I said, ‘His name is Maitland. Stephen Maitland. He’s English.’
‘Aaah,’ she exclaimed. ‘Herr Maitland, room nine.’
Weakly I leaned against the solid oak of the reception desk.
‘Could I see him please?’ I managed to ask.
She looked at the clock, shaking her head doubtfully.
‘It’s very important, very …’
‘At breakfast, Fraulein.’
‘I’m Frau Maitland,’ I lied desperately. ‘I must see him. It’s urgent.’
She hesitated, drumming her fingers on the polished wood, then with a slight shrug, picked up the phone. It rang for a few minutes, then Stephen’s voice, thick with sleep, answered.
‘Good morning, Herr Maitland. Frau Maitland is at reception.’
I couldn’t hear his reply. The housekeeper, if that was who she was, replaced the receiver, then settled herself comfortably behind the desk, intent on watching the ensuing reunion with interest. She wasn’t disappointed.
Within minutes there came the sound of hurrying footsteps and Stephen burst through the swing doors. I stood stock still, my heart beating painfully against my chest, quite unable to speak. Then I was rushing across the room.
I don’t know what I expected his reaction to be. Astonishment, bewilderment, relief. What I didn’t expect was for him to hold me away at arms’ length and to ask coolly, ‘And what are you doing here?’
It was too much. The floor shelved up and I sank to meet it giddily.
When I came to, I was sitting in the only armchair the entrance hall boasted, propped up by Stephen’s arm, while the housekeeper stood, face anxious, holding a drink out for me. I accepted it, trying to collect my scattered wits. The housekeeper withdrew to a discreet distance and Stephen removed his arm, asking once more, ‘ Why are you here?’
‘I’m here,’ I said, with as much dignity as the situation allowed, ‘because Gunther Cliburn is going to kill you.’
He said simply, ‘ Is he indeed, and what is that to you?’
‘What is that to me?’ I echoed. ‘Sweet heaven, I drive like a maniac all the way down here to warn you, instead of doing what anyone in their right minds would do, and drive to the nearest Channel port and home, and all you can do is ask me why I‘ve bothered.’
Stephen sat on the edge of the coffee table in front of me, his whole attitude one of cool indifference.
‘Before I believe anything you say, I think I’m owed an explanation.’
I said, ‘ I can explain to you, Stephen, but it will take time, and Gunther must be searching the hotels already.’
‘Then it might be a good idea to move the car.’
‘Oh goodness, I’d forgotten all about it.’ The familiar stirrings of panic rose within me.
‘Go up to my room,’ he said. ‘I’ll garage the car and then we’ll have our talk. I warn you. Your explanation had better be good. I’m still seven hundred pounds’ worth of car missing.’
I handed him the keys and he strode out on to the veranda, his face an impenetrable mask. Obediently I staggered off in search of room nine. It was on the ground floor at the back of the hotel. It was small, containing only a single bed and chest of drawers. The walls were stark white and over the head of the bed hung an ornate crucifix. French windows opened on to the stretch of green beyond and I walked over to them, opening them and standing on the dew-wet grass. I didn’t turn when the door behind me opened and then closed quietly.
He came to stand a foot or two away from me before he spoke. ‘Why did you do it?’ he asked then. I turned and walked back into the room.
‘You mean at Nordlingen?’
He nodded.
‘I thought you were going to kill me.’
He drew in his breath and said with barely controlled anger, ‘You’ll have to think of something better than that!’
‘It’s the truth,’ I shouted back, my control snapping like an over-taut thread. ‘For goodness sake, listen to me, will you?’
We glared at each other, then he said, ‘ Okay, I’m listening.’
I stared at the floor and said, ‘It was all your fault. You lied to me. That first evening after we had visited the church in the woods, I went out for a walk. I recognized Harvey Ellis leaving the wine bar in Niedernhall. I was so sure it was the same man who had stolen my car that I followed him. He went to the farm and, when I got there, I saw your car parked in the woods and I saw you talking to him.
