Echo

'It's killing me. I'll see you in the Three Pigeons at eight o'clock. Make mine a double Bells if you get there first.'

Deacon hadn't seen Alan for a couple of years and he was shocked by the sight of his old friend. He was desperately thin and his skin had the yellow tinge of jaundice. 'Should I be doing this?'' Deacon asked him as he paid for their whiskies.

'You'd better not tell me I look like death, Mike.'

He did, but Deacon just smiled and pushed the Bells towards him. 'How's Maggie?' he asked, referring to Alan's wife.

'She'd have my guts for garters if she knew where I was and what I was doing.' He raised the glass and sampled a mouthful. 'I can't get it through to the silly old woman that I'm a far better judge of what's good for me than the blasted quacks.'

'So what's the problem? Why have they ordered you off the booze?'

Alan chuckled. 'It's the newest form of tyranny, Mike. No one's allowed to die anymore so you're expected to live out your last months in misery. I mustn't smoke, drink, or eat anything remotely tasty in case it kills me. Apparently, dying of boredom is politically correct while succumbing to anything that gives you pleasure isn't.'

'Well, don't peg out here, for God's sake, or Maggie will have my guts for garters. Where does she think you are as a matter of interest? Church?'

'She knows exactly where I am, but she's a tyrant with a soft center. I'll be hauled over the coals for this when I get back, but in her heart of hearts she'll be glad I was happy for half an hour. So? What did you want to talk to me about?'

'A man called Nigel de Vriess. The only information I have on him is that he lives in a mansion in Hampshire which he bought in 'ninety-one, and was on the board of Lowenstein's Merchant Bank, which he's since left. Do you know him? I'm interested in where he got the money to buy the mansion.'

'That's easy enough. He didn't buy it because he already owned it. If I remember right, his wife took the marital home in Hampstead and he took Halcombe House, although I can't recall now if it was his first divorce or his second. Probably the second because it was a clean-break settlement. It was the first marriage that produced the kids.'

'I was told he bought it.'

'He did, when he made his first million. But that was twenty-odd years ago. He went belly-up in the eighties when he invested in a transatlantic airline that went bust during the cartel war, but he managed to hang on to the properties. The only reason he joined Lowenstein's was to buy a period of stability while the market recovered. In return for a damn good salary, he expanded their operations in the Far East and gave them footholds round the Pacific rim. He did well for them, too. They owe their place on the map to de Vriess.'

'What about this guy, James Streeter, who ripped them off for ten million?'

'What about him? Ten million's chicken feed these days. It took eight hundred million to bring down Baring's Bank.' Alan took another mouthful of whisky. 'The mistake Lowenstein's made was to force the guy to run and bring the whole thing into the open. They recouped their ten million within forty-eight hours trading on the foreign-exchange markets but the bad publicity set them back six months in terms of credibility.'

Deacon took out his cigarette packet and proffered it to Alan with a lift of his eyebrows. 'I won't tell Maggie if you don't.'

'You're a good lad, Mike.' He took a cigarette and placed it reverently between his lips. 'The only reason I stopped was because the silly old cow kept crying. Would you believe that? I'm dying in misery so she won't be miserable watching me die. And she always said I was the most selfish man alive.'

Deacon found a laugh from somewhere-though God only knew where. 'She's right,' he said. 'I'll never forget that time you invited me out to dinner, then made me pay because you claimed you'd left your wallet at home.'

'I had.'

'Bullshit. I could see the bulge it was making in your jacket.'

'You were very young and green in those days, Mike.'

'Yes, and you took advantage of it, you old sod.'

'You've been a good friend.'

'What do you mean, been a good friend? I still am. Who bought the whiskey?' He saw a cloud pass over Alan's face and changed the subject abruptly. 'What's de Vriess doing now?'

'He bought a computer software company called Softworks, renamed it de Vriess Softworks or DVS, sacked half the staff, and turned the damn thing round in two years by producing a cheaper version of Windows for the home- computer market. He's an arrogant S.O.B., but he has a knack for making money. He started with a paper route at thirteen and he's never looked back.'

'You said he became a cropper in the eighties,' Deacon reminded him.

'A temporary blip, Mike, hence the job with Lowenstein's. Now he's back to where he was before the crash. Shares have recovered, and he's found a nice little earner in DVS.'

'There was a woman who used to work for Softworks called Marianne Filbert. Does that name mean anything to you?'

Alan shook his head. 'What's the connection with de Vriess?''

Briefly, Deacon explained John Streeter's theory about the conspiracy against James. 'I suspect his whole argument is based on wishful thinking, but it's interesting that de Vriess bought the company where James Streeter found his computer expert.'

'It's highly predictable if you know de Vriess. I imagine Softworks was put under a microscope to see if the bank's money had found its way into their books, and in the process de Vriess spotted an opportunity. He's as sharp