently picked up the photograph and pointed to a black spot on the subject’s forehead. “My brother has a dark mole on the left side of his forehead, I have the same mark on my right side.” He pushed back the hair at his hairline then and showed them the mole. All the officers stared at the photograph and then at Joachim’s head. The evidence was there, plain to see. “He has another mark on his shoulder, a small birthmark. You can see it in the photograph, in the undershirt he’s wearing. I have the same one on the opposite shoulder.” Without being asked, he took off his tie, unbuttoned his shirt, slipped it off his shoulder and showed them. There was dead silence in the room, and in spite of the four hours of terror they’d just been through, Olivia felt sorry for him. It was terrifying, humiliating, and heartbreaking all at once.
“The only good news in what you’ve told me,” Joachim said quietly, “is that if you are searching for him, and you thought I was Javier, then he must still be alive. I haven’t been certain of that in years. Although what he’s doing and the choices he has made are hardly something to celebrate, but at least his colleagues haven’t killed him yet. That’s something, I suppose. Although he has been dead to my mother and me for many years.”