nose was an unhealthy purplish pink in the cold, and that his breathing
had coarsened and laboured with the exertion of walking. Nick realized
suddenly that the little man was probably asthmatic, and as if to
confirm this, he took a little silver and turquoise pill-box from his
pocket and slipped a single pink capsule into his mouth before leading
Nicholas into the foyer of a movie house and buying two tickets.
It was a porno movie, a French version of Deep Throat entitled Gorge
Profonde. The print was scratched and the French dubbing was out of
synchronization. The cinema was almost empty, so they found two seats
in isolation at the rear of the stalls.
Lazarus stared unblinkingly at the screen, as he began the second part
of his report. This was a detailed breakdown of cash movements within
the Christy Marine Group, and Nick was again amazed at the man's
penetration.
He drew a verbal picture of the assemblage of enormous sums of money,
marshalled and channelled into orderly flows by a master tactician. The
genius of Duncan Alexander was as clearly identifiable as that
flourishing signature with the flamboyant A and X which Nicholas had
seen him dash off with studied panache. Then suddenly the cash-flow was
not so steady and untroubled, there were eddies and breaks, little gaps
and inconsistencies that nagged at Nicholas like the false chimes of a
broken clock.
Lazarus finished this section of his report with a brief summation of
the Group's cash and credit position as at a date four days previously
and Nicholas realized that the doubts were justified. Duncan had run the
Group out along a knife-edge.
Nicholas sat hunched down in the threadbare velvet seat, both hands
thrust into the pockets of his trenchcoat, watching the incredible feats
of Miss Lovelace on the screen, without really seeing them, while beside
him Lazar-us took an aerosol can from his pocket, screwed a nozzle on to
it and noisily sprayed a fine mist down his own throat. It seemed to
relieve him almost immediately.
Insurance and marine underwriting of vessels owned by the Christy Marine
Group of companies. He began again with names and figures and dates,
and Nicholas picked up his own trend. Duncan was using hi aptive
company, London and European Insurance and Banking, to lead the risk on
all his vessels, and then he was reinsuring in the marketplace,
spreading part of the risk, but carrying a whacking deductible himself,
the principle of self-insurance that Nicholas had opposed so vigorously,
and which had rebounded so seriously upon Duncan's head with the salvage
of Golden Adventurer.
The last of the vessels in Lazarus recital was Golden Dawn, and Nicholas
shifted restlessly in his seat at the mention of the name, and almost
immediately he realized that something strange was taking place.
Christy Marine did not apply for a Lloyd's survey of this vessel.
Nicholas knew that already. But she has been rated first class by the
continental surveyors. It was a much easier rating to obtain, and
consequently less acceptable than the prestigious at Lloyd's.
Lazarus went on, lowering his voice slightly as another patron entered
the almost deserted cinema and took a seat two rows in front of them.
