‘Billy,’ Clive said, ‘Anna was staying at the Royal George. But when the police got to the hotel, she wasn’t there – because she’d been removed.’
‘What do you mean, removed? You mean the CIA got her out? Well, bully for them. But that’s going a bit far, on our patch.’
‘Billy, Anna was removed from the hotel by ambulance.’
‘Eh? You mean she did hurt herself, jumping from that window?’
‘There is no evidence of that. She apparently returned to the hotel just before midnight – a bit dishevelled, according to the man on the desk. But she said nothing was the matter with her except she had been in an accident, then she went upstairs and collapsed in the corridor outside her room.’
‘Good Lord! And . . .?’
‘She was seen by a doctor, who announced that she had had a heart attack and should immediately be removed to hospital.’
‘Well, I suppose it’s fortunate he was so quickly available. But if she’s in hospital . . . we may have a problem. I suppose the police are waiting at her bedside?’
‘Billy, you are right that we have a problem. Anna is not in hospital.’
‘You’ve lost me. If she was removed by ambulance . . .’
‘The police have checked every hospital in London. So have our people. The ambulance service received an emergency call-out to the Royal George Hotel; but apparently when their team got there, Anna had already been removed. By another ambulance.’
Baxter started to fill his pipe. ‘It’s a bit early in the morning to be faced with riddles. Anna was picked up by ambulance . . . only you say she was not taken to any of the London hospitals?’
‘That is correct. And there is no trace on the register of the ambulance that picked her up.’
‘But didn’t the hotel doctor supervise the whole thing?’
‘Before the hotel doctor got there, she was examined by another doctor – who just happened to have been spending the night at the hotel and just happened to have taken a room on the same floor as Anna. He went with her in the ambulance . . . and never returned to the hotel. Neither did three other guests, who were present when she collapsed.’
Baxter had struck a match. Now he dropped it. ‘Holy Jesus Christ! Are you saying . . .?’
‘Yes, Billy. She’s been snatched.’
‘Anna? In broad daylight? From one of London’s leading hotels?’
‘Actually, it was the middle of the night. But it was under the eyes of quite a few people, yes.’
‘But Anna? I would have said that of all the people in the world . . .’
‘And you would be right. But she had just completed a pretty difficult assignment. The police only discovered where she was soon after dawn, when the driver staggered into a station. He’d been tied up and gagged and left in a wood, and it took him several hours to get free.’
‘I’m surprised he didn’t freeze to death.’
‘Anna had covered him with a blanket.’
‘She’s all heart. But what the fuck are we going to do? Anna hasn’t been in this country for seven years. She can’t possibly still have any enemies here. Unless . . . you don’t think Bordman could have acted unilaterally?’
‘Oh, don’t be absurd, Billy. He has neither the guts nor the resources to pull a stunt like this. Anyway, he didn’t know she was in London until he saw her at that club two nights ago. This was no spur of the moment business. It must have been planned days ago, if not weeks. The kidnappers – including, apparently, the doctor – were all residents of the hotel. The ambulance appeared to be genuine to the hotel staff, as did the nurse who helped them get Anna into it.’
‘But . . .’ Baxter objected. ‘To arrange all of that, the kidnappers must have known she was coming to England.’
‘Yes,’ Clive said, grimly.
‘So . . .?’
‘There is only one possible explanation – the identity of the people who sent her here.’
Baxter stared at him, while absently striking another match. Then he commented, ‘You have to give the bastards credit for knowing how to do things.’
‘You think so?’
‘Well, hell, they must’ve figured out that there is no way she could get away with this, so they’ve simply taken her out of circulation.’
‘How? In a trunk?’
‘Well . . .’
‘The several members of the staff at the Royal George who saw her, including their own doctor, have no doubt at all that she was very ill. The doctor said she was only just alive. She was breathing, but stertorously. He tried her pulse, and it was barely discernible.’
‘So she was fed some kind of drug.’
‘Which all but killed her? The CIA are supposed to be her employers, for Christ’s sake.’
‘They must know what they’re doing. Unless . . . Oh, my God!’
