Colin Forbes - The Janus Man

`Can you arrange for me to have a few private words with this Anders? I mean for certain.'

`That I can do.' Stahl took out his pack, lit a fresh cigarette from the stub of the old one. 'For certain. And now you had better get back to your seat.'

I'm not going back inside the truck. I'm staying here – beside you. All the way from now on.'

`You can't do that. I'm supposed to be alone.'

`Who knows that – in Rostock?'

`Well… no one. But if they phone Leipzig.'

`They won't. You said my papers authorized me to move about anywhere inside the frontier zone. You have papers for the consignment you're carrying?'

`Yes. I show them at the port entry gates.'

`Give them to me. Come on, Stahl – no bloody arguments. I also want you to go back inside the truck and fetch me one of those Skorpions. Plus one magazine. You can get that?'

`Yes. They're packed under the guns in that box opposite your seat. But I don't like it. You're not going to use the gun?'

`No, you idiot! It's for show. Get moving. You said that we had to get on to Rostock. Do as I tell you.'

His sudden air of brusque authority intimidated Stahl, who left the cab, returning in a few minutes with the weapon and the magazine. Newman, familiar with the weapon, inserted the magazine, then looked at Stahl.

`Leave me to do the talking. Your job is to take this truck to the Wroclaw.' He waited until Stahl had started the engine, was pulling out on to the highway, before he made his final comment.

`And don't smoke a cigarette when we get there.'

Half an hour later as the first cold shafts of dawn light spread across the eastern sky, Stahl slowed down. Ahead a row of red lights lined the side road they had turned on to. A high wire fence stretched away on either side. A closed gate confronted them as two armed guards strolled out of the but on their left. They had reached the frontier zone.

Erwin Munzel had an alarm clock inside his head. He'd 'set' it for 4 a.m. He woke, immediately alert, climbed carefully out of bed without disturbing Lydia Fischer, his German girl friend.

He washed and dressed in the bathroom with the door closed. Using one of the hotel pads, he wrote Lydia a note. Couldn't sleep. Have gone for a walk. Wait for me for breakfast. Love.

He left it tucked under her bedside lamp, collected the room key off the dressing table and went down to the lobby, using the stairs.

`Four hours' sleep does me,' he told the International's night porter as he unlocked the front entrance door. 'I'll be back for breakfast.'

Not that the stupid old cretin gives a damn, Munzel thought as he turned right and walked towards the centre of Lubeck. It was cold at that hour. He was glad he'd put on his thick corduroy trousers and a heavyweight sports jacket. On the opposite side of the street there was no activity inside the Hauptbahnhof. It was still dark and in the distance street lamps threw a weird light on the Holstentor; its ancient twin towers with their witches' hat summits looking menacing in the shadows.

He crossed the deserted bridge over the Trave and a breeze blew his long blond hair. As he'd expected, the door to the Hotel Jensen, where he'd booked another room, was closed. He pressed the bell and a girl opened it cautiously on the chain. Recognizing his blond beard, she let him in.

`Time for bed, wouldn't you agree?'

Munzel gave her his most engaging grin, pressed the elevator button and went up to his room. He had the room key he'd taken with him in his hand and once inside he locked it again and began moving fast.

First he kicked off his shoes, rumpled the bedclothes and pillow, then got into the bed, pulled up the duvet and wriggled around, rolling from side to side. Throwing back the duvet, he got out again. Munzel was nothing if not thorough. He knew chambermaids could tell whether a bed had been slept in or not.

He went into the bathroom where he'd left his spare set of equipment on the glass shelf over the wash-basin. He cleaned his teeth, put the brush back inside the glass after spilling paste on the shelf. He turned on the tap again, lathered his shaving brush, ran it over the palm of his hand, then cleaned it off, leaving it damp and in a different position on the shelf.

Taking one of the bath towels, he held it for a few seconds under the bath tap, squeezed it out, and hung it up. He used the tablet of soap, wetting it under the tap, then rubbed it vigorously round the bottom of the bath. He washed out the bath by leaving the tap running briefly, went back into the bedroom and sat in a chair with a table lamp on while he read a paperback.

He went downstairs to breakfast in the back room as soon as he knew it was open. The cold night air had given him a good appetite. He ate three rolls, drank three cups of coffee and was leaving as a couple came into the room.

With the room key in his pocket he walked out, noting that a man was now on reception. He arrived back at the International to find the doors open and by now it was broad daylight. A clear sky promised yet another hot day.

Lydia was in the bathroom when he re-entered the bedroom. She called out that she wouldn't be long. He told her not to hurry and sagged into a chair. He was successfully keeping up acceptance of his residence at both hotels. Tweed was coming back, so Vollmer had said. He'd phone the Altona number at noon from the station to get the latest news. Munzel was convinced that when Tweed did return he'd go back to the Jensen. And Erwin Munzel would be waiting for him.

Day had not yet broken when Tweed returned to his office at Park Crescent, carrying his suitcase. Reaching the first floor, he stopped. There was a light under his door. George, on duty downstairs, had not said anyone else was in the building.

Taking a firmer grip on the case in his right hand, he used his other hand to turn the handle slowly, keeping close to the wall of the corridor. He threw the door open, swinging his case backwards, ready to hurl it forward into the room. Behind her desk Monica looked up, startled.

`Sorry.' Tweed let out his breath. 'George didn't say you were here. And why are you still here?'

`I knew I wouldn't sleep if I did go home. So I had a bath upstairs. And I thought Toll might call from Pullach with news about Bob Newman. I switched the phone through to the bathroom extension while I wallowed.'

Which is the real reason why you stayed, Tweed thought. Monica had a soft spot for Bob Newman. He took off his coat and settled himself behind his own desk.

`A pretty short nap,' Monica observed.

`An hour. It was enough. I'll get in a good night's rest at the Four Seasons tonight. The flight leaves at 10.35. I can get breakfast round the corner.'

'Flight LH 041,' Monica confirmed from memory. 'Arrives at Hamburg 12.55. Local time.' She played with her pencil. `I've been wondering about Diana Chadwick. You're sticking pretty close to her.'

`I've told you. She could be the vital witness.'

`Witness to what?'

`Not yet. I'm not sure I'm right.'

`I've been wondering about something else. I like the office when no one else is here – gives me a chance to ruminate. And don't say all cows do that.

`Did I say a word?' Tweed threw up his hands in mock horror.

`Dr Berlin. Why did you throw that into the pot when you had the sector chiefs at that meeting? You said you were flying back to Hamburg – knowing one of them is Janus. Then near the end of the meeting you mention Dr Berlin. I know you. If you've something you want to stick in people's minds, you hold it back until the end of a meeting or conversation.'

`To put even more pressure on Janus.'

`You've lost me again.'

`Because, as before, I'm not sure yet.' Tweed sat up erect in his chair. 'Monica, all the threads are coming together. I can vaguely discern a pattern forming. Isolated facts which I didn't connect up are slipping into place. The trigger which will detonate the climax – which may be very close – is my return to Germany.' 'Why?'