`I thought perhaps you had found some company. There is a good selection of that on the waterfront.'
`Shut your trap, you old-'
His face had twisted into a glare of sheer malevolence – a mistake he tried to correct immediately. He gave her his best bedside manner smile, thankful he had stopped himself from calling her a hag. That would have drawn a lot of attention to himself permanently.
`Please do excuse me, Frau, but I drank a little wine and it has upset my stomach. I hope you will accept my deep apologies…'
She pursed her lips, shrugged her thin shoulders, slammed the door shut in his face. Perturbed, he climbed the stairs, unlocked the door of his sparsely furnished room, heard the phone ringing, hurried to pick up the receiver.
Dr Wand sat at the desk in his room at the Four Seasons, drumming his thick fingers on its surface. Starmberg was waiting anxiously for his reaction. It came fast enough.
`What I would like to know, my dear Jules, is how in the name of Heaven could Tweed have survived?'
`The Cadillac team reported over my car radio that the main consignment was aboard. That must have meant Tweed. I don't understand what went wrong.'
`Miss Paula Grey must enjoy our company,' Wand decided. 'You said you had a plan?'
`It is foolproof,' Starmberg assured him.
`Then will you be so good as to reactivate this marvellous plan? And I must phone Dr Hyde. This time we will wait only three days after Miss Grey has sampled our hospitality. Three days for Tweed to eat his soul out. Then we will send him a piece of Miss Grey to remind him he must remain in retirement.'
Wand checked the number of the gasthof Dr Hyde had phoned to him while Wand was still at his Waterloo villa. Dialling the number, he bit his thin lips as the ringing went on and on. Was the corrupt swine out spending his money on worthless women again?
`Who is calling?'
Dr Hyde's distinctive grovelling voice. He sounded short of breath.
`You know who is speaking,' Wand began. 'A patient will be needing urgent treatment. So kindly listen carefully. Your case is packed? Excellent. Leave at once for the railway station. Catch the first possible train to Flensburg on the German-Danish border. As soon as you arrive a car will be waiting outside to take you across the frontier into Jutland – Denmark. The driver will identify himself as Johnny from Tinglev. I will spell that name.. Repeat it, please. Good…'
`Could I not catch another train to Tinglev-'
`My dear sir' – Wand's tone was pure acid – 'when I make a suggestion I have a reason for doing so. At that hour it is most unlikely there will be a connection. If, by chance, when you arrive at Flensburg station Johnny is not there, you wait for him. When he picks you up he will drive you to your ultimate destination. I will arrange for a nurse to be in attendance…'
`The patient-' Dr Hyde began.
`I would much appreciate it if you would refrain from interrupting me. I was about to tell you the patient needing treatment is a female. Now, ask the woman who runs that place to phone for a taxi. Immediately, I suggest.'
Dr Wand broke the connection. His face was flushed with annoyance. He gave the order to Starmberg.
`You heard what I said. Phone Clausen after checking the train arrival time at Flensburg. And the sooner you put into operation your plan to obtain the company of Miss Grey the better. You know where she is to be transported to, after hearing the name Tinglev.'
`For operational reasons the Miss Grey abduction will have to be carried out tomorrow evening.'
`That is your responsibility.' Wand's face expressed disapproval. 'I do wish you would not use such crude terms as abduction. She will be our guest.'
Tweed had just ordered from the menu in the Haerlin restaurant when he stiffened. 'Damn!' he muttered under his breath.
`Something wrong?' Newman enquired.
`Yes – with me. I've forgotten a vital task for Kuhlmann. Is that public phone box far away?'
`Only a few minutes' walk. I'll come with you.'
`Don't leave the restaurant,' Tweed warned Paula. `We'll be back before the food arrives…'
Collecting their coats, which had been taken from them by the head waiter, they dashed into the bitterly cold night. Newman waited outside while Tweed called Berliner Tor, asked for Kuhlmann, who came on the line swiftly.
`One important request I forgot to make, Otto. There may well be a Dr Hyde, an evil man, in Hamburg. Can you send a courier to the Haerlin restaurant? I will give him a large number of duplicate photos of this creature. And I suspect he may frequent prostitutes.'
`A plain-clothes courier will come immediately on a motorcycle. Meantime I will alert patrol cars to converge on the waterfront area. That's where these girls hang out. The search will be under way within thirty minutes…'
39
No one had felt like sleep: tension gripped them all as they sensed the battle against Dr Wand was moving towards a climax.
They were assembled in Tweed's room – Paula, Newman, Marler, Butler, and Nield, plus a sixth man. It was after midnight and the surprise arrival of the newcomer had happened a few minutes earlier.
There had been a discreet tapping on the door. Newman, his Smith amp; Wesson concealed in his right hand, unlocked the door with his left hand, turned the handle suddenly, and jerked the door open a few inches. 'Good God!' he had whispered. 'Come in quickly.'
Philip Cardon had walked in, wearing a business suit of German cut. The small man Paula had nicknamed 'the Squirrel' looked round as Newman closed and relocked the door. Cardon smiled impishly as they stared at him in astonishment.
`Good morning, everyone. I knew you'd never do the job without me.' He looked at Tweed. 'What is the job?'
`Sit down, Philip. Have a good rest? For this time of night you look amazingly fresh.'
`I'm a night bird.' Cardon winked at Paula, sat beside her as she patted the couch. 'I wake up when the rest of the world is sleeping. The best time to catch the opposition off guard.' He looked at Tweed again. 'Who exactly is the opposition?'
`I was just about to sum up the present situation, Philip. Briefly, we are faced with the most sadistic, ruthless, and cunning enemy we've ever confronted. The body count so far shows that – all murdered.' He counted them off on his fingers. 'Hilary Vane, Irene Andover, a cab driver in Brussels, Sir Gerald Andover, Lucie Delvaux, Joseph Mordaunt – which makes six.'
`Don't forget old Mrs Garnett at Moor's Landing, who vanished,' Newman reminded him. 'I doubt we'll ever see her alive again.'
`I agree,' Tweed said. 'I do have an idea where to look for her – but that will have to wait until we get home. I now come to data which is top secret…'
`Has this room been checked out?' Cardon asked quickly.
`Thanks to Butler, it has.'
Earlier, when Butler had been one of the first to arrive, he had insisted on using an instrument he always carried to 'flash' the room – to check it for listening devices. In his thorough way, he had taken thirty minutes searching for any planted devices. Then he had nodded to Tweed.
`Clean as a whistle…'
For the next quarter of an hour Tweed gave Cardon a terse account of events, starting with Paula's experience at the Lymington marina and ending with his encounter with Dr Wand in the lobby of the Four Seasons. He had just finished when the phone rang. Paula answered it, looked at Tweed.
`Otto Kuhlmann for you…'
`We missed your good friend, Hyde, by no more than half an hour,' Kuhlmann reported. 'He had been staying at a gasthof behind the waterfront. The old horror who runs the place positively identified him from one of your photos my man was carrying. He had stayed there for several days and suddenly departed this evening after receiving a phone call.'
`He keeps slipping out of my hands. An elusive villain,' Tweed commented.