She Was a Pretty Girl: A spy story

by S G Read

  They did not meet again at the end of the tunnel. One drove to the boatyard, parked their car and took their boat out, mooring it where he had moored before, where the other triplet waited in the hired car. Now they went off to find Victor Thompson.

  John sat in the office. They were no longer bugged and there was no sign of Winfield which made him worry. He walked up to Winfield’s office where Spearforth was holding the fort.

  ‘Is he about?’

  ‘No Mr. Fairchild he is out of the office and I don’t expect him back for some while.’

  ‘The PM after him is he?’ John asked and needed no answer, it showed on Spearforth’s face. ‘That’s how I keep out of his way when he wants me, go out into the field as it were.’

  John could see that Spearforth was troubled but he was not going to tell John what it was all about so John walked back down to his office. As he walked he mulled it over.

  ‘Whose credit card was used to buy the PM’s bug?’ He asked when he arrived in his office.

  Lorna looked up the name.

  ‘Victor Thompson, why.’

  ‘I think he is a loose end and about to be tidied.’

  ‘No, not Victor!’ Lorna cried. ‘I think I know where he is. He has his receipts up to date and they are all round Brighton and that is where the conference is going to be held. I think he is there to make sure no bombs are planted.’

  ‘Brighton is where I am headed for then. Tell no one where I have gone, then I have a chance of warning him.’ John answered and hurried out to his car.

  Spearforth watched him drive away, picked up the phone to inform Winfield but hesitated then put the phone back down again. If John was trying to save Victor he hoped he was successful, he also liked Victor and he knew John was a lot cleverer than Winfield would ever be.

  John drove out of the office and into the traffic. He used his sat nav, to go via the least congested parts of London until he hit the M23, then he piled on the speed. If he was pulled over he could use his diplomatic papers to get going again very quickly and time was vital if he was going to save Victor.

  Charles drove the two of them to Brighton but now one was a very pretty woman. He parked in the hotel and walked round the back while Pierre walked in the front in his high heels. Victor was watching the screens in the security room when he saw Clementine come into the building and knew something was up.

  ‘Arrest that woman.’ He ordered and ring me when it is done.

  ‘Yes sir. Where will you be Victor?’ The other man in the room asked after he had sent the order down to arrest Clementine.

  ‘I just remembered a dentist appointment and you know they fine you if you don’t turn up!’ Victor answered.

  ‘Tell me about it. I only forgot one once, never again!’ The man answered and watched Victor go out of the security room.

  Chapter 5

  Victor headed for the rear exit and Pierre headed for the gents toilet to emerge a few seconds later as a man and walk back out of the hotel. Victor opened the back door and a Taser knocked him out.

  John drove as fast as he could, ignoring speed cameras as he neared the hotel. He parked and walked in, heading for the security room. He showed his identification as he opened the door.

  ‘Where is Victor Thompson?’ He asked.

  ‘He remembered a dentist appointment all of a sudden, in fact it was just after he ordered an arrest. A very pretty woman came into the hotel and he ordered her arrest immediately, then remembered the appointment.’ The man answered.

  ‘Do you have this woman under lock and key now?’ John asked, hoping to talk to Clementine, or one of her lookalikes and save himself some time.

  ‘No. I sent men down to find her but she seemed to disappear. They didn’t find her.’

  John feared the worst and walked round the back of the hotel where Victor’s car still stood in the car park. The rear door was closed but there was no sign of Victor inside or outside the hotel and John knew he was either in the wind or with Clementine. He returned to the security room and watched the footage from when Clementine or a Clementine lookalike entered the building up to when the security found no sign of her. Three men left the building during the time and John had their faces enlarged and enhanced. Only one could have been dressed as Clementine and he kept a print out of his face. He was disguised and therefore John did not recognise him as the man in the mortuary. He did however have one of his disguises on film now, which could prove useful. He now knew two faces to look for, the man in the mortuary and this one. It came to him that Lorna could apply different disguises to the man in the mortuary and build up a possible library of disguises.

  When someone turned up to replace Victor an hour after he disappeared John knew it had been ordered, although no one was admitting it of course. He returned to his car to find a note on the windscreen which just consisted of a large question mark. Clementine or the man impersonating her had been there to see him arrive and was obviously getting suspicious.

  ‘Watch your back Johnny boy or it could have a hole in it.’ He said quietly, screwed up the note and drove back to London, there was nothing he could do, he was too late.

  Charles drove to where the boat was moored and, after making sure no one was about or watching, they carried Victor on board. They Tasered him again to make sure her did not wake up and cast off. Their first port of call was a deep trough where a weighted body would sink and not be seen again for many years, with luck.

  Victor was chained up to make sure the body sank and stayed there, then dropped overboard. Whether or not he woke up when he landed in the cold water they did not know or did not care. There would be only one outcome, he would die unless he was better than Houdini. Even then he had a long way to swim home.

  With work finished they started fishing to catch some fresh fish for an evening meal. They moved the boat so that their hooks did not snag on Victor and pull him back to the surface and chose a place to fish. The sea was choppy but they did not care.

