Michael Ridpath - Shadows of War

‘Freeze!’

It was Theo. He had the gun and he was pointing it at the man.

The man froze.

‘Kill him, Theo,’ said Conrad.

‘We don’t know who he is,’ said Theo. ‘Who are you?’

The bald man didn’t reply.

‘Kill him!’ said Conrad. ‘Doesn’t matter who he is. You know what he heard. Pull the damn trigger!’

The man’s eyes were wide. He turned and ran, away from Theo deep into the attic.

‘Shoot him, Theo!’ Conrad shouted and then set off after the killer. Whether because Theo had doubts who the man was, or was struck by indecision, or just hadn’t fired a gun in anger before, there was no shot.

A short flight of wooden steps led up to a small door. The bald man leaped up the stairs, threw open the door and climbed outside on to the roof. Conrad followed him.

The Academy roof had a double gable with a valley in the middle, on to which the door opened. The bald man slid down a couple of feet and then into the bottom of the valley, which consisted of two feet of lead where the two roofs met. He turned, saw Conrad following him, and set off along the valley.

But there was nowhere to go. Beyond the end of roof was air. The building was one of the highest in Leiden, and Conrad could see countryside, windmills and, beyond that, the North Sea.

Conrad slowed, ready for a fight. The bald man stopped and faced him. Conrad was tall, but the other man had muscles and looked like he knew what to do with them.

Theo emerged from the doorway on to the roof and took aim with the pistol. The bald man saw him and launched himself at the roof, clambering up it crabwise, sending slates clattering. This time Theo let off a couple of shots, but he missed. The angle was difficult and the silencer didn’t help accuracy.

Conrad set off up the slope of the roof after the bald man. He got into a rhythm and was gaining. At that point, a slip wouldn’t be fatal: he would just end up back in the valley.

But the bald man reached the ridge of the roof before Conrad. Gingerly he stood upright and began walking back towards the bell tower.

Conrad hauled himself up on to the ridge. The ridge was narrow, perhaps two inches wide, and it was a long way down on the outer side. Now a slip in that direction would be fatal. The Academy building was high, at least sixty feet, and there was nothing to break a fall down to the street below.

Conrad stood upright. He had done some mountain climbing in Switzerland and Scotland with his older brother Edward when he was a boy, so he had a good head for heights, but nevertheless it was difficult not to look down.

He saw there was a small door in the side of the bell tower leading out on to the roof. The man was heading for it, stepping gingerly, arms outstretched for better balance. If the door was unlocked he would be through it and away. Given what the man had overheard, Conrad and Theo would be in big trouble, Theo especially.

Conrad couldn’t let him get away.

So he began to run slowly along the ridge. The speed gave him some balance, although he wasn’t quite sure how he would eventually slow down. He also wasn’t sure what he would do if he caught up with the man — perhaps drag him off to the left down into the valley where Theo had his pistol?

He didn’t look down, just kept his eyes looking steadily forward.

The man turned. Saw Conrad jogging towards him. Lengthened his steps into strides, and then he too broke into a run.

And slipped. The wrong way.

With a cry he slid down the roof, rolled twice, and then bounced into the air and fell out of sight. If he made a thud when he hit the ground, Conrad didn’t hear it, but he did hear the shouts of passers-by.

Conrad almost lost his own balance as he watched the body fall. He carried on running until he reached the bell tower and grabbed hold of the door handle for support. He twisted it; it was unlocked and opened inside on to a ladder.

He scrambled down it into the attic and then back to the other doorway leading out into the roof valley. He beckoned to Theo.

‘Time to go!’

The Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London

‘Cheers, Henry!’

They were at the bar. Freddie Copthorne raised his glass and gulped his beer and Alston sipped his pink gin. It irritated Alston that Freddie insisted on drinking beer in the most inappropriate of places. All right, his family’s fortune was based on the stuff, but Freddie’s loyalties seemed to stretch to any old brew.

‘Do you think we will hear back from Herr Langebrück?’ he asked.

‘I expect so, somehow or other,’ said Alston. ‘The important thing is that Rib knows we are ready to talk. It’s a shame Constance couldn’t have stayed longer in Holland to get a reply.’

‘I can’t get over what happened to Millie de Lancey,’ Copthorne said. ‘Poor old Oakford.’

Alston didn’t answer. He too couldn’t get over what had happened to the de Lancey girl, but for very different reasons. Of course it was a shame that she had had to die, but he had come to realize that Constance was absolutely right: the girl was a war casualty, and when you thought about it, she was a casualty for the enemy. Alston was on the side of peace and sanity. Millie de Lancey had declared herself to be on the side of war.

Alston would have liked to explain all that to his friend, but he couldn’t. Freddie wouldn’t understand. He didn’t have the balls.

Whereas he, Alston, did have balls. He suppressed a smile.

‘Sir Henry! Lord Copthorne! It’s great to see you!’

The French-tinged American accent was instantly recognizable. The two men turned to see Charles Bedaux holding out his hand. He looked like a spruced-up boxer, Alston thought. His face was battered, his ears verged on the cauliflower, but his thick dark hair was brushed back with brilliantine and he was wearing a smartly buttoned double-breasted blazer and two-toned brogues. Not exactly the way one would dress in the dining room of a City merchant bank, but Bedaux was certainly not a City merchant banker. Alston smiled and shook the American’s hand.

‘Do you mind if we go straight in to lunch?’ Bedaux said. ‘I’m not in the country for long, and I have a lot to do.’

‘Of course not,’ said Alston. Some might have found Bedaux’s direct manner rude, but Alston liked it. The man had energy, and energy was good. It got things done. And it was Bedaux who had asked to see Alston. They knew each other from mutual business acquaintances before the war. There were quite a few British firms who used the Bedaux System in their factories and Gurney Kroheim’s money to finance them.

Alston had arranged that the three men should have a discreet table in the corner of the dining room. Freddie ordered lamb chops and Alston and Bedaux both went for the grouse. Alston ordered a bottle of Montrachet ‘24.

‘Friends in Germany tell me you have been in touch with my old friend Otto Langebrück,’ said Bedaux.

‘You are very well informed,’ said Alston.

‘Oh, I am,’ said Bedaux. ‘Always.’

‘We passed him a proposition,’ Alston went on. ‘Through an intermediary in Holland. Unfortunately the intermediary wasn’t able to hang around long enough to get a reply.’

‘So I understand,’ said Bedaux.

‘Have you seen Herr Langebrück yourself?’

‘I knew him when he was in Paris,’ Bedaux said. ‘I haven’t seen him since war broke out. But I was in Berlin a couple of weeks ago.’

‘Oh. Did you meet Herr von Ribbentrop?’ Alston remembered Bedaux mentioning in his letter that he knew the German Foreign Minister.

‘I did. I also saw the big man himself.’ Bedaux beamed. ‘The Führer.’

‘Good God!’ said Freddie, choking on his beer, which he had uncouthly brought with him into the dining room.