Алистер Маклин - Puppet on a Chain

‘I hope you know what you are doing,’ van Gelder said. He sounded grave.

‘ You hope,’ I said. ‘How do you think I feel?’

Neither of them said how they thought I felt, and as it seemed that the line of conversation was taking an unprofitable turn we all kept quiet until we arrived at our destination. We drew up outside the warehouse behind a nondescript grey van and got out and as we did a man in a dark suit climbed down from the front of the grey van and approached us. His civilian suit didn’t do much for him as disguise went: I could have picked him out as a cop at fifty yards.

He said to de Graaf: ‘We’re ready, sir.’

‘Bring your men.’

‘Yes, sir.’ The policeman pointed upwards. ‘What do you make of that, sir?’

We followed the direction of his arm. There was a wind blowing gustily that morning, nothing much but enough to give a slow if rather erratic pendulum swing to a gaily coloured object suspended from the hoisting beam at the top of the warehouse: it swung through an arc of about four feet and was, in its setting, one of the most gruesome things I had ever encountered.

Unmistakably, it was a puppet, and a very large puppet at that, well over three feet tall and dressed, inevitably, in the usual immaculate and beautifully tailored traditional Dutch costume, the long striped skirt billowing coquettishly in the wind. Normally, wires or ropes are used to pass through the pulleys of hoisting beams but in this instance someone had elected to use a chain instead: the puppet was secured to the chain by what could be seen, even at that elevation, to be a wicked-looking hook, a hook that was fractionally too small for the neck it passed round, so small that it had obviously had to be forced into position for the neck had been crushed at one side so that the head leaned over at a grotesque angle, almost touching the right shoulder. It was, after all, no more than a mutilated doll: but the effect was horrifying to the point of obscenity. And obviously I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

‘What a macabre sight.’ De Graaf sounded shocked and he looked it too. ‘What in the name of God is that for? What – what’s the point of it, what’s the purpose behind it? What kind of sick mind could perpetrate an – an obscenity like that?’

Van Gelder shook his head. ‘Sick minds are everywhere and Amsterdam has its fair share. A jilted sweetheart, a hated mother-in-law–’

‘Yes, yes, those are legion. But this this is abnormality to the point of insanity. To express your feelings in this terrible way.’ He looked at me oddly, as if he were having second thoughts about the purposelessness of this visit. ‘Major Sherman, doesn’t it strike you as very strange–’

‘It strikes me the way it strikes you. The character responsible has a cast-iron claim to the first vacancy in a psychotic ward. But that isn’t why I came here.’

‘Of course not, of course not.’ De Graaf had a last long look at the dangling puppet, as if he could hardly force himself to look away, then gestured abruptly with his head and led the way up the steps towards the warehouse. A porter of sorts took us to the second floor and then to the office in the corner which, unlike the last time I had seen it, now had its time-locked door hospitably open.

The office, in sharp contrast to the warehouse itself, was spacious and uncluttered and modern and comfortable, beautifully carpeted and draped in different shades of lime and equipped with very expensive up-to-the-minute Scandinavian furniture more appropriate to a luxurious lounge than to a dock-side office. Two men seated in deep armchairs behind separate large and leather-covered desks rose courteously to their feet and ushered de Graaf, van Gelder and myself into other and equally restful armchairs while they themselves remained standing. I was glad they did, for this way I could have a better look at them and they were both, in their way, very similar, well worth looking at. But I didn’t wait more than a few seconds to luxuriate in the warmth of their beaming reception.

I said to de Graaf: ‘I have forgotten something very important. It is imperative I make a call on a friend immediately.’ It was, too: I don’t often get this chilled and leaden feeling in the stomach but when I do I’m anxious to take remedial action with the least delay.

De Graaf looked his surprise. ‘A matter so important, it could have slipped your mind?’

‘I have other things on my mind. This just came into it.’ Which was the truth.

‘A phone call, perhaps–’

‘No, no. Must be personal.’

‘You couldn’t tell me the nature–’

‘Colonel de Graaf!’ He nodded in quick understanding, appreciating the fact that I wouldn’t be likely to divulge State secrets in the presence of the proprietors of a warehouse about which I obviously held serious reservations. ‘If I could borrow your car and driver–’

‘Certainly,’ he said unenthusiastically.

‘And if you could wait till I come back before–’

‘You ask a great deal, Mr Sherman.’

‘I know. But I’ll only be minutes.’

I was only minutes. I had the driver stop at the first café we came to, went inside and used their public telephone. I heard the dialling tone and could feel my shoulders sag with relief as the receiver at the other end, after relay through an hotel desk, was picked up almost immediately. I said: ‘Maggie?’

‘Good morning, Major Sherman.’ Always polite and punctilious was Maggie and I was never more glad to hear her so.

‘I’m glad I caught you. I was afraid that you and Belinda might already have left she hasn’t left, has she?’ I was much more afraid of several other things but this wasn’t the time to tell her.

‘She’s still here,’ Maggie said placidly.

‘I want you both to leave your hotel at once. When I say at once, I mean within ten minutes. Five, if possible.’

‘Leave? You mean–’

‘I mean pack up, check out and don’t ever go near it again. Go to another hotel. Any hotel … No, you blithering idiot, not mine. A suitable hotel. Take as many taxis as you like, make sure you’re not followed. Telephone the number to the office of Colonel de Graaf in the Marnixstraat. Reverse the number.’

‘Reverse it?’ Maggie sounded shocked. ‘You mean you don’t trust the police either?’

‘I don’t know what you mean by “either” but I don’t trust anyone, period. Once you’ve booked in, go look for Astrid Lemay. She’ll be home – you have the address – or in the Balinova. Tell her she’s to come to stay at your hotel till I tell her it’s safe to move.’

‘But her brother–’

‘George can stay where he is. He’s in no danger.’ I couldn’t remember later whether that statement was the sixth or seventh major mistake I’d made in Amsterdam. ‘She is. If she objects, tell her you’re going, on my authority, to the police about George.’

‘But why should we go to the police–’

‘No reason. But she’s not to know that. She’s so terrified that at the very mention of the word “police”–’

‘That’s downright cruel,’ Maggie interrupted severely.

‘Fiddlesticks!’ I shouted and banged the phone back on its rest.

One minute later I was back in the warehouse and this time I had leisure to have a longer and closer look at the two proprietors. Both of them were almost caricatures of the foreigner’s conception of the typical Amsterdamer. They were both very big, very fat, rubicund and heavily jowled men who, in the first brief introduction I had had to them, had had their faces deeply creased in lines of good-will and joviality, an expression that was now conspicuously lacking in both. Evidently, de Graaf had become impatient even with my very brief absence and had started the proceedings without me. I didn’t reproach him and, in return, he had the tact not to enquire how things had gone with me. Both Muggenthaler and Morgenstern were still standing in almost the identical positions in which I’d left them, gazing at each other in consternation and dismay and complete lack of understanding. Muggenthaler, who was holding a paper in his hand, let it fall to his side with a gesture of total disbelief.