Dorothy Eden (22 page)

He was not William.

“Sorry to disappoint you, Kate,” said Lucian Cray.

T
HERE WAS NO TIME
to exchange polite greetings. Kate burst out, “They’ve got Gianetta. What are we to do?”

At least his face did not go blank. He did not say, “Who is Gianetta?” and pretend ignorance, as she had grown accustomed to expect. He said quietly:

“Don’t worry. She’s halfway to England by now.”

“You don’t believe that story!”

Although his voice was quiet, his eyes were narrowed and hard. His face still excited her—or perhaps it was the artist in her whom it excited—but now she saw its ruthlessness, and its dedication to some unwavering purpose. He would not be an easy person to live with, or an easy enemy to have.

“Why didn’t you go when I told you to?” he repeated.

She flung up her head. “How could I be sure you were telling me the truth?”

“No, I suppose you couldn’t be sure, after all that has happened.” He regarded her thoughtfully.

“How did you know I was here, even?”

“I have methods as well as Johnnie Lambert.”

Kate started a little at that, but the unreality of it all was too much for her.

“I came here thinking you were drowned!”

“Who told you that?”

“Oh, some woman in the upstairs flat of your house in St. John’s Wood. It was your house, I suppose?”

“Yes, my house. But not my body in the Tiber.” The hard ruthlessness had come back into his face.

“No, the clerk downstairs told me whose that was. Gerald Dalrymple’s. But who was he?”

“He was my sister’s husband,” Lucian said sombrely.

“Oh, how dreadful! Tony’s and Caroline’s father! The person who wrote the letter to Francesca.”

“Exactly. You found out too much, Kate. Even I didn’t know about that letter.”

“But you knew about the diamonds,” Kate said breathlessly.

His eyes pierced her. “How did you find out about them?”

“I had a nightmare last night that people were accusing me of having them. Me! And when I woke up I knew somehow that I had dreamed the truth.”

“Didn’t I tell you last night to go home, that it wasn’t safe.”

Kate’s eyes widened. “Then it wasn’t a nightmare? Were those people really there, in my room in the dark? Even Mrs. Dix—” Her mouth was dry.

“My God, not Mrs. Dix!” he exclaimed. “Whose picturesque flight of imagination was that? Poor Kate! Was it very bad?”

“I screamed my head off. But no one seemed to hear. The wretched place might have been completely empty. That was why it was so fantastic and horrible—so that by daylight I was sure I had been dreaming. I didn’t even tell Johnnie. He was too stupid, anyway, and I wasn’t sure then that I trusted him.”

Lucian gave a tight smile. “Did you tell Johnnie where Francesca was?”

“I told him I’d had your telephone call that she was in Somerset. After all, that was only fair since we were both looking for her. But we thought we’d look up this branch of the Torlini family first. Then the car broke down…” Her voice died away. She said, very slowly, “Shouldn’t I have told Johnnie?”

“It’s exactly what I hoped you would do. You couldn’t have done better—beyond, of course, keeping your inquisitive nose out of the whole business.”

Kate felt for a chair and sat down. “What are you trying to tell me?”

“If you hadn’t had a kind heart, Kate, I’d have been no further ahead at all, and my poor sister might never have discovered the truth about her husband’s death. But thanks to your impulsiveness and your friendliness and your utterly enchanting feminine tendency never to stop and think, we’re getting somewhere. Now you say Johnnie has left for Somerset.”

Kate nodded miserably. “He was catching the afternoon plane. But he didn’t know where in Somerset to go. I couldn’t hear what you were saying on the telephone.”

“I didn’t mean you to. London Airport will be enough. What’s wrong, Kate?”

Kate pressed her fingers to her eyes. She couldn’t bear that he should see her tears. In his dry, summing-up voice he would make more remarks about her feminine warm-hearted qualities. And she didn’t want to be analysed by Lucian Cray. She wanted William to roar at her, “Kate, you clot, I’ve a good mind to beat you.”

“Shouldn’t William be here by now?” she asked tightly.

“That’s who you were expecting?”

“Yes. I just heard he’d followed me, to look after me, or something. He does utterly mad and unnecessary things like that.”

“I wouldn’t say it was unnecessary or particularly mad,” Lucian remarked “If you were my fiancée I’d keep you on a leash.”

“I’m not William’s fiancée,” Kate snapped, with taut nerves.

“No?” Lucian eyed her reflectively. “I still wouldn’t trust you out of my sight. One day you’ll stick that pretty neck out too far.”

“It’s nothing to do with you what I do with my neck.”

“No, it isn’t, after all. What I think you need is some food.”

“I’m not hungry.” She had controlled her brief weakness, and said more calmly, “Tell me the rest of this fascinating story. Francesca’s doll was filled with diamonds, which she discovered, thought they were a lot of dirty stones, threw them away, and put what she valued much more, a letter from your brother-in-law, in their place. He had been coming to Rome and secretly making friends with her, is that right?”

Lucian nodded. “Go on, Kate.”

“So now that I was put through the third degree last night, and it was more or less proved that I hadn’t got the diamonds, and am up to my neck in this affair only because I’m crazy enough to care what happens to a stray child, someone has been tearing up the floorboards in Gianetta’s house, and someone else is dashing off to find Francesca and frighten her out of her wits until she tells where she put those dirty old stones. Or indeed how she found that her doll split in half. I imagine the opening was pretty well concealed until she did it up clumsily again.”

