A Prayer for the Dying - Jack Higgins [24]
6
Face to Face
It was still raining when Fallon crossed Paul's Square and went up the steps to the main entrance. When he tried the office it was empty and then Rupert appeared, having noticed him arrive through the glass door of the flower shop.
'Can I help you, sir?'
'Fallon's the name. Meehan's expecting me.'
'Oh yes, sir.' Rupert was exquisitely polite. 'If you'd like to wait in the office I'll just see where he is.'
He went out and Fallon lit a cigarette and waited. It was a good ten minutes before Rupert reappeared.
'I'll take you up now, sir,' he said, and with a flashing smile led the way out into the hall.
'And where would up be?' Fallon asked him.
'Mr Meehan's had the attics of the three houses knocked together into a penthouse suite for his personal use. Beautiful.'
They reached a small lift and as Rupert opened the door Fallon said, 'Is this the only way?'
'There's the back stairs.'
'Then the back stairs it is.'
Rupert's ready smile slipped a little. 'Now don't start to play games, ducky. It'll only get Mr Meehan annoyed, which means I'll end up having one hell of a night and to be perfectly frank, I'm not in the mood.'
'I'd have thought you'd have enjoyed every golden moment,' Fallon said and kicked him very hard on the right shin.
Rupert cried out and went down on one knee and Fallon took the Ceska out of his right-hand pocket. He had removed the silencer, but it was still a deadly-looking item in every way. Rupert went white, but he was game to the last.
'He'll crucify you for this. Nobody mixes it with Jack Meehan and passes the post first.'
Fallon put the Ceska back in his pocket. 'The stairs,' he said softly.
'All right,' Rupert leaned down to rub his shin. 'It's your funeral, ducky.'
The stairway started beside the entrance to the Chapel of Rest and they climbed three flights, Rupert leading the way. There was a green baize door at the top and he paused a few steps below. 'That leads directly into the kitchen.'
Fallon nodded. 'You'd better go back to minding the shop then, hadn't you?'
Rupert needed no second bidding and went back down the stairs quickly. Fallon tried the door which opened to his touch. As Rupert had said, a kitchen was on the other side. The far door stood ajar and he could hear voices.
He crossed to it on tiptoe and looked into a superbly furnished lounge with broad dormer windows at either end. Meehan was sitting in a leather club chair, a book in one hand, a glass of whisky in the other. Billy, holding the whippet, stood in front of an Adam fireplace in which a log fire was burning brightly. Donner and Bonati waited on either side of the lift.
'What's keeping him, for Christ's sake?' Billy demanded.
The whippet jumped from his arms and darted across to the kitchen door. It stood there, barking, and Fallon moved into the lounge and crouched down to fondle its ears, his right hand still in his coat pocket.
Meehan dropped the book on the table and slapped a hand against his thigh. 'Didn't I tell you he was a hard-nosed bastard?' he said to Billy.
The telephone rang. He picked it up, listened for a moment and smiled. 'It's all right, sweetheart, you get back to work. I can handle it.' He replaced the receiver. 'That was Rupert. He worries about me.'
'That's nice,' Fallon said.
He leaned against the wall beside the kitchen door, hands in pockets. Donner and Bonati moved in quietly and stood behind the big leather couch facing him. Meehan sipped a little of his whisky and held up the book. It was The City of God by St Augustine.
'Read this one, have you, Fallon?'
'A long time ago.' Fallon reached for a cigarette with his left hand.
'It's good stuff,' Meehan said. 'He knew what he was talking about. God and the Devil, good and evil. They all exist. And sex.' He emptied his glass and belched. 'He really puts the record straight there. I mean, women just pump a man dry, like I keep trying to tell my little brother here only he won't listen. Anything in a skirt, he goes for. You ever seen a dog after a bitch in heat with it hanging half out?