Paradise Spells Danger

by George B Mair

Grant forced himself to be polite. ‘And the other address?’

  ‘I have already telephoned someone to deal with it. My girls will be home when we return.’ He closed his eyes and began to nod. ‘Don’t let me keep you back from business. This is just like the old days. Always questions and questions and then a little death. It was all so well organised. No trouble.’

  ‘One thing, Krystelle,’ said Grant abruptly. ‘Did you come here alone?’

  ‘Sure. Junior wanted to have a go at de man in de white house an’ remembered Mr. Alvis saying he was kinky about dames. So she figured if she went up the drive an’ pressed the bell she couldn’t lose. ’Specially since she looks seventeen and innocent as Hell. An’ she had it figured dat Mr. Alvis hadn’t said nothing to make us feel that de guy who lived heah was anticipating personal trouble from little girls like her. So she aimed to play it by ear, but Mustafa heah tells me you found a stiff shot through de skull. An’ she told us dat she only used air-pistols! Foah sure, man, junior is real switched on.’

  ‘Hold it,’ said Grant. ‘Who else is in Istanbul? Tom or his lot? And where?’

  Krystelle saw that he was serious. ‘Junior bluffed me good. We faded and were airbound before the hotel got around to thinking something was wrong and called in the police. Tom and three other guys we saw around the house took a different route, but we tied up in Stamboul and I only came down here because junior had been away from home for close on eighteen hours. Figured she was maybe buying sorrow, even if she did have a seduction routine originally in mind. So I came along this ack emma jes’ to double check. Incidentally Tom and his boys travelled on passports from Laos. Saw that on the visitors’ book las’ night. Interesting! Efficient too.’ She paused and her eyes changed expression. ‘Say! Junior here did a lot of talking about you two some time back. Wanted to know had I family. Got interested in what I said ’bout you, Frank. Somehow ah got talking about Harry as well.’

  Everything suddenly began to make sense to Grant. Once Moogie had decided to move the action to Istanbul and grab the manuscript it was a cinch that she would want to know who might enter the picture on his own side. Given Frank’s address chances were that she had contacts enough in Paris to have him tailed. The Viet Nam peace talks were still going in Paris and the place had been full of unusual Asiatics for several years. Another two or three would never be noticed and through Frank or Harry she would expect, eventually, to get a line on himself. Which was exactly what had happened. But more. It explained the Goodenough killing and framing Harry with the body. Goodenough was anti-Grant. But he could have worked out as a complicating factor if left alone. And in any case Mr. Alvis had told Moogie herself that he worked for the man in the white house. There were several reasons why it made good sense from Moogie’s angle to eliminate Goodenough. And if Harry had been caught with the dead man in his room he, too, would have been out of action for a while. He forced himself back to immediate essentials. ‘Did you tell Tom and the others where you were going?’

  ‘Why sure, David. I didn’t know the set-up. But they won’t expect me back for an hour or two. Plenty time to clear things out.’ She glanced towards Moogie. ‘Like junior, for example. Any ideas?’

  ‘Why shouldn’t Tom have a look for himself? If you were uptight because she wasn’t home then why not Tom?’

  Krystelle hesitated. ‘I got a hunch, man. Dese little yellow men like a kip in de afternoon. When ah lef’ de pension dey were in bed. In fac’ Tom was in de sack wit’ a busty number he picked up three days ago in a bar. Relax, man. He’s occupied.’ She turned to Moogie. ‘Two three li’l questions I want to know about, junior. Where did you find Goodenough?’

  Moogie decided to talk. ‘It isn’t important, so I’ll tell you. The American Alvis gave some sort of description and so did Grant. You all thought he travelled using his own name, so we tracked him through hotel registers. It was very simple. And we killed him among trees not far from the Hilton where he did some of his drinking.’

  ‘Why were you so strong for goin’ after that manuscript which interested Mr. Alvis?’

  Moogie looked at her with contempt. ‘If the Pentagon knew about Marius Brandt do you think that other powers didn’t know about him as well? My party has been wanting to find him for a long time. His manuscript could be important. My party even knows the name Brandt. It is well known to many party people and he was on our death list. But only after we had found his writings.’

  ‘Which is why you shot him at point blank?’

