The Short Forever (28 page)
LANCE CABOT WOKE UP IN HIS ZURICH hotel room at noon, wakened by his travel alarm. He showered, shaved, dressed, and applied his false beard, which on inspection in the mirror, he thought very becoming. Maybe he’d better grow one, he thought, since he was going to be hot for a while, even though no one had anything on him. Stan Hedger was his only real worry; Hedger wanted him badly, and he wouldn’t stop looking. He felt sorry about Erica, but he couldn’t contact her for a long time, he knew.
He called Ali’s room. “I’m off,” he said. “As soon as the transaction is complete I’ll pick you up here. Our flight to Cairo isn’t until five o’clock. We’ll change passports again.” He hung up.
Lance arrived at the bank on time. He gave the appropriate name to an officer and was escorted into a conference room. Two men of Middle Eastern appearance sat at the large table. They stood up when he arrived.
“There’s a buzzer on the table, there,” the bank officer said. “Ring when you need me.”
Lance nodded and sat down.
“You have the item?” one of the men asked.
Lance set the catalogue case on the table and opened it. He handed over the device, wrapped in tissue paper.
Nervously, the man on the other side of the table tore away the paper, then held the device in his hands and weighed it. “It’s very light,” he said.
“Very advanced metallurgy,” Lance said. “Are you ready to make the transfer?”
“How do we know this is the device you promised?”
“I would have thought that your people would have been smart enough to send someone with the skills to authenticate it.”
He handed the device to his companion, who inspected it for, perhaps, two minutes, then nodded.
“All right,” the first man said, “we are ready to make the transfer.”
“I think, perhaps, you should put that away,” Lance said, nodding at the device and pushing the catalogue case across the table. When the device was safely in the case, Lance pressed the button.
The bank officer returned with a file folder and sat down at the table. “Have you successfully completed your transaction?” he asked.
“We will have when the funds have been transferred,” Lance said.
“I have made out the paperwork as per your instructions,” the banker said. “Five million dollars to be transferred to your numbered account.”
“That’s correct,” Lance said.
The banker laid the documents before the two Middle Easterners. They examined them, and one of them signed.
“I’ll just be a moment,” the banker said. He took the documents and left the room.
Lance sat and looked at the two men, who impassively returned his gaze. No one said anything.
Presently, the banker returned. “Gentlemen, your transaction is complete.”
The two men rose and left the room without a word.
“Will there be anything else, sir?” the banker asked Lance.
Lance thought for a moment. “Yes,” he replied.
Ted Cricket stood in a light rain outside the Guinea pub and restaurant, in a mews off Berkeley Square. It was nearly eleven o’clock. The door to the restaurant opened, and Cricket stepped back into the shadows and looked around. The mews was empty.
Hedger left the restaurant alone, weaving a little, and started up the mews toward Berkeley Square. He walked right past Cricket, no more than six feet away.
Cricket stepped from the shadows, reached out, cupped a hand over Hedger’s mouth, and ran the slim blade into his back, thrusting upward. Hedger’s knees gave way, and when Cricket released him, he collapsed onto the wet cobblestones.
Cricket looked up and down the mews again; empty. He rolled Hedger over, switched on a tiny flashlight, and shone it into Hedger’s face. He was still alive. “This is for Bobby Jones,” Cricket said. He placed the knife point on Hedger’s chest, over the heart, shoved it through the flesh, twisted it ninety degrees, and pulled it out, wiping the blade on Hedger’s fine Savile Row jacket. Hedger coughed up some blood, then was still.
Cricket walked up the mews into Berkeley Square, then around the square and into the warren of streets that was Mayfair. He waited until he reached Park Lane before hailing a taxi.
The telephone was ringing as Stone let himself into the house.
“Hello?”
“It’s Sarah,” she said. “I’m at Monica’s gallery; Erica is here, and she’s very upset.”
“Bring her here for the night,” Stone replied. “Don’t take her back to the Farm Street house for any reason.”
“What’s going on?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t want to tell you on the phone,” Stone said. “Get here as soon as you can; I’ll wait up for you.”
The two women arrived in a rush, carrying Erica’s luggage.
“I moved out of the house,” Erica said. “It seemed very strange with Lance not there, and I was hearing clicking noises on the phone.”
“You did the right thing,” Stone replied. “I think you should fly back to New York tomorrow.”
“It seems the only thing to do,” Erica said.
“Stone, what is going on?” Sarah demanded.
“Lance has been involved in some sort of smuggling, I think, and they’re looking for him.”
“Who’s looking for him?”
“Just about everybody.”
“Good God.”
“I’m going home tomorrow, too,” he said. “Dino, will you call British Airways and book the three of us on the Concorde?” He still had some of Stan Hedger’s money.
Dino went into the kitchen to use the phone.
“Why don’t you get Erica to bed?” Stone asked Sarah. “I’m pretty bushed myself.”
