Sam Leyland furrowed his brow and made an effort to remember. He gave a sudden wince of pain.
‘By God, that were like a red-hot knife in my back! No. I never saw any of them. By the way Rostand talked about them they belonged to another gang.’
Outside in the corridor could be heard the sound of voices and a great clattering as something bulky was brought out of the lift. Sam Leyland put a hand on my arm.
‘You’ll say a good word to the police for Sam Leyland, Mr. Temple? I’ve done what I can to help you.’
The next moment Renouk burst into the room with the posse. The ambulance men took Leyland away quite promptly, but we could not get rid of Renouk till we had made full statements about the shooting. I gave him a résumé of as much of the information Leyland had given us as I thought would be useful to him.
It was with relief that Forbes and I saw the door close on the last of the policemen.
‘Things are beginning to move,’ Forbes said. ‘I think Renouk will soon put the cat among the pigeons.’
‘But we’re still no nearer our main objective, Sir Graham.’
‘Steve? No, you’re right there. But they’re bound to make some move soon. They’re bound to. And when they do we’ve got to have our plans cut and dried. What you have to decide, Temple, is whether you’re going to agree to hand those spectacles over in exchange for the safe return of your wife.’
‘I’m not in a position to do so, Sir Graham. Not before ten o’clock to-morrow morning. They’re locked away in the vaults of Lloyds Bank.’
Forbes permitted himself the rare vulgarity of emitting a low whistle.
‘This puts a very different complexion on things. What made you decide to do that?’
‘It’s a long story,’ I warned him.
‘I think I’d better hear it.’
I gave Forbes a full account of everything that had occurred since the moment when I had first set eyes on Judy Wincott at Fouquet’s in Paris. He listened without a single interruption, making occasional jottings in his pocket-book. When I had finished he went through the list of questions he had noted to clear up the points about which he had been in doubt.
‘I think that’s pretty clear. And I agree with your appreciation of what Rostand’s next move will be under the present circumstances. Now, I have my own ideas, Temple, but in view of the fact that Steve is in pawn, as it were, I feel it’s up to you to suggest what should be done.’
‘Right,’ I said, and spread out the map of Tunis which I had found on board the yacht. ‘Here’s what I suggest. My guess is that the circles marked on this map indicate the various buildings in which the gang have an interest. For instance, the House of Shoni and this hotel are so marked. Crosses indicate where certain incidents were to happen. I believe that cross on the Rue de Rome indicates where Steve was kidnapped, for instance.’
‘I follow you. Would it not be advisable to ask the police to raid all these places without delay?’
‘With Steve inside? Do you place such faith in the Tunisian Police Force?’
Forbes acknowledged my point with a wry, sideways inclination of the head.
‘No,’ I went on. ‘My first object is to get to where Steve is and be with her when the balloon goes up. Now, if you were in Rostand’s place what would you do?’
Forbes sniffed twice and rubbed his chin. He felt in his pocket, and I knew that I would have to watch him go through all that business with his pipe again.
‘Well,’ he said after a moment’s thought. ‘After encountering you at the Hôtel Tunisie and knowing that the police were turning Tunis upside down, I would decide that something had to be done without delay. If I have been playing on your nerves, I would consider that by now you were in quite a flap. I would wait till the small hours of the morning, when a man’s morale is at its lowest, and then I would put the pressure on you.’
‘How would you do that? By telephone?’
‘Yes. But I’d know that any incoming calls to you could be traced by the police. I’d ring you from a call-box, and tell you that if you wanted to see your wife alive you’d better present yourself pronto with the spectacles at a point to be named by me.’
‘That’s what I think too. And when that call comes through I shall undoubtedly have to move very quickly. It will rest with you to organize the counter-attack. When you’ve had the call traced you can plot the position of the call-box on that map and decide which of the marked houses to put your money on. But I rely on you to stop Renouk from staging an artillery duel—’
‘You’re taking a big chance,’ Forbes said thoughtfully. ‘And there’s another thing. Isn’t Mr. Rostand going to cut up pretty rough when he finds you’ve gone empty-handed?’