  ‘No. My tactics were good. He thought I was a student of history when his house-woman opened his front door and he heard me ask if this had been the house of a favourite wife of a Grand Vizier. We had tea and his housekeeper left us alone.’ She smiled slightly. ‘Men are always the same, but I only shot him when he became suspicious of my questions and tried to attack me. He was foolish.’

  ‘And the housekeeper?’ asked Grant.

  ‘Asleep but tied up inside the deep freeze. She may now be dead. Though I drugged her first.’

  Mustafa suddenly opened his eyes. ‘My work, David. We shall take her out the way we came in and then to hospital if she is alive. Excuse please.’

  Grant heard him speak into his micro-walkie-talkie in Turkish. Seconds later the front door opened and the men posted outside helped to carry the woman to the tunnel entrance while Harry bound Moogie’s eyes with a handkerchief. ‘Alive,’ said Mustafa as he eased the wall panel into position. ‘It is the will of Allah. But I will go with my men.’

  ‘A smooth operator,’ said Krystelle. ‘But back to junior.’ She sniffed curiously. ‘Funny smell in here.’

  Grant handed her a nose plug. ‘Wear that. Relax.’

  The girl thrust a pad into each nostril and waited while Grant squeezed them into position. ‘Now, junior! And take that thing off her eyes, Harry. I want to look into her soul. Since you hate mah man so much, for why were you so anxious to screw him way back home? Remember?’

  ‘Forget it,’ snapped Grant. ‘Frank’s got that all on tape. You’ll hear later.’

  ‘I’ll hear now,’ said Krystelle. ‘You weren’t with us all the time and she kidded me good. Now ah don’t believe she could kid all that good. She wanted you bad. One bit of her at least, even if there were other angles.’

  ‘There was another angle,’ said Moogie. Her voice was soft and her eyes flat calm. ‘You lost face when he made love to me. You got uptight, remember, in case David Grant fell in love with me. So it helped to stop you thinking straight.’

  ‘I see.’ There was reluctant admiration in Krystelle’s voice. ‘You cunning little Asiatic bitch. Anyways now you lost out, so can we tidy up the mess! What do we do with her?’

  Grant opened his wallet and showed the LSD microdots. ‘Just one of these carries a mandatory sentence of ten years in a Turkish jail. In fact we used them the other night. Give her a shot of Pentothal and leave her here with a few of these and the body upstairs. The Turkish police can do the rest.’

  ‘You wouldn’t dare?’ Moogie looked at Grant in frank disbelief.

  ‘Why not?’ he asked. ‘You hired three thugs in Bangkok and were responsible for their deaths. In fact you killed two yourself. Your staff killed two of my own people near your house. You even killed the man Goodenough just because he was a friend of Brandt. And of course you killed Brandt as well. Not forgetting that, on your own admission, it was only news about my legacy which saved my own life. In fact, come to think of it, if it hadn’t been for you Mr. Alvis wouldn’t have died either. You don’t deserve even a chance of life.’

  ‘Forget it, David,’ said Krystelle. ‘Don’t justify yourself. But this isn’t wise. She knows too much. Think what she could say at the trial. Or what the press would make of it. She’s got to go.’

  Grant will never forget the group gathered around the girl. Frank and Harry were looking down upon her, Frank’s gun rising towards her temple when she seemed to sag into her chair, her head flopping against her chest. Krystelle
was beside him and he heard her gasp of surprise as a voice smacked out from behind. ‘Not move. Not move.’

  Moogie raised her head and they saw that she was smiling. ‘I told you I’ve always been ahead of you. Soon, I think, three of you die.’

  Chapter Eleven – ‘Your last card, I think’

  Grant felt hands flicker around his body and saw through the corner of his eye that the others were also being frisked. Frank’s gun and Harry’s knives were thrown on to a table, and the slim blade which Krystelle often wore strapped against her thigh was flicked into the woodwork of the wall panelling.

  ‘Now turn round very slowly.’ Grant recognised the voice even although it was now speaking good English. Krystelle’s hunch had gone wrong. Tom was no longer in the sack. Not with anyone. He was right in the room and with a gun in each hand.

  Someone cut Moogie’s nylon ties and she stretched herself luxuriously. ‘Now give us the papers.’