By the time Sarah crawled into bed with him, he was out.
STONE AND DINO WERE HAVING BREAKFAST when the doorbell rang. Stone answered it, to find Detective Inspector Evelyn Throckmorton standing there with another officer, looking grim.
“Good morning,” Stone said.
“No, it isn’t,” Throckmorton replied, brushing past him and walking into the drawing room. “Come in here and sit down.”
“I was about to call you; how on earth did you find me here?” Stone asked.
“I had Miss Burroughs followed,” Throckmorton replied, “and my people weren’t the only ones doing so. Where is she?”
“Upstairs, asleep,” Stone replied.
“No, I’m not,” Erica said from the doorway.
Stone introduced her to the two men.
“I have only a few questions for you, Miss Burroughs,” Throckmorton said, and he proceeded to ask them. Ten minutes of grilling her produced nothing, and he told her she could go.
“Get some breakfast,” Stone said to her. “I’ll be a few minutes.”
“Well, Barrington,” Throckmorton said, “you’ve certainly managed to mix in a number of things, haven’t you?”
“I suppose I have,” Stone replied.
“How about Stanford Hedger’s death; did you mix in that?”
Stone had no trouble looking surprised. “He’s dead?”
“Knifed outside a Mayfair restaurant late last evening.”
“I saw him at Heathrow earlier in the evening,” Stone said, “and he was perfectly fine.”
“He was looking for Lance Cabot?”
“Yes.”
“And so were you, I suppose.”
“No.”
“Look, I know very well that you’re up to your ears in the Eastover matter, and I’m not in the least convinced that you had nothing to do with Hedger’s death.”
“May I speak to you alone for a moment?” Stone asked.
Throckmorton motioned for the detective to leave them.
“I think we both have a pretty good idea who might have dispatched Hedger, don’t we?” Stone asked when they were alone.
Throckmorton sighed. “Yes, I suppose I do. He had all the skills; he was ex–Special Air Services, you know.”
“I didn’t know, but I’m not surprised. I don’t suppose there’s anything but suspicion to link him to Hedger’s death?”
“He has half a dozen witnesses, all retired policemen, who swear he was in a card game at the time.”
“Then I suppose you’ll have to leave it.”
“I wish I could; the Americans are very upset.”
“Then let them solve it; they don’t seem to have any compunctions about operating on your soil.”
“No, they don’t, do they?”
Stone didn’t say anything for a moment. “May I have my passport back, please?”
“Oh, yes.” Throckmorton stood up, took it from his pocket and handed it to Stone.
“And my raincoat?”
“No. That’s evidence. You’ll be returning to New York, then?”
“Yes, today.”
“Thank God,” Throckmorton said. “I hope you never come back.” He walked out of the room and the house without another word, followed by his detective, bumping into Mason as he entered the house. The two men exchanged a long glance, but said nothing to each other.
“Good morning,” Stone said to Mason. “Any news?”
“None I can give you,” Mason replied. “I’ve come for your car, your pen, and your button.”
“Oh, yes.” He had forgotten. He went into the kitchen, found a knife, and cut the button from his sleeve.
“What are you doing?” Dino asked.
“I’ll tell you later.” He went back into the drawing room and handed Mason the button, pen, and car keys.
“Thank you,” Mason said, then turned to go.
“There’s nothing you can tell me?” Stone asked.
“It’s not my place,” Mason replied. “Thank you for your assistance; you got your passport back?”
“Yes.”
“I shouldn’t delay leaving the country, if I were you.”
“I’ll be gone before sundown,” Stone replied.
“Yes, sundown; that’s when you Americans get out of town, isn’t it?”
“Only in Westerns.”
“Well, I suppose this has been a sort of Western, hasn’t it? Except we didn’t get the bad guy in the end.”
“Will you?”
“A personal opinion?”
“Sure.”
“We’ll get Morgan one of these days. As for Cabot, I doubt if Morgan can identify him, so we don’t actually have anything concrete on which to base a prosecution. And to tell you the truth, I doubt if my management would prosecute him if we did. This whole business has been terribly embarrassing for them, as well as for Carpenter and me.”
“I’m sorry,” Stone said.
Mason shook his hand. “Don’t be; in a week or two, the whole thing will have blown over for us. Take care.”
“You, too.” Stone showed him out.
Stone went into the kitchen, where Sarah had joined everybody. “I want everybody ready to leave for Heathrow in an hour,” he said, checking his watch.
Sarah drove them, and walked Stone as far as the security checkpoint. “I had hoped you might stay for a long time,” she said.
“I’m an American and a New Yorker. As much as I like it here, I know where home is.”
“And after I went to all that trouble,” she said.
Stone frowned. “Trouble?”
“Well, I had to, didn’t I? Daddy is nearly broke, and if he’d lost any of the lawsuits, he’d lose everything, even the house. I had to do something; then you turned up, and it became even more imperative.”
