"What are you going to do about Arnie?" Ilana said.
I shrugged. "There isn't much we can do, is there? Better to leave things exactly as they are for Simonsen to see tomorrow. I think that's what he'd want."
There was a knock on the door and when I opened it, Gudrid was standing there. Her face was blotched and swollen with weeping, but otherwise she seemed to be in control of herself.
"Mr. Martin, I wonder if you'd do me a great favour?"
"If I can."
"I'd like to charter your plane. Could you fly me down to Sandvig first thing in the morning? I want to get away from here--- right away."
"Olaf Simonsen might not be too happy about that when he gets back tomorrow afternoon," I said.
"If he wants me, he can come to Sandvig for me." She clutched my arm. "Please, Mr. Martin."
I nodded slowly. "All right, Gudrid, but it all depends on the weather, remember. You'd better pray for the fog to lift."
"Thank you, Mr. Martin." There was real relief on her face as she moved to the door and then she hesitated and turned slowly. "What was in the package Arnie gave me, Mr. Martin?"
"Emeralds, Gudrid," I said. "A fortune in emeralds. He would have been rich beyond his wildest dreams. Enough to go to anyone's head."
"And that's why he was murdered." I nodded. "Do you know who did it?"
"That's for the police to decide. Let's say we have a fair idea. Why do you ask?"
"It doesn't matter," she said calmly. "After all, nothing can bring him back now, can it?"
I watched her go and swallowed hard. Another of those times when I could have done with a drink. As I turned, Sarah Kelso got up wearily. Her eyes had sunk into their sockets, her face was pinched and drawn. I remembered the supremely beautiful woman I'd met only three nights ago and could detect not the slightest resemblance.
"If no one has any objection, I think I'd like to go to bed," she said.
Desforge looked at me, compassion in his eyes. "Let her go, Joe. After all, where can she run to?"
Which was true enough and I nodded without speaking. She went out, closing the door softly behind her.
"And now what?" Desforge said.
I suddenly realised I was hungry and glanced at my watch. It was just after ten. "Still time for a late dinner if anyone feels like joining me?"
"And that's the best idea yet," Desforge said. "Just give me time to change," and he went into the bedroom.
I turned to liana and held out my hands. She hesitated before taking them. "What's this for?"
"I just wanted to thank you," I said. "For straightening me out."
"Oh, that!" she smiled faintly. "I wonder if you'll feel the same way when the court has finished with you."
"Very civilised people the Danes," I said. "Finest prisons in the world or didn't you know?"
"I always thought that was Sweden."
"Now you've got me worried." I pulled her into my arms and kissed her.
.....
In view of the circumstances it may sound macabre to say that I ate a hearty meal, but the truth was that I'd only had a sandwich since flying from Sandvig that morning. Desforge wasn't far behind me, but Ilana contented herself with coffee and watched us eat.
We sat in the bar for an hour afterwards and I made do with cigarettes and more coffee while Desforge consumed his usual quantity of alcohol. At one stage in the conversation he suddenly pointed out that by flying Gudrid down to Sandvig I'd be able to return with the emeralds, which for some reason hadn't occurred to me before. Beyond that, we didn't really discuss what had happened, but it was there just the same beneath the surface of things and our general conversation was disjointed and without any real pattern to it.
It was half-past eleven when we went upstairs. I asked Ilana to check on Sarah Kelso and Desforge and I went on to his room. Ilana joined us within a couple of minutes.
"She's sleeping, which seems the sensible thing to do. It's been a long and interesting day so I think I'll turn in. I'll see you in the morning."
Desforge was pouring himself a drink, his back to us and she looked up at me very deliberately as if waiting for something. I did the only thing I could think of which was to put an arm around her and walk her to the door. I kissed her briefly. She had expected more, so much was obvious and I couldn't imagine what it might be. There was something close to disappointment in her eyes when she went out.
I turned and found Desforge looking at me gravely. "You want to watch yourself there, Joe," he said. "The hooks are out."
"You think so?"
"I know so. I've seen it all before. Why waste your time?"
There was a kind of malice underlying what he had said. It was almost as if he hated her now and in view of her father's attitude towards financing the picture, that might well be true. Or perhaps he simply resented her going elsewhere? The old lion still trying to hang on to what was his.
I didn't pursue it and he let it drop and suggested a hand of cards. We played poker, blackjack, a few hands of whist and ended up with a diabolical little game called Slippery Sam that I hadn't played since my navy days. He took a little over two hundred dollars off me and by three-thirty I'd had enough.
I left him and went along to my bedroom. I didn't feel tired and I flung myself on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, thinking about it all.
A moment later the door opened and Desforie came in. "She's gone," he said simply.
"Sarah Kelso?"