‘When I met Gunther later, he said you had left a message for me, that you would be late in the morning because you had gone to Koblenz. I didn’t think too much of it then because I was sure you would explain everything to me when you saw me. But the next day I read in the papers about Herr Ahlers being shot in Bonn and saw the photograph of the car and realized that the two men who had crashed it and taken mine were the killers.’
I twisted my signet ring round and round my little finger. ‘There were no descriptions of the wanted men in the paper. I knew, then, that the shot in the woods had not been an accident. Someone knew I had seen the men and that I could identify them. My first thought was to ring you but I didn’t have your number and I didn’t know the name of the guest-house, but I did have Gunther’s telephone number.
‘So I rang him. It was he who first made me suspicious of you. He pointed out that you had been travelling behind the car the men had crashed and when I told him that I’d seen you talking to one of them at the farmhouse when you had said you were in Koblenz, well … it did seem odd but I was still sure you would be able to explain everything when I saw you. Really I did. But when you came you held to your story about Koblenz, and later, when you went to the chemist for me … I found the gun in your glove compartment.’
Stephen swore under his breath.
‘I … thought Gunther was right,’ I went on. ‘After all a pistol isn’t standard holiday equipment, is it? When I got back to Frau Schmidt’s there was an anonymous telephone call for me, telling me to leave Niedernhall immediately. I couldn’t recognize the voice but he did speak English, so I put two and two together …’
I sat down on the edge of the bed, still not raising my eyes to his face.
‘Before I left I went for a coffee and a sandwich. I saw Christina across the street and waved to her to join me. She told me you were leaving Ohringen and gave me the name of the hotel you’d booked in at at Oberammergau. Her father had dropped her off so that she could do some shopping and return my scarf which I had left at their guesthouse.’ I paused, struggling to steady my voice. ‘ I told her to keep it. That’s why … that’s why she was killed. She was wearing it and they … they thought it was me.’
Stephen swore under his breath.
‘I was terrified. I knew whoever had done it would soon realize their mistake, and the only person I could think of who had seen me wearing the scarf was you. I drove straight out of the village and phoned Gunther. He came to meet me and he said … he said you and the two men who had taken my car had all been arrested. All I wanted to do was to drive out of that village and never see it again. I told Gunther I was going to Austria and he said he would travel with me as far as Augsburg.
‘You see, they didn’t know where you were and they thought by using me as bait they would get you as well. When we reached Nordlingen my car broke down. Gunther took it to be repaired and it was then that I saw you. You passed me in the street and I saw you park behind Gunther’s Mercedes and get out of the car.’
I groaned, covering my head in my hands. ‘I ran in search of Gunther. He made a pretence of telephoning the police, but in actual fact he phoned the two men—Ivan Levos and Harvey Ellis—and then booked us both into the hotel on the outskirts of the town. After dinner he took a cab and went back to Nordlingen for his car, and not long after I saw you climbing the hill, and I thought …’ The tears began to fall despite myself. ‘I thought … you … were going to kill me, so I ran …’
‘And took my car?’
‘Yes, I dro
ve to Augsburg and booked into a hotel there. I rang Gunther to let him know where I was and of course he sent Harvey Ellis and Ivan Levos to pick me up. The joke had worn thin as far as he was concerned. I went to buy a morning paper and they kidnapped me in the street. Just like that. When I came round we were well on our way back to Niedernhall … I still thought it was you who was trying to kill me. They encouraged me in that, saying you were at the farmhouse waiting for me. Of course it was Gunther all along. He was … vile.’
‘Did he touch you?’ Stephen asked.
I bit my lip, eyes shut tight against a fresh onslaught of tears.
I heard Stephen say quietly, ‘So help me, I’ll break every bone in his body.’
And then I looked up and saw his face, harsh and haggard, and I knew that everything, at least where he and I were concerned, was all right. He pulled me roughly into his arms and kissed me hungrily. It was a long time before he let me go.
I looked up at him and said shakily, ‘ I’m sorry I was such a fool, Stephen.’
He pressed my head against his shoulder, winding his fingers in my hair.
