by Tomson Cobb
‘What did you find out about the other two?’ Jago said as he held the coffee mug in both hands a little later. The shakes that Nik had experienced since the spray had finally stopped. He’d given him a pasteurised version of his recent exploits in Corfu and London, but without mention of Belette’s disclosures about Lord Catesby. Neither did he mention his American travel companion or Tony’s involvement in the recent events.
‘They didn’t even go to Herman’s place. Lopez went straight to Farnborough to meet him. They flew out together on a chartered jet at about 9 p.m. It must have been planned in advance, as the airport closes at ten,’ Nik said.
‘Hmm. I see. The call she made to Herman must have been a coded message for him to leave the country with Lopez so they had an alibi. That means they both must have known about the planned hit on Catesby.’ Jago started to link the various pieces of information he’d accumulated in the last two days. ‘Where’d they go?’
‘Madrid. From there onto an Iberia flight to Buenos Aires. They must be halfway across the Atlantic by now.’
‘So they must be on their way to meet Señor Macblane. I wonder why?’
‘To report the death of Catesby, do you think? They must have known about Belette’s murder plan in advance in that case,’ said Nik.
‘Looks that way, doesn’t it.’ Jago wasn’t as convinced as he sounded. Tony’s recording of Belette’s message to Lopez was still fresh in his mind. He read again the words on the yellow Post-it note, this time aloud.
‘Veni, Vidi, Vici. I came, I saw, I conquered.’ True in multiple ways, he thought.
‘Sounds like she wants to play with you. How would you know where she was Jags?’ Nik asked.
‘I have no idea… Hell. Wait a minute though. Where’s that list of names you sent me? The ones she tried out on the website.’ Jago jogged up the stairs to his study while Nik poured himself another brandy from the bottle on the kitchen table. He and the dog heard the loud expletive from the top of the stairs at the same time. Jago ran back down into the kitchen shouting.
‘Damn it, Nik. I know where she is. Come on, we need to move fast. Have you got your phony special branch card, or whatever the equivalent is nowadays?’
‘Sure. Where are we off to?’
‘I know where she is. It’s not that far, we’ll take a car from the garage. We might not find a cab and you can’t run across town as quick as me. Stay there, Chob. You’ll be safe this time. The Octopus won’t be here again tonight.’
Once in the car, Jago explained.
‘She’s at The Ritz. When she called me “Emperor” I didn’t understand. Now I do. One of the names on her list of possible pseudonyms was Caesar. Cesar Ritz founded the eponymous hotel. Our girl likes word games as well, it seems.’
‘Do I call in backup?’
‘No. By the time you get a team there she’ll be gone. She might have left already but we need to find out right now.’
‘She likes to take risks, doesn’t she?’
‘She sure does. It’s part of her crazy mind.’
‘How did she get into the house?’ Nik asked, his arms braced against the side window as Jago swerved around a bus that had decided to pull out in front of them without any warning.
‘That’s what I want to know as well. How the hell did she get past my security system? After the break-in by Petrov’s team, I got the security company to beef it up. They installed state-of-the-art software that they told me wasn’t available to any customer, apart from government departments. You remember I told you that after the event?’
‘Yeah, I do now you remind me. What does that suggest to you?’
‘It suggests that she had inside help from the company. Or someone else in SIS. That question will have to wait though. We’re here.’
Jago screamed to a stop outside the side entrance to the hotel. At the steps, he turned to Nik.
‘You flash your card. We need to find which room she’s in, fast.’ They pushed past the doorman and approached the reception desk, which allowed Nik to make the introductions. He demanded to see the duty manager. The young man that arrived at the desk looked annoyed until Nik explained the situation in official police language, as well adding a detailed description of Belette that Jago had given him.
‘We need to know which room she’s in. She’s extremely dangerous. Do I make myself clear?’
‘Yes, Inspector. Of course. Let me check our guest list.’ The manager moved to the other end of the desk to a computer screen, accompanied by two receptionists. Jago was relieved to see that he’d accepted the situation without argument.
