The Man Who Heard Too Much
Page 29
NEW YORK AND BRUSSELS
She loved him like a schoolgirl; she followed after him; she took his arm with the eagerness of a child. Why did she fear once that he would not come back to her? He had come back to her, back to her rooms on the rue du Lavois, come back to sleep with her and share her life, to put his strong arms on her and feel satin and silk and lace and velvet, to reach and reach until he had all her secrets. She had feared he would never come back to her.
But he needed her, because New York was too full of ghosts and this was the gloomy time of year when ghosts revealed themselves throughout the world.
There had been a message on the answering machine in the safe house in Manhattan.
“Call me.”
The voice was the same, the voice was exactly as he had always heard it in his dreams, as he always saw Rita Macklin. Rita’s voice was an angel’s, clear as a bell at midnight on the coldest night of winter.
“Call me.”
When he heard it, he rewound the tape and played it again and again. “Call me.” A simple request, a command—he felt all the love welling in him again. She could not live without him. “Call me.” She needed him despite everything, despite her decision to walk away from him.
New York was full of ghosts, and they were all the same, all red-haired women with melting green eyes, all full of sweet flowers and milky breath, all full of desire that was wet before they touched each other. What would he do now but run to her, hold her as he had held her that afternoon in the hotel?
Instead, he took the Sabena flight to Brussels. It raced across the ocean toward the coming light. When he went to Rena Taurus’s apartment, it was only an act of strength that others might see as an act of weakness. Cold Rena and cold Devereaux seeking to warm themselves in aimless passion, they deserved no better than they got. Got no better than they deserved.
Rena was the schoolgirl of a romance that had always eluded her. Devereaux was life, strength, a story she told herself that was almost true. They ate at a little café on the Grand Place and watched the snow fall, and when they walked up the hill to her rooms, they were in love with each other. Perhaps it was not love as defined by some, but it was what they had and they both needed it to stave off the cold. They rarely spoke to each other, as though they had both heard too much for too long.
Would it last?
Even the world would not last, but they did not speak of the end of things, did not speak at all as they urged each other on with touches and kisses and every familiarity. It got to be that just to see him coming to meet her after work would fill her with such desire that she wanted him, insisted, right then and there, demanded that he fill her.
Oh, she loved him and she knew what love was. She had always known, though it had been a secret until she met him.
45
BERLIN
Oh, yes, there was no question about it: He was a good-looking man, and he treated her in a way that pleased her. He was plenty rough all right, but she was used to that. He was really able to take his pleasure with her, and sometimes it hurt, sometimes she had to hold him off for a day or two, but he understood about things. He needed her—she knew that. He really needed her. She was in love with him because he needed her.
The other thing that made her love him was thinking about that dirty old priest, the one who had tried to kill her.
Henry said he would kill the priest for her. That it wasn’t a problem at all. Henry meant it, too, you could see it in his eyes. She wasn’t afraid of mean eyes, not at all. The pigs had mean eyes. Some of the men who had abused her had mean eyes.
Henry looked nice, it was nice to be out with a man who presented himself well.
Not that they went out very often. Henry said he had to stay in the shadows. Well, Marie was just the girl to show him how to do it. How you could hide yourself away for years in her old city, her mother, Berlin. It was the perfect match they had, and she would almost forget about her lamb on some days.
She would never call Henry a lamb.
She had known a lamb once, a little lamb, innocent as the first day of the world.
She could cry sometimes.
When Henry was sleeping, she might sit in the second room and stare out the window at the old, sleeping city, and her eyes would make soft tears as she thought of Michael.
And then she would think of Cardinal Ludovico, and she would think of Henry, and she would think of so many things, and it would dull the edge of pain that Michael, the sheer thought of dead Michael, tore out of her.
Who said she could not love or feel?
She could feel. She knew pain because she had known love.