  ‘I have seen a black look like that before!’ Lorna declared when John walked in.

  ‘I was too late all round. Winfield ordered Clementine to do it and Victor knew Clementine and she used that to take him.’

  Lorna opened her mouth to ask if it was Clementine or the lookalike but closed it again, Winfield did not need to find out that there were possibly three lookalikes until John wanted him too and until Lorna had found out all she could about them.

  ‘He will be listed as a defector.’ John declared and his family will get nothing.

  ‘The usual arrangement?’ Lorna asked.

  ‘Yes. They don’t deserve to suffer because he was forced to use his credit card for Winfield’s dirty work, and then murdered to keep his copybook clean.’ John answered.

  Lorna did not answer but looked seriously at John who took out the bug detector and swept the office to satisfy her.

  ‘No bugs.’ He said pointedly.

  ‘Still better safe than sorry.’ Lorna declared. ‘I don’t want to break in a new boss!’

  ‘And I don’t want to have to break in a new secretary!’ John replied.

  Lorna let the word secretary go this time. They worked on in the office in a solemn mood, someone they knew had died to keep Winfield in the PM’s good books and there was nothing they could do about it, at the moment.

  They met that evening at Lorna’s aunt’s house and Lorna opened the post, read emails and tried new website addresses to further their investigation.

  ‘Well I know that two of the triplets are still alive but I don’t know where. I do however know that they are using an assumed name or possibly two as there are no Lautrec’s listed in the country. I have found their mother however who has reverted to using her maiden name.’ Lorna announced when she had done all she could.

  ‘Do you have an address for her?’ John asked hopefully.

  ‘Oh yes but is that important?’ Lorna answered.

  ‘They will go and visit their mother sometime and w
hen they do I will bug their car and follow them to their hideout.’ John answered.

  ‘Sounds like a long job to me.’

  ‘It might be, it just depends how soon they visit their mother.’

  ‘If they ever do.’ Lorna declared.

  ‘There is that but we have to assume that one of the remaining triplets will go and see her sometime.’ John retorted.

  ‘Well as you will be away sometime I will take some of my holiday, I hear Belgium is good this time of the year.’ Lorna replied.

  John gave her a stern look.

  ‘Can’t I have some fun as well, besides you need someone to look after you. I’ll go to France and then hire a car to drive down to Belgium and you can do your usual trick of travelling under another name when Winfield is least expecting it. Where shall we meet?’

  ‘Booked the hotel have we?’ John asked, assuming that she had already done it.

  ‘There were a couple of vacancies about an hour from Frau Winchel’s house, Winchel is Mrs. Lautrec’s maiden name.’ Lorna answered. ‘I booked them to make sure you had somewhere to stay!’

  ‘You are incorrigible and one day it is likely to get you killed and then I will be forced to find a reason to shoot Winfield, again!

  ‘Can’t you shoot him now so that I can watch?’ Lorna replied hopefully.

  ‘Can you be in France by tomorrow morning?’ John asked ignoring the plea.

  ‘I can.’

  ‘Then you are on holiday. I will do my usual trick to lose anyone following and then drive through myself. So much easier than flying. I might even take a boat over to France and hire a car, so many options to get to France.’

  Lorna wrote the hotel’s name on a sheet of paper and the name it was booked in and went upstairs to pack. She had enough clothes there to keep her going until she could buy some new ones which she really liked doing. Her bicycle stayed in the shed and she drove out of the garage in her aunt’s car. Winfield had yet to find this house and also John’s changeover house. He always chose to lose the person following him so that they did not wonder how he left the house. Lorna was seldom followed and although her house was bugged as was her shed there was no car outside watching her, as a rule.

  John read all there was to read about the Lautrec’s and their mother. He looked at a map of the area so that he knew his way around and chose where he would watch the mother’s house from. With that all settled he turned his mind onto how he was going to get into France.

  His chosen way to lose the person following was to walk through the same alley which led to a road that was usually alive with taxis, that way the follower would assume that he hoped into another taxi and they would try to follow in another taxi with the car he was in following both. It had worked several times and he was sure it would work again.

  He rode his bicycle home and put it in the shed, locking the base of the shed in the up position to stop the route being found should they come in and look around. There were no vital papers in his shed and he had a film camera in the cupboard. He took a film of the shed and contents before he went, that was designed to let him know if Winfield had planted papers of a sensitive nature in there for the police to find. The shed was sealed and the alarm set so that it was ready for his return.

  At the moment Winfield had no need to try to frame him but one day he would and would try but John was hopefully one step in front of him all the way.

  In the morning he drove to work and opened the mail. He assumed that by now the bugs were replaced with new bugs in different places, in which case Winfield would be down to see where Lorna was. An hour later Winfield arrived.

  ‘No Lorna?’ He asked.

  It was blatant. She could be getting the morning tea, or in the toilet and normally Winfield would not even mention her, now he assumed she was not in.

  ‘She was feeling nauseous yesterday so I assume it has got bad enough to stay at home.’ John answered.

  He was giving Lorna time to drive a good way into France and then on to Belgium before Winfield heard that she was on holiday.