‘You think she’ll still be here, Jags?’ Nik asked.
‘She could be. I don’t know. The girl is smart and likes to play games, so we have to be careful. She’s lethal when she wants to be.’
The manager returned to them. He looked flustered.
‘Gentlemen. We believe the lady you are looking for is in room 201, on the second floor.’
‘We’ll go up there now. We also need a pass key from you. You’ll have to come with us to evacuate all the rooms on that floor. You must do it very quietly. Can you do that?’ Nik said.
‘Of course. My reception team will telephone all our residents on that floor. I’ll come up with our two concierges as well, so we can keep everyone quiet and escort them to the staircases. I suggest we don’t use the elevators as they are very close to the room,’ the manager said.
‘Do you think she’ll be tooled up, Jago?’ Nik asked quietly.
‘No way. She wouldn’t carry a weapon around London if she doesn’t need one. You’re right to ask the question though. I’ll go in first, you stay behind me. Done any self-defence refresher courses this year, Nik?’
‘No. Last one was cancelled. Austerity budget cuts, they said.’
‘Typical. Look, it’s an electronic pass card, so when we slip it through the reader it’ll make a loud click that will be heard from inside. I’ll have to move fast when I open the door. You stay outside. Okay, let’s go.’
Chapter 50
Silence.
Jago was on one knee with his ear to the door of room 201. He could hear no sound from inside. That didn’t comfort him at all, it just made him more wary. He watched sideways as the staff started to usher the other residents out of their rooms, some in dressing gowns, others half dressed in their day clothes. The thick carpet in the hallway dampened any noise but he could still see the looks on their faces, which displayed annoyance. He hoped none would create a disturbance because of indignation at the ejection from their expensive rooms.
They waited until the last resident had gone through the fire doors. The manager raised a thumb from the far end of the corridor and followed the last of the group down the staircase. Jago nodded to Nik then slipped the entry card through the reader on the door. He prayed it would work first time. It did, with the mechanical click that he’d expected.
Jago stayed on his knees as he pushed open the door and peered inside. The same perfume greeted him as earlier that night. The lights were on with the curtains closed on the opposite side of the room. He could see the end of the bed. From where he was crouched, it looked unused. He remained low and moved forward until he could see the rest of the room. There was no sign of life. The bathroom door was open, so that was the next area to check. Same result. He opened the wardrobe and drawers. Empty. Dropping to the floor, he carefully raised the blanket but found no device concealed underneath the bed.
The only sign that someone had been in the room was a folded piece of the hotel’s notepaper positioned on the dressing table. He stood and beckoned Nik into the room.
‘She’s gone. I think she’s left us a message though. Got any gloves?’
‘Yeah,’ Nik replied. He took out a pair of latex examination gloves from his inside pocket and offered them to Jago.
‘I’m impressed, Nik. I thought you would say you didn’t carry such things around on you.’
‘Always optimistic, Jags. Ma
ybe one day I’ll make the operational side of the business.’
‘I didn’t know you wanted to. Anyway, I doubt she’s stupid enough to leave prints for us, but you never know,’ Jago said as he unfolded the note. Inside the fold was a flower pressed flat that looked like it had been taken from the large display in the vase on the table across the room. He read the message aloud.
‘Hello again, my darling. Well done. You worked out my little puzzle again, although it must have taken you longer than I expected. You’ve also recovered your dog as well, as you’ve arrived here now. I hope she wasn’t too uncomfortable. As I said to you earlier, I work to the criteria I’m given. Remember also, if the situation changes and I receive a new brief for you next time, I won’t hesitate to complete the contract. We will meet again, so until then. All my love, B.’
‘Well, that seems straightforward,’ Nik said.
‘Except she added a rather good sketch of an octopus with its tentacles wrapped around a heart. Plus a PS,’ said Jago. ‘As you gave me such a wonderful time tonight, I feel I owe you a present in return, so may I give you one piece of advice. Look inside.’
