'The view was extraordinary. Magnificent and startling – this grim mountain-like rock appearing above the trees.' `I was telling Mr Tweed its history. How a man called Pike-' `She's always gabbling on about something.' The insult came from a tall heavily built youth who had just entered. In his early twenties, he had thick fair hair and a longish face with a sneering mouth. He was sloppily dressed in a white pullover half inside and half outside his baggy jeans. His manner had bully written all over it. Tweed glanced at Lavinia, was for the first time aware of the deep blue of her large eyes, as blue as the Mediterranean sea in summer. She raised her thick eyebrows. `Go get me a chair, Crystal,' the youth ordered. Crystal stood up, hands on her hips, glaring at him grimly. `Everybody,' she said, her voice harsh, 'meet my beloved brother, Leo. Only seven years younger than me and hardly out of his nappies. Get your own chair!' she rasped, walking towards him. He raised a large hand to hit her.
A pair of hands descended on his shoulders from behind. A middle-aged man, shorter than Marshal but more heavily built, he had fair hair, a strong face and an air of self-control. At the first moment he saw him Tweed liked what he saw. Turning Leo round to face him, the man spoke quietly but with an air of authority. `You will now go upstairs. Change into some decent clothes. I'll have a word with you later.'
Leo obediently walked towards the door. When he thought his father wasn't looking he turned, put his tongue out at Crystal. `Before you go, Leo, apologize to your sister,' the heavily built man said as he walked towards the table. `Sorry, Crystal. I must be in a bad mood today.'
He left the room as his father was shown to her chair by his daughter. She wheeled another chair close to him. Seated, her father smiled at Tweed. `An honour to meet you. I am Warner Chance, a managing director.'
Tweed immediately spotted the difference between the two men. Marshal had said the, whereas Warner contented himself with a. It confirmed to him their clashing characters. Warner wore a neat leather jacket, a cravat at his throat and smart blue trousers. Marshal offered his guest a drink of Scotch, which Tweed refused, then refilled his own glass. `Here's to Mr Tweed taking up residence with us.' `That would be wonderful,' Crystal said, leaning on her father's shoulder. 'Then we'd have someone to protect us.'
Tweed said nothing and at that moment Snape appeared, erect as a soldier. He paused. `If I'm not interrupting…' `Oh, get on with it, man,' Marshal barked. `Mr Tweed,' Snape said politely, 'and Miss Grey, Mrs Bella sends her apologies and is ready to receive you at your convenience.'
3
Tweed, with Paula on one side and Lavinia on the other, crossed the large, dim hall, following Snape. They appeared to be heading for a panelled wall. Snape turned to speak over his shoulder as he pressed an invisible button in the panelling.
Two sections of the panelling opened away from each other, revealing a large square lift with a dark beige carpet on the floor, almost a shag covering. Snape spoke. `Mrs Bella has her study on the first floor, sir.' `Then why not use the staircase?' `Mrs Bella prefers visitors to use the lift.'
As they all walked inside Tweed stared at the carpet. There were deep runnels in the shag as though something wheeled had been taken up. He also spotted signs of a vacuum cleaner being used to eliminate the runnels. Snape pressed the second button up in the control panel. Below it was a brown button. They were climbing slowly, smoothly when Tweed spoke again. `What is the brown button for, then?' `Emergency,' Snape replied abruptly with a trace of annoyance.
The lift stopped, the doors opened. They stepped into a wide corridor continuing to their left where it ended in a solid panelled wall. A wall-to-wall deep-pile beige carpet covered the corridor floor. Tweed observed runnels digging deep into the carpet, broken in sections where a vacuum cleaner had attempted to eliminate them. Snape led them a short distance to their right, opened a door, led them into another large room, whose walls were lined on two sides with bookshelves and more leather-bound volumes. On the third wall were two old oil paintings, portraits of two men dressed in the clothes of long ago. `Ezra Main and Pitt Chance, founders of the dynasty,' Snape explained as he saw Tweed looking at them. `Mr Tweed,' Lavinia whispered, 'I shouldn't have come so far. If what you are going to say is confidential I'll pop back downstairs.' `I'd like you to join us,' Tweed replied, touching her arm. `Mrs Bella sometimes likes me to take notes,' she whispered back, squeezing her notebook under her arm. `Mrs Bella,' Snape announced after opening a door, `your guests. Mr Tweed and Miss Paula Grey.'
