Puppet on a Chain

by Alistair MacLean

  I would have preferred to complete the journey in another car or by bus, for one quality in which a yellow and red taxi is conspicuously lacking is unobtrusiveness, but haste was more important than discretion. I compromised by driving along the final stretch of the causeway at a comparatively sedate pace: the spectacle of a yellow and red taxi approaching the village at speed of something in the region of a hundred miles an hour would have given rise to some speculation even among the renownedly incurious Dutch.

  I parked the car in the already rapidly filling carpark, removed my jacket, shoulder-holster and tie, upended my collar, rolled up my sleeves, and emerged from the car with my jacket hung carelessly over my left arm: under the jacket I carried my gun with the silencer in place.

  The notoriously fickle Dutch weather had changed dramatically for the better. Even as I had left Amsterdam the skies had been clearing and now there were only drifting cotton-wool puffs in an otherwise cloudless sky and the already hot sun was drawing up steam from the houses and adjoining fields. I walked leisurely but not too leisurely towards the building I’d asked Maggie to keep under observation. The door stood wide open now and at intervals I could see people, all women in their traditional costumes, moving around the interior: occasionally one emerged and went into the village, occasionally a man came out with a carton which he would place on a wheelbarrow and trundle into the village. This was the home of a cottage industry of some sort: what kind of industry was impossible to judge from the outside. That it appeared to be an entirely innocuous industry was evidenced by the fact that tourists who occasionally happened by were smilingly invited to come inside and look around. All the ones I saw go inside came out again, so clearly it was the least sinister of places. North of the building stretched an almost unbroken expanse of hayfields and in the distance I could see a group of traditionally dressed matrons tossing hay in the air to dry it off in the morning sun. The men of Huyler, I reflected, seemed to have it made: none of them appeared to do any work at all.

  There was no sign of Maggie. I wandered back into the village, bought a pair of tinted spectacles – heavy dark spectacles instead of acting as an aid to concealment tend to attract attention, which is probably why so many people wear them – and a floppy straw hat that I wouldn’t have been seen dead in outside Huyler. It was hardly what one could call a perfect disguise, for nothing short of stain could ever conceal the white scars on my face, but at least it helped to provide me with a certain degree of anonymity and I didn’t think I looked all that different from scores of other tourists wandering about the village.

  Huyler was a very small village, but when you start looking for someone concerning whose whereabouts you have no idea at all and when that someone may be wandering around at the same time as you are, then even the smallest village can become embarrassingly large. As briskly as I could without attracting attention, I covered every lane in Huyler and saw no trace of Maggie.

  I was in a pretty fair way towards quiet desperation now, ignoring the voice in my mind that told me with numbing certainty that I was too late, and feeling all the more frustrated by the fact that I had to conduct my search with at least a modicum of leisure. I now started on a tour of all the shops and cafés although, if Maggie were still alive and well, I hardly expected to find her in any of those in view of the assignment I had given her. But I couldn’t afford to ignore any possibility.

  The shops and cafés round the inner harbour yielded nothing – and I covered every one of them. I then moved out in a series of expanding concentric circles, as far as one can assign so geometrical a term in the maze of haphazard lanes that was Huyler. And it was on the outermost of these circles that I found Maggie, finding her alive, well and totally unscathed: my relief was hardly greater than my sense of foolishness.

  I found her where I should have thought to find her right away if I had been using my head as she had been. I’d told her to keep the building under surveillance but at the same time to keep in company and she was doing just that. She was inside a large crowded souvenir shop, fingering some of the articles for sale, but not really looking at them: she was looking fixedly, instead, at the large building less than thirty yards away, so fixedly, that she quite failed to notice me. I took a step to go inside the door to speak to her when I suddenly saw something that held me quite still and made me look as fixedly as Maggie was, although not in the same direction.

