now his lifeline.
Swimming breaststroke, the gun still gripped in
his hand, his arm smarting in the water, he saw the
lights of a village in the distance.
18
Valerie frowned as she listened on the phone in
her studio, the spiraling cord outstretched as she
reached over and placed a brush in the track of her
easel. Her eyes scanned the sunlit dunes outside the
glass doors, but her mind was on the words she was
hearing, words that implied things without saying
them. 'Larry, what's wrong with you?" she interrupted,
unable to hold herself in check any longer. "Joel's not
just an employee or a junior partner, he's your friend
! You sound like you're trying to build a case against
him. What's that term you all use? . . .
Circumstantial, that's it. He was here, he was there;
someone said this and somebody else said that."
"I'm trying to understand, Val," protested Talbot,
who had called from his office in New York. "You've
got to try to understand too. There's a great deal I
can't tell you because I've been instructed by people
whose offices I have to respect to say very little or
preferably nothing at all. I'm bending those
instructions because Joel is my friend and I want to
help."
"All right, let's go back," said Valerie. "What
exactly were you leading up to?"
326 ROBERT IUDLUM
'I know it's none of my damned business and I
wouldn't ask it if I didn't think I had to '
"111 accept that," agreed Val. "Now, what is it?"
"Well, I know you and Joel had your problems,"
continued the senior partner of Talbot, Brooks and
Simon, as though he were referring to an
inconsequential spat between children. "But there
are problems and there are problems."
"Larry," interrupted Val again. "There were
problems. We're divorced. That means the problems
were serious.'
"Was physical abuse one of them?" asked Talbot
quickly in a low voice, the words obviously
repugnant to him.
Valerie was stunned; it was a question she
would never have expected. "What?"
You know what I mean. In fits of anger did he
strike you? Cause you bodily harm?"
'You're not in a courtroom, and the answer is
no, of course not. I might have welcomed it at
least the anger.'
1 beg your pardon?"
"Nothing,' said Valerie, recovering from her
astonishment. ' 1 don't know what prompted you to
ask, but it couldn't be further from the truth. Joel
had far more effective ways to deflate my ego than
hitting me. Among them, dear Larry was his
dedication to the career of one Joel Converse in
Talbot, Brooks and Simon."
"I'm aware of that, my dear, and I'm sorry.
Those complaints are perennial in the divorce
courts and I'm not sure there's anything we can do
about them not in this day and age, perhaps not
ever. But that's different. I'm talking about his black
moods we knew he had them."
"Do you know any rational person who doesn't?"
asked the former Mrs. Converse. "This isn't really
the best of all possible worlds, is it?"
"No, it isn't. But then Joel lived through a
period of time in a far worse world than most of us
will ever know or could imagine. I can't believe he
emerged from it without a scar or two "
Valerie paused, touched by the older man's
unadorned directness; it had its basis in concern.
"You're sweet Larry and I suspect you're right in
fact, I know it. So I think you should tell me more
than you have. The term physical abuse is what you
lawyers call a leading something-or-other. It s not
fair because it could also be misleading. Come on,
Larry, be fair. He's not my husband anymore, but
we didn t break apart
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 327
because he chased girls or bashed my head in. I may
not want to be married to him but I respect him.
He's got his problems and l ve got mine, and now
you're implying his are a lot bigger. What's
happened?"
Talbot was silent for a moment, then blurted out
the words, again quickly, quietly; once more they
were obviously repugnant to him. ' They say he
assaulted a man in Paris without provocation. The
man died."
"No, that's impossible! He didn't, he couldn't!"
"That's what he told me, but he lied. He told me
he was in Amsterdam, but he wasn't. He said he was
going back to Paris to clear things up, but he didn't
go. He was in Cermany he's still somewhere in
Germany. He hasn't left the country and Interpol
has a warrant for him; they're searching everywhere.
Word reached him to turn himself in to the
American embassy but he refused. He's
disappeared."
"Oh, my God, you're all so wrong!" exploded
Valerie. "You don't know him! If what you say
happened, he was at-tacked first physically
attacked and had no choice but to hit back!"
"Not according to an impartial witness who didn't
know either man."