‘I was the fool, Susan. I should have levelled with you from the beginning, but I wasn’t sure of things and I didn’t want to frighten you.’
‘But you’ll tell me now?’
‘Of course. Where shall I begin?’
‘With the gun,’ I said.
Chapter Fourteen
He put his arm around me, holding me close. ‘ I was probably more scared of that damned gun than you were.’
‘But why did you have it?’
He grinned. ‘At the time I wasn’t sure myself. The ironic thing is, I never realized about the car. I haven’t read a damned paper since I left Munich. It was other things that disturbed me. You remember when we went to Ohringen for a couple of drinks?’
‘And Christina sent me for the booklet so that she could speak to you in private?’
‘Exactly. Anyway that was what started it off. She’d told her father about Herr Cliburn and he was sure there was no one of that name and description staying in Niedernhall.’
‘I remember that, but why …’
‘Don’t interrupt,’ he said, closing my lips with a kiss. ‘Well, like you, I didn’t think any more of it until that incident in the woods, and that, my love, was just too much. As you pointed out yourself, you don’t use a silencer if you’re potting a rabbit. Whoever fired that shot had been aiming it carefully. The shot was fired from the top of the ridge down on to the clearing where you were sitting. It couldn’t have been an accident.’
‘You mean you knew then that someone had tried to kill me and didn’t say anything!’
‘What good would it have done? You would only have been scared silly. It was obvious from your behaviour that you didn’t know what was happening. I decided I’d better make it my business to know, and I started off with Herr Cliburn. No one had heard of him. Then I rang Christina. She said her father was quite firm about there not being a resident of the village with that name, and that he wasn’t one of the regulars who spend part of the summer here. It was Christina who suggested the farm. Apparently it’s often let during the summer months.’
‘So you went up to find out?’
‘Yes. My car didn’t take very kindly to that dirt track, so I left it half-way up and walked the rest of the way. I was still about twenty yards away when your friend careered out of the woods, nearly running me down. He was in a foul temper and had been drinking heavily. It soon developed into quite a slanging match. He said he didn’t like strangers nosing around his property and that there was no one of the name of Cliburn staying there and to beat it. But one thing I did get a nosy at was his car, and on the back seat was a rifle.’
‘If it had been Ivan Levos you had spoken to and not Harvey Ellis, he would have killed you there and then.’
‘He may have tried,’ Stephen said dryly. ‘Anyhow, I’d seen enough to make me uneasy. Cars don’t get stolen and then returned with such a minimum of fuss. And people don’t get as excited as Ellis did over a harmless trespasser. I was pretty sure the rifle in his car wasn’t coincidence and I decided that the first thing to do was to get you out of Niedernhall.’
‘So …’
‘So I went to Koblenz.’ He pressed his fingers gently against my lips to silence my next question. ‘Because it just so happens I have an old school friend, Paul Beincen, living there, who not only speaks English on account of having an English mother, but is also a police officer.’
‘Oh, so you told him and he …’
‘Not so fast, Susan. He wasn’t at home. His sister was there and gave me dinner, but Paul was away for two weeks on a training course.’
‘So it was a wasted journey?’
‘Not quite,’ he said, with a sheepish grin. ‘I borrowed his gun.’
‘You did what!’ I cried, jumping to my feet. ‘ You took a gun belonging to a German police officer! Stephen, do you realize what could happen to you, they could …’
‘Ssssh, don’t get so excited. He won’t miss it until he gets back, and after all, it did seem as if I might need it …’
‘But, Stephen, you wouldn’t actually have used it, would you?’
‘Not unless I had to.’
‘Stephen …’
‘I booked us into this hotel, the Alte Post, though not, I may add, as Frau Maitland, and after you’d agreed to come with me, went back to Ohringen to collect my things and try and get in touch with Paul again. Then I heard about Christina, and the way she’d died. I drove over to Niedernhall like a madman but it was too late. You’d gone. The ironic thing is, I never realized about the car, I never saw the papers. If I’d had proof like that I would have been in the first police station.’