  Trudi and Herta were coming down the street. Trudi, dressed in a sleeveless pink frock and wearing long white cotton gloves, skipped along in her customary childish fashion, her blonde hair swinging, a smile on her face: Herta, clad in her usual outlandish dress, waddled gravely alongside, carrying a large leather bag in her hand.

  I didn’t stand on the order of my going. I stepped quickly inside the shop: but not in Maggie’s direction, whatever else happened I didn’t want those two to see me talking to her: instead I took up a strategic position behind a tall revolving stand of picture-postcards and waited for Herta and Trudi to pass by.

  They didn’t pass by. They passed by the front door, sure enough, but that was as far as they got, for Trudi suddenly stopped, peered through the window where Maggie was standing and caught Herta by the arms. Seconds later she coaxed the plainly reluctant Herta inside the shop, took her arm away from Herta who remained hovering there broodingly like a volcano about to erupt, stepped forward and caught Maggie by the arm.

  ‘I know you,’ Trudi said delightedly. ‘I know you!’

  Maggie turned and smiled. ‘I know you too. Hullo, Trudi.’

  ‘And this is Herta.’ Trudi turned to Herta, who clearly approved of nothing that was taking place. ‘Herta, this is my friend, Maggie.’

  Herta scowled in acknowledgment.

  Trudi said: ‘Major Sherman is my friend.’

  ‘I know that,’ Maggie smiled.

  ‘Are you my friend, Maggie?’

  ‘Of course I am, Trudi.’

  Trudi seemed delighted. ‘I have lots of other friends. Would you like to see them?’ She almost dragged Maggie to the door and pointed. She was pointing to the north and I knew it could be only at the haymakers at the far end of the field. ‘Look. There they are.’

  ‘I’m sure they’re very nice friends,’ Maggie said politely.

  A picture-postcard hunter edged close to me, as much as to indicate that I should move over and let him have a look: I’m not quite sure what kind of look I gave him but it certainly was sufficient to make him move away very hurriedly.

  ‘They are lovely friends,’ Trudi was saying. She nodded at Herta and indicated the bag she was carrying. ‘When Herta and I come here we always take them out food and coffee in the morning.’ She said impulsively: ‘Come and see them, Maggie,’ and when Maggie hesitated said anxiously: ‘You are my friend, aren’t you?’

  ‘Of course, but—’

  ‘They are such nice friends,’ Trudi said pleadingly. ‘They are so happy. They make music. If we are very good, they may do the hay dance for us.’

  ‘The hay dance?’

  ‘Yes, Maggie. The hay dance. Please, Maggie. You are all my friends. Please come. Just for me, Maggie?’

  ‘Oh, very well.’ Maggie was laughingly reluctant. ‘Just for you, Trudi. But I can’t stay long.’

  ‘I do like you, Maggie.’ Trudi squeezed Maggie’s arm. ‘I do like you.’

  The three of them left. I waited a discreet period of time, then moved cautiously out of the shop. They were already fifty yards away, past the building I’d asked Maggie to watch and out into the hayfield. The haymakers were at least six hundred yards away, building their first haystack of the day close in to what looked, even at that distance, to be a pretty ancient and decrepit Dutch barn. I could hear the chatter of voices as the three of them moved out over the stubbled hay and all the chatter appeared to come from Trudi, who was back at her usual gambit of gambolling like a spring lamb. Trudi never walked: she always skipped.

  I followed, but not skipping. A hedgerow ran alon
gside the edge of the field and I prudently kept this between myself and Herta and the two girls, trailing thirty or forty yards behind. I’ve no doubt that my method of locomotion looked almost as peculiar as Trudi’s because the hedgerow was less than five feet in height and I spent most of the six hundred yards bent forward at the hips like a septuagenarian suffering from a bout of lumbago.

  By and by the three of them reached the old barn and sat down on the west side, in the shadow from the steadily strengthening sun. I got the barn between them and the haymakers on the one hand and myself on the other, ran quickly across the intervening space and let myself in by a side door.

