They Came to Baghdad

frightening, really frightening.’

Chapter 16

I

‘Find your young man?’ asked Mr Dakin.

Victoria nodded.

‘Find anything else?’

Rather mournfully, Victoria shook her head.

‘Well, cheer up,’ said Mr Dakin. ‘Remember, in this game, results are few and far between. You might have picked up something there – one never knows, but I wasn’t in any way counting on it.’

‘Can I still go on trying?’ asked Victoria.

‘Do you want to?’

‘Yes, I do. Edward thinks he can get me a job at the Olive Branch. If I keep my ears and eyes open, I might find out something, mightn’t I? They know something about Anna Scheele there.’

‘Now that’s very interesting, Victoria. How did you learn that?’

Victoria repeated what Edward had told her – about Catherine’s remark that when ‘Anna Scheele came’ they would take their orders from her.

‘Very interesting,’ said Mr Dakin.

‘Who is Anna Scheele?’ asked Victoria. ‘I mean, you must know something about her – or is she just a name?’

‘She’s more than a name. She’s confidential secretary to an American banker – head of an international banking firm. She left New York and came to London about ten days ago. Since then she’s disappeared.’

‘Disappeared? She’s not dead?’

‘If so, her dead body hasn’t been found.’

‘But she may be dead?’

‘Oh yes, she may be dead.’

‘Was she – coming to Baghdad?’

‘I’ve no idea. It would seem from the remarks of this young woman Catherine, that she was. Or shall we say –is – since as yet there’s no reason to believe she isn’t still alive.’

‘Perhaps I can find out more at the Olive Branch.’

‘Perhaps you can – but I must warn you once more to be very careful, Victoria. The organization you are up against is quite ruthless. I would much rather not have your dead body found floating down the Tigris.’

Victoria gave a little shiver and murmured:

‘Like Sir Rupert Crofton Lee. You know that morning he was at the hotel here there was something odd about him – something that surprised me. I wish I could remember what it was…’

‘In what way – odd?’

‘Well – different.’ Then in response to the inquiring look, she shook her head vexedly. ‘It will come back to me, perhaps. Anyway I don’t suppose it really matters.’

‘Anything might matter.’

‘If Edward gets me a job, he thinks I ought to get a room like the other girls in a sort of boarding-house or paying guest-place, not stay on here.’

‘It would create less surmise. Baghdad hotels are very expensive. Your young man seems to have his head screwed on the right way.’

‘Do you want to see him?’

Dakin shook his head emphatically.

‘No, tell him to keep right away from me. You, unfortunately, owing to the circumstances on the night of Carmichael ’s death, are bound to be suspect. But Edward is not linked with that occurrence or with me in any way – and that’s valuable.’

‘I’ve been meaning to ask you,’ said Victoria. ‘Who actually did stab Carmichael? Was it someone who followed him here?’

‘No,’ said Dakin slowly. ‘That couldn’t have been so.’

‘Couldn’t?’

‘He came in a gufa – one of those native boats – and he wasn’t followed. We know that because I had someone watching the river.’

‘Then it was someone – in the hotel?’

‘Yes, Victoria. And what is more someone in one particular wing of the hotel – for I myself was watching the stairs and no one came up them.’

He watched her rather puzzled face and said quietly:

‘That doesn’t really give us very many names. You and I and Mrs Cardew Trench, and Marcus and his sisters. A couple of elderly servants who have been here for years. A man called Harrison from Kirkuk against whom nothing is known. A nurse who works at the Jewish Hospital…It might be any of them – yet all of them are unlikely for one very good reason.’

‘What is that?’

‘ Carmichael was on his guard. He knew that the peak moment of his mission was approaching. He was a man with a very keen instinct for danger. How did that instinct let him down?’

‘Those police that came –’ began Victoria.

‘Ah, they came after – up from the street. They’d had a signal, I suppose. But they didn’t do the stabbing. That must have been done by someone Carmichael knew well, whom he trusted…or alternatively whom he judged negligible. If I only knew…’

II

Achievement brings with it its own anticlimax. To get to Baghdad, to find Edward, to penetrate the secrets of the Olive Branch: all this had appeared as an entrancing programme. Now, her objective attained, Victoria, in a rare moment of self-questioning, sometimes wondered what on earth she was doing! The rapture of reunion with Edward had come and gone. She loved Edward, Edward loved her. They were, on most days, working under the same roof – but thinking about it dispassionately, what on earth were they doing?

By some means or other, sheer force of determination, or ingenious persuasion, Edward had been instrumental in Victoria ’s being offered a meagrely-paid job at the Olive Branch. She spent most of her time in a small dark room with the electric light on, typing on a very faulty machine various notices and letters and manifestos of the milk and water programme of the Olive Branch activities. Edward had had a hunch there was something wrong about the Olive Branch. Mr Dakin had seemed to agree with that view. She, Victoria, was here to find out what she could, but as far as she could see, there was nothing to find out! The Olive Branch activities dripped with the honey of international peace. Various gatherings were held with orangeade to drink and depressing edibles to go with it, and at these Victoria was supposed to act as quasi-hostess; to mix, to introduce, to promote general good feeling amongst various foreign nationals, who were inclined to stare with animosity at one another and wolf refreshments hungrily.

As far as Victoria could see, there were no under-currents, no conspiracies, no inner rings. All was above board, mild as milk and water, and desperately dull. Various dark-skinned young men made tentative love to her,