  Grant felt as though someone was walking over his grave. ‘I haven’t got them. The Turk found them. He will have taken them away.’

  Tom didn’t hesitate and the bullet grazed Krystelle’s thigh, leaving a mark traced as though by crimson lipstick. ‘Next time she gets it in the knee. Where?’

  Grant looked towards Moogie. ‘Tell him the truth. You heard what the Turk said.’

  The girl spoke in rapid Thai and then smiled. ‘I have said you are lying.’

  Tom lowered the gun slightly. ‘Women are all liars, Doctor Grant. And there is nothing personal in this. Indeed we rather liked you when you were a house guest. Though the girl here, Moogie you call her, disliked you for personal reasons of her own which don’t affect me in any way. But political things are often dirty and cruel. So I must warn you that even if I have to be both dirty and cruel I must still get these papers. I accept that the Turk removed them. So have you any suggestions?’

  Grant began to relax. ‘I can telephone and ask him to bring them back here.’

  ‘In which case he will know that something has gone wrong.’

  ‘Or we can send someone with a written request asking him to take them to my room in the Divan Hotel. The messenger could be hi-jacked on the way by your own people and the papers recovered.’

  ‘He would still suspect. The arrangement is that you will meet later today in his house. Or so Moogie said when she spoke Thai just now. He will expect to give you them then.’

  ‘Well, have you any ideas?’ Grant was playing for time and bluffing on a far-out chance. Tom’s eyes were rock steady and his three men posted strategically around the room. The tunnel door was almost completely closed but it was unlikely that anyone would enter from the Topkapi side, while the men originally posted outside by Mustafa had been called away by the old man himself when it seemed that all was under control and when the housekeeper had been discovered.

  ‘Yes. Basically we are two civilised people who happen to be on different sides of a fence and I am prepared to accept your word if you agree to this proposition. Your friend M’m’selle Krystelle will stay with us until you, personally, return with the manuscripts to an address which is agreeable to us both. You will also bring a cheque for thirty-six millions sterling: certified of course: and the exchange will then be arranged.’ He looked at Grant curiously. ‘Something wrong?’

  Grant was furtively holding his stomach, but a groan of pain had surprised even Krystelle and Moogie. ‘I got tummy trouble or something the other day. May I please go to the loo?’

  Tom was suddenly suspicious. ‘Is this a trick?’

  ‘For God’s sake, man,’ snapped Grant. ‘Would I ask if it wasn’t necessary? But hurry. And I must take some medicine.’

  ‘Such as what? What medicine?’

  Grant lifted his hands above his head. ‘Please hurry. There’s a small bottle in my side pocket. Take it out yourself if you don’t trust me.’

  ‘No,’ said Tom suspiciously. ‘You take it out. And then put it on the table.’

  Grant could almost feel the guns pointing towards him from behind but slowly lowered his left hand, and, with finger and thumb only, lifted out the bottle from his pocket. He pointed to the label. ‘Read it for yourself. Ten drops in emergencies. For crissake, Tom, this is an emergency. Hurry, will you.’

  The man nodded towards Krystelle. ‘Open it.’

  ‘And don’t let it fall,’ said Grant. ‘That stuff is lifesaving.’

  Krystelle leaned forwards over the table. She was wearing a loose fitting lime-green top and her cleavage caught everyone’s eye. She cautiously opened the cork and stood back. Not even Grant saw exactly what happened but it looked as though her heel caught on a loose carpet and she tripped as she tried to regain her balance. The table broke her fall but the bottle rolled to the floor and a broad stain showed where the contents were soaking into a silk-on-cotton prayer rug.

  The effect was instantaneous. Tom seemed unable to breathe and doubled up in agony almost in the same second. A single shot chuffed from behind as Grant dived for the floor and he had a fleeting glimpse of Moogie standing with hand to throat near the window. The silencers Tom and his men were using were the most efficient Grant had heard and he figured that the noise would hardly have been noticed even in the next room.

  Frank was carrying what seemed to be a non-stop supply of nylon handcuffs and had already anchored the man Grant recognised as having once been introduced as Moogie’s cook, while Harry was still dealing with the one who had slept outside their room ten days earlier. Krystelle had made Moogie her own private property and the Thai girl was caught in a Japanese stranglehold until Frank had fixed her ankles like a halter.

