by Marnie Perry
Olivia still standing on the threshold of the bathroom said, ‘yes, I heard.’
‘You did?’
Olivia approached Adela who was still leaning on the door, ‘yes. Although I didn’t understand half of what you said. Where did you learn to speak German so well?’
‘Oh I taught myself, one of those teach yourself home kits you send for through the post. My boss’s wife, whose parents are German, said my accent was excellent.’
‘It was, it is. I would have been fooled to. So that’s why you didn’t panic when I said those two would remember you as English, why you laughed.’
‘Yes.’ She grinned, ‘I knew that damn course would come in useful one day.’
They stood there staring at each other smiling inanely. Olivia was thinking that she had underestimated this woman who looked so small and delicate, but had a hidden strength, maybe that was her element of surprise. She knew then that she would go with her to Memphis; she would go along with her plan, she would trust her to make this plan work, she would trust her with her freedom, and it seemed, with her life.
Then suddenly Adela started to laugh, she laughed so hard that her breath came in gasps, she slid down the door and sat on the ground still laughing. Olivia stood looking down at her in concern then knelt down in front of her and she too began to laugh. They laughed until tears poured from their eyes, and this time they did not fool themselves that it was anything but hysterical laughter.
*********
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern walked on through the trees. Guildenstern picked up a piece of wood and threw it very hard into the stream that ran through the middle of the woods. He said ‘fucking Krouts, God damn fucking German bastards.’
Rosencrantz laughed although he did not feel very amused. ‘So she’s gone.’
‘Yea, so what we do, follow her to England?’
Rosencrantz looked at him with disdain, ‘she ain’t gone home.’
‘But that German woman said…
He was cut off, ‘she said, she zinks she went home. But my guess is she went on with her tour, why should she go home now, just at the beginning of her tour? Now we can find out her name through the realtor. I’ll get my pal Dougie onto it. That retard Sammy said she was doing a tour of the southern states so she must have moved onto the next leg. We’ll find out where that is and follow her there. Maybe we’ll get real lucky and find that Desi is still with her.’
Guildenstern shook his head, ‘she won’t be. Desi may come across as demure and submissive but she has a cunning streak, she’s not as stupid as she tries to make out. She’ll know we’re on her tail.’
‘Yeah, but she’s desperate and desperation can lead to mistakes. You should know that better than anyone, Guildy old pal.’
‘What does that mean?’
Rosencrantz glanced down at Guildenstern fingers, ‘I think they speak for themselves dude.’
‘You know you’ll go too far one of these days, Rosencrantz.’
‘Oh is that right, Guildenstern.’
Guildenstern stopped walking and said, ‘you wanna settle this right now, 'cos I’m just in the mood to kick somebody’s ass real good.’
‘Well why don’t ya go back and take on that German woman, she’s about your size and you might even win.’
Guildenstern face grew beet red as he clenched his fist, ‘well at least I could tell she was German, and I’m deaf in one ear. You probably thought she was speaking fucking Mandarin.’
It was Rosencrantz turn to redden they stared at each other in mutual contempt until Rosencrantz suddenly laughed, ‘you know why I like working with you, Guildy?’ Guildenstern was suspicious of his partner’s sudden change of mood but asked, ‘why?’
‘'Cos we always have such fun.’
Guildenstern continued to look murderous for a moment then he too laughed, ‘yeah, yeah man we do. And when we find that English bitch we going have even more fun, only of a different sort.’
Rosencrantz laughed louder, ‘yeah, and ya know what?’
‘What?’
‘Just 'cos we such good friends, just this once I’m gonna let you go first.’
‘Thanks pal, I appreciate that.’
‘That’s what friends are for, old pal.’
They both laughed heartily as they walked back towards the town and their car.
CHAPTER 9.
Despite Adela’s brilliant deception and even better accent, the two women were still on high alert for signs of the two men returning. Adela was saying, ‘I don’t think they will return but I think we should alter our plans and leave now.’
