Алистер Маклин - Puppet on a Chain

‘Mr Harrison?’ He didn’t try to rise: probably experience had convinced him that the effort wasn’t worth it. ‘Pleased to meet you. My name is Durrell.’

Maybe it was, but it wasn’t the name he had been born with: I thought him Armenian, but couldn’t be sure. But I greeted him as civilly as if his name had been Durrell.

‘You have some business to discuss with me?’ he beamed. Mr Durrell was cunning and knew that lawyers didn’t come all the way from England without matters of weighty import, invariably of a financial nature, to discuss.

‘Well, not actually with you. With one of your employees.’

The welcoming smile went into cold storage. ‘With one of my employees?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then why bother me?’

‘Because I couldn’t find her at her home address. I am told she works here.’

‘She?’

‘Her name is Astrid Lemay.’

‘Well, now.’ He was suddenly more reasonable, as if he wanted to help. ‘Astrid Lemay? Working here.’ He frowned thoughtfully. ‘We have many girls, of course – but that name?’ He shook his head.

‘But friends of hers told me,’ I protested.

‘Some mistake. Marcel?’

The snakelike man smiled his contemptuous smile. ‘No one of that name here.’

‘Or ever worked here?’

Marcel shrugged, walked across to a filing cabinet, produced a folder and laid it on the desk, beckoning to me. ‘All the girls who work here or have done in the past year. Look for yourself.’

I didn’t bother looking. I said: ‘I’ve been misinformed. My apologies for disturbing you.’

‘I suggest you try some of the other night-clubs.’ Durrell, in the standard tycoon fashion, was already busy making notes on a sheet of paper to indicate that the interview was over. ‘Good day, Mr Harrison.’

Marcel had already moved to the doorway. I followed, and as I passed through, turned and smiled apologetically. ‘I’m really sorry–’

‘Good day.’ He didn’t even bother to lift his head. I did some more uncertain smiling, then courteously pulled the door to behind me. It looked a good solid soundproof door.

Marcel, standing just inside the passageway, gave me his warm smile again and, not even condescending to speak, contemptuously indicated that I should precede him down the passageway. I nodded, and as I walked past him I hit him in the middle with considerable satisfaction and a great deal of force, and although I thought that was enough I hit him again, this time on the side of the neck. I took out my gun, screwed on the silencer, took the recumbent Marcel by the collar of his jacket and dragged him towards the office door which I opened with my gun-hand.

Durrell looked up from his desk. His eyes widened as much as eyes can widen when they’re almost buried in folds of fat. Then his face became very still, as faces become when the owners want to conceal their thoughts or intentions.

‘Don’t do it,’ I said. ‘Don’t do any of the standard clever things. Don’t reach for a button, don’t press any switches on the floor, and don’t, please, be so naive as to reach for the gun which you probably have in the top right-hand drawer, you being a right-handed man.’

He didn’t do any of the standard clever things.

‘Push your chair back two feet.’

He pushed his chair back two feet. I dropped Marcel to the floor, reached behind me, closed the door, turned the very fancy key in the lock, then pocketed the key. I said: ‘Get up.’

Durrell got up. He stood scarcely more than five feet high. In build, he closely resembled a bullfrog. I nodded to the nearer of the two large safes.

‘Open it.’

‘So that’s it.’ He was good with his face but not so good with his voice. He wasn’t able to keep that tiny trace of relief out of his voice. ‘Robbery, Mr Harrison.’

‘Come here,’ I said. He came. ‘Do you know who I am?’

‘Know who you are?’ A look of puzzlement. ‘You just told me–’

‘That my name is Harrison. Who am I?’

‘I don’t understand.’

He screeched with pain and fingered the already bleeding welt left by the silencer of my gun.

‘Who am I?’

‘Sherman.’ Hate was in the eyes and the thick voice. ‘Interpol.’

‘Open that door.’

‘Impossible. I have only half the combination. Marcel here has–’

The second screech was louder, the weal on the other cheek comparably bigger.

‘Open that door.’

He twiddled with the combination and pulled the door open. The safe was about 30 inches square, of a size to hold a great deal of guilders, but then, if all the tales about the Balinova were true, tales that whispered darkly of gaming-rooms and much more interesting shows in the basement and the brisk retail of items not commonly found in ordinary retail shops, the size was probably barely adequate.

I nodded to Marcel. ‘Junior, here. Shove him inside.’

‘In there?’ He looked horrified.

‘I don’t want him coming to and interrupting our discussion.’

‘Discussion?’

‘Open up.’

‘He’ll suffocate. Ten minutes and–’

‘The next time I have to ask it will be after I put a bullet through your kneecap so that you’ll never walk without a stick again. Believe me?’

He believed me. Unless you’re a complete fool, and Durrell wasn’t, you can always tell when a man means something. He dragged Marcel inside, which was probably the hardest work he’d done in years, because he had to do quite a bit of bending and pushing to get Marcel to fit on the tiny floor of the safe in such a way that the door could be closed. The door was closed.

I searched Durrell. He’d no offensive weapon on him. The right-hand drawer of his desk predictably yielded up a large automatic of a type unknown to me, which was not unusual as I’m not very good with guns except when aiming and firing them.

‘Astrid Lemay,’ I said. ‘She works here.’

‘She works here.’

‘Where is she?’

‘I don’t know. Before God, I don’t know.’ The last was almost in a scream as I’d lifted the gun again.

‘You could find out.’

‘How could I find out?’

‘Your ignorance and reticence do you credit,’ I said. ‘But they are based on fear. Fear of someone, fear of something. But you’ll become all knowledgeable and forthcoming when you learn to fear something else more. Open that safe.’

He opened the safe. Marcel was still unconscious.

‘Get inside.’

‘No.’ The single word came out like a hoarse scream. ‘I tell you, it’s airtight, hermetically sealed. Two of us in there – we’ll be dead in minutes if I go in there.’

‘You’ll be dead in seconds if you don’t.’

He went inside. He was shaking now. Whoever this was, he wasn’t one of the king-pins: whoever masterminded the drug racket was a man – or men – possessed of a toughness and ruthlessness that was absolute and this man was possessed of neither.

I spent the next five minutes without profit in going through every drawer and file available to me. Everything I examined appeared to be related in one way or another to legitimate business dealing, which made sense, for Durrell would be unlikely to keep documents of a more incriminating nature where the office cleaner could get her hands on them. After five minutes I opened the safe door.

Durrell had been wrong about the amount of breathable air available inside that safe. He’d overestimated. He was semi-collapsed with his knees resting on Marcel’s back, which made it fortunate for Marcel that he was still unconscious. At least, I thought he was unconscious. I didn’t bother to check. I caught Durrell by the shoulder and pulled. It was like pulling a bull moose out of a swamp, but he came eventually and rolled out on to the floor. He lay there for a bit, then pushed himself groggily to his knees. I waited patiently until the laboured stertorous whooping sound dropped to a mere gasping wheeze and his complexion ran through the spectrum from a bluish-violet colour to what would have been a becomingly healthy pink had I not known that his normal complexion more resembled the colour of old newspaper. I prodded him and indicated that he should get to his feet and he managed this after a few tries.