I didn’t answer for a moment, but looked at Sir Graham speculatively.
‘What are you looking at me like that for?’
‘Sir Graham—’
‘Yes?’
‘Would it be terribly inconvenient for you to part with your spectacles for a time?’
He was still gazing at me in astonishment when the telephone rang. We both glanced towards it quickly and our eyes met. I walked to the bedside table on which the instrument stood. There had been so many calls during the day that I tried to tell myself that this was not the vital one. But even as I lifted the receiver I felt it somehow alive in my hand.
‘Temple speaking.’
‘Listen, Temple. You want to see your wife again – alive?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then listen carefully and obey these instructions quickly and accurately.’ The voice was muffled and harsh as if its owner were speaking behind a handkerchief and straining to disguise his pronunciation. ‘You are being watched all the time. If you try to trick us or to contact the police your wife will be dying when you get to her. You understand me?’
‘Yes. Get on with it.’
‘You have the spectacles with you?’
‘Yes.’
‘I hope you are telling the truth. Within ten seconds of my ringing off you will leave your room, and within half a minute you will emerge from the hotel. A cab will be waiting just opposite the hotel on the far side of the street. You will get into it. You heard that?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then you have forty seconds from now.’
There was a click and the line was dead. I glanced at the long hand on my watch which marked the seconds.
‘I didn’t recognize the voice,’ I told Sir Graham. ‘I have to move fast. Will you lend me your glasses?’
Forbes, with a slightly sad look, handed me his spectacles. They were remarkably similar to the pair reposing in Lloyds Bank, with strong broad ear-pieces. I tucked them into my outside breast pocket and replaced the handkerchief over them.
‘The rest is up to you,’ I told him. ‘Good luck.’
‘Good luck to you, Temple,’ he said quietly, his hand on my shoulder.
I was walking down the corridor twelve seconds after the call had ended. That meant I had to make up two seconds on my trip to the hotel entrance. I had no doubt that my unseen caller had meant everything he said. Rostand was thorough enough to have even worked out the minimum time I would need to get down.
The indicator lights outside the lift showed me that it was on the ground floor. I would have to use the stairs. I leapt down them four at a time. Between the second and first floor I met a waiter carrying a tray of drinks up to someone’s room. I hit him square amidships. He crumpled back against the wall and the glasses went flying.
As I careered on I heard him hurling most unwaiterly comments after me.
I had eight seconds in hand when my feet touched the ground floor. The foyer was deserted now, but as the Hotel François Premier offered a twenty-four hour service, there was still a clerk at the reception desk. He gaped when he saw me sprint across the brilliant carpet that had once graced a Royal Palace in Egypt. I slowed to a walk as I came to the hotel doors. The side glass panels had been closed, and I had to push my way thro
ugh a swing door.
Behind me I heard the night receptionist call out: ‘Mr. Temple! Oh, Mr. Temple!’ but I had no time for him.
I stood for a moment under the canopy which extended over the section of pavement outside the hotel. I was dead on time. The streets were not quite deserted, and many of the café lights were still burning. There were a surprising number of pedestrians about. Tunis was not so dead as London would have been at this hour of the night. There were still cabs in the rank along the street, but opposite me I could see a solitary taxi drawn up at the kerb. The white blob of the driver’s face was turned in my direction. As I walked across the road towards him he reached out a hand and opened the door of the rear compartment.
No word was said as I climbed in and shut the door. He already had his engine running. All he had to do was engage the gear and drive off. I was surprised that I was being allowed such comfort and freedom. I could see exactly where we were going and make a note of the route.
The driver took me northwards and through a maze of streets that eventually emerged on a long, tree-lined boulevard running all along the east side of the modern quarter of Tunis. It was deserted at this hour. After some distance my driver pulled towards the kerb and stopped.
