I said, “For God’s sake, why couldn’t we have met here in the first place?”
Severus winked and I realized that it was not deliberate. He had some kind of tic thing that flicked on as a prelude to any speech. It made me feel uneasy.
“Orders, signore.”
“You Italian?”
“Greek mostly, little British, too. My mother—”
“Skip the pedigree.” I was still a little angry and taking it out on him. “Give – if there’s anything to give. What about the Vadarci woman and Katerina Saxmann? They still aboard the Komira?”
“No. They went ashore when she arrived.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Should you?”
“No. I’m a boat movement expert. Contacts in the water guard service. They came ashore through customs at the Lido and then disappeared.”
“Who let them slip?”
“Nobody. Orders to watch Komira reached me after they came ashore.”
“Unless there’s somebody else holding that end?”
“Could be.”
I said, “What about cargo?”
He smiled. “They’ve got a fast launch. Anything they didn’t want to go through customs could have been shifted at night from a few miles out – before they came in.”
“True.” I made a face into my glass.
He said, “Maybe you prefer whisky, not this Chianti?”
“I’m O.K. Any reason why I shouldn’t go out and have a look at the Komira tomorrow? Sort of trip around the island.”
He nodded. “I’ll pick you up at the foot of the Via Garibaldi. You know where that is?”
“Yes. Since you’re the maritime expert perhaps you can get me charts or maps of Venice and the coasts up and down a bit from here?”
He flicked the blackbird wing of hair back and said, “Admiralty charts: fourteen-eight-three and fourteen-four-two. Mediterranean Pilot, too, if you want it. Volume Three – West Coast of Greece, Ionian Sea, and the Adriatic Sea. I’ll send them to your hotel tonight. I used to be a pilot in these and other waters.”
I said, “I’ve got a friend who has a friend who is a Suez Canal pilot. And I’ve changed my mind about the drink. I’ll have a whisky and buy you one, too.”
I called to the girl who, with great good nature, interrupted feeding time and served us and also put a dish of prawns on the table. Back at the bar, I saw her feed the child one of the prawns before putting it on the nipple again. She had some theory all right.
“There is something else you should know,” Severus said.
“You chaps always keep the titbit until the end.”
“Frau Spiegel?”
“God – without her transistor, I hope.”
“With that. She’s at the Royal Danieli – calls herself Frau Merkatz.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“She have anything to do with the Lancing job?”
“Could be. She would be in touch with the Komira.”
“Baldy, the cook.”
He nodded.
At six o’clock the next morning the Komira was still in the Canale San Marco. I came back from the window, tossed my field-glasses into a chair, and sat on the end of the bed. Vérité sat up and worked her way down to me, heaping the bedclothes in front of her. I lit a cigarette and she reached round me to take it. She drew on it and then handed it back to me. Just for a moment I felt her lips touch the back of my neck.
“How would you get a large lead case from here to somewhere in Europe, say – without fuss?” I asked.
She said, “Kiss me.”
I said, “What for?”
“Just kiss me.”
I kissed her, putting my arms around her and she collapsed gently against the bed and we lay there. Then she slid her mouth free and one of her hands began to run slowly up and down my spine under my pyjama jacket.
“Sometimes,” she said, “you are too clever. Or maybe it is too careful. Why? Because you are afraid to hurt?”
“What are we talking about?”
“You – me.” Her eyes were very close to mine and I could feel the beat of her heart against me. “You can’t hurt me, ever,” she went on. “Never. Ever. Because already you have given so much.” She put a finger up and touched my lips as I was about to say something. Then, smiling, she said, “I know how you feel. Once I felt like it, too. You remember what you said at Melita one evening? ‘The magic kiss that melts the frozen heart. ’ Remember? Some men, some women, think they have it for that someone else ... always the someone who really has no heart to melt. Because of you I can talk about it now. I’m free. But you’re not, are you? You’re still thinking about her. And that makes you feel guilty about me.”
“All this is a long way from lead cases.”
She shook her head and the hand on my back was suddenly hard against my shoulder blades.
“I’m here,” she said firmly. “Here, for so long as you want me here. Just that and no more. There’s no need to try and shield me. You owe me nothing....”
Her mouth came up to mine. After a while she lay back, smiling up at me, and I genuinely wished that I had never walked on to Brighton pier and seen Katerina.
She said, almost to herself, “You know he almost dismissed you.”
“Who?” I smoothed my knuckles against the lower side of her chin.
“Herr Malacod.”
“Why?”
“He knows you kept something back from him. Something from Lancing’s parcel.”
“Did I?”
She nodded and said, “A colour slide. When you went down to dinner that last night on Melita I went into your room. The chambermaid let me in