"Then he's not impartial, he's Iying! Listen to me.
I lived with that man for four years and, except for
a few trips, all of them in New York City. I've seen
him accosted by drunks and street garbage punks
he could have pushed through the pavements, and
perhaps some of them he should have but I never
saw him so much as take a step forward. He'd simply
raise the palms of his hands and walk away. A few
times some damn fools would call him names and
he'd just stand there and look at them. And let me
tell you, Larry, that look was enough to make you
feel cold all over. But that's all he'd do, never
anything more."
"Val, I want to believe you. I want to believe it
was self-defence, but he ran away, he's disappeared.
The embassy can help him, protect him, but he won't
come in."
"Then he's frightened. That can happen, but it
was always for only a few minutes, usually at night
when he'd wake up. He'd bolt up, his eyes shut so
tight his whole face was a mass of wrinkles. It never
lasted long, and he said it was perfectly natural and
not to worry about it he didn't, he said. And I
don't think he really did; he wanted all that in the
past, none of it was ever mentioned."
328 ROBERT LUDIUM
"Perhaps it should have been," said Talbot softly.
Valerie replied with equal softness, "douche.
Larry. Don't think I haven't thought about that
these last couple of years. But whatever's happened
he's acting this way only because he's afraid you
know it's quite possible he's been hurt. Or, oh my
CrJd "
"All the hospitals and registered doctors have
been checked," Talbot broke in.
'Well, damn it, there's got to be a reason! This
>
isn't like him and you know it!"
"That's just it, Val. Nothing he's done is like the
man I know. '
The ex-Mrs. Converse stiffened. "To use one of
Joel's favorite expressions," she said apprehensively,
"clarification please?"
''Why not?" answered Talbot, the question was
directed as much at himself as her. "Perhaps you can
shed some light; nobody else can."
"What about this man in Paris, the one who died?"
"There's not much to tell; apparently he was a
chauffeur for one of those limousine services.
According to the witness a basement guard in the
hotel, Joel approached him, yelled something at him
and pushed him out the door. There were sounds of
a scuffle and a few minutes later the man was found
severely beaten in an alley."
'It's ridiculous! What did Joel say?"
"That he walked out the door, saw two men
fighting and ran to tell the doorman on the way to
his taxi."
"That's what he'd have done," said Val firmly.
"The doorman at the George Cinq says it didn't
happen. The police say follicles of hair found on the
beaten man matched those in Joel's shower."
"Utterly unbelievable!''
"Let's say there was provocation we don't know
about," Talhot went on rapidly. "It doesn't explain
what happened later, but before I tell.you, I want to
ask you another question. You'll understand."
"I don't understand a single thing! What is its"
"During those periods of depression, his dark
moods, did Joel ever fantasise? I mean, did he
indulge in what psychiatrists call role-playing?"
"You mean did he assume other personalities,
other kinds of behavior?"
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 329
Exactly."
'Absolutely not."
' Oh."
"Oh, what? Let's have it, Larry."
"Talking about what's believable and what isn t,
you're in for a jolt, my dear. According to those
people who don't want me to say very much and
you'll have to take my word they know Joel flew
into Germany claiming he was involved in an
undercover investigation of the embassy in Bonn."
"Perhaps he wasl He was on a leave of absence
from T. B. and S., wasn't he?"
"On an unrelated matter in the private sector,
that much we know. There is no
investigation undercover or otherwise of the
embassy in Bonn. Frankly, the people who reached
me were from the State Department."
"Oh, my God . . . " Valerie fell silent, but before
the lawyer could speak, she whispered, "Geneva. That
horrible business in Genevat"
"If there's a connection and both Nathan and I
considered it first it's so buried it can't be
followed."
"It's there. It's where it all started."
"Assuming your husband's rational."
"He's not my husband and he is rational!"
"The scars, Val. There had to be scars. You
agreed with me."
'Not the kind you're talking about. Not killing,
and Iying and running away That's not Joel! That
isn't wasn't my husband!"
"The mind is a highly complex and delicate
instrument. The stresses of the past can leap forward
from years ago "
"Get off it, Larry!" shouted Valerie. "Save it for
a jury, but don't pin that nonsense on Converse!"
