‘You have been asking around about one of our friends, Ferenc Lang, I believe.’ He took his hat off and laid it on the table, revealing a wedge of thick, blond hair. He had a long, thin face with a long nose that had a kink in it where it had been broken at some time or another. Strangely, it didn’t make him look tough, but seemed to add to his faintly aristocratic look. When he spoke, there was something foreign flowing through it. I guessed it was the Danube.
‘Or Frank Lang, as he seems to prefer these days,’ I said. ‘Yes, I would like to speak to him.’
‘I’m afraid that won’t be at all possible, Mr Lennox. Mr Lang is a very private person and he does not appreciate your intrusion into his affairs. For good reason, I have to say.’
‘So you and your chums here have come along to warn me off… is that it?’
‘No. Not warn. Ask. We would be obliged if you forgot all about Mr Lang.’
‘I’m afraid that’s not possible. You see, naturally inquisitive as I am, my interest in Frank Lang is professional, not personal. I’m being paid to find him. But I guess you already knew that.’
He nodded the long head slowly, as if considering my words carefully. ‘By whom, may I ask?’
‘You may not. Confidentiality is everything in my business, but I’m sure Mr Lang could have a pretty good guess about who’s looking for him and why.’
‘Perhaps he could,’ said the blond man. His English was near perfect: near, but not quite.
‘You are Hungarian?’ I asked.
‘I am Hungarian. As is Mr Lang, as you already know. He is also a great patriot. You know what is going on in our country at the moment?’
‘Of course I do. Exactly what kind of patriot are you? I’m trying to work out how much red there is in the flag of your particular brand of patriotism. Do you work for the Hungarian government?’
‘Now what makes you ask that?’
‘Just that this little encounter… please, don’t get me wrong, charming as it is…’ I held up my hands and smiled appeasingly. ‘But this little encounter seems to coincide with me talking to Mr Tabori, the Hungarian consul in Edinburgh. Now what was it that I said to him that has provoked your interest? My asking about Ferenc Lang, or Frank Lang, or whatever he wants to call himself — or was it because I mentioned Tanglewood?’
‘Mr Lennox, I understand that in your particular line of business, you have to have a suspicious mind, but let me assure you that I am not here to issue ultimatums or threats.’
‘Just appeal to my better nature? Then why do you have two goons with you? And why didn’t you call into my office?’
‘People are dying in Hungary. Others are being thrown into prison or driven from their homes. The Soviets are sending a message to the whole of Communist Europe that any move towards liberalization will be crushed mercilessly. And that message, Mr Lennox, is being written in Hungarian blood. If we seem cautious in how we approach you, it is simply because we have to be. We are watched. The communists would give anything to find Ferenc Lang. And they would use any means to do so. And anybody.’
‘You’re telling me that I’m being used as an instrument of the great socialist revolution?’ I laughed.
‘Ask yourself who you are working for. And what they are paying you. Your enquiries could end badly for a truly good man.’
‘And what do I get out of it if I do drop this enquiry?’
The blond man laughed bitterly. ‘I see… it’s like that. We don’t have much, but I suppose we could reimburse you for your trouble.’
I held up my hand. ‘I wasn’t canvassing for a bribe. I’ll think about what you’ve said. What’s your name?’
‘Matyas will do. It’s Hungarian for Matthew.’
‘Well, Matyas, I understand that there is a lot of stuff going on with your people at the moment, but we’re on the shores of the Black Clyde, not the Blue Danube, and what I’ve been asked to investigate is a simple case of theft. I have been engaged to avoid the embarrassment, principally to your friend Frank Lang, of having to get the police involved. Now, I’m sure you would much rather that the police did not start sticking their noses into you and your friends’ goulash club.’
‘Theft?’ Matyas looked genuinely confused. ‘Ferenc Lang is accused of having stolen something?’
‘That’s a surprise to you? He is. And there’s a definite time limit on how long I have to return the property and resolve differences between the parties concerned.’
‘This is nonsense. Absurd. Do you not see that this accusation is trumped up? A pretence to get you to pursue Ferenc and find him for them?’
‘I admit it could just be a possibility,’ I said. I didn’t want to tell him that the chances were his Lang wasn’t really the one I was after. ‘So here’s the deal…’ I pushed my card across the table to him. ‘Telephone me at my office to arrange a time and a place for me to meet with Frank Lang. I’ll show him mine if he shows me his. And you have my word I won’t discuss any of this with my client until after Lang and I have met. But one thing: let’s make the meeting in a public place.’
‘How do we know that you won’t inform your client, or the police, if it’s supposed to be a criminal matter?’
‘You don’t. But I’ve given you my word and I’m a Canadian. We make Boy Scouts and Quakers look like ne’er-do-wells.’
He looked puzzled. I had clearly stretched his English or Middle European sense of irony to its limit.
‘You just have to trust me,’ I said.
He looked at me for a minute, then pocketed the card before standing up. His two escorts did the same.
‘All right, Mr Lennox. We will be in touch. I doubt if Mr Lang will agree to this, but I will put it to him nevertheless.’
‘What I want most of all is to have the stolen item returned to me, so that I can give it back to the party concerned.’
‘I don’t know to what you are referring, Mr Lennox, but I shall put everything you have said to Mr Lang. In the meantime, I would be obliged if you could desist from your enquiries. I want you to understand that it is not you or your interest we fear, but that you may draw the attention of others who do pose a significant danger.’
‘Let me guess… I would be advised to drop it for my own sake too?’
‘You have nothing to concern yourself about from us. But yes, there are forces at work here that you too would be advised to avoid.’ He gave a valedictory nod of the head that was so formal I missed the sound of clicking heels. Maybe he was wearing crepe soles.
I watched them go. And they watched me watching them. They were obviously itchy about being followed. Like someone else in my recent past.
I ordered another cup of bitter froth and tried to remember what I had done with a page I had torn out of my notebook, the page on which I’d written the address of where I had seen Andrew Ellis and the girl.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I wasn’t sure what kind of welcome deposed Hungarian premier Imre Nagy was going to get when he arrived in Moscow, but I guessed it would be marginally warmer and less awkward than the encounter I had with Fiona White in the hallway.
It was obvious that she had been avoiding me, and given the effort she made for our eyes not to meet, I guessed that she wouldn’t be making contact with any other part of my anatomy for the foreseeable future. To be honest, I was less than grownup about it myself and the few words I had exchanged with her had been brusque and ill-mannered. I told her not to worry, I would be out of the flat as soon as I possibly could, and that I had already viewed some alternative accommodations. To be fair, I had caught her off-guard, having come home in the middle of the day. I excused myself with the charm of an adolescent and went up to my rooms.
An odd thing about me, something that many would find unexpected, was that I was pretty fastidious when it came to neatness. Not just in dress, but in every aspect of my life. I had always been a little like that, but it had become something of an obsession during the war. My military career in itself could have been described as untidy, and — after I had been encouraged to resign my commission — there were certainly more than a few loose ends
