by S G Read
He had chosen the hotel after a lot of analysis and he had also chosen the room he was in to make sure he was running things and not visa versa. If Winfield had not lied, John knew where the hit would go down and when, his plan was to be there and be visible before and after the hit. He had done his homework and the place he would be sitting would not promote interest from anyone but if he did he would have his diplomatic papers with him, to head off any trouble should it arise.
He took a walk to a bench, with his paper and sat there reading it. He did not move from the bench for long during the day, merely to go and relieve himself and eat or drink tea. When darkness fell he walked to a restaurant to eat and then flopped into the bed in the hotel.
The following day he was there again with the same paper but this time he did the crossword. To make it last longer, he did not write the answers in but remembered them but with a photographic memory. It did not slow him down much. There were other puzzles in the paper and he did them all one by one. That way he made the paper last all the second day he was there.
Lorna arrived at work on Monday and opened the post just as she usually did. She put anything which warranted John’s attention on his desk in a file box so that no one walking in could read it. When Winfield arrived, she was not surprised.
‘Where is Fairchild?’ He asked.
‘On his way to Argentina I expect.’ Lorna answered.
‘When did he go?’
‘Some time on Sunday, he did not want to be late.’ Lorna answered.
‘So he is already there?’
‘I suppose he is, I didn’t really think about it.’
‘That I don’t believe. And what are you doing today?’ Winfield added.
‘I am dealing with the post as I always do Winfield.’
‘And afterwards?’
‘Work. I have my orders.’
Winfield knew that Lorna was not about to tell him what she was going to be doing while John was gone and walked out again. Lorna watched him go and smiled.
Clementine took up her position, she was going to watch the area to see what was normal. She saw the man walked down to the bench and sit down. What made him stand out was the English paper. He was not near the target area but on the edge of it and it made her think.
The second day he was there again with the same newspaper and that made him someone to watch. She continued to plan the hit despite the watching man and decided how she would do it.
Lorna did not go to her aunt’s house while John was gone but she did think about the second case they were working on. She wanted to shaft Winfield if it was possible. She knew it would be dangerous, as Winfield was a law unto himself and if she became a problem, he would consider her expendable. She carried on doing her normal work without treading on toes as John was away. She had to admit that he made her fell a little safer when he was about.
Clementine took up her position and saw the man walk down to the bench with the same paper. This time the man was using a pen to do the crossword. She smiled and finished her plan and set it in motion on time. She sent an email to the PO Box she used to pass on information, and made sure there was a car waiting for her to make her get away.
John noticed a commotion down below where he knew the target was based and carried on with the puzzles. He was down to the last one and was making it last when two policemen walked up.
‘What are you doing here?’ One policeman asked.
John knew the language and answered.
‘I am having lunch and reading my paper.’ John answered.
‘Please come with us.’ The second policeman asked but it was not a request.
‘I think not old chap, I have diplomatic immunity. I will get the papers out as long as you don’t shoot me and cause a rather difficult diplomatic situation and almost certainly terminal for you two.’ John answered.
‘Show me the papers.’ The second policeman ordered.
John took his papers out and let the policeman read them. The second policeman passed the papers to the first policeman, the policeman could obviously read English. The second policeman badgered the first policeman until he answered and passed the papers back to John.
‘Sorry to have bothered you Mr. Fairchild.’ The first policeman said solemnly and the two policemen walked away.
John folded the paper and walked back to his hotel but he was back on his bench the next morning but only stayed there an hour before walking back to the hotel. Soon Winfield would have a report of his whereabouts and then he would have company.
He took the lift up to his room and walked in to find Clementine standing there, with a pistol in her hand.
‘Why are you watching me work? Are you making sure I do it correctly?’ Clementine asked. ‘Although it is nice to see you again John.’
‘Do you need a weapon to talk to me Clementine?’
‘Just being careful John. Now why are you here?’
‘I needed to talk to you Clem. Did you know that an imposter has been carrying out your work for you?’
‘Well no, or he wouldn’t have lasted long.’ Clem answered.
John heard the ‘he’ but did not allow anything to show on his face.
‘Well they have been and they were killed on one assignment.’ John saw a flash of something which was a cross between annoyance and pain but it was gone as soon as it arrived.
‘Then I don’t have to worry about it anymore, do I. Now I have done my assignment here and I am on my way back to where I now call home, unless you have any objections?’
‘Not really Clem but I did hope we could discuss it over breakfast.’ John added, remembering her in bed. The soft and willing body which never seemed to tire.
‘No chance of that, I have work to do John.’ Clementine answered. ‘Now if there is nothing else I need to keep moving in case the same goons who harassed you, come after me.’
‘You are the one with the pistol.’ John answered. ‘Oh and Winfield is going to change the communication protocols to stop it happening again and I have the necessary details with me to make sure we can still contact you.’
