have found a way of warning Gissing. I suppose I could, too.”
Roger shrugged. “Everyone but Ed Pullinger. It might have been better to stay behind. Carl wouldn’t have been suspicious of me leaving on my own.”
“I had to come,” Lissa said.
“Orders?”
Her eyes laughed at him. “Yes, and not mine.”
They were circling to land, and Roger could pick out the small airfield and the little ant-like figures of men waiting for them. He still didn’t feel sure of anything, but was less uneasy than he had been. The landing came, as always, before he expected it They taxied towards the airport buildings, past them slowly once, and then turned back again. He felt Lissa become tense. They turned again and taxied back, and Lissa said softy:
“There he is.”
“Who?”
Roger peered out of the little window, and needed no answer. A man sat in a wheelchair outside the doors of the building. He wasn’t smiling. He had a big face, and even from here his chin and jowl seemed dark. He was hatless, and his hair looked black as soot.
Marino had come home.
Marino’s hand-clasp had the warmth of old, tried friendship. He smiled at Roger, then put both hands out to Lissa, who bent down and kissed him on the forehead. He chuckled as he began to turn the wheels of his chair. Roger and Lissa walked, one on either side of him, across the grass towards the cars which were waiting on the road leading to the town.
“I need more of that treatment,” Marino said. “Have you two made it up?”
“Who’s quarrelled?” asked Roger.
Marino’s manner had a touch of boyishness which was good to see, which hid excitement and expectation; he seemed more than ever sure of himself.
“Didn’t she quarrel with you, Detective?”
Roger looked over his head at a demure Lissa.
“Lissa reported it to Washington, I picked up a message,” went on Marino. “It wasn’t a laugh, either, Lissa had been pointed out as a suspect by others, but we always come down on her side. Carl Fischer — it would surprise me if he were anti-American, but I’ve been surprised before. Ed Pullinger? He was at the swimming-pool when Ricky dropped that identity tag. We can work on that later. Sure you’ll recognize Gissing again, Roger?”
Roger said: “If I had to forget you or Gissing, I would forget you. Where is he?”
“We think he’s at a farm fifteen miles from here,” replied Marino. “He answers your description. He was seen in a car early last night. There were two cars, the same make as two of the cars which left Webster’s old house, and in the first there was a boy passenger, who seemed to be asleep. A traffic cop noticed them. He was directing traffic past an accident, they had to slow down, and he had a good look. So we checked. Several other people noticed the two cars, and three described Gissing well enough to make us hope. So we got into the garage during the night and scraped some of the dirt from under the guards. It’s Adirondacks dirt, of a kind you don’t find in New Jersey. There was a copy of the
“Don’t ask me,” Lissa said. “Why did you come yourself, Tony?”
“I was recalled. I have to talk David into going back to England.”
No one spoke.
Marino was helped into a big pre-war Lincoln, next to the driver, with Roger and Lissa at the back.
“We’re going to a restaurant two miles away from the farm,” Marino said, “and from there we’re going to raid the house. It will catch them with their pants down. The farm’s surrounded, and anyone who leaves is picked up when he’s too far away to be noticed by anybody still at the farmhouse. It can’t go wrong.”
He meant: “It mustn’t go wrong.”
“And when you’ve caught Gissing and found the boy, I just put a finger on Gissing,” Roger said.
“That’s right.”
“Don’t you like the plan?” Lissa picked out the doubt in his voice.
“I don’t like it at all,” Roger said bluntly.
How would you do it?” Marino asked, turning his head with difficulty.
“I could identify him first, you could catch him afterwards.”
“You would go up to the house on your own?”
“And have a better opportunity to get in. If he has time, he might kill that boy.” Roger’s tone was light, but neither of the others needed telling what he was thinking. “Let’s give the boy a chance.”
“How would he think you’d found him on your own?” Marino asked dryly. “We’ll do it our way.”
“It’s the wrong way.”
Marino sighed. “These stubborn Britishers.”
“Oh, I know, I’ve been wrong all along,” Roger said heavily. “If Fischer’s the spy, Gissing will know that I’m on the way somewhere. Lissa tried hard, but Fischer wouldn’t so easily be convinced that I was recalled to London. Even if Fischer didn’t, someone else might have warned Gissing, and the chances are he will be ready for you