Olivia was not about to argue and they both began packing. Adela would not come back here but would go straight to Mississippi and continue her holiday.
She called the realtor and asked if it would be okay to take up occupancy of the cabin she had rented in Mississippi a few days early, if not she would book into a hotel nearby until it became vacant. But she was assured that there would be no problem as the cabin was empty. They did however enquire whether she was not satisfied with the cabin in Alabama or if she was not enjoying her vacation there since she wanted to leave early. Adela assured them that there was no problem with either the holiday or the cabin but there was a festival in Gulfport she wanted to see, they seemed satisfied with that explanation.
As they packed and got ready to leave Adela was talking about the next part of her plan. ‘The chances of Glissando even suspecting that you took a private plane are about as remote as winning the lottery. Even if he did think about it there’s even less chance that he’ll discover which airfield you went from.’
Olivia smiled, ‘coming from someone who has won the lottery that’s a rather unfortunate analogy.’
Adela laughed, ‘yes, but I am unusual.’
Olivia did not smile this time but said, ‘I have begun to realise that.’
Adela looked surprised then embarrassed, ‘I was joking.’
‘I wasn’t.’ Said Olivia.
Adela shifted uneasily and changed the subject, ‘but I suggest that as soon as you land you catch a train or bus to wherever you want to go and as far as you can from where you landed. I've booked the plane to take you to France because then you can easily cross the border into Spain or Germany or Belgium. But wherever you settle try not to make it in small towns or villages where a stranger will stand out.’
Olivia nodded, ‘don’t worry about me, I’ll lose myself, I’m an expert at blending into the scenery.’
‘The only problem we have is that I will have to pay for the plane with a credit card and if they do find out my name they might be able to track my credit card charges. You said those two men were ex- FBI so they might have the resources to do that.’
Olivia looked really frightened now, ‘oh God, I never thought of that.’
Adela tried to smile brightly, ‘don’t worry, they won’t find out. Only two people in the town know my full name and if they knew it already they’d have asked the German me if I knew Adela Faraday wouldn’t they?’
Olivia remained looking fearful so Adela continued, ‘besides, I’ll be gone from here in a few days on my way to Mississippi, they won’t find me. And even if they do what’s the big deal, I’ll just tell them I put you in a taxi that night and never saw you again.’
‘But what if they recognise you from this morning?’
Adela shrugged, ‘it’s doubtful, I was wearing that awful hat and sunglasses. Besides they were too busy concentrating on making themselves understood to take too much notice of my appearance.’
Olivia looked in no way reassured so Adela said, ‘look, Olivia, I’m going through the worse case scenario here, the chances of those two coming back are next to none. And they don’t know that I’m wealthy do they, why would they assume that I could afford to hire a private plane to get you out of the country?
And what’s more, why would I do that for someone I don’t even know, a stranger I met in an alley one night? No, Olivia, I’m just coveri
ng all the bases.’ She smiled, ‘that’s what they do in all the best crime novels.’
Olivia stared at her for a moment then she too smiled, ‘I have got to start reading these novels of yours, if I’m going to be on the run dodging a crime boss’s goons I should at least be prepared.’
Adela laughed out loud, ‘I’ll let you take a few with you, maybe some of Sam Smith’s Jake Keecher, he gets into awful scrapes and gets out of them quite effectively. Of course you’re not six feet six and ex military but the principal is the same.’
Olivia joined in Adela’s laughter and the latter said, ‘It’s about a three hour drive to drive to Memphis from Mobile, but just in case of holds ups on the road I won’t give them a set time but say we’ll be there sometime tomorrow morning.’
She made the call then turned to Olivia, ‘right, that’s that sorted, easy peasy lemon squeezey.’ Olivia laughed and Adela said, ‘I’ll ring for a taxi to come right away, the sooner we leave the sooner you’ll be safe.’
***********
In the meantime Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were standing in Glissando’s office, nervously waiting for him to speak. He sat back in his chair his fingers steepled and his face impassive. They both wished that he did not have such a wonderful grip on his emotions; that he would show his pleasure or anger then at least they could be prepared for what happened next.