‘Quite. They’ve written people off before. They tried to write Anna off once. Only they picked the wrong guy to do the job.’
‘Shit!’ Baxter muttered. ‘In which case she is in a box. Oh, my God! I’m sorry, old man, that just slipped out. But . . . what the hell can we do about it?’
‘Plenty. I can, anyway. Anna is my wife. And if you say “was”, I’m going to break your bloody neck and cheerfully swing for it!’
‘Clive! Simmer down, for God’s sake. I’m on your side. We all are, or will be, if this gets out. Trouble is, we can’t let it get out, or all our necks are on the line.’
‘Why?’
Baxter frowned at him. ‘Well . . .’
‘Billy, what have we been doing for the past twelve hours? Trying to protect Anna, right? If she returned to England, working for the CIA, that is not our fault. If she was caught, she’d be for the high jump. The worst that could happen to you would be a reprimand for being so innocent as to believe that her promise and your certificate of immunity would be sufficient to keep her toeing the line. But if Anna is reported as dead, that’s it. You know and I know that the government will actually breathe a sigh of relief that Fahri is also dead, so long as they can hold up their hands and swear they had nothing to do with it. As for the unknown murderess . . . well they can swear that if she is ever caught she will suffer the full rigour of the law.’
Baxter finally got his pipe going, and puffed contentedly. ‘That was a brilliant summing-up, Clive. I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have you back on board and firing on all cylinders. Of course there is no way I can adequately convey my feelings about her death. I loved that girl as much as you do.’ He paused, and had the grace to flush as Clive stared at him. ‘All right. So we had our differences. But I tell you this. If I were ever in a tight spot, there is no one on this planet I would rather have standing beside me than Anna.’
‘I’ll believe you,’ Clive said. ‘Because I’m a sucker. The important thing is that our hands are now free.’
‘Eh?’
‘We can now go ahead and track her down and make sure she’s all right. And get her back, in safety.’
Billy took his pipe from his lips; it had gone out. ‘But . . . Anna’s dead! We just agreed on that.’
‘Yes, we did. But it has just occurred to me that the timing doesn’t add up. Anna entered the hotel just on twelve. She was carried out at twenty past, after collapsing completely and being examined by two doctors, having ridden up in the elevator, which takes a good five minutes. I checked that out. So her collapse, the obviously carefully staged panic by the three men with whom she was talking, then the appearance of this Dr Drimer, and then the hotel doctor, all took place in ten minutes; and it must have taken at least five minutes to get her down to the lobby. She left the hotel, remember, at twenty past.’
‘Tight,’ Baxter conceded. ‘But it could have been done.’
‘Certainly it could have been done. But where did they fit in the time for her to make her report?’
‘You’ve lost me.’
‘Billy, the CIA sent Anna to England to get Fahri. She checked into the Royal George
twelve days ago. So it took her that long to set it up. But her employers couldn’t have known exactly when she was going to complete the job. So if the plan was to eliminate her the moment she had carried out the assignment, they had to wait until they knew it was accomplished. She could just have been coming home from another night on the town, trying to make contact. Otherwise, if Fahri was still alive, the whole elaborate exercise becomes meaningless.’
‘I’d forgotten you used to be a detective,’ Baxter said. ‘But if there’s any truth in your theory . . . Jesus Christ! It could have been the . . . But they couldn’t possibly have known that she was coming to England, certainly not that vital couple of weeks in advance.’
‘Yes,’ Clive said, again grimly.
‘What are we going to do?’
‘This buck began with Joe Andrews. It’s bloody well going to stop with him, too.’
*
‘Who the hell is this?’ Joe Andrews barked into the telephone.
‘Clive Bartley.’
‘Clive . . . for Jesus’ sake! Do you know what the time is?’
‘Well, as it’s nine fifteen here, I would say that it’s four fifteen where you are.’
‘Dammit! It’s not even dawn.’
‘You know what they say about early to bed and early to rise.’
‘Look, what the hell do you want?’
‘I have some information which I suspect may interest you.’
‘Yes?’ Suddenly the tone had changed, and become watchful.
