Colin Forbes: The Power

'So she killed Helen Frey and Klara in that horrible way?'

'Yes. Eve was suspicious Julius had been seeking pleasure with other women. Hence her employing Theo Strebel, the detective, who tracked them down. Eve never took chances. She realized call-girls would know Julius better than any of his staff, might recognize him in Zurich.'

'I'd thought using the pearl garrotte meant a man,' Paula remarked.

'Eve visited each girl, offered her money not to see Julius again. Then showed them the pearls, said they were real and would they take them instead? She stepped behind them to fit the string round their throats, then pulled the wire supporting them with all her strength.'

'But what about Theo Strebel? He was shot.'

'She could hardly use the pearls on him. The significant factor was he knew Eve, so let her into his office without any inkling of danger. I also noticed that Eve had frequently used the name Walter – a little too often – to emphasize that it was Walter. An accumulation of small pointers made me focus on her.'

'And she was going to kill me,' Jennie said and shivered. 'She knew I had seen her in Padstow early on the morning of the massacre. She was the Shadow Man.'

'How do we know that?' Paula asked.

'Because,' Buchanan intervened, 'at Tweed's suggestion I came armed with a warrant to search her luggage at the Metropole. A phone call while you were chasing Eve – that was foolhardy – from my men in Padstow confirmed they'd found a large man's hat with a wide brim – and a cloak.'

'Hence the varying descriptions we got from different witnesses,' Tweed explained. 'Sometimes the Shadow Man was slim, sometimes well built. She used the cloak to change her appearance.'

'We also found the string of pearls in a secret compartment,' Buchanan added. 'There appears to be dried blood on the strong wire the pearls are looped on. Forensic will confirm, I'm sure.'

'So there were two interlocking jigsaws,' Paula commented.

'Yes, you've caught on,' said Tweed. 'The first was Joel Dyson taking that damning film of Bradford March killing his mistress then fleeing to Europe, handing one copy of film and tape to Monica, then flying on to Zurich to deposit the others with Julius. I've no doubt it was Dyson who intended to blackmail the President in due course, but Eve jumped in first. Without Dyson's actions there would have been no incriminating material. They triggered off the biggest man-hunt by March's thugs ever launched. The second jigsaw was Eve and Amberg taking over the role of blackmailers. One led to the other.'

'How do we know all this?'

Paula glanced round at the audience. Her gaze rested on Gaunt.

'Because,' Buchanan intervened again, 'after due warning that anything he said might be taken down and used as evidence, et cetera, Amberg admitted everything.'

'I shall be returning to Switzerland,' Julius said in his normal commanding tone.

'I don't think so,' Buchanan assured him. 'After the statement you made you will be charged as an accomplice to ten murders – all of which took place here. You ran the devil of a risk – taking on the President of the United States.'

'I was desperate. I was short of ten million of the bank's money. Maybe British prisons are less austere than Swiss.'

'I expect you're going to have a long opportunity to find that out,' Buchanan said unsympathetically.

'The tide's gone out. It's just a solid sandbank in the estuary,' said Paula.

'I hope you're packed,' said Tweed as they stood with Newman in Tweed's room at the Metropole. 'Incidentally, Cord Dillon is safely back behind his own desk in Langley-he's officially returned from a long leave. No one connects him with what happened. And I phoned Howard – while they rebuild our HQ we move into the communications centre further along Park Crescent. They say it will take eight months to rebuild – which means a year. The PM is talking to Howard each day, feels he got it all wrong.'

'He did,' Paula snapped.

'Better news from Washington,' Newman remarked. 'The newspapers report Jeb Galloway was sworn in as President the day we flew from New York. He's sending fresh troops to Europe to reinforce NATO. That should checkmate the crisis in the East. Middle East terrorists are rumoured to have put the bomb on March's plane.'

'That's Wingfield's propaganda machine gearing up,' Tweed commented cynically. 'There'll be conspiracy theories invented for ages just as there were after Kennedy's assassination. Let's get out of here as fast as we can.'

'Why the great hurry?' Paula enquired.

'The Squire – Gaunt – wanted us to have dinner with him at the Old Custom House. He feels a bit of an idiot the way Eve fooled him, used him as camouflage to distract attention from Walter, who was really Julius. And the PM has asked me to dinner at Downing Street, according to Howard.'

'You'll go, of course,' Paula teased him.

'Another bit of news Howard gave me. Commander Crombie's men, digging in the remains of the Park Crescent rubble, found my safe. It was moved along the Crescent to our communications centre. Monica said it was intact, opened it up, found the film and the tape in perfect condition. Oh, Bob, Dyson tricked you – said they were copies. What he delivered to you were the originals.'

'Well, I'll be damned!' Paula burst out. 'Everything we've gone through was unnecessary.'

'Was it?' Tweed queried. 'We've got rid of a psychopath who sat in the Oval Office. Would the PM have permitted that film and that tape to be sent to Washington? Never. March would have remained President. As it is, the film and the tape will remain classified material for the next thirty years. It was a classic case of Lord Acton's maxim. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'