I told him. When my voice gave out he said gravely, ‘So he is a prisoner.’
‘Or dead.’
Schmidt shook his head so vigorously that all his chins wobbled. ‘They won’t kill him. Not yet. Vicky, you are not thinking clearly. Oh, I understand; your emotions are at war with your intelligence, your heart aches to rush to the rescue of the man you – ’
‘Shut up, Schmidt.’ I bit my lip. ‘I’m sorry, Schmidt. I didn’t mean it.’
‘Ha,’ said Schmidt. ‘Well. I did not know what you told me, about the young woman. It explains the one thing that had confused me, however. Listen to me now, matters are more serious than I had realized, and we must act without delay. Late last night Sir John – ’
‘That’s not his name.’
‘Well, I know that, but I have become accustomed to it. It suits him. Late last night he came to my room. He said that he had sent you away, for your safety, and that I too must remove myself from the house. So, following his advice, I announced this morning that I felt it best to take myself to a hotel. Larry made only token objections. He seemed distracted.’
‘I’m sure he was. Didn’t he comment on my failure to return last night?’
‘Oh, yes, he expressed concern and asked if I knew where you were. I was very clever,’ Schmidt said, puffing himself up. ‘I said that you were a grown-up woman and that this was not the first time you had gone off with a handsome young man.’
‘Thanks a lot.’
‘The important thing was not that he believed it but that he believed I believed it,’ said Schmidt. He added, smirking, ‘This facade of naivety I assume is very useful. No one tried to prevent me from leaving. Ha, but they will be sorry, when they find how they have underestimated – ’
‘Schmidt,’ I said, trying to articulate through clenched teeth, ‘at some future date I will spend an entire day telling you how brilliant you are. Right now I’m in something of a hurry. Stick to the point. How did you happen to turn up today?’
‘In the nick of time,’ Schmidt pointed out. ‘It was not a coincidence that I was there.’
‘I didn’t think it was.’
My teeth weren’t clenched, they were bared. Schmidt said hurriedly, ‘Yes, I will tell you, if you will stop the interruptions. I went, as I had said I would, to the Winter Palace Hotel and checked myself in. I was eating Mittagessen when a waiter summoned me to the telephone. It was Feisal; he was calling me, he said, at the instruction of a mutual friend. You had foolishly run away from him – Feisal, that is – and he – the friend – feared you would return to the house of Larry Blenkiron. He – the friend – strongly advised that I should adopt evasive measures for my own sake and for your sake I should hover outside the gates and try to intercept you.’
I had a sudden, insane mental image of Schmidt hovering over the house like the Goodyear blimp. Or a very well-fed angel. It won’t be Heaven to Schmidt unless there is an unending flow of fattening food.
‘You were too quick for me,’ Schmidt went on, frowning. ‘I was still hoping to see you come when I heard the guns shooting and knew they must be shooting at you or at Sss . . . at John. So I leaped from the taxi, telling the driver to be ready for instant departure, and was about to break down the gate when you emerged.’
‘Break down the gate,’ I repeated. ‘How did . . . Never mind. You’re a hero, Schmidt. If you hadn’t been there I’d never have made it.’
‘If it had not been for the foresight and noble sacrifice of John you would not have made it,’ Schmidt corrected. ‘So now we must rescue him, eh? Do you know where they have taken him?’
‘They didn’t take him anywhere.’ I stared at my hand. The knuckles were raw. ‘John managed to – to distract the other guys, they aren’t awfully bright, but he didn’t fool Max. Max knew there hadn’t been time for me to get away. He figured I had to be hiding somewhere in the room. The wardrobe was the most obvious place When he told them to tie John up he was trying to mislead me, to suggest that they intended to transport him some distance. Rudi even started to question the order, but Max cut him off. John is still there. So I’ve got to go back.’
‘Aber naturlich,’ Schmidt said.
‘I had to leave him, Schmidt. I had to convince Max I had fallen for his fabrication, and make sure the others knew I was gone. My departure was a little more conspicuous than I meant it to be,’ I admitted. ‘But now they’ll be off guard, they won’t expect me to come back. If I’d hung around – ’
‘Stop it, Vicky.’ Schmidt stifled me with the handkerchief. I blew my nose and mopped my face, while he continued gently, ‘You do not have to convince me. To have acted otherwise would have been folly.’
‘Sorry,’ I muttered. ‘I get nervous when people shoot at me.’
‘Ha,’ said Schmidt. ‘Now be quiet and I will tell you some things. Did you think I was so stupid I did not know what you were doing? From the first I have known – known more than you, Ms. Know-it-all. I told you I never forget a face. The moment I set eyes on the secretary of Mr Blenkiron I recognized him for the criminous cutter of silhouettes.’
‘How could you?’ I demanded incredulously. ‘You never saw Max. He was in jail.’
‘And that is where I saw him, in the jail. I was curious,’ Schmidt admitted. ‘I am interested in the criminal mentality, and what you had told me of him suggested he was an unusual person. On the boat he kept away from you, but he did not expect I would remember. As soon as I recognized him I knew there was trouble brewing, which I had of course suspected as soon as I saw Sir John. A coincidence, that you and he should both be on that boat? You insult me to think I would believe such a story.’
‘You pretended to believe it.’
‘Well, of course. My feelings were deeply wounded by your lack of faith in me. But I forgave you,’ Schmidt said magnanimously. ‘For the desperateness of the situation became clear to me when I recognized that terrible man. The one thing I did not know was the identity of the young woman, but of course I realized that it was only a marriage of convenience and that his heart still belonged to you.’
I started to say something sarcastic but I changed my mind. If his heart didn’t belong to me, he had gone to considerable lengths for the sake of friendship.
‘How’d you figure that out?’ I asked meekly.
‘From the way he did not look at you when he thought others were looking and the way he
‘Yeah, right. Did John tell you what they’re planning, Schmidt?’
‘No, he did not have to tell me. I knew.’
‘How did . . . Oh, hell, never mind that now.’ I looked out of the window of the cab. Palm trees, flower beds, the rippling river beyond . . . ‘First things first. Did you check out of the Winter Palace?’
‘No. You see – ’
‘For God’s sake, Schmidt! They know you’re there; they’ll be looking for you.’
Schmidt let out a roar. For all his pretended calm, his nerves weren’t in much better shape than mine. ‘Give me some credit for good sense, Vicky! If I had checked out they would only look for me somewhere else. Now they will wait for me to return. I left my luggage, but I have with me all we will need,’ He indicated the briefcase on the seat next to him.
‘You’re right, and I’m a fool,’ I said humbly.
‘No, you are not a fool. You are fearing for the life and safety of the man you – ’
I didn’t want to scream at him but I knew I would if he said it, so I cut in. ‘I have the essentials with me too, but I’ve got to get rid of this gold-and-turquoise bag. It’s too conspicuous”
‘Now you are thinking,’ Schmidt said approvingly. He leaned forward and addressed the driver.
‘I did’t know you spoke Arabic’
‘I speak all languages.’ Schmidt twirled his moustache. ‘My Arabic is not good, however. Only a few phrases.’
Following – I assumed – Schmidt’s instructions, the cab stopped at one of the street markets, and Schmidt hopped out. He returned with an armful of souvenirs, including a new bag. This one was black, with the head of Nefertiti on one side and rows of hieroglyphs on the other. A good half of the souvenirs sold in Egypt have Nefertiti on them.