‘Here you will get out,’ he said. ‘Continue to walk in this direction. Keep close to the edge of the kerb. Do not stop or speak to anyone.’
‘How much do I owe you?’ I asked him as I got out. He did not take the joke. Instead he uttered the five-letter French word.
I started along the apparently interminable boulevard. Behind me the taxi-driver had doused his lights. The palm trees planted at regular intervals along the boulevard were etched clearly against a night sky brilliant with an unbelievable multitude of stars.
I had gone a quarter of a mile when I noticed that the bole of the palm tree which I was passing was illuminated by the lights of a car coming up behind me. I saw my own shadow lengthen in the yellowy light of the cadmium bulbs. The car swished past within inches of me. It was a large American model the size of a cruiser. It stopped a few yards past me and the rear door opened.
‘Get in,’ a voice invited me.
I stooped to enter, and immediately put my head into a thick bag of some coarse material. A pair of hands pulled me forward and downwards, and another pair yanked me on to the floor of the car. I heard the door slam.
‘Make no trouble,’ a dangerous voice commanded me in French. ‘Just keep still where you are.’
I made myself reasonably comfortable and obeyed my instructions. I could feel the car gathering speed. It was a good thing that I had not tried to have myself followed. Rostand’s methods of abduction had made sure that any shadower would have been detected. I supposed that ten minutes must have passed since the call came through. I wondered how much luck Forbes would have in tracing it.
With the sack over my head I could not tell how long the journey lasted. We seemed to be turning a great many corners, and I guessed that the driver was making sure he was not being followed. After that our speed seemed to mount and I heard the whine of the tyres on the tarmac of a main road. The sound continued for a long time and my heart sank as I realized I was being taken some way out of Tunis. We must already be beyond the confines of the map I had left with Forbes.
Presently the car slowed and there came that characteristic roar which low-pressure tyres make as they pass over stone-paved roadway. We lurched through several sharp bends, then stopped. I heard someone climb out of the front seat and knock on a wooden door or gateway. There came the clatter and squeak of bolts being drawn. The car ran forward a few more yards, then came to a final halt. My two companions in the rear seat opened the door and handled me out. There was no point in resisting. Still blind, I was led, each of my arms firmly held, up a flight of steps, along a corridor and into a room.
The sack was pulled off my head.
‘Sit down, Mr. Temple.’
The voice was dangerously polite, and I recognized it as Rostand’s – the same voice I had heard at the Villa Negra. My eyes were gradually focusing to the light. I saw that I was in a small room furnished as a comfortable office and sitting-room. Schultz was seated at the desk. This time there was no false friendship on his face. His expression was one of undisguised hostility. Rostand was at the uncurtained window, which seemed to look directly out to sea. He was half standing, half sitting on the ledge. I thought he might be slightly drunk. He seemed excited and very full of confidence.
The third of the men waiting in the room was so small and insignificant that I had not noticed him till now. He sat hunched in the corner like a little wizened old mouse, watching the scene from huge saucer eyes.
‘I hope you have had an enjoyable day, Mr. Temple, and not been too worried about your wife.’
‘I’ve had a very interesting day,’ I said. What I most needed was time. If Rostand was in the mood to banter so much the better. ‘Mr. Zoltan Gupte and Mr. O’Halloran were both very hospitable.’
‘O’Halloran!’ Rostand exclaimed. ‘But he was murdered last night.’
‘Then you should really meet his ghost. It’s just as good as the real thing. Even Gupte was taken in by it.’
Rostand glanced swiftly at Schultz and then back at me. ‘You’re lying. The police are looking for his murderer.’
‘I’m sorry you don’t believe me. I could have told you several other useful things.’
‘Such as what?’
‘For instance that you made a great mistake in killing Audry Bryce. That is what made the good Sam decide to turn Queen’s Evidence – or Bey’s Evidence, as I suppose they call it here.’
