it would look like if I put the three scumbags – wasn't that the word you used? – outside your door in the hotel corridor? I've got news for you, Sheen. You look after the dough, I'll look after everything else. Sleep well, buddy boy…'
Mencken left the room which was immediately locked again from the inside. The secret order from Norton gave him a big kick. When the case had eventually been opened, the thermite bomb removed, at the first opportunity Mencken had personally to shoot Louis Sheen in the head and dispose of the body. He couldn't wait for that happy moment.
Prior to going to bed, Newman had gone into the Brasserie to buy a large bottle of mineral water. He often woke up in the middle of the night feeling parched. They were cleaning up in the Brasserie as he entered, sweeping floors, wiping the counter, polishing glasses. Newman was surprised to see Eve Amberg nursing a glass of champagne at a table. She raised her glass to him.
'What's the celebration in aid of?' he enquired, accepting her invitation to join her.
'Victory! I've pinned down Walter Amberg. He's agreed on the phone to see me at the Chateau Noir tomorrow morning. This time I won't leave till I get all the money which is mine. Hence the champers. Come on, Bob. Join me in my celebration.' She summoned a waiter, ordered a glass before Newman could protest. Worried, when the waiter had brought his glass, he tried to think of how to get her to delay her visit.
'Cheers, Bob!' Eve clinked his glass. 'Wish me luck up at the chateau.'
Even at this hour she was full of energy and the enthusiasm he found so infectious. She leaned her head on his shoulder, her long titian mane draped over his jacket, face turned sideways so her greenish eyes could study him. I could fall for this woman if I don't watch it, Newman told himself.
He was worried that if Eve went up into the mountains tomorrow she could easily drive into an area where the guns were firing. Because the guns would be firing – Newman was convinced of this. Norton would exploit all the advantages of the mountain terrain to annihilate Tweed and his team. He'd already tried to wipe them out on a smaller scale in Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse, plus the memory of how he himself had just been saved by Beck's police car from being run down in Basle. Eve was stroking his hand when he spoke.
'Amberg has been very difficult with you recently – he's deliberately avoided you. Now he's agreed graciously to receive you into the presence, shouldn't you play hard to get? Throw him off balance – phone him tomorrow morning and say you'll be driving up to see him the following day.'
'You don't know Walter like I do. I appreciate what you suggested. With many men it would work. Not with Walter. He's more stubborn than a mule. Now I've pressured him into seeing me I must grab my chance. He may have decided to pay me off to get rid of me. You only get one chance with Walter-' She broke off and, her head still resting on Newman's shoulder, stared at the newcomer who had entered the Brasserie by the short cut. It was Tweed.
'We're celebrating!' Eve greeted Tweed buoyantly. 'Champers for you. Drink to my successful trip tomorrow.'
The waiter had already arrived with a fresh glass of champagne. Tweed waved it aside, asked for a glass of Riesling.
'Helps me to sleep,' he explained amiably to Eve. 'It's the only wine I really like – so being in Alsace I'm making the most of it. Thank you,' he said to the waiter, raised his glass, stared at Eve who was eyeing him sideways. 'So what are we celebrating at this late hour?'
Newman explained Eve's plans, emphasizing that he'd tried to persuade her to wait for twenty-four hours. Tweed grasped at once Newman's motive in attempting to delay her visit. While listening to the explanation Eve stared fixedly at Tweed, her full lips moving slightly. It was a situation not unfamiliar to Tweed – an attractive woman who liked to flirt, who pretended to be interested in one man while she took aim at her real target. In this case, he suspected, himself.
To Newman's surprise Tweed made no attempt to back up his failed argument to stop Eve driving to the Chateau Noir tomorrow – almost today now. Sipping his Riesling, Tweed held Eve's inviting gaze and then took a view which infuriated Newman.
'I think you're right to keep the appointment with Amberg. It's taken long enough to track him down. What time are you to meet him?'
'Eleven in the morning. He even said he might provide lunch since there wasn't anywhere else to eat near the chateau. I accepted.'
'You were surprised when he suggested lunch?' enquired Tweed.
'Very. I've never taken to Walter and assumed it was a mutual feeling. I'm beginning to think maybe it could be pure shyness where women are concerned. Perhaps I'm due for a pleasant shock tomorrow.'
'Don't bank on it,' Newman told her sharply.
'What a pessimist Bob is.' Eve raised her head from his shoulder. Smoothing down her hair, she leaned over the table to where Tweed faced her, grasped his hand. 'Do you object to my driving up to see Walter in the morning?'
'Why should I? Because of the ice and snow the roads are very dangerous, I gather. And very low temperatures during the night won't help. But you must make up your own mind.'
'Then I shall be going, so I suppose I'd better get up to bed.'
Tweed noted she moved very steadily as she came round the end of the table, bent down, kissed him on the cheek. Her hair brushed the side of his face, giving him a tingling sensation.
Thank you, Tweed. For your moral support.' She turned her gaze on Newman. 'As for you, Mr Pessimist, have a nice day – as the pathetic Americans are always saying.' She gave him a little wave, a wry smile and disappeared into the hotel.
'What the devil are you up to?' Newman burst out when they were alone. 'All hell is liable to break loose on those mountain slopes tomorrow…'
'I agree,' Tweed interjected amiably, then finished off his wine.
'Every conceivable weapon could be used against us,' Newman raved on, keeping his voice down. 'So why send Eve into a battlefield?'
'You'd managed to persuade her not to go then?'
'Well, not exactly…'
'Be frank. Didn't she refuse point blank to take any notice of your attempt to get her to change her mind?'
'Yes, she did,'Newman admitted.
'I sensed this as soon as I arrived. Eve is a woman of great character, of exceptional willpower. By agreeing with her, I made her sympathetic to me. There is a faint chance – no more – that when she recalls what I said about the dangerous roads she'll change her mind,'
'So why do I get the feeling you're conducting some very devious manoeuvre?' Newman demanded. 'And what time do you plan we reach the Chateau Noir?'
'Not long after eleven in the morning – when Eve Amberg has arrived there, if she makes the trip.'
38
Paula tapped on Tweed's door at seven the following morning. He called out for her to come in and she found him in the bathroom, shirt collar open as he stood before a mirror shaving.
'Should I come back later?' she suggested. 'You ought to be able to get ready in peace.'
'You've seen a man shaving before today. Sit down while I talk. I need a sounding-board about this whole business – going right back to the massacre at Tresillian Manor.'
'Fire away.' She perched on the edge of the unused bed. 'I'm listening with all my ears, as the French say, and we are in France.'
'So far I have assumed that the same people who blew up our Park Crescent HQ also perpetrated the hideous massacre at Gaunt's manor. You were always sceptical.'
'Yes, I know. Maybe I underestimated the enormous power of the apparatus we're up against.'
'I'm wondering now if / gave them a little too much credit for almost superhuman organization –