He opened his coat with one hand to show a pocket with the top of an envelope sticking out of it. Clementine nodded. He took out the envelope and passed it to her.
‘Why thank you John and goodbye.’
‘Goodbye Clementine.’
Clementine went out and John waited four seconds then followed her. The lift was not in use which meant she was going down the stairs so he quietly opened the door to the stair well and watched, making sure that he was not seen. He could not hear her going down but five floors down he saw her hand grab hold of the stair rail and she was not wearing gloves.
He noted the position of the rail she had held on to and returned to his room for his briefcase. Then he walked down to the place where she had touched and took out a fingerprint kit. He dusted the area and found a palm print which was covering all the other prints and he took the print, making sure he managed to get the fingerprints which related to the palm print. He photographed the prints to make sure he had copies and then took a complete print so he could send it to Lorna. With that done John cleaned the rail to take away all evidence that Clementine was there.
With the rail clean he returned to his room and used his phone to send the print to Lorna’s phone. Then he went down and walked along the road to find an internet café to send a full size copy to the computer in Lorna’s aunt’s house. With his trip as successful as he could make it, he packed his suitcase and headed for the airport.
Going back he used his diplomatic papers to move through security and came back first class by a different airline. Winfield was waiting to meet him at the arrivals hall and gave him a lift to work as he wanted to hear about the trip, now! John told him what happened in Buenos Aires, on the way back in Winfield’s limousine. He needed to send a friend that was unknown to Winfield to rescue his car and park it in the garage at the other house but he could do that from Lorna’s aunt’s house.<
br />
‘I did manage to meet up with Clementine and discussed the situation with her re the imposter. All she said was that as the imposter was dead it was fine as long as you change the protocols as you said you were planning to do.’ John explained.
‘How did she look?’
‘Fine, I did offer to discuss things after breakfast but she declined, which was a shame!’ John answered.
‘I know what you mean John and I feel for you but on the brighter side, you may not have survived until the morning.’ Winfield declared.
‘That is true, she is a lot of woman.’ John answered. ‘Probably best if you change the protocols today so that we know that only Clementine is taking your assignments.’
‘What about the other fellow?’
‘I will find out who it is, well was, just so I can dot the ‘I‘s and cross the ‘t’s.’ You know I like closure on all my cases and it will be better than working on those blessed petty cash expenses.’ John answered.
‘I know that is one for the back burner.’ Winfield agreed.
‘Indeed. Thanks for the lift Winfield but now it is back to work.’
‘You will keep me informed John?’
‘Of course Winfield.’ John answered and walked into the building, flashing his ID as he went through.
Lorna was at her desk when John walked in, he laid a wrapped present on the desk in front of her as he passed by, hovering for a few seconds while she unwrapped it.
‘I would say, oh you shouldn’t have but you should have, I’m worth it!’ She walked round and kissed him on the cheek. ‘A good trip?’
‘I did what I set out to do and arranged a meeting with Clementine.’ John answered but did not elaborate, here and now was neither the time nor the place.
John looked through the post and shredded anything he did not want, they had a shredder to beat all shredders. Anyone wanting to piece the letters back together had their work cut out. He wrote answers to the letters he needed to answer and put them on Lorna’s desk before he went home for a sleep.
Lorna waved goodbye and carried on working until it was time to go home and later she worked on alone in her aunt’s house. She was not surprised, it would take time for John’s body clock to settle down again.
She saw the email and printed it out with the palm print and ran the print through the recognition programme, expecting to get a match quite quickly but it was not Clementine’s palm print and she did not get a match at all.
‘What the hell is going on?’ She exclaimed.
Out of ideas now, she went home in disgust.
Chapter 3
The next day was hard for Lorna, she wanted to say something to John about it but knew she could not, there were too many ears listening. Instead she had to wait for John to arrive at her aunt’s house that evening.
‘It wasn’t Clementine you were talking to.’ She said as soon as he arrived.
‘Damn she was good, or he was good. Looked the part, talked the part and fooled me.’ John answered.
‘If it was another he, it is a good job you didn’t invite him to bed.’ Lorna replied.
‘I did!’ John exclaimed.
Lorna laughed.
‘At least he or she had the common sense to turn you down.’ She declared.
‘Just what is going on?’ John exclaimed. ‘Have you any more news Lorna?’
‘The computer has analysed the receipts and pinpoints an area in Belgium as Clementine’s base, it cannot pinpoint an address but gives an area showing where she eats and where she draws her cash from. She obviously doesn’t use the nearest hole in the wall and I expect she makes sure she cannot be recognised but I would like to get my hands on the footage from the cameras.’
‘Tricky one that. I could ask Winfield for them but then his men would flood the area. We could tell him another area with the one we want on the edge so that we get to look at the footage we want to see. It would throw him of scent but is it worthwhile?’
‘It is all we have and he does like to have his finger in what he thinks is the pie.’ Lorna answered.
