They Came to Baghdad

‘You shouldn’t really have come here, you know.’

‘I had to this time,’ said Victoria. ‘There’s something I’ve got to tell you at once – before anything more happens to me.’

‘Happens to you? Has anything happened to you?’

‘Don’t you know?’ asked Victoria. ‘Hasn’t Edward told you?’

‘As far as I know, you are still working at the Olive Branch. Nobody has told me anything.’

‘Catherine,’ exclaimed Victoria.

‘I beg your pardon.’

‘The cat Catherine! I bet she’s stuffed Edward up with some tale or other and the goop has believed her.’

‘Well, let’s hear about it,’ said Mr Dakin. ‘Er – if I may say so,’ his eye went discreetly to Victoria ’s blonde head, ‘I prefer you as a brunette.’

‘That’s only part of it,’ said Victoria.

There was a tap at the door and the messenger entered with two little cups of sweet coffee. When he had gone, Dakin said:

‘Now take your time and tell me all about it. We can’t be overheard here.’

Victoria plunged into the story of her adventures. As always when she was talking to Dakin, she managed to be both coherent and concise. She finished her story with an account of the red scarf Carmichael had dropped and her association of it with Madame Defarge.

Then she looked anxiously at Dakin.

He had seemed to her when she came in, to be even more bowed and tired-looking. Now she saw a new glint come into his eye.

‘I should read my Dickens more often,’ he said.

‘Then you do think I’m right? You think it was Defarge he said – and you think some message is knitted into the scarf?’

‘I think,’ said Dakin, ‘that this is the first real break we’ve had – and we’ve got you to thank for it. But the important thing is the scarf. Where is it?’

‘With all the rest of my things. I shoved it into a drawer that night – and when I packed I remember bundling everything in without sorting or anything.’

‘And you’ve never happened to mention to anyone – to anyone at all – that that scarf belonged to Carmichael?’

‘No, because I’d forgotten all about it. I bundled it into a suitcase with some other things when I went to Basrah and I’ve never even opened the case since.’

‘Then it ought to be all right. Even if they’ve been through your things, they won’t have attached any importance to an old dirty woollen scarf – unless they were tipped off to it, which as far as I can see, is impossible. All we’ve got to do now is to have all your things collected and sent to you at – have you got anywhere to stay, by the way?’

‘I’ve booked a room at the Tio.’

Dakin nodded.

‘Best place for you.’

‘Have I – do you want me – to go back to the Olive Branch?’

Dakin looked at her keenly.

‘Scared?’

Victoria stuck out her chin.

‘No,’ she said with defiance. ‘I’ll go if you like.’

‘I don’t think it’s necessary – or even wise. However they learned it, I presume that someone there got wise to your activities. That being so, you wouldn’t be able to find out anything more, so you’d better stay clear.’

He smiled.

‘Otherwise you may be a redhead next time I see you.’

‘That’s what I want to know most of all,’ cried Victoria. ‘Why did they dye my hair? I’ve thought and I’ve thought and I can’t see any point in it. Can you?’

‘Only the somewhat unpleasant one that your dead body might be less easy to identify.’

‘But if they wanted me to be a dead body, why didn’t they kill me straightaway?’

‘That’s a very interesting question, Victoria. It’s the question I want answered most of all.’

‘And you haven’t any idea?’

‘I haven’t got a clue,’ said Mr Dakin with a faint smile.

‘Talking of clues,’ said Victoria, ‘do you remember my saying that there was something about Sir Rupert Crofton Lee that didn’t seem right, that morning at the Tio?’

‘Yes.’

‘You didn’t know him personally, did you?’

‘I hadn’t met him before, no.’

‘I thought not. Because, you see, he wasn’t Sir Rupert Crofton Lee.’

And she plunged once more into animated narrative, starting with the incipient boil on the back of Sir Rupert’s neck.

‘So that was how it was done,’ said Dakin. ‘I didn’t see how Carmichael could have been sufficiently off his guard to be killed that night. He got safely to Crofton Lee – and Crofton Lee stabbed him, but he managed to get away and burst into your room before he collapsed. And he hung on to the scarf – literally like grim death.’

‘Do you think it was because I was coming to tell you this that they kidnapped me? But nobody knew except Edward.’

‘I think they felt they had to get you out of the picture quickly. You were tumbling to too much that was going on at the Olive Branch.’

‘Dr Rathbone warned me,’ said Victoria. ‘It was – more of a threat than a warning. I think he realized that I wasn’t what I pretended to be.’

‘Rathbone,’ said Dakin drily, ‘is no fool.’

‘I’m glad I haven’t got to go back there,’ said Victoria. ‘I pretended to be brave just now – but really I’m scared stiff. Only if I don’t go to the Olive Branch, how can I get hold of Edward?’

Dakin smiled.

‘If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed. Write him a note now. Just say you’re at the Tio and ask him to get your clothes and luggage and bring them along there. I’m going to consult Dr Rathbone this morning about one of his Club soirйes. It will be easy for me to slip a note to his secretary – so there will be no danger of your enemy Catherine causing it to go astray. As for you, go back to the Tio and stay there – and, Victoria –’

‘Yes?’

‘If you’re in a jam – of any kind – do the best you can for yourself. As far as possible you’ll be watched over, but your adversaries are rather formidable, and unfortunately you know rather a lot. Once your luggage is in the Tio Hotel your obligations to me are over. Understand that.’

‘I’ll go straight back to the Tio now,’ said Victoria. ‘At least I shall just buy some face powder and lipstick and vanishing cream on the way. After all –’

‘After all,’ said Mr Dakin, ‘one cannot meet one’s young man completely unarmoured.’

‘It didn’t matter so much with Richard Baker though I’d like him to know I can look quite nice if I try,’ said Victoria. ‘But Edward …’

Chapter 22

Her blonde hair carefully arranged, her nose powdered and her lips freshly painted, Victoria sat upon the balcony of the Tio, once more in the role of a modern Juliet, waiting for Romeo.