‘What the hell does she mean by that? “Wonderful time”?’
‘I’ll tell you later. Never mind that, what did she mean by “Look inside”? Let’s search this place properly. There must be something hidden in here.’
An hour later they’d pulled the place apart without finding anything else. Jago led the way down the stairs to the lobby, where they were greeted by a mass of angry hotel clientele surrounding one very harassed night manager. Nik called him over.
‘We appreciate your help. Tonight might have been very different if you and your team hadn’t been so supportive. I’ll add that to my report to your senior management.’
‘Not at all. We’re always happy to help the police,’ the manager said with half a smile, the hospitality training still just about overcoming the thought to pull off his bow tie and walk away from the underpaid job.
‘Some more of my people will be here in a few minutes to run some forensic tests, so I’d appreciate it if you could make sure no one goes into that room before they get here. And I mean no one. Is that clear?’
‘Of course.’
‘Thank you. Please apologise to your guests. Tell them we also thank them for their assistance tonight,’ Nik added.
When they were back in the car, Jago sat back in the driver’s seat, arms folded, eyes closed.
‘Well?’ said Nik. ‘How did she have a wonderful time?’
‘Never mind that. She’s nuts. More to the point, why did she leave that note at all? She could have just left the hotel.’
He was still deep in thought as two white vans with Police Incident Unit markings arrived outside the hotel entrance.
‘I’ll go and brief my people,’ Nik said. ‘Sorry. The note has to go as well, Jags. They need to examine it. You know that, don’t you.’
‘Of course. I’ll wait for you.’ Jago closed his eyes again, deep in thought until Nik returned to the car.
‘So, what do we do now?’ asked Nik.
‘There’s no point in sending people to any of the London airports. By the time they get to each one she’ll be gone. She’ll have planned for this well in advance. As for you, it’s late, so it looks like you’ll have to book into the Hale hotel once again.’
‘Well, I’ve stayed in worse doss houses.’ Nik smiled as Jago fired up the Range Rover and turned left onto Piccadilly.
Behind them, in a dark Jaguar with blacked-out windows that was parked at the other end of Arlington Street, Belette put down the camera with the long-distance lens.
Chapter 51
By the time Jago and Nik got back to the house they were both wide awake, with sleep the last item on their minds. Jago poured a couple of large brandies, then joined Nik in the lounge with the dog following at his heels. He ran through the previous few hours without details of either his bedroom activities or Shapiro’s involvement earlier that day.
‘Okay. So you staked out Catesby’s house and saw the other two arrive. Then you followed them to the club. But why did you think Lopez was the one about to be hit?’ Nik asked.
‘I had to take a punt on one of them,’ Jago lied. ‘He looked like the best option of the three. I was wrong. So much for my famed investigative journalistic skills.’
‘Don’t do yourself down. How could you expect to know that any of them would be taken out?’
‘Intuition. Guesswork. Hell, I don’t know,’ Jago said. He wondered whether he detected a slight measure of disbelief in his friend’s questions. ‘Point is, we were wrong about Catesby. He wasn’t the traitor.’
‘So that takes us back to square one then? We don’t have anyone else in the frame, do we?’ Nik asked.
‘Not at the moment we don’t. Look, we can’t do any more tonight. I have to take Chob out for a walk, so why don’t you crash out, Nik.’
He showed Nik into one of the guest rooms then walked back downstairs to the kitchen to be greeted by the dog. Her low growl suggested another demeanour than her usual empathy.
‘Don’t look at me in that tone of voice, Chob. I apologise, okay? I should have anticipated she’d come here. I know that now. I’ll make it up to you, I promise. First, let’s go get some fresh air. We both need some.’
Nik was long gone the next morning by the time Jago switched to encryption on his phone and put in a call to Shapiro. There was a buzz to signify that the American’s cell phone had activated its own software.
‘Hi buddy. What’s new today?’
‘Tony. I had a visitor after I dropped you off last night.’
