‘Is it still raining?’ he said. ‘Come in.’
I sank into the big soft sofa that had Go, Queen and Tatler scattered across it. In the fireplace two fruit-tree logs sent an aroma of smoky perfume through the room. I watched Dalby with a certain amount of suspicion. He walked towards a huge bookcase – the aged spines of good editions of Balzac, Irving and Hugo glinted in the fire-light.
‘A drink?’ he said. I nodded, and Dalby opened the ‘bookcase’ which proved to be an artful disguise for doors of a cocktail cabinet. The huge glass and mirror box reflected a myriad of labels, everything from Charrington to Chartreuse – this was the gracious living I had read about in the newspapers.
‘Tio Pepe or Teachers?’ asked Dalby, and after handing me the clear glass of sherry added, ‘I’ll have someone fix you a sandwich. I know that having a sherry means you are hungry.’ I protested, but he disappeared anyway. This wasn’t going at all the way I planned. I didn’t want Dalby to have time to think, nor did I intend that he should leave the room. He could phone – get a gun … As I was thinking this, he reappeared with a plate of cold ham. I remembered how hungry I was. I began to eat the ham and drink my sherry, and I became angry as I realized how easily Dalby had put me at a disadvantage.
‘I’ve been bloody well incarcerated,’ I finally told him.
‘You’re telling me,’ he agreed cheerfully.
‘You know?’ I asked.
‘It was Jay. He’s been trying to sell you back to us.’
‘Why didn’t you grab him?’
‘Well, you know Jay, he’s difficult to get hold of, and anyway, we didn’t want to risk them “bumping you off” did we?’ Dalby used expressions like ‘bumping off’ when he spoke to me. He thought it helped me to understand him.
I said nothing.
‘He wanted £40,000 for you. We think he may have Chico, too. Someone in the USMD1 works for him. That’s how he got you from Tokwe. It could be serious.’
‘Could be?’ I said. ‘They damn’ nearly killed me.’
‘Oh, I wasn’t worried about you. They were unlikely to kill the goose and all that.’
‘Oh, weren’t you? Well you weren’t there to get worried and all that.’
‘You didn’t see Chico there?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘That was the only alleviating feature of the whole affair.’
‘Another drink?’ Dalby was the perfect host.
‘No,’ I said. ‘I must be getting along. I want the keys to the office.’ His face didn’t flicker. Those English public schools are worth every penny.
‘I insist that you join us for dinner,’ said Dalby.
I declined and we batted polite talk back and forth. I wasn’t out of the wood yet. Charlie was dead, and Dalby either didn’t know or didn’t want to talk about it. As I was about to tell him Dalby produced from an abstract painting that concealed a wall safe, a couple of files about payments to agents working in the South American countries.2 Dalby gave me both files, and the keys, and I promised to figure out something for him by ten o’clock the next morning at Charlotte Street. I looked at my watch. It was 7.50 P.M. I was pretty anxious to leave because Waterman’s instructions were to come at the run after one hour exactly. From his performance so far it seemed unwise to count on him being tardy. I took my leave, still without the name of Charlie Cavendish being mentioned. I decided to leave it until we were in the office.
Half-way down the driveway I realized that between now and tomorrow morning was ample time to get myself arrested on a murder charge. Perhaps I should go back and say, ‘Oh, there’s one other thing. I’m wanted for murder.’
I started up the Austin, and moved easily down the road towards the big pub. It was about a quarter of a mile down the road before Waterman switched on his lights. He kept going up in my estimation. When we got to the car park of the ‘Glowering Owl’, I walked across to Waterman and gave him the money in cash.
‘It went off all right then. I’m glad of that,’ he said, his nicotine-stained moustache following his mouth as it smiled. I thanked him, and he put his car into gear, then said, ‘I thought we were in for a right barny when the big Chink feller came out to look at you through the window.’
Big rain clouds raced across the moon, and an arty-looking couple came out of the Saloon Bar, arguing violently. They walked across the car park.
‘Wait a minute,’ I said, my hand on the edge of the wet car window. ‘Chink? A Chinese? Are you sure?’
‘Am I sure? Listen, friend. I had five years in the New Territories; I should know what a Chink looks like.’
I got into the car seat beside him, and asked him to go through it in slow motion. He did so, but he needn’t have done for all the extra information it gave me.
‘We are going back up there right away,’ I told him.
‘Not me, friend, I did the job I was hired for.’
‘OK,’ I said, ‘I’ll pay you again.’
‘Look friend, you’ve been there, you’ve had your say – let things be.’
‘No, I must go back up there whether you come or not. I might only glance in through the window,’ I coaxed.
‘This is nothing to do with your wife, friend. You’re up to some no-good. I can tell. I could tell you weren’t a divorce case from the first minute I saw you.’
‘All right,’ I said, ‘but my money’s OK isn’t it?’ I didn’t pause, as I considered his disagreement on this score very unlikely. ‘I’m from Brighton – Special Branch,’ I improvised, and showed him my forged warrant card. It passed in the poor light inside the car, but I’d hate to depend upon it in daylight.
‘You a copper! You never are, friend.’
I persisted that I was, and he half-believed me. He said, ‘I know that some of the new coppers you can hardly tell nowadays. Real mixture they are.’
‘This is an important case,’ I told him. ‘And I want your assistance now.’
The squeelch and buzz of the windscreen wipers continued steadily as he made up his mind. Why did I want him? I thought; but somewhere I had a hunch it would be a good eight guineas’ worth. It wasn’t one of my best hunches.
‘Why didn’t you bring one of your own constables?’ he suddenly asked.
‘It wasn’t possible,’ I said, hesitating. ‘It’s out of our area. I’m acting on special authority.’
‘It’s not monkey business, friend, is it? I couldn’t be mixed up in anything funny.’
At last. At last I was getting it across to him that I was a policeman negotiating a high-class bribe. As he got used to it, he came to quite like the idea of a well-placed friend on the force, but he added, ‘It will cost you another twelve guineas.’
We settled on the fee and set off up the road again, this time both