Schultz pushed his chair back and stood up.
‘Let’s cut out the fancy talking, Pierre.’
He turned towards me. His blue eyes with their curiously dead expression were absolutely merciless.
‘I hope you have not been so unwise as to try any tricks. You have brought the glasses?’
‘Yes. I have.’
‘Then hand them over.’
‘Not till I’ve seen my wife.’
Schultz sneered.
‘You poor fool. Do you not realize you are now in our power? If you have the glasses it will be perfectly simple for us to take them from you.’
As two gorillas were still standing only a yard behind me this was demonstrably true. I took my handkerchief from my breast pocket, extracted the glasses and handed them to Schultz.
He opened them carefully and both he and Rostand bent their heads to scrutinize them.
‘I hope for your sake these are genuine,’ Schultz said. He looked towards the little man waiting fearfully in the corner. ‘Come along, Armand. You can get to work now.’
Armand stooped to pick up the black wooden box at his feet. Schultz nodded to my two guards.
‘All right. You can put him in with the woman.’
Once again my arms were seized. I was hauled out through the same door and pushed along to the end of the passage. I had time to register the impression that I was already in a kind of basement. The door at the far end opened out on to a flight of stairs, which led farther downwards. At the bottom was a heavy door with a massive lock. One of my guards twisted the key and I was thrust forwards. Behind me I heard the door crash shut and the big key turn. The place was so gloomy that I did not dare to step forward until my eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness.
Then I heard a voice which I knew.
‘Paul! Have they hurt you?’
I moved forward and almost crashed on to my face as I stumbled on a further two steps leading downwards. Steve had run to meet me, and it was only by going into her arms that I avoided falling.
We stayed like that for a few moments.
Then I said: ‘No. I’m all right. What’s more important is, have they – have they done anything to you?’
‘No. Apart from making me lie on the floor of a car with a smelly old bag over my head. My main problem has been boredom. I’ve been sitting here do
ing nothing since about midday.’
‘Where did they pick you up? Somewhere in the Rue de Rome?’
‘Yes. I fell for a very old trick. A man pulled up beside me in a car and said you’d had a bad accident and I was needed back at the hotel at once.’
‘Oh, Steve! I thought you were too experienced to fall for that one.’
Steve laughed softly.
‘So did I. But when it actually happened— Paul, what are you doing here? Did they kidnap you?’
My eyes were beginning to become accustomed to the gloom. There was a window high up in the wall, and some of the light of the stars was filtering through. The two thugs had not turned off the bulb on the stairway outside, and a bar of light shone through the half-inch gap at the bottom of the massive door.
‘No. I came by invitation, as it were.’
‘You mean you walked into this? I’m not going to pretend I’m not glad to see you, Paul, but – you haven’t let them take the spectacles? I believe that’s the only thing that prevents them from killing us.’
‘No. The spectacles are where they’ll never get them. I gave Schultz a false pair. It’s only a question of time before they find out that I’ve tricked them. We may be in for a rather sticky time, Steve.’
Steve put her head against my arm and squeezed my biceps.
‘I feel I can face it better now that you’re here.’
‘What sort of place is this we’re in? Is there a light switch?’
‘It’s outside the door, I think. Doesn’t the smell give you a clue?’
I peered round in the darkness. Sure enough there was a musty, vinous aroma in the air reminiscent of a pub. I could just make out the shapes of two huge wine barrels. I put a hand to the dark walls and felt the cold bottom ends of row upon row of bottles.
‘It’s the cellar. But isn’t that the sky outside?’
‘Yes. I think the house above us must be built on a cliff. I’ve been able to hear the sound of the sea below this window.’
‘Any chance of escape that way?’
‘I’m afraid not. It’s barred and covered with wire mesh. There’s a bench over there if you’d like to sit down.’
East of Algiers Page 16