"You're upset."
"You're damned right I am! Because you're
looking for explanations that don't fit the man! They
fit what you've been told. By those people you say
you have to respect."
"Only in the sense that they're
knowledgeable they have access to information we
don't have. Then there's the overriding fact that they
hadn't the faintest idea who Joel Converse was until
the American Bar Association gave them the address
and telephone number of Talbot, Brooks and Simon.
"And you believed them? With everything you know
330 ROBERT LUDLUM
about Washington you simply accepted their word?
How many fumes did Joel come back from a trip to
Washington and say the same thing to me? 'Larry
says they're Iying. They don't know what to do, so
they're Iying.' '
'Valerie," said the attorney sternly. "This isn't a
case of bureaucratic clearance, and after all these
years I think I can tell the difference between
someone playing games and a man who's genuinely
angry angry and frightened, I should add. The man
who reached me was an Undersecretary of State,
Brewster Tolland I had a call-back
confirmation and he wasn't putting on an act. He
was appalled, furious, and, as I say, a very worried
man."
"What did you tell him?"
"The truth, of course. Not only because it was
the right thing to do, but it wouldn't help Joel to do
anything else. If he's ill he needs help, not
complicity."
"And you deal with Washington every week."
"Several times a week, and of course it was a
consideration."
"I'm sorry, Larry, that was unfair."
"But realistic, and I meant what I said. It
wouldn't help Joel to lie for him. You see, I really
believe something's happened. He's not himself."
"Wait a minute," cried Valerie, the obvious
striking her. "Maybe it's not Joel!"
"It's him," said Talbot simply.
"Why? Just because people you don't know in
Washington say it is?"
"No, Val," replied the lawyer. "Because I spoke
with Rene in Paris before Washington entered the
picture."
'`Maffilon?~,
"Joel went to Paris to ask for Rene's help. He
lied to him just as he lied to me, but it was more
than the lies Mattilon and I agreed on that. It was
something he saw in Joel's eyes something I heard
in his voice. An unhinging, a form of desperation;
Rene saw it and I heard it. He tried to conceal it
from both of us but he couldn't. When I last spoke
to him, he hung up before we'd finished talking, in
the middle of the sentence, his voice echoing like a
zombie's."
Valerie stared at the harsh, dancing reflections
of sunlight off the waters of Cape Ann. "Rene
agreed with you?' she asked, barely above a whisper.
"Everything I've just told you we said to each other."
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 331
' Larry, I'm frightened.'
ChaimAbrahms walked into the room, his heavy
boots pounding the floor. 'So he did it!' shouted the
Israeli. 'The Mossad was right, he s a hellhound!"
Erich Leifhelm sat behind his desk, the only
other person in the book-lined study. "Patrols,
alarms, dogs!' cried the German, slamming his frail
hand on the red blotter. "How did he do it?"
"I repeat a hellhound that's what our specialist
called him. The longer he's restricted, the angrier he
gets. It goes back a long time. So our provocateur
> starts his odyssey before we planned. Have you been'
in touch with the others?"
"I've called London," said Leifhelm, breathing
deeply. "He'll reach Paris, and Bertholdier will have
the units flown up from Marseilles, one to Brussels,
the other here to Bonn. We can't waste an hour."
"You're looking for him now, of course.
"Naturlich! Every inch of the shoreline for miles
in both directions. Every back road and path that
leads up from the river and into the city.'
"He can elude you, he's proven it.
"Where can he go, sabre? To his own embassy?
There he's a dead man. To the Bonn police or the
Staatspolizei? He ll be put in an armored van and
brought back here. He goes nowhere."
"I heard that when he left Paris, and I heard it
again when he flew into Bonn. Errors were made in
both places both costing a great many hours. I tell
you I'm more concerned now than at any moment in
three wars and a lifetime of skirmishes."
"Be reasonable, Chaim, and try to be calm. He
has no clothes but what he wears in the river and
the mud, he possesses no identification, no passport,
no money. He doesn't speak the language "
"He has money!" yelled Abrahms, suddenly
remembering. "When he was under the needle, he
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