Midnight Runner - Jack Higgins [54]
"Charles? He's a friend. You'll be in good hands there. But remember--anything we can do."
"Thank you, Elmer."
Q uinn's house in Park Place was in a turning off South Audley Street, a pleasant Regency building with a small courtyard. Luke Cornwall, his chauffeur, a large black man from New York, was hosing down a Mercedes town car. He stopped at once, his face grave.
"Senator, what can I say?"
"There's nothing to be said, Luke, but thank you. Right now I feel like shit, though, so I'm going to shower and change, and then I want you to take me to Cavendish Place."
"You've got it, Senator."
Quinn went up the steps, the door opened, and Mary Cornwall appeared. She'd been a maid for years at the Boston house, had seen Helen grow up, and there were tears in her eyes. He kissed her on the cheek.
She was crying. "Sometimes I wonder whether there's a God in heaven."
"Oh, there is, Mary, always hang on to that."
"Can I get you anything to eat?"
"Not now. I'm going to change. I have an appointment."
He went along the paneled hall, hurried upstairs, and opened the door to his bedroom suite. It was light and airy, with maple paneling, his favorite paintings on the walls, and Turkish carpeting. On his return he'd always experienced conscious pleasure on entering this room, but now it meant nothing.
In the bathroom, he stripped, dropping all his clothes to the floor, turned on the shower, and soaped himself all over, trying to wash away the stench of Kosovo and death.
Half an hour later, he came downstairs, perfectly groomed, wearing a brown Armani country suit and brogues. Mary was in the kitchen and he didn't bother her, simply opened the front door and went down the steps to where Luke, in a dark blue chauffeur's uniform, waited.
R upert Dauncey was waiting, too. He'd calmed Henry Percy when Percy had called him in a panic, but he disliked the idea that Dillon was still on the case. He also wondered where Daniel Quinn was, and he'd checked with a friend at the Embassy, who told him Quinn had arrived and was on his way to Park Place.
Park Place! That was a bit of luck. Dauncey had driven around the corner without knowing the number of the house, but then he had seen Luke standing waiting by the Quinn Mercedes. Rupert pulled in farther along the street and saw Quinn emerge from the house. As Luke drove away, Rupert was already turning and he went after him.
I t was Hannah Bernstein who answered the door at Cavendish Place and found Quinn standing there. She recognized him from the photo in his file, just as he recognized her from the material Blake Johnson had shown him in Washington.
"Superintendent Bernstein."
"Senator Quinn. Please come in."
She led the way into the sitting room. Dillon was drinking Bushmills by the French windows and Ferguson got up.
"I wish I could say this is a pleasure, Daniel, but it doesn't seem appropriate. We all feel for you."
"That's appreciated."
"Do you know Sean Dillon?"
"Only by reputation." Quinn shook hands. "If you know anything about me, you'll know my grandfather was born in and fought with Michael Collins. He was chased out to the States in 1920."
"So he'd be Irish Republican Brotherhood," Dillon said. "Worse than the mob, that lot."
Quinn managed a smile. "You could say that."
"Will you join me in a Bushmills?" Quinn hesitated, and Dillon added, "I'd recommend a large one. The Superintendent's put a file together that won't exactly cheer you up."
"Then I'll take that as sound advice."
Dillon gave him the whiskey in a shot glass and Quinn drank it in a single swallow. He put the glass on a table and took the file from Hannah.
Ferguson said, "That file gives you a full history of our dealings with the Rashids, and everything we know so far about your daughter's death, including the details of her post-mortem and the police inquiries. In fact, we've just added details of the post-mortem of her boyfriend, too, Alan Grant."
"Who? I've never heard of him." Quinn was astonished. "I didn't know she had a boyfriend."
"I'm afraid she did," Hannah Bernstein said.
"Afraid?"