‘Shit. You mean Belette?’
‘How did you guess?’ Jago ran through the exploits of the night before, this time including all the details he’d left out of the story he’d told Nik. He’d decided discretion was not the better part of valour in this case.
‘This broad is one crazy bitch. Looks like she’s got the hots for you bad as well. Can we use that to find her?’ Tony said.
‘It might help in the future if we get near to her again. For now, I’m sure she’s already on her way out of the country. My man from GCHQ was with me here this morning. He reckons he’s close to being able to locate her place in Switzerland, but I think she’ll have more than one place to stay so it might not help us until or unless she goes back there. That is if he’s right that he can find the place, of course. He’s damned good at that sort of research though. Calls it “psychometric evaluation”.’
‘I might be able to help you both there. You asked me to check on the links all these hoodlums have with that country, so I put one of my boys on the case. Asked him to check out the area around Geneva. He found a local TV station that had a report on a fire at a house near the lake a few days ago. Just before we got to Corfu.’
‘Owned by a stunner of a woman?’
‘How did you guess? My boy asked the Swiss FIS to take a look. They believe the details fit the profile we have of La Polpo.’
‘What happened?’
‘At first the local fire service investigators thought it was an accident caused by an electrical fault. It was only when they found the remains they decided they had to do a post-mortem.’
‘Body? Whose body?’
‘A woman. About the same age as our sweet Belette. At first they thought it must have been the same recluse that lived by the lake. Unfortunately for La P, the body hadn’t completely decomposed. They found a couple of teeth that led to an identity match. Missing fitness trainer from the area.’
‘Belette’s idea must have been to pass her off as herself. Leave no loose ends.’
‘Yeah. Reckon she must have quite a knowledge of explosives. She torched the place good, but not good enough. My guy’s on his way there now. He’ll try and find what he can on our beautiful killer. We need a visual though.’
‘We got several,’ Jago said.
‘Whaddya mean?’
‘Whoeve
r gave her the code to get into my house didn’t know about the extra system that Frankie had installed. It’s hidden in the lights throughout the house, so it’s separate from the CCTV system. I’m looking at several good shots of our girl right now.’
‘Well don’t get excited like you did last time you saw her. Look, my plane doesn’t leave till tonight. I’ll be over there as fast as I can.’
An hour later he and Shapiro stood over the dozen or so photos on the floor that Jago had printed off. It showed Belette in a variety of locations around the house. He hadn’t included the ones taken in the bedroom for obvious reasons.
‘You sure she doesn’t know we have these?’ Shapiro said.
‘I’m sure. She wouldn’t have pranced around like this if she knew I could capture her better side. Although both sides are pretty fine, I have to say, if you know what I mean.’
‘You worry me, Jago. I hope you won’t let your emotions get in the way when we do find her.’
‘Don’t confuse professional respect with emotion, Tony. I intend to take her down for what she did to Tom, Frank and Hiro.’
‘How is Yamada?’
‘Natsuko called me earlier. He’s on the mend. The stuff Belette used on them has an after-effect so the doctors don’t know what, if any, long-term damage it might do. He’s very fit though, so they hope for the best.’
‘That’s good to hear. What about our problem then? How does last night affect our plans do you think?’
‘Whoever ordered her to knock off Catesby is playing a long game. He set Catesby up to confuse everyone. When he got me invited to meet Kruger, the idea was that I would work out that Catesby was the traitor. Which I did. Belette must have had me under surveillance for some time, with regular reports sent back from her to Mr Greenstreet.’
‘Me too then?’
‘Maybe, maybe not. They don’t know who you are, from what she asked me last night. For some reason that’s beyond me, she didn’t tell Greenstreet she recognised you in Corfu either. I believe his idea was to get me to follow the three amigos to the club last night so I’d be implicated in Catesby’s murder. Maybe even get Belette to frame me for the job. For some reason she disobeyed his orders. She made the hit before we got there. She doesn’t seem to like him, whoever he is.’