He bowed, left the room, closed the door. The study was long, the walls panelled and there were leaded- light windows which Tweed, glancing at them, realized looked out straight along the entrance drive. But it was the figure at the far end of the room which gripped him as he walked towards her.
Bella Main, eighty-four years old, sat behind a Regency desk in a tall hard-backed carver chair. Her imposing head and unlined long neck protruded above the back of the chair. He remembered she was over six feet tall.
Her Roman face would be noticed anywhere. Her grey hair was thick, well brushed. Her grey eyes were alert, her nose like a shapely beak, her mouth was firm and she had a good chin. When she stood up to greet them Paula noted she was wearing a fine-cut leather jacket with a white blouse and grey trousers over her king legs. Her grey hair was cut short, her only concession to jewellery a pair of pearl earrings and a brooch with the letters MC in small diamonds attached to her jacket. Coming forward with quick steps to greet Tweed, she hugged him for a few seconds.
It is so good of you to come and see me. My apologies for keeping you waiting. A client who had a problem he couldn't cope with barged in. I solved the problem and he left a happy man'
Her presence dominated the room without a trace of arrogance. She shook Paula by the hand and her grip was fearsome. She beckoned to Lavinia to sit with her behind the desk as Tweed replied. `It gave us time to meet most, maybe all, of your family? `Only part of the problem; she replied as she sat down behind the desk with Lavinia in another chair beside her. 'Now I have to deal with the villain Calouste Doubenkian. I know you come straight to the point and so do I.'
Nothing could have taken Tweed more aback but his face showed no reaction but interest. Paula gripped her knees tightly with both hands to conceal her shock, to keep her expression neutral. Bella frowned. `I'm getting this out of sequence. First, the Main Chance Bank is private, always has been. We keep well away from the idea of a flotation on the Stock Exchange, although they keep pestering, probably because it's simply the richest bank in Europe, possibly in the world. Founded in 1912 by my fathers-in-law, Ezra Main and Pitt Chance-' `Excuse me,' Tweed interjected, 'but are their portraits on the wall in the library outside this study?' `Those are the two brigands. Ezra is the one on the left.' `Brigands?' Tweed repeated. 'But my reading of history tells me men were tougher in those days. Two world wars softened most of the men. Now in business they trick and cheat.' `How right you are.' She used a hand to smooth down one side of her hair. 'They had the idea a lot of rich men living in Europe wanted a safe haven for their large sums of money. The Main Chance Bank they founded provided that haven. Has done ever since. Today you need a minimum of a million to join our bank. In dollars, Swiss francs or pounds sterling. We take ten per cent of the first deposit as our fee. They are happy with that because they know their money is safe.' `You take anyone with those funds?' `We do not! My intelligence service vets them first. We're on the lookout for money-launderers, terrorist funds, robbery proceeds. They can all jump in the fountain outside. There is more to the system than that, but first I need to know if you will join us on a permanent basis. As chief administrator with full powers. The salary would be three hundred thousand as a starter. It would go up when you'd settled in.' `I never guessed you had anything like this in mind.' He paused. 'I take it as a great compliment but I'm dedicated to the work I do now.'
There was a tap on the door and Snape walked in with another silver tray with coffee and separate glasses for water. He placed a large glass carafe near Tweed. They were looking at Snape while Tweed glanced down at the carpet by the side of the desk. The runnels had appeared again, like small wheel marks; two rows, about eighteen inches apart. The sun cast light onto the carpet, reflecting off small and larger specks glittering like gold.
When Snape had left Bella snapped her fingers, checked her watch. She turned to Lavinia, put a hand to her high forehead. `One day I'm going to get old. Help me find a long stiff brown envelope out of that awkward drawer.'
Both heads dipped as they struggled to open the drawer. Tweed took his white display handkerchief from his top pocket, dipped it, unseen by everyone except Paula, into the open carafe of water. He bent down, spread it widely over the golden specks, pressed hard, screwed it up, returned it to his pocket. What on earth is he up to?