He nodded. "I've just looked in."
His reasons were pretty obvious, but that didn't concern me now and I swung my feet to the floor and got up. "Have you checked with Ilana?"
"First place I looked, but there's no sign of her there. Ilana's getting dressed. She'll be here in a minute."
I left him there and went along the corridor and knocked on Gudrid's door. When she opened it I saw with some surprise that she was still dressed.
"Oh, it's you, Mr. Martin." She nodded towards a couple of suitcases on the bed. "I couldn't sleep so I've been packing."
"I want you to do something for me," I said. "Mrs. Kelso seems to have disappeared. Check with the rest of the night staff. See what you can find out without making too much of a fuss."
She nodded breathlessly, her face white and excited and I left her there, went down the back stairs and let myself out of the yard door. The hotel had two Land-Rovers which were kept in a garage across the yard. One was obviously in use so I took the other and drove away as quickly as the fog would allow.
The road down to the harbour was deserted and when I reached the canning factory I parked the Land-Rover and went the rest of the way to the jetty on foot. I was wasting my time, of course. Incredible as it seemed in view of the weather conditions, Da Gama's schooner had disappeared as completely as if it had never existed.
.....
It was just after four as I drove back into the yard at the rear of the hotel and already dawn was seeping through the curtain of fog so that I could see the outlines of buildings clearly.
When I went up to Desforge's room, I found Gudrid and Ilana waiting for me, Desforge pacing up and down restlessly, the inevitable glass in his hand.
He swung round as I walked in. "Where in the hell have you been?"
"Down to the jetty to check on that schooner of Da Gama's. It's gone, taking them all with it presumably. They must be raving mad. There are icebergs all over the place out there."
"You've got it all wrong, Joe," Desforge said. "You'd better sit down and hear what Gudrid has to say."
"I had a word with the night clerk," Gudrid began. "It seems Mrs. Kelso had a telephone call at eleven o'clock. The girl says it was a man and the conversation was in English. Later, Mrs. Kelso phoned down and asked if there was a map available covering the area of the Frederiksborg-Sandvig road. One was sent up to her."
"Anything else?"
"Yes, the night porter was putting out kitchen refuse just before midnight when he saw Mr. Vogel and Mr. Stratton come
into the yard with a third man he didn't know. They took one of the Land-Rovers from the garage, but he didn't think anything of that as they are hired out regularly to hotel guests. As he was going back into the kitchen, Mrs. Kelso came out of the back door and joined them. He said that Mr. Vogel kissed her, then they all got into the Land-Rover and drove away together."
"She's certainly an expert at changing sides," Ilana said bitterly.
"Still think they've gone off on the schooner, Joe?" Desforge demanded.
"No, I suppose it's pretty obvious what they're up to," I said. "They can reach Sandvig by road in six hours. I know that because I've done it myself. In fact with luck on their side, they could be there by five or five-thirty."
"Is there a telephone?" Ilana asked.
Gudrid shook her head. "There's a radio at the trading post, but the factor doesn't live on the premises. He has a farm up on the hill. He opens the post at eight a.m. We could send a message then."
"About three hours too late," Desforge said.
Ilana frowned in bewilderment. "But the whole thing is so pointless, can't they see that? Where on earth do they go from Sandvig?"
Which was exactly what I'd been thinking myself and there seemed to be only one obvious solution. "They've probably arranged a rendezvous with the schooner."
"But what if it doesn't make it?" Desforge said. "You said yourself they must be insane to take her out in this fog."
"At this stage in the game they don't have much option. And there's always another possibility. The airport at Narssarssuaq. That's only a couple of hours from Sandvig by motorboat and plenty of fishermen to take them if the price was right. They could have their pick of flights to Europe via Iceland or the other way to Canada or the States."
"So--- it looks as if nothing can stop them."
I shook my head and what I said next shocked even me. "That isn't quite true. I could be at Sandvig in forty minutes in the Otter remember."
"In this fog?" Desforge laughed abruptly. "Who are you trying to kid. You can't see more than twenty yards in front of you. You wouldn't even get off the water."
"Taking off isn't the problem. It's landing at the other end that I don't fancy. I don't know whether you noticed, but one side of the Sandvig fjord consists of a thousand-foot wall of rock."
Desforge shook his head. "Listen, Joe. I've got a licence--- I can fly myself. God knows, I've done enough of it in pictures, but a flight like that is strictly for a nice big studio mock-up with the wind machines howling and the cameras just out there beyond the smoke. People don't do things like that in real life."
That's all it took. Looking back now, I wonder if he was simply being extremely clever and goading me to do what I'd never seriously intended. If so, he succeeded admirably. I don't know what came over me, but I was suddenly seized by an excitement so intense that it was impossible to handle.
