Colin Forbes - Deadlock

He was watching Tweed who stood, hands in his coat pockets, staring fixedly at the dredger. Its dragline emerged dripping from the water, carrying a load of rocks. Nearby a barge was heeled over, its bow partly submerged. Men were working, attaching fresh cables to the stricken vessel.

'This harbour is drained regularly for silt?' Tweed enquired. The entrance is very narrow – and the Rhine flows past it.'

'Good Lord, no!' Beck explained. 'That barge carrying rocks capsized. Hence the dredger working – to haul up the cargo, clear the depths. Pure chance the first thing the dredger brought up was the body. Not a pretty sight. Bloated to an extraordinary size after long immersion.'

'And normally the harbour is never dredged for silt?' Tweed asked again.

'No. Look at the current. Sweeps straight past. So, no debris to fetch up.'

'Then how did that body drift in here?'

There was a long silence before Beck replied. Paula noticed Romer was watching Tweed closely, tugging at his moustache. A habit of his when he was intrigued, she suspected.

'We assumed it must have done,' Beck said eventually. The local police put that in their report…'

'And where was the other body dragged out of the river?'

'By the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen. A long way upstream. So the natural assumption was the second body had floated down to here. Both were UTS men, both had street plans of Basle with the two banks marked.'

The corpse recovered here was identified because he had his papers in a waterproof wallet. What about the one at Schaffhausen?'

'Same thing. He also had his papers in a new waterproof wallet.. .'

' New? '

'Yes. Purchased in Munich. We even traced the shop.'

'Didn't that strike you as odd?' Tweed suggested. 'That the killer should leave both wallets on his victims? He could so easily have taken them away-then no connection with the UTS would have been made.'

'Yes, it did,' Beck admitted. 'We couldn't think of an explanation

…'

'The killer wanted the connection with the UTS established – in case the bodies surfaced. To point you in the wrong direction – and away from the real reason the bullion was stolen.'

That's an assumption,' Beck pointed out.

'And a very valid one, I'd say,' Romer intervened.

'Where exactly was this corpse found here in the harbour?' Tweed asked.

'Under the very lee of that far side of the harbour. The very first time the scoop was sent down it brought up this body and one large rock. We were lucky – the dredger must have scooped up the big rock first, then lifted the body. Had it been the other way round the corpse would have been smashed to a pulp – maybe never even noticed. You see the rocks it is bringing up being dropped into the barge alongside.'

Paula turned away, as though examining the inner harbour. She had a sudden vision of a corpse bloated to at least twice its original size, the huge rock smashing down and bursting it like a pricked balloon. She swallowed, took a deep breath. Beck had changed the subject.

'I don't suppose it means anything, but a bloodstained coat was discovered in a luggage locker at Cornavin Gare. Probably worn by the man who killed Gaston Blanc. Forensic have estimated his probable height and weight. Giant of a man. Here are the details.'

He handed Tweed a folded sheet which Tweed tucked in his wallet without looking at it. 'Time to go?' he suggested, still watching the dredger, the barge alongside.

'Nothing more here for us,' Beck agreed. He talked as he joined Tweed in the walk back to the car while Paula chatted to Colonel Romer behind them. 'You like all the bits and pieces, I know. Gaston Blanc's car was discovered abandoned by the roadside near Broc, the place where the Nestle factory is. God knows why!'

'Interesting,' remarked Tweed.

'Is it? Oh, a final titbit. My assistant who sorts reports before I see them is on holiday. I've got a fool of a girl who dumps everything on my desk standing in. The titbit? A Nestle truck and its Turkish driver has gone missing en route to make a delivery to Brussels. Big deal, as the Americans would say.'

'I think we'll fly back to London tomorrow,' Tweed said, stretching out his legs in the armchair in his bedroom. They had enjoyed a good dinner and Paula had joined him for a final chat.

'You still think we're chasing phantoms and ghosties?' asked Paula.

'I've moved into a neutral zone, but there are connections which keep bugging me.'

'Such as?'

'Four men now with their throats cut ear to ear. Dikoyan, the Armenian who crashed the explosives truck into Turkey. Then two members of the UTS dragged out of the Rhine. Same method. Including dumping them in water. The fourth, Gaston Blanc – who made timers and control boxes…'

'You don't know he'd made them. He might have just been going to start making them.'

True. But why was he murdered before he'd done the job?'

'That's the lot?' Paula asked.

'The explosive technique used on the bank vaults. I saw your expression when Romer used the word implosion. Took you back to Blakeney, didn't it?'

'Yes. It's a long way, though, from Basle to Blakeney. And I wonder how Bob Newman is getting on?'

'We'll hear when he's good and ready. One question bothers me more than any other. I feel it could be the key to the entire conspiracy – if there is one.'

'What's that?'

'We may know more after Bellenger has examined those pieces of debris in the executive case Romer gave me…" 'You can be the most annoying man. What was the question?'

'How the gold bullion was smuggled out of Basle – and what was its ultimate destination?'

Waiting for Paula, who was collecting the air tickets for the return to Heathrow, Tweed sat staring out of the window at the sheen-surfaced Rhine, watching the occasional barge glide past. She returned when he was dialling the number of the Zurcher Kredit Bank, calling Romer.

'Colonel, Tweed here. One more question I'd like the answer to. You seem au fait with all the action the police took the night of the robbery. I presume they set up road-blocks?'

'The moment they were alerted. The gang cut out the alarm system – but missed one box. Of course it had to be the defective one – reacted half an hour after it activated. It was tested by experts and did the same thing. Went off a half-hour after activation.'

'And the road-blocks?'

'Set up immediately. They reckoned they missed the large truck later found abandoned at the airport – with traces of gold on the floor. That's why they were so sure the Fokker Friendship plane took out the bullion.'

'What I want to know is how far out they set up their road-blocks?'

'Oh, on the outskirts of the city, of course. Ten to fifteen kilometres from this bank, I gather…'

'No road-blocks were set up closer in, then? Near the centre of the city?'

'No. It seemed pointless. A Sunday night, the streets deserted, a half-hour start.'

Thank you.'

Tweed put down the receiver and explained the conversation to Paula as she handed him his ticket. Paula listened, then frowned.

'I don't get the significance of your question.' 'It's odd,' Tweed responded dreamily. 'I find myself thinking like a detective again. All the old training, the experience comes back. A weird feeling.. .'

'You didn't answer my question,' Paula pointed out. 'I don't believe I did. But I'm like a man wandering through a fog – seeing silhouettes I can't identify yet.' 'And you can be the most maddening man to work for.' 'Monica would agree with that. Next stop, London.. .'

It was eleven o'clock at night when Klein came back to La Montagne. In the kitchen Hipper stared at him in surprise. He hadn't expected Klein to return for days. But it was typical of Klein: you never knew when he was going to turn up without warning.