Secret of Chimneys - Agatha Christie [90]
‘Yes, Mrs Revel?’
‘M Lemoine has been here. He says–Tell me, is it true, really true, that Mr Fish is an American detective?’
Superintendent Battle nodded.
‘That’s right.’
‘You have known it all along?’
Again Superintendent Battle nodded.
Virginia turned away towards the staircase.
‘I see,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’
Until that minute she had refused to believe.
And now?–
Sitting down before her dressing-table in her own room, she faced the question squarely. Every word that Anthony had said came back to her fraught with a new significance.
Was this the ‘trade’ that he had spoken of?
The trade that he had given up. But then–
An unusual sound disturbed the even tenor of her meditations. She lifted her head with a start. Her little gold clock showed the hour to be after one. Nearly two hours she had sat here thinking.
Again the sound was repeated. A sharp tap on the windowpane. Virginia went to the window and opened it. Below on the pathway was a tall figure which even as she looked stooped for another handful of gravel.
For a moment Virginia’s heart beat faster–then she recognized the massive strength and square-cut outline of the Herzoslovakian, Boris.
‘Yes,’ she said in a low voice. ‘What is it?’
At the moment it did not strike her as strange that Boris should be throwing gravel at her window at this hour of the night.
‘What is it?’ she repeated impatiently.
‘I come from the master,’ said Boris in a low tone which nevertheless carried perfectly. ‘He has sent for you.’
He made the statement in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone.
‘Sent for me?’
‘Yes, I am to bring you to him. There is a note. I will throw it up to you.’
Viriginia stood back a little, and a slip of paper, weighted with a stone, fell accurately at her feet. She unfolded it and read:
My dear (Anthony had written)–I’m in a tight place, but I mean to win through. Will you trust me and come to me?
For quite two minutes Virginia stood there, immovable, reading those few words over and over again.
She raised her head, looking round the well-appointed luxury of the bedroom as though she saw it with new eyes.
Then she leaned out of the window again.
‘What am I to do?’ she asked.
‘The detectives are the other side of the house, outside the Council Chamber. Come down and out through the side door. I will be there. I have a car waiting outside in the road.’
Virginia nodded. Quickly she changed her dress for one of fawn tricot, and pulled on a little fawn leather hat.
Then, smiling a little, she wrote a short note, addressed it to Bundle and pinned it to the pin-cushion.
She stole quietly downstairs and undid the bolts of the side door. Just a moment she paused, then, with a little gallant toss of the head, the same toss of the head with which her ancestors had gone into action in the Crusades, she passed through.
Chapter 26
The 13th of October
At ten o’clock on the morning of Wednesday, the 13th of October, Anthony Cade walked into Harridge’s Hotel and asked for Baron Lolopretjzyl who was occupying a suite there.
After suitable and imposing delay, Anthony was taken to the suite in question. The Baron was standing on the hearthrug in a correct and stiff fashion. Little Captain Andrassy, equally correct as to demeanour, but with a slightly hostile attitude, was also present.
The usual bows, clicking of heels, and other formal greetings of etiquette took place. Anthony was, by now, thoroughly conversant with the routine.
‘You will forgive this early call I trust, Baron,’ he said cheerfully, laying down his hat and stick on the table. ‘As a matter of fact, I have a little business proposition to make to you.’
‘Ha! Is that so?’ said the Baron.
Captain Andrassy, who had never overcome his initial distrust of Anthony, looked suspicious.
‘Business,’ said Anthony, ‘is based on the well-known principle of supply and demand. You want something, the other man has it. The only thing left to settle is the price.’
The Baron looked at him attentively, but said nothing.
‘Between a