‘I will see him in the morning and find out if it is possible. He will have men in the area by tomorrow if he suspects that my meeting was not with Clementine.’
‘I think he will do that anyway, he might have already decided that Clementine has been compromised!’ Lorna replied.
‘I would have to say, over my dead body, to that one!’ John retorted.
‘Which part of your body is talking now, your fatherly part?’ Lorna asked.
‘Very funny. I am fond of Clementine but not fonder than you Lorna.’
‘You old smoothie but keep it up, I like it!’
‘So we think he, she or it, is based in Belgium and uses the internet cafes there to collect her work. She, well it was them, flies out to wherever, carries out the assignment and either comes back or goes on to her next assignment.’ John surmised.
‘That is about the size of it John.’ Lorna admitted. ‘It is a bit thin.’
‘A bit!’ John retorted. ‘We need to work out who the dead man is and who the person still impersonating Clementine is!’
‘That we do. I will plug away with both prints and see what I come up with, until then I will carry on with Winfield’s fictional petty cash expenses.’
‘That bad?’
‘That bad.’ Lorna answered. ‘He would do well as a writer.’
In the morning John walked up to Winfield’s office, prepared to wait for an appointment but he was ushered straight inside.
‘It appears Clementine is based somewhere in this area in Belgium and I though if we pull all the tapes from the ATMs in that area, if that is possible, we might see our man drawing money but it needs to be quick as they will soon tape over the dates when our imposter was working.’
‘It might be too late already but I will give it a try. I will send them up as soon as we get them.’ Winfield declared but John knew it would be after they had watched them and probably copied the important parts as well.
John returned to his office.
‘Can you arrange for a video recorder to be sent up for when the tapes arrive please Lorna?’ He asked.
‘I can but are you sure they are not disc recorders, they can get a lot more on a disc!’
‘You are saying wait until they turn up before ordering the equipment to watch it on.’ John concluded.
‘That is about the size of it John.’
‘It makes sense. We’ll wait until the tapes, or whatever they will be turn up and then get the equipment to watch them on.’ John answered.
‘A good idea John.’
‘Only because it was yours!’ John retorted.
‘That is only partly true, you do have good ideas sometimes!’ Lorna declared.
Lorna worked on but John was soon snoring in his chair in his office and taking no further part in the day. While he slept Lorna fielded all his calls and intercepted all his visitors, including Winfield who came for another chat. She told him that John was on an important conference call about the petty cash, that sent him on his way for a while but after checking with his listening post he knew John was not talking to anyone, he was snoring.
‘That is the sort of secretary to have Spearforth.’ Winfield declared. ‘Even if she is a woman.’
Winfield did not go down, as to do so would point to John’s office being bugged and he preferred to keep that a secret, even though it was not.
‘Is that other device I ordered in place yet Spearforth?’ He asked before he returned to his office.
‘Not yet Mr. Winfield, they are trying to find the optimum position for it.’
‘Well tell them to get their fingers out!’
When John woke Lorna was standing by his door which had accidently banged, twice. John looked up to see her in the doorway.
‘Am I in heaven?’ He asked.
‘Oh very droll John, I am off home so I thought I would tell you.’ Lorna answered.
John look
ed at the clock.
‘Is that the time?’ He asked.
‘Unless I stood on your head and altered the clock it is.’
John felt the top of his head.
‘No dents, so I guess that must be the time. So I’ll join you in going home I think. Are you free for dinner tonight?’ John asked. ‘As you probably kept the whole world at bay while I slept and I need to repay you.’
‘Well I did have to and I will come if I get to chose the restaurant.’
‘Good I will pick you up at seven thirty and you can tell me where we are going.’ John answered.
They both collected up their belongings and walked out, meeting the cleaner coming in. They walked as far as John’s car and stopped.
‘I could give you a lift home.’ John suggested.
‘A bus is good enough for me, if more people used buses there would be less cars on the road and therefore less pollution.’ Lorna replied and walked on, she was an independent woman.
Instead of meeting at Lorna’s aunt’s house that evening John picked Lorna up in his car and they drove to Lorna’s choice of restaurant. It was better not to use the same restaurant all the time or it was too easy to arrange to listen in to what they were saying. They parked in the restaurant car park, which was a walk away from the restaurant. The restaurant was right on a narrow street with cars going by at a fast pace. There was no place here to put a car close by with a listening device so someone had to go in with a listening device and they knew and would spot all of Winfield’s agents. They still did not discuss anything they did not want Winfield to know, in fact they often made up stories to confound him with. One such story of someone who might be stealing secrets proved true and Winfield received a large pat on the back for exposing him. Now they made sure it was someone obnoxious, who they had doing odd things, just to give them a hard time.
They discussed several things until they saw one of Winfield’s agents come in, heavily disguised. Lorna saw through the disguise immediately.