Stone stared at her. “Jesus, Sarah, you didn’t . . .”
“Didn’t I?” she asked. She kissed him and walked away.
Dino and Erica joined Stone. “You don’t look so hot,” Dino said.
“Just a little shaken,” Stone said.
“What, she told you the truth?”
“Yes, in a way; nothing that I could testify to, though.”
“Jesus, Stone, I knew all that; why didn’t you?”
“I guess I didn’t want to know.”
“Yeah, you’re good at that. Come on, we’ve got a rocket ship to catch.”
As the Concorde roared down the runway, Stone looked at Erica sitting beside him, reading a magazine. “You don’t seem terribly upset about Lance,” he said.
She shrugged. “He told me something like this might happen someday. I’ll hear from him, eventually.”
Stone reflected that he was finally doing what “John Bartholomew” had hired him to do: bring home Erica Burroughs. He settled into his seat. What with the time change, they’d arrive in New York before they left London.
STONE WAS AWAKENED EARLY THE following morning by the telephone. For a moment he was disoriented, thinking he was at the Connaught or in the late James Cutler’s bed. He glanced at the clock; he had slept for twelve hours. “Hello?” he croaked into the phone.
“It’s Carpenter,” she said. “You sound awful.”
“I was asleep,” he said.
“Oh, yes, the time difference; it’s lunchtime here.”
“Right.”
“Mason said you wanted an update?”
“Yes, thanks.”
“There’s good news and bad news; which do you want first?”
Stone groaned. “The bad news.”
“My management have categorically refused to reimburse you for your monetary loss. They feel no responsibility.”
“That’s sweet of them. Tell me the good news.”
“It comes in two parts: first, we caught Morgan in Hawaii.”
Stone sat up in bed. “Did he have my money with him?”
“No, he didn’t.”
Stone fell back into the bed. “Why are you torturing me?”
“I said the good news came in two parts.”
“All right, what’s part two?”
“Morgan checked in for his flight only shortly before it departed, so his luggage didn’t make it aboard the aircraft.”
Stone sat up in bed again. “The valise?”
“Heathrow security found it, waiting patiently to be put aboard the next flight. There was nearly half a million dollars in it.”
“Yeeessss!” Stone shouted, punching the air.
“It will take a little sorting out, but I imagine that, in a few days, I can transfer it to your New York bank. Do you have the account number?”
Stone gave her his brokerage account number. “Send it there,” he said, “back where it came from.”
“Well, I suppose you’ll be able to buy me dinner the next time I’m in New York.”
“Yes, I suppose I will be able to afford that. Soon, I hope.”
“You never know.”
“What about Lance Cabot? Any word on him?”
“He was too slick for us. The motorcycle turned out to be his; we picked up his pilot when he returned for the machine; Cabot had given it to him, apparently.”
“What did the pilot tell you?”
“He delivered Cabot to a farmer’s field in France, he isn’t sure where, since Cabot erased the coordinates from his GPS computer before leaving the airplane. He was met by two people, one of them answering to the description of Ali. We haven’t been able to trace him from there, so we have to assume that both he and, ah, his luggage reached their destination. We don’t know where that was.”
“Mason said he probably wouldn’t be prosecuted.”
“That’s right, but we would certainly make it difficult for him if he ever returned to Britain. I expect that he won’t; he’ll enjoy his ill-gotten gains in a more hospitable climate.” She paused. “Well, I must run.”
“May I know your name, now?”
She laughed. “All in good time. You take care of yourself.”
“Listen, when do you think . . .” But she had gone.
Stone got out of bed, and by the time he had dressed and breakfasted, his secretary was at her desk, working away.
“Good morning!” she said. “And welcome back!”
“Thank you, Joan,” he said. “Will you let my broker know to expect the return of some funds I took out of my account? In a few days, I think.”
“Of course,” she said. She handed him a stack of message slips. “Here are your phone calls, and this was in the fax machine when I came in yesterday.”
Stone looked at the paper. It was from his Swiss banker.
Sir,
it read,
I take pleasure in reporting the receipt of the following funds into your account.
Stone looked at the bottom of the form. The amount was one million dollars.
“Good God!” Stone said.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing; Lance kept his word.”
“Who?”
“Never mind.” Stone stood and thought about the ramifications of receiving this money. Should he return it? If so, to whom?
“You look puzzled,” Joan said.
Stone nodded. “I think you’d better get my accountant on the phone.”
“That doesn’t really mean what it says, does it?” she asked, nodding at the document in his hand.
“I’m afraid it does.”
She picked up the phone. “I’ll get your accountant,” she said.
“You know,” Stone said to her, “it’s amazing what can happen in a short forever.”
She stopped dialing. “What?”
“Never mind,” Stone said. He was trying to figure out how he was going to explain all this to his accountant.
He’d had worse problems.