eager and fragile at the same time. With her big brown eyes she had pleaded with Mina to stay the night, and Mina had curled up beside her friend and watched her sleep.
On the third morning Preen had had to tell her landlady that she had no intention of paying extra for her so-called guest. The conversation had been conducted through the door, because Preen refused to let the old woman come in.
“Perhaps I should deduct rent when I am not home for the night?” she called out. “It is your fault, anyway, that I have to have a nurse. I trusted you to keep an eye on people coming and going! And you let in a murderer!”
There was an outraged silence, and Preen grinned. Nothing could be more mortifying to the landlady than to be accused of slackness when it came to peering through her lattice. It was like doubting her faith.
That was earlier. Now Mina was coming in with bread and soup for their supper.
She helped prop Preen upright on the divan, and handed her a bowl.
“You’re missing a lot of excitement, darling,” she said, sitting on the edge of the divan. “A positive invasion of handsome young men.”
She arched her eyebrows. “Men in tight trousers! The New Guard.”
Preen rolled her eyes.
“Doing what, exactly?”
“That’s what I asked them. Taking up
They giggled.
“But what does it mean?” Preen demanded.
“It’s for protection, apparently. All that plotting and killing, it’s coming to a head. Oh, Preen, I’m sorry—you look white as a sheet. I didn’t mean…I mean, I’m sure it’s got nothing to do with what happened the other day. Look, why don’t you ask your gentleman friend?”
“Which one? Yashim?”
“That’s right, dear. Yashim. Come on, eat your soup and put on your face. I’ll help you. You can walk, can’t you? We’ll get a chair and go and find him right now.”
The truth, of course, was that Mina was getting just a tiny bit bored of her nursing duties. She fancied an outing, especially when there was something exciting going on outside. So she was her most persuasive, and overruled Preen’s doubts.
“It’s just that…I don’t feel safe,” Preen admitted.
“Nonsense, darling. I’ll be with you, and we’ll find your friend. It’ll be fun, who knows? You’ll be perfectly safe going out. Just as safe as staying here. Safer.” Later, Preen was to remember that remark.
[ 116 ]
Yashim, as it happened, was already dealing with his second visitor of the evening.
Palewski had come up the stairs to sniff the aroma on Yashim’s landing, but for once he was disappointed. There was a faint smell of onions, he imagined, and perhaps boiled carrot, but the insubstantial clues failed to gel: it could be any number of recipes. Then he noticed the shoes, a pair of sturdy leather sandals.
Company, he supposed. He knocked on the door.
There was a slight delay, and the door opened an inch.
“Thank God it’s you,” Yashim said, pulling the door open and scooping Palewski through into the room.
Palewski almost dropped his valise in surprise. Yashim was holding a large kitchen knife, not that it mattered. What struck his notice instead was the body of a huge man, face down on the carpet, largely enveloped in a knotted sheet.
“I’ve got to do something about this maniac,” Yashim said shortly. “I’ve tied his wrists with the corner of a sheet but now I’m out of ideas.”
