by Jack Ludlow
‘As you will appreciate, Herr Jardine, discretion is all in such transactions.’
‘Of course.’
‘Hence the need to meet in an out-of-the-way banking facility like this one. First of all, I have considered our previous conversation and I wish to establish if your aim is to purchase everything you think you can sell on and take it out of Rumania.’
‘It is.’
‘Might I ask how?’
‘By truck to Varna.’ Dimitrescu lost his genial air then, and his expression came close to a scowl: just the mention of a Bulgarian port was enough to raise his national hackles. ‘I would ask as part of our transaction that you clear us through customs on the Rumanian-Bulgarian border.’
‘Why Varna?’
‘To divulge that would be to open up a path that might lead to excessive disclosure, Colonel, and really, once the transaction is complete, and I say this with no ill intent, your interest in what happens to the goods is at an end.’
‘You will appreciate that any weaponry going to that country raises concerns. The Bulgarians are not good neighbours and to this I cannot agree.’
Jardine made a show of thinking deeply, hand on chin. In reality he was amused: he had just said that to guy the bastard, to see how far he would go, and he knew he could insist. Greed would overcome patriotism.
‘You would prefer Constanta?’
‘Most certainly.’
The response was a shrug of supposed indifference. ‘My ship can dock anywhere. I will send instructions to move to Constanta and we will load there.’
‘Good!’ The folder was slipped across the table. ‘Here is a list of what we have. It is probably best if I leave you in peace to consider what you want and don’t want. I take it you have a pen?’
‘Of course,’ Jardine replied, pulling a Mont Blanc Meisterstück from his inside pocket. He was with a man who knew quality when he saw it, evident in his look of admiration, with the owner playing another joke. ‘Bought it in Hamburg. Damn fine pen.’
‘Hamburg,’ Dimitrescu replied, his facial skin a trifle tight. ‘I do not know it.’
‘Neither do I, really, just paid a short visit. Bit windy for my taste.’
‘I will leave you to it.’ Jardine thanked him, then promised himself no more guying: the bugger might join the dots. ‘You have details of your bank?’
That was passed over and Dimitrescu exited. Opening the folder he perused the list, and it was obvious his colonel was telling the truth about this, at least. It was a real hotchpotch of weapons: French, Russian, some old Austrian pre-Great War pieces, but there were Maxim guns and, in reality, a rifle was a rifle; they had not changed much in fifty years, except the Mannlichers had clips while most were bolt action. There were French 6.5 mm Daudeteaus and M75s, plus eighty-odd Lee-Enfields. Also listed were mortars that he wanted, and some small-calibre field guns, which he struck off, but in the main the list conformed to what Zaharoff had shown him.
The fountain pen was used to put a price beside each set of items, including the required ammunition, the whole totted up to a low total which he knew Dimitrescu would try to negotiate upwards, opening with an outrageous value, this being a country where bargaining was part of the fabric. So the arguments would be, unless he cut them short, long and boring. Sure he had the means to curtail matters, he rang the bell and his man re-entered with his bank details, which were handed back before he resumed his seat.
‘I have had the manager send a telegram to Zurich, if that is acceptable, just to check the account exists.’
‘Essential I would say, wouldn’t you?’
‘So?’ he asked, nodding to the folder, once again closed, assuming there was no need to wait for a reply.
‘I think we can very much do business, Colonel Dimitrescu.’ Then Jardine made a big play of looking around the office. ‘But I think when we do, the price I pay should reflect the unusual nature of our surroundings, don’t you?’
‘I have already explained—’
Jardine cut him off, but with some gentility. ‘Please, Colonel, I am a man of the world and as long as I get that which I seek I have no other concerns. I will deal with you in good faith, but I think it is obvious you are acting … how shall I say it? … at the very limits of your authority, perhaps.’
He was not one to surrender too easily. ‘I am acting as the representative of my nation.’
‘I was good enough to give to you the details of my banking facility. Would you be good enough to respond?’
‘It is too early for such a thing.’
Jardine was thinking, good try, old cock, but not good enough. Time for a little bit of a lie, so that Dimitrescu started operating to his timetable instead of the other way round. ‘As I told you, I called at the British embassy this morning. I established they are happy to arrange for me to see the Minister of War.’
‘You mentioned these weapons?’
‘Of course not. I said I was trying to sell some British products, and they were keen to aid me. A forged business card does wonders. Now, do we do business, or do I accept their offer?’
‘You are living very dangerously, Herr Jardine.’
‘I think we both are.’
‘It does not seem to occur to you that I am acting on the instructions of that very same minister.’
‘Then you have nothing to fear in me meeting him.’ Jardine leant forward. ‘Come, Colonel, I have no interest in what you are up to or who stands to gain from it, I am merely keen to get what I want for as little as I am required to pay, so that I can increase the profit I make when I sell it. It is business.’
Dimitrescu opened the folder and looked down the notes Jardine had made. There was no need to enquire if he had got to the total: his hiss of anger was too audible.
‘An opening gambit, Colonel, but it has a purpose and that is to tell you I expect to pay a good price, but not an unreasonable one.’