  I hadn’t been wrong about the barn. It must have been at least a century old and appeared to be in a very dilapidated condition indeed. The floor-boards sagged, the wooden walls bulged at just about every point where they could bulge and some of the original air-filtering cracks between the horizontal planks had warped and widened to the extent that one could almost put one’s head through them.

  There was a loft to the barn, the floor of which appeared to be in imminent danger of collapse: it was rotted and splintered and riddled with woodworm; even an English house-agent would have had difficulty in disposing of the place on the basis of its antiquity. It didn’t look as if it could support an averagely-built mouse, far less my weight, but the lower part of the barn was of little use for observation, and besides, I didn’t want to peer out of one of those cracks in the wall and find someone else peering in about two inches away, so I reluctantly took the crumbling flight of wooden steps that led up to the loft.

  The loft, the east side of which was still half full of last year’s hay, was every bit as dangerous as it looked but I picked my steps with caution and approached the west side of the barn. This part of the barn had an even better selection of gaps between the planks and I eventually located the ideal one, at least six inches in width and affording an excellent view. I could see the heads of Maggie, Trudi and Herta directly beneath: I could see the matrons, about a dozen in all, assiduously and expertly building a haystack, the tines of their long-handled hayforks gleaming in the sun: I could even see part of the village itself, including most of the car park. I had a feeling of unease and could not understand the reason for this: the haymaking scene taking place out on the field there was as idyllic as even the most bucolic-minded could have wished to see. I think the odd sense of apprehension sprang from the least unlikely source, the actual haymakers themselves, for not even here, in their native setting, did those flowing striped robes, those exquisitely embroidered dresses and snowy wimple hats appear quite natural. There was a more than faintly theatrical quality about them, an aura of unreality. I had the feeling, almost, that I was witnessing a play being staged for my benefit.

  About half an hour passed during which the matrons worked away steadily and the three sitting beneath me engaged in only desultory conversation: it was that kind of day, warm and still and peaceful, the only sounds being the swish of the hayforks and the distant murmuring of bees, that seems to make conversation of any kind unnecessary. I wondered if I dared risk a cigarette and decided I dared: I fumbled in the pocket of my jacket for matches and cigarettes, laid my coat on the floor with the silenced gun on top of it, and lit the cigarette, careful not to let any of the smoke escape through the gaps in the planks.

  By and by Herta consulted a wristwatch about the size of a kitchen alarm clock and said something to Trudi, who rose, reached down a hand and pulled Maggie to her feet. Together they walked towards the haymakers, presumably to summon them to their morning break, for Herta was spreading a chequered cloth on the ground and laying out cups and unwrapping food from folded napkins.

  A voice behind me said: ‘Don’t try to reach for your gun. If you do, you’ll never live to touch it.’

  I believed the voice. I didn’t try to reach for my gun.

  ‘Turn round very slowly.’

  I turned round very slowly. It was that kind of voice.

  ‘Move three paces away from the gun. To your left.’

  I couldn’t see anyone. But I heard him all right. I moved three paces away. To the left.

  There was a stirring in the hay on the other side of the loft and two figures emerged: the Reverend Thaddeus Goodbody and Marcel, the snakelike dandy I’d clobbered and shoved in the safe in the Balinova. Goodbody didn’t have a gun in his hand, but then, he didn’t need one: the blunderbuss Marcel carried in his was as big as two ordinary guns and, to judge from the gleam in the flat black unwinking eyes, he was busily searching for the remotest thread of an excuse to use it. Nor was I encouraged by the fact that his gun had a silencer to it: this meant that they didn’t care how often they shot me, nobody would hear a thing.

  ‘Most damnably hot in there,’ Goodbody said complainingly. ‘And ticklish.’ He smiled in that fashion that made little children want to take him by the hand. ‘Your calling leads you into the most unexpected places, I must say, my dear Sherman.’

  ‘My calling?’

  ‘Last time I met you, you were, if I remember correctly, purporting to be a taxi-driver.’