He sat forward, ‘so at first you thought this woman was Australian now you believe she is English is that what you’re telling me?’
Despite what they’d said to each other they had decided it best to tell Glissando of their mistake. He had ways of finding things out and the punishment for lying could be even more horrific than the punishment for screwing up.
‘Yes, Mr. Glissando,’ Rosencrantz said, ‘we’re sorry we got it wrong, but we knew she wasn’t American so…
‘So you just picked a nationality out of thin air is that it?’ Glissando interrupted.
‘No, Mr. Glissando, I’ve never met an English person, but I have seen Crocodile Dundee and she sounded, well, a little like…
‘Like an Australian man who kills Crocodiles for a living?’
Guildenstern try as he might was unable to suppress his laughter. Rosencrantz glared at him and Glissando looked at him from under his eyelashes, suffice it to say that Guildenstern was far more frightened of Glissando’s expressionless stare than his partner’s anger.
Glissando slowly moved his eyes back to Rosencrantz, ‘your inability to tell apart an Australian man from an English woman aside, you found out next to nothing about Desdemona, is that what you’re telling me?’
‘Only that we’re now pretty certain it was her we saw that day in Alban and the woman was staying there in a cabin but has now left according to the German woman we spoke to. We believe that it’s too much of a coincidence that the hat Desi was wearing matches perfectly the description we have of the one the woman had. Putting all these things together we’ve come to the conclusion that this woman knows something. At the most she’s with her now, at the very least she helped Desdemona to get away.’
Glissando said, ‘this German woman, are you absolutely sure she was German and not Iranian or Mongolian?’
Guildenstern bowed his head to hide the grin that broke out on his face; Rosencrantz sent him a look that would have floored most people. He said, ‘yes sir, I’m sure.’
‘And this German woman did not know where the English woman had gone.’
‘She said she thought she’d gone home, sir, but we don’t think she did and the German woman was very vague.’
Glissando thought about that, ‘you said she was doing a tour, did you try to find out where she was going next?’
‘Yes, sir, Mississippi.’
And did you check with our friends at the FBI to see what they could find out about this woman? Whether she rented a car or went by train or plane or ship or motorbike. Maybe the bike had a sidecar and Desi is riding in that.’
That Glissando should use sarcasm told the two men that he was indeed feeling Desi’s betrayal very deeply. Guildenstern spoke for the first time, ‘I’ve got someone on that, Mr. Glissando, I’m expecting a call any moment now.’
As if on cue his cell phone rang, he looked at Glissando who nodded and Guildenstern took out his phone and said, ‘hi, Dougie, did you get anything?’ He listened nodding occasionally and saying, ‘uh, uh,’ a few times then, ‘right, thanks, Dougie, I owe you…again.’ He laughed and switched off the phone put it back in his pocket and looked at Glissando who raised his eyebrows.
‘Her name is Adela Anne Faraday, single, never travelled overseas before. She booked a tour of the southern states spending a week in each location, starting her and moving eastwards, next stop Mississippi as we said. Her passport photo matches the description we have ourselves. But apart from that there’s nothing, she doesn’t have a criminal record of any kind so doesn’t show up on any database. It’s hard to get information on a foreign tourist, sir, but Dougie did his best.’
‘At least we now have a name and a description, well done, Guildenstern.’
Guildenstern preened and Rosencrantz felt the urge to shoot him dead right then and there.
Glissando leaned back in his chair and did the finger steepling thing again. He stayed like this for a few minutes before saying, ‘this German woman, what did she look like?’
There was a glitter in Glissando’s eyes that Rosencrantz had seen only a few times since he’d been in his employ it meant trouble with a capital T. He said, ‘it was hard to say, she was wearing a big ugly hat and sunglasses.’
‘How tall was she? Was she thin, fat, white, black, Asian, what?’