Dimitrescu did not hesitate: he came back with a figure three times that on the paper before him and they were off, back and forth, edging closer until they seemed close to a deal on one just above twice what Jardine had proposed, a point from which he refused to budge. But then, neither would the colonel, and that was when Jardine recalled Goldfarbeen saying the weapons had been loaded onto railway wagons.
‘I’ll tell you what, Colonel, I will agree that price if you get my weapons to Constanta.’
Dimitrescu was quick to agree, unaware the man he was negotiating with knew such transportation was, to him, probably cost-free; time to close him out.
‘Naturally, the weapons being on the dockside, ready to be loaded, would represent the completion of the transaction. I am sure your bank has a branch in the country’s main port.’
‘Dimitrescu wants the money more than he wants to do the Germans a favour and he won’t move till that’s in his bank. We complete the deal, he tells them to come and nail me, and by the time they get here I will be in the middle of the Black Sea, we will have our weapons and, I can tell you, at a price a lot less than I expected to pay. It’s a good deal, and you don’t have to get involved except in the money transfer, and you can do that from here.’
‘Your show, old boy,’ Lanchester said. ‘No point in hiring a dog …’
‘Don’t you dare finish that sentence!’
‘Heel, boy,’ Lanchester joked. ‘I’d best get word to London that matters are coming to a head.’
‘You don’t want to meet Dimitrescu, anyway.’
‘It wasn’t him I wanted to meet, it was those dark-haired floozies you told me about.’
‘I missed out on that an’ all,’ Vince cut in.
‘It is our misfortune, Vince, to be in cahoots with a selfish bastard. So what’s the process, Cal?’
‘We need speed, so the transfer will have to be by telephone, telegrams will take too long, which means you have to set up a line to Switzerland from this hotel and keep it open.’
‘Can you do that?’ Vince asked.
; Lanchester shrugged. ‘Grand luxury hotel, they should be used to that sort of thing.’
‘I will phone reception from Constanta on another line with a coded message, you process the funds, I will insist he is on to his bank in the same way, and as soon as all is complete I put a gun to his head and tell him if he tries to stop me leaving with the weapons his brains will be all over the wall. Simple, really.’
‘I can spot one or two flaws.’
‘So can I, but I will have Vince with me. They don’t know about him and he will have your Colt Automatic.’
‘I’ve only ever fired a rifle and a machine gun.’
‘It’s easy, Vince,’ Lanchester said.
‘Must be,’ Vince retorted, ‘if a bleedin’ officer can do it.’
Jardine responded, ‘You just point it and pull the trigger, like James Cagney in The Public Enemy.’
‘What’s the timing?’ asked Lanchester.
‘Dimitrescu is calling in the morning, Peter. I’ll tell you then.’ Jardine pulled a card out of his pocket. ‘This is the place he and I went to last night. Why don’t you take Vince there and have a night on the firm?’
‘You?’
‘Whacked, Peter.’
‘And don’t we know why. Anything else we might need to have a romantic evening?’
‘Cotton wool.’
Cal Jardine stopped at the bar of the Athénée Palace to have a drink, before dinner and an early night. That a stranger spoke to him in a hotel bar, on hearing him order from a multilingual barman, was not anything to remark upon, nor even that the man was clearly German and wanted someone to talk to over a drink; after all, they did much business in Rumania. Besides, as he said, he was keen to try out his English, which he feared was becoming rusty, evidenced by his accent and grammatical errors when he spoke it.
There is a certain air about some men, and for a businessman in machine tools, Herr Reisner, with his firm handshake, seemed very fit. When Jardine deliberately laid a hand on his upper arm as they got up to go into dinner, it was clear the fellow had hard biceps. He also had scars in certain places on his face and cheeks, nothing too obvious, but the little mementoes that come from action; Jardine had seen enough of those in his own shaving mirror, and there was also a similarity in the skin: he was a man accustomed to the outdoors.
His hair was blond, the eyes – a startling blue – were rarely concealed by a blink, while they had at the corners the kind of lines that came from peering at a strong sun. In the none-too-taxing enquiries he made about his presence in Bucharest and his business, the replies were just a shade too slow in coming, as if he had a flimsy cover story, while every time he asked Jardine about his reasons for being in Bucharest, there was just the slightest trace, a tightening of the upper jaw, that indicated those replies were being measured against another narrative.
Dinner over, Jardine politely declined a late-night stroll or a nightcap, pleading a long and tiring day, and went back to his room, his first act to lock his door and jam a chair against it. Then he rang Lanchester’s hotel and Vince’s room, leaving a simple code they would understand and no German should. It took time for the receptionist to get the letters down when he spelt it out and he made the man read it back.
‘That’s right. We’ve been bowled a googly.’
Then he went to bed with the Colt under his pillow, caring not one jot that the oil on the gun would stain the linen of his sheets. What would the chambermaid think, having changed them that morning after his night of passion?
CHAPTER TEN
Aware that he might be indulging in an overreaction, Jardine was at the reception desk while the cleaners were still trying to dust the lobby and the day staff had not yet come on duty: if you want to find out anything in a hotel, those who work overnight are much more malleable than the more stuffy daytime people and his question, in truth, was seemingly harmless. A twenty-lei note and a hint he was a potential business competitor established that Herr Reisner had checked in late the day before. As soon as office hours came into play he phoned the German embassy and asked for the same person, to be told no one of that name occupied a position there, which eliminated one possibility.