  Only after the other two men had been tied to heavy antique chairs did Harry finally light a cigarette. ‘What happened?’

  Even Grant had been surprised by the speed with which the chemical acted. ‘I was told that it evaporated instantly,’ he said, ‘but that was the understatement of the year.’

  ‘And I always said Krystelle was a good poker player. Don’t drop it, you said, and you conned even the wonder-boy. Because she did drop it right in front of his nose and he didn’t react. Least he could have done was pull a trigger!’

  ‘You all talk too much.’ Frank was looking slightly dazed. The speed of events had rocked even the one who thought he had seen everything. ‘Now we got five more to deal with. Turkey begins to remind me of a slaughterhouse.’

  ‘There’s going to be no more killing,’ said Grant. ‘Not at least if we’re able to come to terms with Tom. And it’s what Tom says that matters with this mob. So open the window and get them back to normal. Cold water, massage and fresh air. Let’s go.’

  ‘You go,’ said Frank, lifting a Smith and Wesson from the table. ‘I’ll keep tabs on the general situation: if you get me. I got a feeling after all this that anything can happen.’

  Twenty minutes later Grant lit his first cigarette since entering the room from the secret passage and relaxed. Krystelle was sitting on a low stool by his side and Frank commanded the hall with the front door. ‘You were going to do a deal, Tom. So I’m going on the suggestion you made yourself that we are civilised people who happen to be on opposite sides of a political fence. You can go home with all your people by the first flight out of here if you wish. In return I only ask your word that you won’t start something between here and the airport.’

  ‘And make no effort to collect the writings?’

  ‘That goes without saying,’ said Grant. ‘Neither of us want publicity about any part of our lives, so we won’t hand you over to the police. Nor will we frame you for something like drugs which carries a compulsory jail sentence. You can go home. All five. But first I must be certain that you won’t create any diversions, because two or three of my friends will be with you all the time, and I mean all the time, until you are aboard an aircraft pointing for Asia.’

  ‘Can you convince me that it would be impossible to get the Brandt writings?’ Tom was politely interested.

  ‘Yes.
Because I’m even willing to telephone Mustafa Kemal from this room and ask him to send them to my Department in Brussels by special messenger. The messenger would leave within the hour and before you could possibly make contact.’

  ‘Moogie said you have resigned your Brussels appointment with NATO.’

  ‘Correct. But I myself haven’t the machinery to cope with what may need to be done after study of the manuscripts. And don’t forget that I’m wanted by Interpol. That apart I would like to end my NATO association with a major coup.’

  ‘But the real reason is to buy freedom for yourself and your friends.’ Tom spoke in Thai with two of the other men and then came back to Grant. ‘We accept.’

  ‘Then let’s double check. I phone the Turk in your presence and ask him to send the papers to Brussels, leaving Istanbul within the hour. You will all remain in this room until the hour has expired and then you will be taken separately, each with an escort of two, to different addresses where you will remain under guard until it is time to take you to a flight into Asia. Since there are only four of us and two must keep an eye on this room until you have all been removed, the whole operation might very well take even a couple of days, since there aren’t too many flights out of Istanbul into Iran or beyond in a day. And I must take care that you don’t become impulsive or forget your promise.’

  Tom’s face was taut with anger. ‘That is not what you promised. The implication was that we would leave together.’

  ‘Possibly. But I didn’t care for the way you spoke just now to men who, I am certain, understood English. It is my belief that you made swift plans for an attempted getaway.’ He risked a far-fetched bluff as he glanced towards Moogie. ‘You thought you were ahead of me. But did it ever occur to you to check on whether or not I could understand Thai? You gave yourself away right from the beginning, just as Tom did now.’

  The girl looked baffled. ‘I don’t believe you.’

  ‘Who cares?’ said Grant. ‘It is often easy to understand quite a lot of a language even if one can’t speak it. And that is how I am about Thai. I didn’t understand everything you said to Tom way back in Bangkok. Not even to the taxi-driver. But enough to get the gist. So you were marked right from the beginning. And Tom broke his word two minutes ago because he, too, had been careless. Next time, Tom, get facts and background straight before you take chances.’