Алистер Маклин - Floodgate

‘I shall think up some onerous task by and by. As yet, no.’

‘Um.’ De Graaf pondered. ‘You, Anne, are, of course, seen quite often in the company of Sergeant Westenbrink.’

She smiled. ‘I find it difficult to think of him other than as Vasco. Yes, of course. We have to talk and it seems the best – and also the easiest – thing to do it openly.’

‘Quite. Do you come and go as you like there?’

‘Of course. That’s the whole point of being us. No hours, no rules, no regulations. You do as you like, you’re as free as the air.’

‘It would cause no undue comment if you were not to turn up for a day, even two days?’

‘No.’ She hesitated. ‘Am I supposed to be intelligent and guess what you’re getting at, sir?’

‘You’re intelligent enough. It’s just that you lack the training and experience to have a nasty, devious, suspicious mind, such as is possessed by Lieutenant van Effen, and I hope you always will.’

Annemarie shook her head, almost imperceptibly, then looked questioningly at van Effen who said: ‘The Colonel is right, you know.’

‘I don’t know. That is, I’m sure he’s right, but I don’t know what he’s right about. If you’re having fun with me, I don’t think it’s very fair.’

‘We aren’t having fun with you, Annemarie. Teasing or diminishing people is not our idea of having a good time. Look. All this is a matter of connections. It’s at least possible – I’d say a fifty-fifty chance – that Agnelli and company are on to us. In that case, Vasco is also under suspicion because he introduced them to me. And because you are known to associate with Vasco you, in turn, come under suspicion.

‘What the Colonel’s suggesting is that you lie low for a day, maybe even two. Depends how things develop. I have the feeling, irrational, perhaps, that the development is going to be very rapid indeed. It’s not a pleasant thought for the Colonel or myself that you should fall into those people’s hands. Think of those two detectives, the tails who ran out of luck. We already know that those people are ruthless, that the inflicting of pain is a matter of indifference to them. It may even be a downright pleasure. How would you care to be taken by them and tortured? I am not trying to scare you, Annemarie. I’m talking about something that’s halfway between a possibility and a probability.’

‘I think I’ve already told you.’ Her voice was very quiet. ‘I’m not particularly brave.’

‘And then they’d know who it was they had on their hands. They’d be over the moon. Another lovely blackmailing trump in their hands in addition to their still undisclosed trumps. Apart from your own health, you’d be putting us in an impossibly difficult situation.’

‘Couldn’t have put it better myself,’ de Graaf said.

She smiled faintly. ‘I’m a coward. I’ll do what I’m told.’

‘Not told, my dear, not told,’ de Graaf said. ‘Just a suggestion.’

Again the faint smile. ‘It sounds like a very good suggestion to me. Where shall I stay?’

‘With Julie, of course,’ van Effen said. ‘An unobtrusive armed guard will be lurking in the vicinity. But before you go into purdah, as it were, there’s one thing I want you to do for me.’

‘Of course.’

‘I want you to go to Vasco in the morning. Tell him what we’ve told you and tell him to disappear. I know where he’ll disappear to and I’ll contact him there when it’s safe to.’

‘I’ll do that.’ She was silent for a moment. ‘When you asked me to do something for you and I said “of course” – well, I wish now I hadn’t. You see what you’ve done to me, Peter. I’m a quivering wreck.’

‘You’re not quivering and for a wreck you look in pretty good shape to me. You may be jumped on there and then your gallant fellow Krakers would look the other way?’

‘Yes.’

‘We are accustomed to those injustices, are we not, Colonel? Nothing will happen to you. You’ll be under constant surveillance, and by constant I mean sixty seconds every minute. The trusty Lieutenant van Effen, suitably disguised – not the Hunter’s Horn disguise, of course – and lumbered with his usual arsenal – there’s a thought for you, Colonel. I think I’ll carry a third gun tomorrow when I meet Agnelli and his friend or friends. They already know that –’

‘That you carry two guns,’ de Graaf said, ‘and so their minds will, of course, be pre-conditioned against the idea of you carrying a third. It’ll be in your book, of course.’

‘Of course, it’s not. One mustn’t put such thoughts in the minds of the criminal element. But, yes, that’s the idea. So, no problem, Annemarie. I won’t be further away than five metres at any time.’

‘That’s nice. But you’ve put all sorts of unpleasant thoughts in my head. I could be jumped on, in your words, anywhere and any time between here and Julie’s house.’

‘More injustice. No worry. I will transport you there in the safety and comfort of my own limousine.’

‘Limousine!’ de Graaf said. ‘Comfort! My God!’ He bent a solicitous eye on the girl. ‘You have, I trust, not forgotten your air cushion?’

‘I don’t understand, sir.’

‘You will.’

They left the restaurant and walked along the street until they came to the Colonel’s car, parked, as usual, in a no parking area. De Graaf kissed the girl in what he probably regarded as an avuncular fashion, said goodnight and climbed into his gleaming Mercedes. The back seat of his Mercedes. Colonel de Graaf, inevitably, had a chauffeur.

Annemarie said: ‘I understand now what the Colonel meant about an air cushion.’

‘A trifling inconvenience,’ van Effen said. ‘I’m having it fixed. Orders. The Colonel complains.’

‘The Colonel does like his comforts, doesn’t he?’

‘It may not have escaped your attention that he was built for comfort.’

‘He’s very kind, isn’t he? Kind and courteous and considerate.’

‘It’s no hardship to be all those things when the object of them is as beautiful as you.’

‘You do have a nice turn of speech, Lieutenant.’

‘Yes, I do, rather.’

She was quiet for a moment, then said: ‘But he is rather a snob, isn’t he? A fearful snob.’

‘In the interests of discipline, I must speak severely. You can’t expect me to condone, far less agree with, denigrating remarks about our Chief of Police.’

‘That wasn’t meant to be denigrating. It was just an observation. I refuse to get to the stage where I must watch every word I say. This is still an open society. Or is it?’

‘Well, well.’

‘Go on. Say it. “Spoken with spirit” or something like that.’

‘I don’t think I will. But you’re about as wrong with your snobbism as you were about your warm-hearted Arthur bit.’

‘Arthur?’

‘Our chief’s first name. Never uses it. I’ve never figured out why. Regal connotations. Sure he’s kind and thoughtful. He’s also tough, shrewd and ruthless, which is why he is what he is. And he’s no snob. Snobs pretend to be what they are not. His is a very ancient, very aristocratic and very wealthy lineage which is why you’ll never find me contesting a restaurant bill with him. He was born with the knowledge that he was different, the one per cent of the one per cent. Never occurs to him to question it. He’s convinced that he radiates the spirit of democracy.’

‘Tough or not, snob or not, I like him.’ She spoke as if that settled the matter, without specifying what the matter was.

‘Arthur, as you may have observed, has a way with the ladies. Especially when he’s off-duty, which is what he considered himself to be tonight.’