There was no need to bribe the night-time receptionist to keep hush what he had been asked: if Reisner was genuine, he would not enquire; if he was what Jardine thought he might be, a member of the SS Intelligence Branch, either resident in Bucharest or sent from Berlin, he did not need to. It was not surprising they met at breakfast – being guests in the same place it was natural – nor was there anything untoward in the way the German greeted him and made a polite and silent gesture that asked permission to share his table.
In daylight, over the kind of food one has in the morning, jams and hot rolls, it was easier for Jardine to study his hands, for they tell you much about what a person might do in his life. A fellow who occupies a desk and uses his pen as a weapon should, in the main, have soft hands. Reisner’s were not excessively large but the knuckles were prominent, the skin covering them showing some evidence of scarring as if, many times in his life, he had used them in physical conflict; in short, the man was a fighter.
‘You have busy day ahead again, Herr Jardine?’
‘Not as taxing as yesterday, but enough to be going on with. And you?’
Reisner smiled, showing perfectly even and white teeth, his answer, once more a millisecond delayed. ‘Mostly telephone, make contacts I hope call on.’
Not a good answer: you did not come all the way to Rumania to make those calls; you wrote beforehand and only expended money on travel when you had firm commitments to talk.
‘I, too, have many calls to make,’ Jardine said, draining his coffee cup, ‘so if you will forgive me …’
‘Perhaps tonight dinner?’ came the reply. ‘Not hotel … somewhere other perhaps? I told many good eating places in Bucharest.’
‘What’s your room number, Herr Reisner?’
This time the pause was way too long, while the eyes flickered, as though divulgence was unwise. ‘Drei, fünf, eins.’
Tempted to muck him about by asking for a translation, Jardine decided not to bother. ‘I shall call you later and let you know if I am free.’
Vince always took his breakfast in his room and later than Jardine, more so on this morning having had a late night, an evening out his one-time CO had to enquire about, having been required to get him out of bed to answer the door. A quick glance at the state of his linen showed only the crumbs of toast.
‘It was way too pricey, guv, and that was the food. The women were out of sight. God only knows how much your colonel shelled out on you.’
‘You got my message?’ Vince nodded, but showed no evidence of understanding until it was explained to him, and that from a man who lived within shouting distance of the Oval. ‘I need you to ride shotgun again, but this time ignore Dimitrescu’s dolt and see if there’s anyone else too interested.’
‘Nazi bastards,’ Vince replied, thumbing his oft-broken nose and shimmying a straight left and a right hook. ‘Be nice to land one on the sods.’
‘They won’t be goose-stepping, Vince. If they are around they won’t look much different to anyone else, and it occurs to me there are so many fascists in the place already, half of them probably funded by the German Foreign Office, that my Reisner bloke would not have needed to bring anyone with him.’
The phone call he made to Lanchester from his exterior café got a more positive response: he had understood the message. ‘That guy you asked in Berlin about me, any chance of getting on the blower and seeing if he can pick up a whisper?’
‘Worth a try, though I think we’ll end up spending more money on international phone calls than—’
‘Don’t say it, Peter.’
‘I was about to say those ladies of the night Vince and I turned down. Christ, they were expensive, and I always thought when one went abroad such things were cheaper.’
‘Since I am completely in ignorance of the price at home
I am not able to comment.’
‘Stop being pious, Cal, and send Vince over later.’
Exiting the café, he had an agreed signal with Vince: if he was reading a paper, it was back to the Athénée Palace for a report; all clear and it would be under his arm, so he could phone Goldfarbeen and get a taxi to meet him. They both assumed that the bad grey suit was a given. Vince was reading.
‘He was right behind the berk we’ve had since the off. Big shoulders and heavyweight muscles, ’cause his suit jacket was real tight on his biceps, hands like hams and square head under his titfer, as well, but that’s what you expect with Huns.’
‘I must introduce you to some German women.’
‘Whenever you like, guv, I’m game.’
‘There’s one called Gretl I think you’d like.’
‘Don’t get the idea I’m fussy, but what about this new bloke?’
‘If he was following me, that means Dimitrescu does not know he is here. In contact he would not have to, he could just ask.’
‘Good or bad?’
‘Ask me another.’
‘What’s goin’ to win the three-thirty at Kempton Park?’
‘All I know is it’s getting messier, Vince.’
‘Might be towel time – like throw it in, guv.’
There was no fear in that statement, just the option anyone but an idiot might take. ‘Not yet, I’ve got to go and see Goldfarbeen, usual drill.’
‘What if our new chum follows you in a cab?’
Jardine wrote down and passed over Goldfarbeen’s number. ‘Call him and say not to show up.’
‘You never did tell me what coins the phones take.’
One phone call and two taxis later Jardine entered the synagogue once more, to be greeted by a man with good news and, of more immediate concern to him, a troubled stomach, over which he constantly rubbed his hands, an act that only demonstrated how massive it was.