‘Which I will give to you in return for some information that I think you have, which will be of interest to me.’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘Oh! Right. Then your government is no longer interested in Kola el Fahri?’
There was a brief silence. ‘Are you saying that something has happened to the gentleman?’
‘The gentleman is dead. Together with his sidekick, Alois Khouri.’
Another brief silence. Then Andrews said. ‘Then I would have to say the world is a better place today than it was yesterday.’
‘They each died,’ Clive went on, ‘as a result of a single bullet wound to the head, delivered by a beautiful long-haired blonde.’
‘Well, in view of his reputation with women, I would say that was bound to happen eventually.’
‘Joe!’ Clive’s voice suddenly stopped being pleasant. ‘I want to know what has happened to my wife.’
‘Anna? I imagine she’s on her cay. Isn’t she?’
‘Joe, if you try to fuck us up, we are going to blow this thing wide open.’
‘Don’t try that one, old buddy.’
‘I can see the headlines now,’ Clive said. ‘American CIA commits double murder in England. War hero falls victim to US hit man.’
‘Except,’ Joe pointed out. ‘It happens to be a hit woman, and you’d be dishing your own wife.’
‘I can’t dish her if she’s dead – or at least, she won’t mind.’
‘What?’ He was clearly genuinely shocked. ‘Are you saying that Anna . . . Oh, my God!’
‘You should be on the stage.’
‘Look! What happened?’
‘Are you saying you don’t know? Are you denying that you sent Anna to England to carry out this job? Why the hell she agreed to that, I simply can’t imagine.’
‘She agreed to that,’ Joe said, ‘because we offered her the same terms that Baxter did three years ago. And our offer was considerably more valuable than yours. One last job, and she can retire to have your child or whatever other crazy scheme she has in mind, with lifelong immunity from prosecution anywhere in the States.’
Clive was silent for several seconds. ‘She said she wanted to have my child?’
‘You mean you didn’t know? You should try spending more time at home.’
‘Joe, I have got to find her, and make sure she’s all right. So give.’
‘You say she carried out the job? And got away? Then I would say she’s on her way to Heathrow, to catch the eleven o’clock flight to Nassau. She’ll be home this afternoon.’
‘When Anna left Fahri, around ten o’clock last night, she returned to her hotel to change her clothes. She went up to her room, but never got there. In the corridor outside, she stopped to talk with three men and had a heart attack.’
Joe digested this, slowly. Then he said, ‘Old buddy, you’ve been at the glue. Anna? A heart attack? She’s the healthiest woman I have ever known. Or heard of. Come to think of it, she’s healthier than any guy I’ve ever known, either.’
‘I agree with you. But when she collapsed, around midnight last night, she was examined by two doctors. One may have been a fake, but the other was the hotel doctor, and he was of the opinion that she was seriously ill. An ambulance was sent for, and she was whisked off to hospital. Only she never got there.’
‘What the shit do you mean, never got there?’
‘Just that. Anna, the ambulance, the doctor, and the men who were with her when she collapsed, have all vanished into thin air.’
‘And you thought . . . Remind me to punch you on the nose next time I see you.’
‘I may well punch you first! It is an inescapable conclusion. This has to have been set up some time ago. Ergo, it had to be set up by someone who knew that Anna was going to be in England on a certain date. Who else but your lot could have known that? Anna hasn’t been in England for seven years, and anyone studying her recent history would have to know the she is persona non grata here. So, if you didn’t set this up, either to get her out of England or just to get rid of her, someone in the CIA is a very rotten egg.’
There was silence while Joe considered. ‘In view of the seriousness of the situation, I will overlook your obscene suggestion. As for us having a traitor in this office, that is simply not on. No one knew of this deal save for a couple of very high-ranking officers’
‘Convince me. Anna has disappeared in a very elaborate snatch. Tell me who did it.’
Another pause for consideration, then Joe said, ‘Holy Jesus Christ!’
‘I don’t think he had anything to do with it.’
‘Hamilton!’
‘Say again?’