As if he sensed what I was thinking, he said gently, "You'd never make it, Joe."
"You're probably right," I said, "but I know one thing. I'm going to have a damned good try."
Ilana's face was pale, her eyes burning, but I had the door open and was away before she could say anything.
.....
I went to my room and changed into flying gear. By the time I was ready to go some of my initial enthusiasm had evaporated, that was true, but I hadn't changed my mind, and gripped by a strange fatalism I went down the back stairs and crossed the yard to the garage.
I dropped my bag into the rear of the Land-Rover and paused. Gudrid's two suitcases were already in and Desforge's Winchester in its worn case. I turned and the three of them stepped out of the shadows.
"Rotten morning," Desforge said brightly.
"What exactly do you think you're playing at?" I demanded.
Desforge seemed to give the matter due consideration.
"Let's just say we're, tired of the tedium of everyday life."
"You must be raving mad, all of you," I began and Ilana simply brushed past me and climbed into the Land-Rover.
.....
I borrowed a dinghy with an outboard motor and checked my run from the end of the slipway out there into the fjord. It was all clear and when I returned, Desforge had the engine warming up for me.
I strapped myself into the pilot's seat and turned to look at the two girls.
"Better close your eyes tight. This is going to be pretty hair-raising."
That was the understatement of the age. To plunge headlong into that grey wall was probably the most psychologically terrifying thing I'd ever done in my life, but I held on, giving her full throttle, lifting her at the earliest possible moment.
Twenty seconds later we climbed out of the fog and turned south.
.....
It was certainly a spectacular flight. The fog covered the sea below like smoke in a valley, and to the east the peaks of the coastal range pushed through it majestically, an unforgettable sight.
"It doesn't look too good, does it?" Desforge said and strangely enough there was a smile on his face and his eyes sparkled.
"It's what things are like at Sandvig that matters," I told him grimly.
"Worried?" There was a kind of challenge in his voice.
"To be absolutely precise, frightened to death. If conditions are anything like this at the other end, you'd all better start praying."
Gudrid turned pale and gripped the arm of her seat tightly. Ilana offered her a cigarette and said brightly, "He also likes to pull the wings off flies."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I said and concentrated on my flying.
There was a kind of perverse comfort in having managed to transfer a little of my own fear onto someone else and for the next half hour I simply sat there, trimming the controls when necessary in a sort of reflex action, thinking about the whole strange business.
From Vogel's point of view, the strength of his plan had been its essential simplicity, but that had also constituted its greatest weakness. A few careful steps across the tightrope and he would have been home and dry. Unfortunately for him there were two things he hadn't reckoned with--- my own existence and Sarah Kelso's treachery.
Which made me think of Arnie and for a moment I saw him again, lying there behind the couch, blood on the wall. The most stupid and senseless part of the whole affair. Poor Arnie. What was it he had said? Take whatever is going because you can never count on tomorrow. Perhaps he'd had something there after all.
I came back to myself with a start as Desforge gripped my arm and when I looked down, I could see the fog ending abruptly as if someone had sliced it neatly across with a knife and we flew into heavy drenching rain, the sea clear beyond.
From then on the whole thing was a bit of an anticlimax. Certainly visibility in the fjord when we reached it was considerably reduced by the heavy rain, and a tracer of mist obscured Rasmussen's farm up on the hill, but the landing presented no difficulty at all.
I swung in a wide circle, chose a course parallel with the great rock face on the other side of the fjord and two hundred yards away from it, and put the Otter down.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
"So, here we are then," I said as we drifted to a halt. I could have sworn there was an expression of disappointment on Desforge's face, but he forced a grin. "Rotten third act, Joe. Anticlimax."
I turned and glanced at the women. "Okay back there?"
Gudrid had colour in her cheeks again and Ilana smiled, "As ever was."
I started to light a cigarette and Desforge held up his hand. "I thought I heard something."
I opened the window and rain drifted in and we sat there in silence, the only noise the occasional slap of a small wave against the floats. Desforge told Ilana to pass him the Winchester and he started to unfasten the straps on the gun case as I leaned out of the window.
There was the muffled put-put of a small outboard motor somewhere near at hand and then a voice called in Danish and I relaxed. A small dinghy coasted out of the rain, Bergsson the trad
ing post factor sitting in the stern. He cut the motor and drifted in beside the float.
He grinned up, his beard spangled with tiny beads of moisture. "Morning, Joe, you're lucky. Half an hour ago the fjord was choked with fog, then the rain came in and cleared it all away."
"It was pretty bad when we left Frederiksborg," I said.
Gudrid leaned forward. "Good morning, Mr. Bergsson. How is my grandfather?"
Jack Higgins - East Of Desolation Page 17
