“I thought you knew that,” he said, smiling. “Anyway, while we are on characters, don’t underestimate Stebelson. And don’t pay too much attention to any mistakes he makes. He knows he’s making them, for your benefit, just to keep you primed with the idea that you’ve got him cold.”
“And how do I pass this information – if I’m going to be travelling?”
He stood up, and I knew that the interview was coming to an end. He stretched his arms a little and put two fat fingers to his mouth, delicately laying the ghost of a yawn.
“There will always be someone around.”
“And if I doubt their credentials?”
“Ask for the word.”
“And what is the word?”
“You tell me. That way you’ll be certain that so far it hasn’t been compromised.”
“All right. Mother Jambo.”
“Nice. Mother Jambo. It came first in the three o’clock at Brighton today.”
“That’s right. I’ve a weakness for horses and Brighton. Particularly Brighton.” I was drifting towards the door with him and when we got there, I pulled from my pocket the Italian Beretta which I had, without her knowledge, taken from Katerina’s handbag after dinner, stroking her knee with one hand and lifting the gun with the other. “And this?” I held it up. “How much cover do I get? I’m thinking of the moment when I’m bending over my wallet stuffing too much money into it and someone comes up behind me.”
“You’ve a right to protect yourself and your property to the limit,” he said. “But not with that.” He took it from me. “We’ll see you get another before you move. We’d like to check this one just to see if we can discover where it came from before she acquired it.”
Going back in the car, old raincoat was silent until we were going past the Houses of Parliament. Then he said, “Got yourself a job?”
I said, “Yes.”
He grunted, and it said clearly that he didn’t have much time for anyone who wasn’t a regular. At heart he was a union man.
I went up to an empty flat, and a sink full of washing up. I ran the hot water, and wondered why they hadn’t put a regular on Katerina’s tail. Maybe it was their busy season and they were shorthanded. Casual labour, that was me.
A special messenger delivered it at nine-thirty the next morning. I signed for it and left it still wrapped on my sideboard. Automatic pistol, one, Rex Carver for the use of. I then called Stebelson and made an appointment with him. Going to Brown’s I kept remembering something that Sutcliffe had said to me on the moment of my leaving him. “You serve two masters, but at the ultimate moment you obey our orders.” The ultimate moment. It gave nothing away. I wondered if Stebelson would feed my curiosity a little more, not with the truth necessarily, but at least with something to stop me worrying too much before I went to sleep at night.
When I got up to his room there was a bottle of champagne waiting on a tray. He opened it while I talked. Before coming there I’d done a little quick telephoning.
I said, “Katerina came to London. She told me she was staying at Claridge’s – but that was a lie. She’s a great one for making life difficult. Actually she was at the Cumberland Palace – with her new employer.”
“Employer?” He held his glass still, brown eyes on me, as though he were contemplating some toast. The big hand shook a little and I suddenly realized that he was nervous or, at least, apprehensive.
“A Mrs Vadarci,” I said, and I watched him. But he gave no sign that the name meant anything to him. I went on, “She’s got a job as a companion to Mrs Vadarci. She’s a wealthy old trout with red hair. They both left for Paris this morning.”
He took a sip of the champagne and turned a little away from me, and said, “How did she meet this woman?”
“In the dress shop. She took a fancy to Katerina. So there it is – they’re both out of the country. That lets me out.”
He picked up the bottle of champagne and came over to me. He refilled my glass and then stood looking at me, pursing his big lips, and I could guess what he was going to say. It had to be because otherwise Sutcliffe would never have sent for me.
He didn’t disappoint me. He said, “It only lets you out if you object to foreign travel and a substantial fee.”
I said, “I’ve no objection, so long as I know what is expected of me – and a reasonable idea of what it’s all about.”
He took his time sorting that one out. I had the feeling that he was walking a thin diplomatic edge, wanting to be sure that he kept me and yet not wanting to reveal too much.
He said, “I think I can say that you would be expected to follow Katerina. You see I am not the principal in this affair.”
“You mean your little story about a big brotherly interest in Katerina wasn’t true?”
“Not entirely.” He was quite blunt about it, almost relieved.
“And what about the reasonable idea – the truth this time – of what it’s all about?”
“It would be up to my employer. I think I could persuade him to enlighten you. Enough, anyway, to ease your mind about the legality of the commission.”
“You went a hell of a way around the houses about this, didn’t you? Or were you just putting me through my paces first, checking my wind and trotting action?”
He smiled, the big face contorting momentarily, then he picked up a writing-pad and began to scribble on it. “This is the address. Be there at six o’clock tomorrow evening and ask for me.” He tore the sheet away and handed it to me.
Slipping it into my pocket, I said, “Katerina knows who I