Only once, but she had known it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
An award-winning novelist and reporter, Bill Granger was raised in a working-class neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. He began his extraordinary career in 1963 when, while still in college, he joined the staff of United Press International. He later worked for the Chicago Tribune, writing about crime, cops, and politics, and covering such events as the race riots of the late 1960s and the 1968 Democratic Convention. In 1969, he joined the staff of the Chicago Sun-Times, where he won an Associated Press award for his story of a participant in the My Lai Massacre. He also wrote a series of stories on Northern Ireland for Newsday—and unwittingly added to a wealth of information and experiences that would form the foundations of future spy thrillers and mystery novels. By 1978, Bill Granger had contributed articles to Time, the New Republic, and other magazines; and become a daily columnist, television critic, and teacher of journalism at Columbia College in Chicago.
He began his literary career in 1979 with Code Name November (originally published as The November Man), the book that became an international sensation and introduced the cool American spy who later gave rise to a whole series. His second novel, Public Murders, a Chicago police procedural, won the Edgar® Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1981.
In all, Bill Granger published twenty-two novels, including thirteen in the November Man series, and three nonfiction books. In 1980, he began weekly columns in the Chicago Tribune on everyday life (he was voted best Illinois columnist by UPI), which were collected in the book Chicago Pieces. His books have been translated into ten languages.
Bill Granger passed away in 2012.
Also by Bill Granger
The November Man series
Code Name November (previously published as The November Man)
Schism
The Shattered Eye
The British Cross
The Zurich Numbers
Hemingway’s Notebook
The November Man (previously published as There Are No Spies)
The Infant of Prague
Henry McGee Is Not Dead
The Man Who Heard Too Much
League of Terror
The Last Good German
Burning the Apostle
Other Novels
Drover
Drover and the Zebras
Public Murders
Newspaper Murders
Priestly Murders
The El Murders
Time for Frankie Coolin
Sweeps
Queen’s Crossing
Nonfiction
Chicago Pieces
The Magic Feather
Fighting Jane
Lords of the Last Machine (with Lori Granger)
PRAISE FOR BILL GRANGER AND THE NOVEMBER MAN SERIES
THE NOVEMBER MAN
“Chilling… seems to move with the speed of light.”
—Pittsburgh Press
“Should keep you reading to the end… an engrossing book about the world of computers, treachery, slow or sudden death, and ‘doing things wrong for all the right reasons.’ ”
—Chicago Tribune
“Crisp style, well-mannered prose, and inexorable tension characterize this worthy addition to the successful November Man series. Granger once again displays his winning talent for manip
ulating traditional elements of intrigue… highly recommended.”
—Library Journal
“Granger’s November Man series has been consistently entertaining and interesting, far surpassing much of the work done in the espionage genre. This addition to the list maintains that consistency… builds almost perfectly to an exciting finish… on the mark.”
—Publishers Weekly
“First-rate… This gripping novel provides further proof that November Man has grown into one of the most complex fictional spies on the current scene.”
—Booklist
CODE NAME NOVEMBER
“Mr. Granger has combined Ian Fleming, John le Carré, and Trevanian in a heady mix… He handles all the elements with real virtuosity.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Granger is one of our premier spy novelists. His Devereaux is the perfect spy for these less than perfect times.”
—People
“A novelist of superb talent who has mastered the genre and brought to it a distinctly American viewpoint.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“A serious American writer of the first rank… Like Hemingway, Granger learned the technical aspects of his craft through newspaper work. The result is lean and uniquely American.”
—National Review
SCHISM
“An intelligently crafted thriller… lean prose and intricate plotting.”
—Los Angeles Times
“The mysteries and motives here turn out to be suitably momentous… all of the characters are vulnerably likeable… solid entertainment.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“True and dramatic and entertaining… Schism stands on its own.”
—Chicago Tribune
THE SHATTERED EYE
“The Shattered Eye is a page-turner of the first order.”
—Denver Post
“It catches you on the first page and propels you through to the end at an accelerating speed.”
—Chicago Tribune Book World
THE BRITISH CROSS
“Sharp and suspenseful… A fine piece of work.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“Never lets readers relax. This one belongs on the top shelf.”
—New York Daily News
“Granger handles all the elements of real virtuosity.”
—New York Times
THE ZURICH NUMBERS
“An invigorating thriller. Granger is a fine, serious storyteller… His simple, meaty prose is a perfect complement to the intricacies of the plot.”