  ‘Ah, that time. I’ll bet you didn’t report me to the police after all.’

  ‘I did have second thoughts about it,’ Goodbody conceded generously. He walked across to where my gun lay and picked it up distastefully before throwing it into the hay. ‘Crude, unpleasant weapons.’

  ‘Yes, indeed,’ I agreed. ‘You now prefer to introduce an element of refinement into your killing.’

  ‘As I am shortly about to demonstrate.’ Goodbody wasn’t bothering to lower his voice but he didn’t have to, the Huyler matrons were at their morning coffee now and even with their mouths full they all appeared capable of talking at once. Goodbody walked across to the hay, unearthed a canvas bag and produced a length of rope. ‘Be on the alert, my dear Marcel. If Mr Sherman makes the slightest move, however harmless it may seem, shoot him. Not to kill. Through the thigh.’

  Marcel licked his lips. I hoped he wouldn’t consider the movement of my shirt, caused by the accelerated pumping of my heart, as one that could be suspiciously interpreted. Goodbody approached circumspectly from the rear, tied the rope firmly round my right wrist, passed the rope over a rafter and then, after what seemed an unnecessarily lengthy period of readjustment, secured the rope round my left wrist. My hands were held at the level of my ears. Goodbody brought out another length of rope.

  ‘From my friend Marcel here,’ Goodbody said conversationally, ‘I have learned that you have a certain expertise with your hands. It occurs to me that you might be similarly gifted with your feet.’ He stooped and fastened my ankles together with an enthusiasm that boded ill for the circulation of my feet. ‘It further occurs to me that you might have comment to make on the scene you are about to witness. We would prefer to do without the comment.’ He stuffed a far from clean handkerchief into my mouth and bound it in position with another one. ‘Satisfactory, Marcel, you would say?’

  Marcel’s eyes gleamed. ‘I have a message to deliver to Sherman from Mr Durrell.’

  ‘Now, now, my dear fellow, not so precipitate. Later, later. For the moment, we want our friend to be in full possession of his faculties, eyesight undimmed, hearing unimpaired, the mind at its keenest to appreciate all the artistic nuances of the entertainment we have arranged for his benefit.’

  ‘Of course, Mr Goodbody,’ Marcel said obediently. He was back at his revolting lip-licking. ‘But afterwards—’

  ‘Afterwards,’ Goodbody said generously, ‘you may deliver as many messages as you like. But remember I want him still alive when the barn burns down tonight. It is a pity that we shall be unable to witness it from close quarters.’ He looked genuinely sad. ‘You and that charming young lady out there – when they find your charred remains among the embers – well, I’m sure they’ll draw their own conclusions about love’s careless young dream. Smoking in barns, as you have just done, is a most unwise practice. Most unwise. Goodbye, Mr Sherman, and I
do not mean au revoir. I think I must observe the hay dance from closer range. Such a charming old custom. I think you will agree.’

  He left, leaving Marcel to his lip-licking. I didn’t much fancy being left alone with Marcel, but that was hardly of any importance in my mind at that moment. I twisted and looked through the gap in the planking.

  The matrons had finished their coffee and were lumbering to their feet. Trudi and Maggie were directly beneath where I was standing.

  ‘Were the cakes not nice, Maggie?’ Trudi asked. ‘And the coffee?’

  ‘Lovely, Trudi, lovely. But I have been too long away. I have shopping to do. I must go now.’ Maggie paused and looked up. ‘What’s that?’

  Two piano accordions had begun to play, softly, gently. I could see neither of the musicians: the sound appeared to come from the far side of the haystack the matrons had just finished building.

  Trudi jumped to her feet, clapping her hands excitedly. She reached down and pulled Maggie to hers.

  ‘It’s the hay dance!’ Trudi cried, a child having her birthday treat. ‘The hay dance! They are going to do the hay dance! They must like you too, Maggie. They do it for you! You are their friend now.’