Solo - Jack Higgins [92]
There was nowhere to go this time, Mikali knew that. No way out. The last barricade and standing there in the shadows, listening to Pomp and Circumstance echoing from the Hall, he remembered Kasfa, the smell of burning, the four fellagha drifting towards him as he lay there, propped against the well, holding on hard to life, refusing to let go. They'd been waiting a long time for him. A long time.
He said softly, 'Let's make it easy for you.'
He went up the dark staircase on his right. He opened the door at the top cautiously and looked into the Prince Consort Room. It was empty, of course, as he had expected, the only occupant his other self reflected in the long mirror at the far end. That darkly elegant creature that had haunted him for so long.
'Okay, old buddy,' he called. 'The last time, so let's get it right.'
There was a concert grand in the corner by the window, a Schiedmayer. As he walked across to it, he took out the gold case, selected one of the Greek cigarettes and lit it. Then he opened the lid of the Schiedmayer and sat down. He took out the Ceska and laid it ready at the end of the keyboard.
'All right, Morgan,' he said softly. 'Where are you?' and he started to play Pomp and Circumstance with great verve, following the distant strains of the orchestra in the hall.
When the footsteps sounded on the stairs it was not Morgan who appeared, but Katherine Riley. She leaned in the doorway to catch her breath, then came forward.
'This is crazy. What are you doing?'
'Trying a little Elgar. I'd forgotten what fun he is.'
He was playing quite brilliantly now and very loudly, leaning over the piano, the cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth.
The sound drifted down the stairwell, along those curving corridors so that Asa Morgan, waiting in the shadows by the Green Room passageway, turned at once and started up the stairs, his hand on the butt of the Walther in the right-hand pocket of his trenchcoat.
And the sound reached even Baker, standing with the inspector in the rear entrance foyer. He turned and went up the stairs on the run, the inspector and two constables on his heels.
'Please, John, if I ever meant anything to you at all.'
'Oh, but you did, angel,' Mikali smiled. 'Remember that morning in Cambridge on the Backs at the side of the river? That was a set-up because I needed to meet you to make sure Lieselott wasn't a threat to me.'
'I know that now.'
'Not that it matters. The truth is you were the only woman I ever knew I ever really care about. Any chance you could explain that to me?'
And then Asa Morgan moved out of the shadows and filled the doorway.
Mikali stopped playing. 'You took your damned time about it, didn't you?'
In the distance, the orchestra was into the Fantasia on British Sea Songs.
Morgan said, 'I'm here now, that's all that matters.'
'The field of battle is a land of standing corpses.' Mikali smiled. 'A Chinese military strategist named Wu Ch'i said that rather a long time ago. I'd say it sums you and me up perfectly, Morgan. At the end of the day, there isn't really too much to choose between us.'
His hand swept up, holding the Ceska. Katherine Riley screamed, running between them, arms outstretched.
'No, John!'
As Mikali, hesitating, started to get up, Morgan dropped to one knee and fired the Walther twice, both bullets striking Mikali in the heart, lifting him back over the piano stool, killing him instantly.
And then, somehow, Baker was there and the three policemen. Morgan stayed by the door holding the Walther against his thigh. Katherine Riley waited, hands at her sides as Baker crouched over Mikali.
'He could have shot you, Asa,' she said dully. 'Only I got in the way. He hesitated because I got in the way.'
Baker stood up and turned, holding the Ceska. 'No, love, you've got it wrong. He wasn't about to shoot anybody, not with this gun. It's empty. See for yourself. He'd removed the magazine.'
The inspector was at the house phone