—Publishers Weekly
“An ingenious, imaginative plot… The November Man has a steely, indomitable quality that raises him to Bond’s superstar status.”
—Kansas City Star
HEMINGWAY’S NOTEBOOK
“Granger writes like a shooting star. His plots and characters and dialogue are so good… It’s chilling stuff… a single page will grip the reader with an impact that other writers would use a chapter to pull off.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“Fast-moving, action-packed, violent, and ultimately very satisfying.”
—Christian Science Monitor
“This lean, suspenseful tale, peopled with compelling characters, has a drive and signature all its own.”
—Publishers Weekly
THE INFANT OF PRAGUE
“Fascinating… compelling… Devereaux, The November Man, is back, and we’re all a little richer for it.”
—Chicago Tribune
“The characters are lively; the plot is as rapidly and smoothly paced as it is complex; the humor arrives without warning, and Granger continues to juggle the pieces while producing a unique spy thriller.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Colorful… wonderfully complex… readers will delight in Granger’s deft unraveling of the skeins in this terrific page-turner.”
—Publishers Weekly
HENRY MCGEE IS NOT DEAD
“The plot moves smoothly… Granger writes crisply… Devereaux provides a satisfactory ending.”
—San Antonio Express-News
THE MAN WHO HEARD TOO MUCH
“The action is swift and brutal… his sense of characters is powerful. As ever with Granger, the prose is the opposite of the bloodless stuff of techno-thrillers.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Granger’s plots can be as intricate as the best le Carré… Granger is a master of fooling the unwary reader.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Bill Granger is a rarity among writers of serious novels. Each of his books seems better than before.”
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
LEAGUE OF TERROR
“Granger writes a very, very good espionage thriller.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Granger is a pro, with polished writing skills… [that] spur the reader on.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Snappily paced thriller… Staccato stylist Granger delivers easy-reading entertainment via plot and counterplot.”
—Publishers Weekly
THE LAST GOOD GERMAN
“The Last Good German is the twelfth November Man novel, and may be one of the best… The characters are complex and the plot is an unusual wheels-within-wheels puzzle.”
—Baltimore Sun
BURNING THE APOSTLE
“Granger’s icy Devereaux has entered into the halls of legendary thriller characters… electrifying… the narrative races along, snappily paced with wickedly effective dialogue. Devereaux remains the most believable character in current spy fiction.”
—Tampa Tribune Times
“With their eerily plausible plots and intriguingly complex protagonist, Granger’s November Man novels rank among the finest examples of espionage fiction.”
—Publishers Weekly
Don’t miss the other exciting books in the bestselling November Man series
Code Name November (previously published as The November Man)
Schism
The Shattered Eye
The British Cross
The Zurich Numbers
Hemingway’s Notebook
The November Man (previously published as There Are No Spies)
The Infant of Prague
Henry McGee Is Not Dead
The Man Who Heard Too Much
League of Terror
The Last Good German
Burning the Apostle
And look for the major motion picture The November Man!
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Epigraph
Author’s Note
1. Stockholm
2. New York City
3. Lewistown, PA
4. Chicago
5. Malmö
6. Brussels
7. Copenhagen
8. Stockholm
9. London
10. Berlin
11. Helsinki
12. Brussels
13. Malmö
14. Berlin
15. London
16. Berlin
17. Bruges
18. Rome
19. Bruges
20. Paris
21. The Ardennes
22. London
23. Malmö
24. Rome
25. Malmö
26. Washington, D.C.
27. Milan
28. London
29. Copenhagen
30. Washington, D.C.
31. Rome
32. Brussels
33. Rome
34. Stockholm
35. Rome
36. Helsinki
37. London
38. Rome
39. Copenhagen
40. Rome
41. Brussels
42. London
43. Washington, D.C.
44. New York and Brussels
45. Berlin
About the Author
Also by Bill Granger
Praise for Bill Granger and the November Man Series
Don’t Miss the Bestselling November Man Series
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 1989 by Granger & Granger, Inc.
Cover design by Elizabeth Connor
Cover photo of Stockholm © Optimismus/Shutterstock
Cover photo of man © Ysbrand Cosijn/Shutterstock
Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Originally published in hardcover by Warner Books.