Eric Ambler: Epitaph for a Spy

He spoke slowly and carefully, as though he were afraid that his voice was going to crack. When I turned to answer him he was lighting the cigarette like a cigar and blowing a jet of smoke at the burning end of it.

“They were social-democrats,” I said.

The Commissaire said “Ah!” as though all was now ominously clear.

“Then that perhaps explains…” he began unpleasantly.

But the fat man held up a repressive hand. It was small and puffy, with a roll of fat at the wrist like a baby’s.

“What languages do you teach, Monsieur Vadassy?” he said gently.

“German, English, and Italian, occasionally Hungarian also. But I am afraid that I cannot see what these questions have to do with my passport.”

He ignored the last remark.

“You have been to Italy?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“As a child. We used to spend our holidays there.”

“You have not been there during the present regime?”

“For obvious reasons, no.”

“Do you know any Italians in France?”

“There is one where I work. He is a teacher like myself.”

“His name?”

“Phillipino Rossi.”

I saw the Commissaire write this down.

“No others?”

“No.”

“You are a photographer, Monsieur Vadassy?”

It was the Commissaire again.

“An amateur-yes.”

“How many cameras do you possess?”

“One.” This was fantastic.

“What make is it?”

“A Zeiss Contax.”

He opened a drawer in his desk.

“Is this it?”

I recognized my camera.

“It is,” I said angrily; “and I should like to know what right you have to remove my belongings from my room. You will please give it back to me.” I stretched out my hand for it.

The Commissaire put the camera back in the drawer.

“You have no other camera but this?”

“I have already told you. No!”

A grin of triumph spread over the Commissaire’s face. He opened the drawer again.

“Then how, my dear Monsieur Vadassy, do you explain the fact that the chemist in the village received from you this length of cinematograph film for development?”

I stared at him. Between his outstretched hands was the developed negative of the film I had left with the chemist. From where I sat I could see against the light of the window my experimental shots; two dozen of them with but one single subject-lizards. Then I saw the Commissaire grin again. I laughed as irritatingly as I could.

“I can see,” I said patronizingly, “that you are no photographer, Monsieur. That is not cinematograph film.”

“No?”

“No. I admit that it looks a little like it. But you will find that cinematograph film is a millimeter narrower. That is a standard spool of thirty-six twenty-four by thirty-six millimeter exposures for the Contax camera.”

“Then those photographs were taken by this camera here, the camera that was in your room?”

“Certainly.”

There was a pregnant pause. I saw the two exchange looks. Then:

“When did you arrive in St. Gatien?”

It was the fat man once more.

“On Tuesday.”

“From?”

“Nice.”

“At what time did you leave Nice?”

“I left by the nine twenty-nine train.”

“At what time did you get to the Reserve?”

“Just before dinner, at about seven o’clock.”

“But the Nice train arrives at Toulon at three thirty. There is a bus for St. Gatien at four. You should have arrived at five. Why were you late?”

“This is ridiculous.”

He looked up quickly. The small eyes were coldly menacing.

“Answer my question. Why were you late?”

“Very well. I left my suitcase in Toulon station and went for a walk down to the waterfront. I had not seen Toulon before and there was another bus at six.”

He wiped the inside of his collar thoughtfully.

“What is your salary, Monsieur Vadassy?”

“Sixteen hundred francs a month.”

“That is not very much, is it?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“The Contax is an expensive camera?”

“It is a good one.”

“No doubt; but I am asking you how much you paid for it.”

“Four thousand, five hundred francs.”

He whistled softly. “Nearly three months’ pay, eh?”

“Photography is my hobby.”

“A very expensive one! You seem to be very clever with your sixteen hundred francs. Holidays in Nice and at the Hotel de la Reserve, too! More than we poor policemen can afford, eh, Commissaire?”

The Commissaire laughed sardonically. I could feel myself getting very red in the face.

“I saved my money to buy the camera,” I said. “As for this holiday, it is the first I have had for five years. I saved my money for that also.”

“But naturally!” The Commissaire sneered as he said it.

The sneer aroused me.

“Now, Monsieur,” I protested angrily. “I have had enough of this. It is my turn to demand explanations. What exactly do you want? I am prepared to answer questions about my passport. You are within your rights in asking them. But you have no right to steal my private property. Neither have you any right to question me in this way about my private affairs. As for those negatives to which you seem to attach some mysterious importance, I have yet to learn that it is forbidden to photograph lizards. Now, Messieurs, I have committed no crime, but I am hungry, and it is time for lunch at the hotel. You will please return to me my camera, my photographs, and my passport immediately.”

For a moment there was dead silence. I glared from one to the other. Neither moved.

“Very well,” I said at last, and turned to the door.

“One moment,” said the fat man.

I stopped.

“Well?”

“Please don’t waste your time and ours. The man outside the door will not allow you to leave. There are a few more questions we have to ask you.”

“You may keep me here by force,” I said grimly, “but you cannot force me to answer your questions.”

“Naturally,” said the fat man slowly; “that is the law. But we can recommend you to do so-in your own interests.”

I said nothing.

The fat man picked up the negative from the Commissaire’s desk and, holding it up to the light, ran it through his fingers.

“Over two dozen photographs,” he commented, “and all practically the same. Now that, I think, is curious. Don’t you think so, Vadassy?”

“Not in the least,” I replied curtly. “If you knew anything at all about photography, or if you were just ordinarily observant, you would notice that each one is lighted differently, that in each one the shadows are massed in different ways. The fact that the object photographed in every case is a lizard is unimportant. The differences lie in the way each is lighted and composed. Anyway, if I like to take a hundred shots of lizards in the sun I don’t see that it is any business of yours.”

“That is a very ingenious explanation, Vadassy. Very ingenious. Now I will tell you what I think. My idea is that you were not in the least interested in what you photographed with those twenty-six exposures and that you were merely exposing the film as quickly as you could to complete the spool and get the other ten exposures developed.”

“The other ten? What are you talking about?”

“Isn’t it a waste of time to pretend any longer, Vadassy?”

“I really don’t know what you mean.”

He heaved himself out of the chair and stood close to me.

“Don’t you? What about the first ten exposures, Vadassy? Would you like to explain to the Commissaire and myself why you took those photographs? I feel sure we should be interested!” He tapped me on the chest with his finger. “Was it the lighting, Vadassy, or was it the massing of the shadows that so interested you in the new fortifications outside the naval harbor of Toulon?”