Алистер Маклин - Seawitch

‘Don’t tell me.’ Mitchell sounded weary. ‘They jumped you before the reinforcements were to hand.’

‘Yes.’ Roper’s face was dark with anger. ‘I know it sounds like the old lame excuse, but we never had a chance. This car comes along and stops outside the gate-house, just here. The driver – he was alone in the car – seemed to be having a fit of sneezes and was holding a big wad of Kleenex to his face.’

Roomer said: ‘So you wouldn’t recognize him again?’

‘Exactly. Well, we were watching this character when a voice behind us – the back window was open – told us to freeze. I didn’t even have my hand on my gun. We froze. Then he told me to drop my gun. Well, this guy was no more than five feet away and I had my back to him. I dropped my gun. Dead heroes are no good to anyone. Then he told us to turn round. He was wearing a stocking mask. Then the driver came in and tied our wrists behind our backs. When we turned round he was wearing a stocking mask too.’

‘Then they tied your feet and tied you together so that you wouldn’t have any funny ideas about using a telephone?’

‘That’s how it was. But they weren’t worried about the phones. They smashed them both before they took off.’

‘They took off immediately?’

Gorrie said: ‘No. Five minutes later. The pilots always radio-file a flight plan before take-off. I suppose the kidnappers forced Campbell to do the same. To make it look kosher.’

Mitchell shrugged his indifference. ‘Means nothing. You can file a flight plan to any place. Doesn’t mean you have to keep it. How about fuel – for the helicopters, I mean?’

‘Fuel’s always kept topped up. My job. Lord Worth’s orders.’

‘What direction did the kidnappers go?’

‘That-away.’ Gorrie indicated with an outstretched arm.

‘Well, the birds have flown. Might as well be on our way.’

‘Just like that?’ Roper registered surprise.

‘What do you expect me to do that the police can’t?’

‘Well, for starters, we could call in the air force.’

‘Why?’

‘They could force it down.’

Mitchell sighed. ‘There’s a great deal of rubbish talked about forcing planes down. What if they refuse to be forced down?’

‘Then shoot it down.’

‘With Lord Worth’s daughters aboard? Lord Worth wouldn’t be very pleased. Neither would you. Think of all the cops that would be out of a job.’

‘Lord Worth’s daughters!’

‘It’s all this routine police work,’ Roomer said. ‘Atrophies the brain. Who the hell do you think that helicopter has gone to pick up?’

Once clear of the heliport Roomer extended an arm. ‘ “That-away” the man said. “That-away” is north-west. The Wyanee swamp.’

‘Even if they’d taken off to the southeast they’d still have finished up in Wyanee.’ Mitchell pulled up by a public booth. ‘How are you with McGarrity’s voice?’ Roomer was an accomplished mimic.

‘It’s not the voice that worries me. It’s the thought processes. I’ll give it a try.’ He didn’t say what he was going to try because he didn’t have to. He left for the booth and was back inside two minutes.

‘Campbell filed a flight plan for the Seawitch.’

‘Any questions asked?’

‘Not really. Told them that some fool had made a mistake. Anyone who knows McGarrity would know the identity of the fool that made the mistake.’

Mitchell switched on the engine then switched off as the phone rang. Mitchell lifted the receiver.

‘Jim here. Tried to ring you a couple of times, fifteen minutes ago, five minutes ago.’

‘Figures. Out of the car both times. More bad news?’

‘Not unless you consider Lord Worth bad news. Touch-down in fifteen minutes.’

‘We’ve time.’

‘Says he’s coming up to the house.’

‘Sent for the Rolls?’

‘No. Probably wants to talk private. And it looks as if he’s planning to stay away some time. Ordered a bag packed for a week.’

‘Seven white suits.’ Mitchell hung up.

Roomer said: ‘Looks as if we’re going to have to do some bag-packing ourselves.’ Mitchell nodded and switched on again.

Lord Worth was looking his old self when he settled in the back seat of their car. Not quite radiating his old bonhomie, to be sure, but calm and lucid and, to all appearances, relaxed. He told of his success in Washington, for which he was duly and politely congratulated. Roomer then told him in detail what had happened in his absence: this time the absence of congratulations was marked.

‘You’ve notified Commander Larsen of your suspicions, of course?’

‘Not suspicions,’ Mitchell said. ‘Certainties. And there’s no “of course” and no, we didn’t notify him. I’m primarily responsible for that.’

‘Taking the law into your own hands, eh? Mind telling me why?’

‘You’re the person who knows Larsen best. You know how possessive he is about the Seawitch. You yourself have told us about his anger and violence. Do you think a man like that, duly forewarned, wouldn’t have a very warm reception waiting for the kidnappers? Stray bullets, ricocheting bullets, are no respecters of persons, Lord Worth. You want a daughter crippled for life? We prefer that the kidnappers establish a bloodless beach-head.’

‘Well, all right.’ The words came grudgingly. ‘But from now on keep me fully informed of your intentions and decisions.’ Lord Worth, Roomer noted with sardonic amusement, had no intention of dispensing with their unpaid services. ‘But no more taking the law into your own hands, do you hear?’

Mitchell stopped car and engine. Roomer’s amusement changed to apprehension. Mitchell twisted in his seat and looked at Lord Worth in cool speculation.

‘You’re a fine one to talk.’

‘What do you mean, sir?’ There were fifteen generations of Highland aristocracy in the glacial voice.

Mitchell remained unmoved. ‘For taking the law into your own hands by breaking into and robbing that armoury last night. If Roomer and I were decent citizens and law-abiding detectives, we’d have had you behind bars last night. Not even a billionaire can get off with that sort of thing, especially when it involves the assault and locking up of the armoury guards. John and I were there.’ Mitchell was not above a little prevarication when the need arose.

‘You were there?’ Most rarely for him, Lord Worth was at a loss for words. He recovered quickly. ‘But I wasn’t there.’

‘We know that. We also know you sanctioned the break-in. Ordered it, rather.’

‘Balderdash. And if you actually witnessed this, why did you not stop it?’

‘John and I take our chances. But not against nine men armed with nine machine-guns.’

This gave Lord Worth to pause. They had their figures and facts right. Clearly they had been there. He said: ‘Supposing any of this rigmarole were true, how in God’s name do you tie me up with this?’

‘Now you’re being a fool. We were also at your heliport. We saw the truck arrive. We saw nine men unload a fairly massive quantity of more than fairly lethal weaponry into one helicopter. Then a man drove the truck away – an army truck, of course – back to the armoury from where it had been stolen. The other eight men boarded another helicopter. Then a mini-bus arrived, carrying twelve heavily-armed thugs, who joined the other eight. John and I recognized no fewer than five of them – two of them we’ve personally put behind bars.’ Roomer looked at him admiringly, but Mitchell wasn’t looking at him, he was looking at Lord Worth, and both voice and tone were bereft of any form of encouragement. ‘It came as a shock to both of us to find that Lord Worth was consorting with common criminals. Your brow is very damp, Lord Worth. Why is it very damp?’