‘When Anna got back from her last assignment, three weeks ago, she spent a couple of days in Nassau. That was to meet me and put forward this retirement/mother-and-child bee she has in her bonnet. When we’d finished our chat, she mentioned this character. Seems this Hamilton, apparently an Englishman staying at the Royal Victoria, had been making advances to her. OK, at least half the men in the world would get around to making advances to Anna if they found her apparently on her own staying at the same hotel. In most cases they get slapped down. But this guy bothered her. I’m not quite sure why, but I guess over the years she’s developed an instinct about these things and he claimed to have met her at a cocktail party in England, when she was Mrs Bordman. He could remember her, but she couldn’t remember him. So she asked me if we could find anything on him.’
‘Don’t tell me you could? 1939?’
‘Yeah. Well, the FBI has a long memory. They had the name Mark Hamilton, under 1939, as a known Communist.’
‘Oh, my God! But wait a minute. You told Anna this?’
‘I had it conveyed to her.’
‘And what was her reaction?’
‘I don’t know. I had it conveyed to her by one of my people, who was delivering the final bumf for this trip. Spence didn’t mention that there was a reaction. But she definitely got the message.’
‘And you seriously think Anna would have told this character that she was coming to London, and even given him the dates? That’s ridiculous. Certainly after learning that he was a Red.’
‘I have never been sure just what goes on in Anna’s brain. I think that’s one of her greatest strengths.’
Join the club, Clive thought.
‘What I do know is that over the years of unbroken success she has been becoming increasingly overconfident. And that ca
n be a serious liability. I’m not suggesting that she would have confided anything to this man, but isn’t it possible that she may have let something slip, in conversation?’
‘You’re suggesting that she may have spent quite a lot of time in his company,’ Clive pointed out, coldly.
‘Well, she had two days to kill in Nassau, waiting for me. And I gathered that you weren’t around, and hadn’t been around for some time. Anyway, old buddy, now is not the moment to indulge in husbandly pique. If I’m right, and there is no other logical solution to what has happened, well . . . we may have lost her.’
‘Which to you is just a case of ho hum, we’ll have to find someone else to do our dirty work.’
‘Look, if the Reds have got Anna, I’m going to head the list of mourners.’
‘Mourners?’
‘Beria has been trying to nail her for damn near thirteen years. At a cost of God knows how many lives; I’ve lost count.’
‘You mean he’s been trying to get her back to Russia to stand trial for that attempt on the life of Stalin in 1941. He wants, or his boss wants, a huge show trial with the cameras popping and the world’s media hanging on every word. If the idea was just to kill her and they managed to catch her off guard, why make a huge charade of it? They could’ve done it, left the body lying on the floor of the hotel corridor and just taken off. It was just midnight. She wouldn’t have been found until this morning.’
‘Good point. But where’s the difference, if she’s on her way back to Russia? In Anna’s case, that means the Lubianka. Nobody gets out of the Lubianka.’
‘Anna did. With your help.’
‘That was a one-off, Clive, and you know it. It was the day after Operation Barbarossa began. The whole country was in a flap. The only thing anyone was sure about was that the Red Army was falling apart; and that unless the Russians were given a massive injection of help in arms and materiel, the Nazis were going to be in Moscow in a couple of months. I was able to persuade Beria, who was in a bigger flap than most, that I could get that help rolling immediately if he would release Anna into my custody. I told him that she was wanted in the States for attempting the life of FDR. At that time he had no idea who and what Anna was; very few people other than Himmler and Heydrich did, apart from you and Baxter. Even I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I only knew that Anna was a beautiful girl I had met at a party in Moscow who had somehow got herself involved with the NKVD, even if I had a hunch she was connected to you lot. Beria had never even seen her. And he reckoned that the promise of US help was more important than the trial of one itinerant woman. Of course, his subordinates didn’t see it that way, and that woman Tsherchenka, as well as Chaliapov – that chap who Anna had seduced – tried to stop us, with the inevitable result. That was the first time I had ever seen Anna in action, and frankly I was terrified. And that was the first time Beria realized just what he had let slip through his fingers. By then it was too late. We had got out, and in the confusion she was on her way to safety, one step ahead of his thugs. You must remember that; you took over her escape.’
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