  ‘I hope she feels better soon, that gastro enteritis is nasty. I have been feeling a bit under the weather myself.’ Winfield replied.

  ‘Did you eat out?’

  ‘Yes I went to the Spaghetti House, I was going to have the Tagliatelli but it was off, so I had a nice risotto.’ Winfield answered.

  ‘I hate to tell you this Winfield old chap but that is where Lorna reckoned she was poisoned!’ John replied.

  ‘It wasn’t!’ Winfield exclaimed.

  ‘It was, best get yourself some electrolytes in for after you have been sick.’ John answered and Winfield hurried out.

  -I do hope you are ill old chap- John thought as he watched the door close.

  By lunch time John was ready to do his disappearing act. Winfield had gone home and had lost interest in all things secret so Spearforth was in charge until he returned. John drove away at lunch time and parked in his drive at home. He packed a bag and jumped into the taxi when it arrived to the surprise of the man in the car opposite.

  The taxi drove away and the man in the car followed. He was on his own for once and this was a problem. He called in for back up but before they arrived John was out of the taxi and walking through the alley. He lifted the back fence out, slipped inside and closed it again before the man following came round the corner. He walked into the house and out into the garage.

  The man following reached the main road to see a taxi driving away and assumed John was in it. He walked back to the car in despair to call in.

  ‘Where is my back up?’ He asked angrily.

  ‘In Manor Road watching, why. We saw you come out but we did not see the subject.’ A voice replied.

  ‘You had to! I followed him through!’ The angry man replied as John drove past in his car with tinted windows.

  ‘No he did not come out our end and get into a taxi, he has lost me like that before so I was ready to follow him.’

  ‘In that case I will have a closer look down the alley to see if I have overlooked anything, as I am the one who has lost him.’

  ‘We’ll come in from this end then and try to see where he went.’ The backup answered.

  ‘Meet you in the middle somewhere then.’ The man following John answered.

  ‘Okay, we’ll let the foil know that you have lost him.’

  The foil was how they knew Spearforth.

  ‘Thanks a bunch.’

  John drove on, unaware that things had taken an awkward turn. He drove to the channel tunnel loading point and drove onto the train. He would be in France soon and driving to Belgium, after he had changed cars and put on a disguise.

  The house he owned in France was on the outskirts of a small village and had a wall round the garden to give it security and seclusion. He drove into the yard and opened the garage door while the gate to the yard closed itself again. It was a relief to see it close as he had had problems with it numerous times and the French electricians did not seem to know how to cure it. In the end he did it himself.

  He reversed out the car inside the garage and parked his car in the garage before going in to freshen up. He bought supplies on the way and put them in the freezer for when he and Lorna came back after their mission. He heated up the pie he bought and microwaved some vegetables into submission. It was not a gourmet meal but it filled the inner man.

  He washed the dishes and left them to drain then locked the house. Time to go on. He tarried to watch the gates close again before he drove away in the noisy Citroen, it was a truly French car. At the border he used his alter ego of Richard Coleman to make sure he made no ripples going through the customs at the border although it was a mere formality.

  He drove into Belgium using the route he had picked out before hand but he did not have a map open, he did not need one. It was late when he arrived at the hotel and took up the room which was waiting for him. An hour later Lorna knocked his door.

  ‘Come in if you are pretty.’
John called and Lorna opened the door and closed it again quickly, once she was inside.

  ‘I might have been Clementine!’ She declared.

  John lifted the paper on the bed to reveal a gun.

  ‘Then one of us might be dead.’ He replied. ‘What can I say, I was a boy scout.’

  ‘No you were not. I know your history right back to your first nappy rash.’ Lorna argued.

  ‘Then I should have been one.’ John replied.

  ‘What is the plan?’

  ‘Tomorrow we go out for a ride and park where I have planned, did you get the supplies?’ John answered.

  ‘Yes but it is a bit basic and there is only wine to drink.’

  ‘I’m not complaining but I might be when I have tried the wine.’ John answered and pulled out a pack of cards.

  They did not want to be seen together in the hotel and would leave in different cars in the morning, tonight they played cards. They could have easily slept together but Lorna was against affairs with people who worked together, so it was cards.

  Morning found Winfield running from the bed to his bathroom at home, he did not have an ensuite as he spent little time there and now he was regretting it. He had already failed to make to the bathroom twice and wanted a bucket for emergencies but he could not spare the time to go down and get one. It was the worst he had ever felt and he had plans for the restaurant.

  John woke, showered and dressed, before going down to eat a breakfast alone. There was no sign of Lorna she had already gone. When he had eaten, he returned to his room and cleaned his teeth before collecting his shaving kit. He would be shaving out in the field as it were but not actually in a field, in a barn within field glass distance from Frau Winchel’s house. To allow him to watch it without being spotted, he hoped.

  He drove to the barn and found Lorna parked there. He parked beside her car to allow her to reverse out when she wanted to and walked into the derelict barn to where Lorna had set up a watching point. There was a blanket to keep the old straw from sticking in them and a sheet under that to stop any moisture coming through.