Silhouette in Scarlet - Elizabeth Peters [65]
The bed, and Max’s shout, brought Leif to a stop. Veins bulged in his forehead. ‘I will kill him,’ he said quietly.
‘Not you,’ Max corrected. ‘Where is that stupid . . . Hans!’
Hans was stuck in the window. Lacking the sense to turn sideways, he just stood there grunting and shoving. Max pointed out his options, in words that clanked like ice cubes, and Hans climbed into the room. His cheek was bleeding freely from a long row of parallel scratches. His face went blank with disbelief when he saw John.
‘How did he get here?’
‘I was about to ask you the same question,’ Max said through his teeth.
Now that the tension had subsided somewhat, John considered that it was safe to come out from behind my skirts.
‘He turned his back for a few moments,’ he said, with a patronizing smile. ‘That was all I needed.’
‘You turned your back?’ Max said to Hans.
Hans turned pink, like an embarrassed baby. He had very fair skin. ‘Aber Herr Max – die Dame war hier im Zimmer, und da war das Fenster, und wenn sie aus dem Fenster geschaut hätte . . .’
‘That shows a delicate mind, Hans,’ I said. ‘I appreciate it.’
‘Und,’ Hans went on, indignation replacing modesty, ‘die Katze hat mich – ’
‘Herr Gott allmächtigf!’ Max shouted. Then he got a grip on himself and inquired carefully, ‘How long ago did this – turning of your back occur?’
‘Not long, Herr Max, not long at all. Only a few moments ago.’
‘Hmph.’ Max’s frown lessened a trifle. ‘Then no great harm has been done. However, I grow weary of Mr Smythe’s frivolities. I think the time has come – ’ He paused, his eyes moving deliberately over each of us in turn. My mouth went dry. ‘Max,’ I said.
‘Hans,’ Max said.
John tried to get behind me again. Hans’s heavy hand fell on his shoulder and yanked him out into the open.
‘Take him into the cellar,’ Max said.
John’s face turned a pale shade of green. His complexion was the only part of him he couldn’t control; when he spoke, his voice was steady. ‘Don’t do anything you might regret, Max.’
‘I thought as much.’ Max folded his arms. ‘You have information.’
‘A tidbit or two. I’ve been saving them for an emergency. It appears,’ John said wryly, ‘that the emergency is upon me. I’m ready for a trade.’
‘You are in no position to bargain. The cellar, Hans.’
‘You’ll get no cooperation from me if you go through with this, Max,’ I said. My voice was not at all steady.
‘I regret.’ Max gestured. Hans transferred his grip to John’s arm and shoved him towards the door. The audience had grown to include Georg, who had observed the proceedings with a singularly unattractive smile.
‘I’ll come along,’ he said, baring a few more teeth. ‘I would enjoy watching.’
‘Georg!’ his brother exclaimed.
‘Watching is about all you’re capable of doing,’ John said rudely. ‘You ineffectual, effeminate, impotent junkie.’
He could have avoided the blow. Georg telegraphed his punch, and his coordination was shot to hell. In fact, it appeared to me that at the last moment John leaned into it. Georg’s fist landed on his cheekbone and John went limp, as gracefully as Errol Flynn in the grasp of the Inquisition.
I sat down. There didn’t seem to be anything else I could do.
I should have worn the rest of the night away pacing and wringing my hands. Actually, my eyes closed the minute I lay down, and I slept like a baby. The weather may have been partially responsible. When I woke, the room was in shadow; clouds hung heavy in the sky and a sharp wind snapped the curtains.
I rolled over and reached for the hard object that was poking into my hip. It was a round, squat bottle, made of dark plastic and carrying a pharmacist’s label. ‘Multivitamins,’ the label said. I shook it experimentally. There was no rattle of capsules, only the shifting of some nonliquid substance.
Thoughtfully I tucked the bottle into my bra and pulled on a heavy sweater to hide the bulge. By the time I was ready to appear in public, my imagination had gotten into gear, and I was feeling . . . Well, let’s say I felt a little queasy. It wasn’t hard to figure out what John was up to; he