‘She was white and thin,’ Rozencrantz replied, ‘too thin really, and not too tall say about yay high.’ He put his hand about five feet or so from the ground.
Glissando looked at Rosencrantz’s hand as if it was an offensive thing that he wanted to cut off and ram down it’s owner’s throat. His lips hardly moved as he said, ‘so, about the same colouring height and weight as the English woman?’
Rosencrantz looked at Guildenstern as if begging him to take responsibility for everything, or at least to intervene. He mumbled, ‘well, er, yes, I suppose you could say…
Glissando again interrupted, ‘no, Rosencrantz, I don’t say anything, I’m waiting for you to say.’ He looked at Guildenstern, ‘what do you say, Guildenstern? Did the German woman’s description fit that of the English woman?’
Guildenstern looked at his friend no longer feeling complacent but afraid for him and for himself. He hesitated a lot longer than was safe when asked a question by Glissando. He bowed his head and said very quietly, ‘yes, yes sir, it did.’
There was such a silence that the two men could almost hear each others heartbeats. Glissando stared at them and neither men had ever known such fear.
But as usual Glissando surprised them both by not reacting the way they thought he would, or should, and there relief was intense as he said quite calmly, ‘so now at least we know that this Faraday woman lied to us, and there is always a reason why one lies, that being to deceive and to lead astray. That was what she was doing, leading us astray, deceiving us, and that in turn tells us that she has reason to deceive and lead astray and that reason is…?’
He looked at Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as though they were students in the classroom and he the teacher, he almost expected them to raise their hands with the answer. Rosencrantz said, ‘because she knows where Desi is.’
‘Or,’ said Guildenstern, ‘Desi is still with her and she is helping her to get away from you, I mean from…
He was cut off, ‘exactly, Guildenstern. Desi may even have been in that cabin when you were there, and now that you have shown up asking questions they might well panic and they will flee.’
‘Would you like us to go back to Alban and confront this Faraday woman?’ Guildenstern asked.
Glissando shook his head, ‘no, I don’t, they won’t linger ther
e, not after you turned up. But I will have it checked out. I think this woman will help Desi to leave the country but I believe Miss. Faraday will stay and continue her vacation, she thinks she’s outwitted you…and me. She thinks once she has helped Desi get away that it will be over.
If they have gone it seems obvious to me that the place to look for Miss. Faraday is the next state on her agenda, Mississippi.’
Should we track her down to where she’s staying in Mississippi and get her to give Desi up?’
Glissando shook his head, ‘no, Desi won’t remain with the woman; she’ll want to get as far from the south as possible.’ He didn’t add and as far from me as possible he didn’t have to. And her saviour is leaving in a few weeks. No, we will continue to let Miss. Faraday think that she has got away with it, that’s she’s outwitted us, then she will stay put and continue with her vacation safe in the knowledge that she has won the battle and the war. She will be congratulating herself on her deviousness, she will become complacent, and complacency is the most deadly of mistakes.’
Guildenstern smiled but Rosencrantz was still wary. Just because Glissando seemed fairly affable now did not mean that he had forgiven him for his mistakes so he refrained from joining in his colleague’s amusement. He said, ‘then would you like us to follow her to Mississippi, keep an eye on her?’
‘No, I have someone else in mind for that. I’ll get this someone to check out this Alban place first just in case. But this woman is not going to give Desi up easily. Desi has obviously told her about her hard life here, how badly she’s been treated. Of course she won’t tell her why she was punished,’ he clenched his hands so tightly they were white, ‘she obviously won’t tell her that she was punished because she was disobedient and wilful and needed to be controlled, oh no, she won’t…’
He stopped at the look of surprise and embarrassment on the two men’s faces and realised he had just this once let his intense frustration and fury get the better of him in front of others. He sat back and glowered at them as though it was their fault he had been so indiscreet. He pulled himself together and said, ‘she won’t believe anything you tell her, we need to be discreet and you two are about as discreet as a steam roller. No, we have to use caution, lure her into a false sense of security, be smart.’