‘How did you trace me as far as Nordlingen?’
‘Luck mainly. Among the people standing outside Frau Schmidt’s was the man who had served you in the coffee-bar. I was asking everyone if they had seen you or your car, and he had. He said you’d taken the Schwabisch Hall road. I hared off after you but without success. I drove through Schwabisch Hall and as far as Crailsheim before I gave up. Then I doubled back to Schwabisch Hall and began a tour of the streets.’
‘And the bars.’
‘Eventually.’ He grinned. ‘That really put the cat among the pigeons. The barman remembered you very well. He gave me a most glowing account of your rapturous reunion with his fellow countryman. He probably thought, by my behaviour, that I was an outraged husband, and he really went to town.’
I blushed shamefacedly. ‘It was just that I’d been so frightened and …’
He silenced me in mock reproach. ‘ Never mind the excuses. You’ve a lot to answer for, young lady. What he said really took the wind out of my sails, I can tell you. I didn’t know what to make of it. The barman had seen you studying a map and had overheard Gunther mention Augsburg. So, like Alice, muttering curioser and curioser, I headed as fast as I could in the same direction.’
‘Until you got to Nordlingen and saw Gunther’s car.’
‘I waited by that damned car for over an hour. Then I did what was becoming routine. Rang all the hotels and guest-houses and finally traced you about eight o’clock.’
‘What made you hide the car and walk up to the hotel?’
‘I’m not sure. Some sixth sense that I wish I’d never heeded! I asked for you at Reception and was told that Fraulein Carter was not receiving visitors. When I insisted, I was told that I must wait and see her Doctor, Herr Cliburn, who had gone to Nordlingen for medical supplies. That did it. I was sure then that you were being held against your will. I was just making my way to the back of the hotel to see if I could force an entrance when I saw you running and jumping down the hillside like a maniac. It never occurred to me that you were running away from me. How I didn’t break a leg chasing after you I’ll never know. Then, when you did see me, instead of running gratefully into my arms, you ran even harder and stole my car!’
‘I�
��m sorry, Stephen. Really I am.’
He shook his head. ‘ I sat down on the edge of that road, trying to decide who was mad, you or myself.’
I squeezed his hand. ‘The hotel staff definitely thought it was me, by the way they behaved. I’d seen your torch bobbing about, getting nearer and nearer and when I was sure it was you I dashed to the reception desk to ask them to phone the police, with the result that I found myself being firmly taken to my room and very nearly locked in.’
Stephen laughed. ‘ My poor Susan. How did you convince them of your sanity?’
‘I didn’t. But when they’d gone back downstairs I sneaked out by a rear exit.’ ‘And drove straight to Augsburg?’
‘Yes. What did you do, Stephen? Hire another car?’
‘I walked back to Nordlingen, booked into a hotel and spent the most wretched night of my life trying to reason things out. Next morning I rang the hotel on the off chance you had returned. You hadn’t, but this time they were helpful. They said Fraulein Carter had booked out of the hotel and gone to the St Wolfgang, Augsburg.’
‘But how did they know that?’
‘When you phoned Gunther from Augsburg, he obviously made his mind up there and then as to how he would deal with us both. He sent Ellis and Levos to pick you up early next morning and take you back to the farm, and left a clear trail for me to follow, from Augsburg to Oberammergau. That way, Gunther would know just where I was when he had settled with Ellis and Levos and murdered you. All he had to do was catch up with me here on his way to Munich and a flight back to Brazil. Most convenient for him.’
‘Except that I got away and you didn’t go to the Furstenhaus.’
‘No. As I’d already got a booking here I stuck to it.’
‘I’m glad.’
He kissed me again and I was too happy to feel any fear at the thought of Gunther. I said, ‘What are you going to do now? Ring the police?’
‘Yes. I’d better not waste any more time.’
He squeezed my shoulder. ‘I’ll phone from the reception desk. The manageress speaks reasonable English and I may need someone to help me out.’
Rendezvous With Danger Page 12
