Duncan Kyle - Terror's Cradle

I raised my eyes and found myself looking at the broad face, with its cap of tight, fair waves, of Willingham. I began to turn, to try to get away, but the way was blocked. Elliot was standing at the other side of me.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I blinked at them, looking from one to another in amazement and something close to despair.

I'd been so certain I'd got away clean, so certain nobody could know where I was! I'd been sure that message about Norway would send them off on a wrong tack. Elliot, grim-faced, looked at me briefly. Then he said, Come with us. Don't try anything.'

I stared at him, still finding it almost impossible to accept the evidence of my eyes. 'How

?' I said. 'How the hell–'

`You're so damn smart,' Willingham sneered. 'All clever tricks.'

Elliot said sharply, 'That's enough ! Let's go, huh?'

They had a car at the end of the street. Not that it was needed. We went only a few hundred yards, then drew up outside a stone-built, square Victorian building on the hill overlooking Lerwick harbour. Outside hung the familiar blue lamp with the word Police reversed out in neat white lettering. They led me inside in silence. The duty constable raised a heavy oak counter flap to admit us to the deeper recesses. After that we went upstairs to a quiet room on the first floor. Willingham closed the door behind us, locked it and put the key in his pocket.

For no particular reason I strolled across to the window and looked out over the busy little harbour. Behind me, Willingham said, 'Not this time. There's no way out now.'

I turned to face them, two contrasting men : the thin, saturnine Elliot, grim-mouthed and watchful; Willingham red-faced and angry, square and squat as a bad-tempered boar. Elliot looked at me steadily from behind his heavy spectacles. 'It's no game, Sellers. Nobody's playing around.' I took a deep breath. 'Least of all me.'

`You sure act that way. This isn't some ingenious newspaper story you're chasing. Not fun and games and a big by-line.'

I returned his stare. 'You'd better tell me what it is, then. As I remember, this morning you didn't know.' God, was it only this morning! London this morning? Gothenburg only this morning?

He said, 'We still don't. We knew the plan. We knew how the information was coming out. You know that. But we don't know what that information is.'

`What makes you so sure it's important? It could be some crazy misunderstanding.'

He nodded. 'Sure it could. But it isn't. Reaction's too fierce. It had to be something big or that bunch of Russian Jews couldn't use it to twist the Soviet Government's arm. And if it's that big, we've got to know, understand that. We . . . have . . . got . . . to . . . know. Your government and mine.'

Ànd you think I know?'

`More than you're saying,' Willingham said harshly. 'A hell of a lot more.'

`Let's cool it,' Elliot said. 'There's no mileage in hate, for any of us. Who've you come to see up here?'

I said, 'Great Aunt Gertrude.'

He looked at me stonily. 'We'll find out, Sellers. Just like we found out where you were.'

Ìn time?'

`Maybe not.'

I said, 'Maybe your friend could beat it out of me.' Willingham was staring at me angrily.

'Don't think I couldn't.'

`Who did you come to see?' Elliot asked again. `Sorry.'

`Look, Sellers, you're an intelligent man— '

Ì know the penalties, if that's what you mean. Obstruction, withholding information. You'll find other things. I don't much care. It's the other penalties, to other people, Alison Hay for one, that I'm thinking about.'

'I know it.' He gave a little sigh. 'Okay, let's tackle it from another angle. Let's forget the guy you came here to see. Let's find out what else you know. See if we can get any closer.'

Ànd then?'

'And then we see. You found something in her room at Gothenburg. What?'

`Sorry.'

`You found out something else in London. It sent you chasing up here. What was that?'

'Sorry again.'

He said, 'It's a simple line of questioning. It can go on all night. It can get rough.'

'I can imagine.'

'I doubt it,' Willingham said. 'I doubt it very much.'

'Nice man and nasty man,' I said. 'I'm familiar with the technique. I watch TV. A punch in the kidneys from one, then a cigarette and kindly words from the other. You're on my side. He's not. Etcetera.'

Elliot gave a thin smile. 'It even works. Believe that. But we don't need it, Sellers. Listen, we finally got to the papers in the girl's room. The Swedish police didn't like it. It took time. High level talking, but we did it. There was nothing. Nothing for us. But there was something for you, right?'

I didn't answer.

'Okay, so keep talking. We wanted you in Gothenburg in the first place because you know the girl well.'

'You wanted me there?' I said.

'That's, right.'

I stared at him. 'It was only by chance I was there at all.'

'Sure,' he said. 'You were in Vegas. You told me. It wasn't too convenient. Not when we needed you in Gothenburg.' There was a tinge of complacency in his tone. I was beginning to see it, but I didn't believe it. Not at that moment. I said, 'Get out of town? Those cruisers on the lake?'

Elliot nodded. 'Neat, wasn't it?'

'Christ, you—'

'Sellers, we had to get you out. Right? You're a name correspondent, we couldn't just kick your ass the hell out of the United States. Too much grief that way. Bad news for everybody and maybe you wouldn't have gone to Gothenburg. You see, I'm levelling.'

I said angrily, 'I was bloody near killed!'

'Quiet place. Few guys with rifles and orders to miss.,

Couple of phone calls. Then you're on the plane. So am I.'

I was thinking about that desperate chase in the ghastly

heat of the Valley of Fire. The way I'd been shepherded, hunted, turned into a shaking bundle of sweaty fear, crouching exhausted among those hellish rocks. He said, 'We wanted her found.'

`Not her,' I said savagely. 'You don't give a damn for her. You want what some bastard loaded on to her.'

Elliot simply watched me for a moment. Then he said, `There's a half-dozen big questions about the Soviets that need answering right now. Big ones. I'm not going to give you a lot of mullarkey about world peace. But they matter. All of them. And there's something halfway out in the open here, Sellers. We've got to know what it is. When we do, if we can, we'll help you. Nobody wants innocent victims.'

`But it's just too bad if somebody is the innocent victim, eh?'

He hesitated and then committed himself. 'That's right. It's too bad. But I said we'll help you if we can. What alternative have you got? You're here. You'll be held here. You're helpless. There's nothing you can do. Right?'

I nodded wearily, knowing what Elliot said was true. I was in a little box at the end of the road and nobody was going to let me out. There was no way for me to reach Anderson now.

Elliot said, 'Help us. We help you. A deal?'

Ìt's a bloody awful deal!'

He thought he was winning and gave a satisfied little nod. `Not the best. It's a sticky world.'

`What happens,' I asked, 'after all this? Do I stay locked up?'

`We'll cross that when we have to. What do you know, Sellers?'

`Very little.'

`Great. It's gonna be a long hard night.'

Willingham said, 'You can't play it soft with one like this.'

Ì can try. What did you find in the girl's room, Sellers?' `Nothing.'

Elliot sighed softly. 'Oh, Jesus! I thought— '

I said, 'I'll tell you why I'm here, though. She's got a friend up here.'

`Who?'

Ì don't know,' I lied. 'I just know she's got a close friend in the Shetlands.'

Ìt's not enough. You didn't fly up here just because she has a friend.'

À close friend. She was out of the hotel quite a while. You think and I think that she got, rid of whatever it was she was carrying then. I think the fire in the hotel letter box had scared her off that and she posted it elsewhere.'