Sad Wind From the Sea - Jack Higgins [18]
'Get on with it, Clara,' Hagen said, impatiently.
'All right, lover. Anyway, I came down to find these guys dragging Rose along the corridor. I asked them what the hell they were doing and one of them smacked me on the jaw. They left by the back stairs. The gardener says there was a black limousine waiting at the rear.'
'Anything special about these characters?' Hagen said. 'Were any of them Mongolian by any chance?'
She shook her head. 'Definitely not, but I shan't forget the one who clipped me in a hurry. A nasty-looking little rat. Somebody had been carving his face up for him. One side was black and blue.'
Hagen felt a glow of satisfaction. At least he had a lead now. 'Good girl,' he said. 'I think I know who that punk is. Can I borrow Lee and your car for a couple of hours?'
She nodded. 'You can have anything you like just so you get that nice kid back in one piece.'
Hagen didn't waste time in further talk. Within seconds he was in the back of the car nursing the automatic as Lee threaded through the back streets. He slipped the automatic into his inside jacket-pocket and sank back in the upholstered seat. He knew that he had to move fast. Every second counted if he was to get Rose back unharmed. The car slowed to a halt and he wrenched open the door and darted into the hotel. The Chinese girl looked up from the book she was reading. Amazement showed on her face. 'Is everything all right, Captain?'
Hagen sagged on to the desk top. 'Anything but,' he said. 'I need some information badly. It's a matter of life and death. That lousy bastard who was working here before you, have you got his address?'
She bent down and searched under the desk for a moment and then she gave a little grunt of satisfaction. 'Sure. He ask for money to be sent to this address.'
Hagen grabbed the scrap of paper. 'Thanks, kid,' he said and ran out to the car again.
It took only five minutes in the car to reach the address. Hagen told Lee to stop at the end of the street. He didn't want to alarm their quarry before they got to him. They went the rest of the way on foot. The address was in a Chinese apartment house, reasonably clean and respectable. The apartment they wanted was on the ground floor and they moved up to the door silently and Lee bent down and listened at the keyhole. After a moment he straightened up and nodded and Hagen knocked softly on the door. Almost immediately there was a creaking of bed springs and a voice said in Cantonese, 'Who is there?'
Hagen answered gruffly, hoping the door would mask his foreign accent: 'Hurry up and open the door, fool. I have a message from the chief.'
There was a sound of cursing and the bed springs creaked again and after a few seconds the door opened a fraction. Hagen pushed on it sharply with all his weight and it burst open flinging the man back across the room and on to his bed. There was a stifled scream and Hagen saw a young, terrified Chinese girl, with bare shoulders, cowering back under the sheets. 'Keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you,' he told her.
The door clicked into place behind him and he stood gazing into the hate-filled eyes of the erstwhile desk-clerk. He noted with satisfaction that one side of the man's face was terribly bruised and swollen. He turned and went to the window, and pulled down the blind. 'I'm not going to argue with you,' he said calmly. 'I want to know where they've taken the girl.' He turned to face the Chinese and the man spat in his face.
Hagen closed his eyes for a second. I mustn't kill him, he thought. He's got to talk. He must talk. He turned away, wiping the