Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy

I looked at him without bothering to conceal my anger. We had exchanged harsher words before, but we'd never come so close to a ding-dong row. I said, 'Which block is Miss Bancroft in?'

'I don't know,' said Mann.

'Then I shall have to phone the gate.'

'She left this morning,' said Mann. 'They moved Mrs Bekuv and Red went with her.'

My bad temper worsened. 'You deliberately moved her so that I wouldn't get a chance to talk with her.'

'Are you telling me I should schedule this caper to fit in with your private life?'

I didn't answer.

Mann said, 'I'll see you over here about nine in the morning. Maybe by that time you'll be in a mood to understand.'

'I understand already,' I said, 'I understand only too well. The P.A.D. are moving in on you. And you are determined to put Professor Bekuv through the wringer and get results before the P.A.D. get anything out of his wife. Yes, I understand. Red Bancroft is attached to P.A.D. and you don't like the idea of me being that close to your opposition. You don't trust me, Major. Well, you've heard of self-fulfilling prophecies, haven't you?'

'Good night,' said Mann. He got out and closed the door.

I brought the window down. 'Do I get an answer?'

'Yes. Grow up,' said Mann. He buttoned up his coat and put on the silly-looking tweed hat, with the brim turned down at front and back. 'And stay away from Miss Bancroft — and that is an order.'

I watched him as he marched into the lighted entrance. The two sets of glass doors opened automatically, but beyond them I could see the newly painted graticule of prison bars, and an armoured booth for the doorman.

They'd provided me with the comparative luxury of a four-room house normally occupied by a U.S. Navy captain, who was away on detachment to CINCLANT for a couple of months. His books and his furniture were still there. I had no doubt that this was the accommodation intended for Mann, until he swopped it for the cramped duty-surgeon's rooms that were so close to Bekuv.

I was tired, very tired. I thanked God for America, where even the poor-house probably has heated bathrooms. I opened my travelling bag and dumped my dirty linen into the laundry basket. Then I undressed and stepped into the shower. I stood there a long time, letting the hot water hammer at my muscles, and finished with water cold enough to make my teeth chatter. I grabbed the towel from the warm rack and wrapped it round myself before going into the kitchen. I set up a cup and saucer, filled the kettle and plugged in. While I waited for it to boil, I admired the captain's library. There were a lot of high-powered psychiatry books, papers and bound volumes. There were war memoirs, too, a Shorter Oxford Dictionary, and Dickens and Balzac, and a collection of very old volumes, about chemistry.

I walked into the bedroom. It was a large room with a double bed. On one side of the room there were large wardrobes, the doors entirely covered by tinted glass. Standing in front of the mirror there was a tall slim woman; she was naked except for a triangular frill of black silk. It was Red Bancroft and she smiled, pleased that her joke had worked so well. Her smile became a different sort of smile as she watched me examining her nakedness. She was beautiful. I began to tell her so but she came towards me and put her fingers to my lips. With the other hand she loosened the damp towel from my waist and let it drop to the floor. She flinched as we embraced and she felt the cold water against her skin. My wet hah- cascaded droplets over her face. We kissed, and she tightened her arms round me. I could not resist a glance at our reflection as we began our love-making.

Hardly had we started than there was a shrill scream. Red struggled under me but I held her. 'It's the kettle,' I said. 'It's sure to have a safety switch.' She sank back across the bed smiling. And in due time there was the reassuring plop of the kettle's switch.

We exchanged no words, apart from incoherent cries and murmurs, and afterwards, when she got out of bed, I pulled the blanket over my shoulders and settled my head into the down pillows. I was almost asleep by the time she reappeared. I was amazed to see her fully dressed.

'What's going on?' I said.

She sat down on the bed and looked at me as if seeing me for the first time. 'I must go.'

'Go where?'

She looked at her watch. 'We are moving Mrs Bekuv. I must be ready.'

'Nice timing,' I said.

'Don't be bitter.'

'Do you have to go?'

'Do you have to do the job you do,' she retorted. 'This is my job and I'm damned good at it, so don't treat me like the little woman.'

'So why not tell me about your job?'

'Did you tell me about your job — no, you didn't, because you're a secret agent.'

'What's this all about?' I said. I sat up.

She stretched her hand and touched my shoulder. 'I'm telling you goodbye,' she said. She shivered as if in apprehension.

'Goodbye for now, you mean?'

'I mean goodbye, goodbye.'

'Just for the record,' I said. 'Am I using the wrong brand of toothpaste?'

'Nothing personal, my darling. For a time you really had me going. Bessie Mann was asking me how many kids we were going to have, and I found myself looking at recipe books and baby carriages.'

I looked at her, trying to decide what could account for this resolute farewell.

'Don't try to puzzle it out, darling,' she said, and leaned over and gave me a sisterly kiss on the forehead. 'I planned it that way.'

'Only a woman would plan to say goodbye in bed,' I said.

'Don't believe it, baby. I've had the kiss-off that way, more times than I care to remember.' She got to her feet, and opened the wardrobe to get her suede overcoat. For a moment I thought someone was standing inside the wardrobe; but there were only two naval captain's uniforms in cleaner's transparent covers. She put her coat on carefully, watching herself in the mirror as she buttoned it.

I got out of bed and pulled on one of the captain's dressing-gowns. It was a little too short for me, but at the time I didn't care. Red Bancroft went into the lounge and picked up a large suitcase, opened the front door and placed it outside. She turned back to me. 'Look, darling, forget what I said just now — let's not part this way.'

'Why don't you tell me what this is all about?'

'There isn't time.'

'I'll make time.'

'And I'm too mixed up to know myself. Let me take a rain-check.'

'On a love affair?' I said.

'Please.'

Before I could answer, there were voices at the door and two men barged in. They were a tough-looking couple, with longish hair and denim jackets. But the hair was recently washed and carefully parted, and the denims were cleaned and pressed, so that the men looked like the sort of college lecturers who smoke pot.

'Scram,' I told them.

They didn't spare me more than a glance. To Red Bancroft one of them said, 'Is that your only bag?'

She pointed to another large case and then turned to me. 'I've got to go.'

'Who are these creeps?'

One of the men turned to me and said, 'You sit down and shut up and you won't get hurt.'

'I see,' I said it as passively as I could, and waited until he bent down to pick up Red's case before lifting the back of his jacket with one hand, while the other hand snatched the pistol from the holster he wore on his belt. 'Now let's try all over again,' I said, as he dropped the case and swung round at me. I'd already stepped far enough back to avoid any such counter action, and while he was still off balance I stepped forward and kicked the side of his knee, hard enough to make him yell. Without waiting to see him massaging the graze, I steered the Magnum to where the other one was standing. Even before I said anything he raised his hands. 'High,' I told him. 'Keep those hands very, very high.'

I went round the back of him and found his gun too. 'You've got to be quicker than that, if you want to keep