“Kate, your acumen is fairly bright, after all. That’s what I assume has happened.”

“Were the diamonds cut or uncut?” she asked inconsequentially.

“I’m not sure. There was a jewel robbery in Venice not long ago when a Contessa lost her diamond necklace. It was valued at thirty thousand pounds. I may be wrong, but I think that’s what we’re looking for. It would be broken up, of course.”

“And that’s what I’ve been carrying about in that snake-doll, Pepita!” Kate exclaimed in horror.

“What everyone thought you were carrying about.”

Involuntarily Kate began to chuckle with wry amusement.

“Mrs. Dix and Nicolas Grundy and my shadow, the Chinese gentleman, who fortunately is always just one step too many behind, and Mrs. Mossop.”

“Mrs. Mossop is Mr. Grundy’s sister,” said Lucian, “and, incidentally, usually wears a wig. But perhaps deliberately leaves it off at times. I believe you got a fright there one day.”

“Then it was she who looked into the room. It was a head like an egg, featureless, utterly horrible.” Kate shivered as it all came to her. “I was supposed to be asleep from drugged sherry, and naughty Pepita, full of diamonds, was unguarded in my bag. But I ran away!” she said disgustedly.

“It wasn’t from courage but from warm-heartedness that you got into this,” Lucian reminded her.

“Yes, I suppose so. And what about that old woman in Rosita’s room, and the way the room had
aged
?”

“Easy enough to do. An old woman can soon scatter a sort of cobwebbing of her bits and pieces about a room. You were awkward about wanting to see Rosita, so some place had to be arranged for her. I’m not sure, but I think that old woman is another sister of Mr. Grundy.”

“Is Mr. Grundy the big noise behind all this?”

“No,” said Lucian slowly, “not completely.”

“How do you know all these things?”

“Oh—I have my shadows, too. My brother-in-law Gerald was in this game professionally. He’d taught me a few things about private detection.”

“Better than my efforts,” Kate said regretfully.

“On the contrary. I’m sorry to say that you’ve been my decoy. It wasn’t meant to be this way. It was your own behaviour that started it.”

But he
had
let her walk into danger, Kate thought. He was brilliant and fascinatingly attractive, but that steel-hardness in him that allowed him to use a child and a woman to achieve his ends left her feeling cold and a little repelled.

“There’s a gang of international thieves and smugglers at work,” he went on. “Gerald had been employed by one of the big insurance companies to try to get on to their racket. He’d found out something big, but unfortunately didn’t live to tell it. Francesca was one of his clues. He’d made friends with her and talked about his own children, Tony and Caroline. When he died Gianetta was too scared to talk. She’s a widow and had been a maid in the house of one of these people. She was bribed and terrified into letting Francesca be one of the children to have an occasional trip to England. She hated it, but what could one poor woman with a child to support do against that sort of pressure. When Gerald died the thing became a nightmare to her. She somehow got hold of his diary, and took a big risk in sending it to my sister. There was just enough information in it for me to start on.”

“So you kidnapped Francesca!” Kate exclaimed indignantly.

“Merely borrowed her, Kate, dear. I arranged for a friend to meet the train at Basle, and we’d whisk her off. All those schoolchildren were a godsend. They prevented, as you know, your giving the alarm until morning.”

He met her outraged gaze.

“I’m sorry, Kate. I didn’t know you then. I thought you’d go home and forget about it, especially when I was pretty certain there wouldn’t be a public fuss made. But you began to be quite a trouble—”

“You callously kidnap a child—” Kate began.

“Not callously. Francesca was very happy about going to see Tony and Caroline at last. I talked to her for a moment in the train when you were out of the compartment, and she was very excited. You noticed that yourself. She’s quite a girl, by the way. She’s been kept as much as possible from learning English, in spite of her trips, and she’s also been trained not to talk.”

“Heading for the secret service, no doubt,” Kate said dryly.

Lucian ignored her interruption, and went on, “My friend Peter brought her by car from Basle to Paris, and she even had her ascent of the Eiffel Tower.”

“So it was her I heard!”

“Kate, believe me, I didn’t mean to get you into all this trouble. I thought Francesca would have the diamonds on her, stitched in her clothes, or something. The wretched doll never occurred to me. But she hadn’t got them so there was I, with a stolen child, whom no one was at all interested in because they knew she hadn’t got the loot. My bait had completely failed, and I had inadvertently got you into danger. You had the doll, after all, and everyone thought it was full of diamonds. Except you and me. And Francesca, of course.”

Kate gave a wan smile.

“Thanks to my stupidity, I never realized I was in real danger. Even in Paris, when the lights went out in that fishy night-club, I thought it was all accidental.” That brought her thoughts back to Johnnie Lambert, and she said slowly, “Lucian—which side is Johnnie on? Why are you so glad he’s left for England?”

His eyes were enigmatic.

“My bait’s been swallowed at last. Extradition orders aren’t easy to get without pretty good evidence. They can hold him there on a false passport charge, to begin with.”

“But he’s so stupid! Surely he’s not the big fish.”

Lucian looked at her with his narrowed, hard eyes.

“The big fish, Kate, dear, is Major Dix.”

“Mrs. Dix’s dead husband!”

“Mrs. Dix’s very-much-alive husband.” Lucian didn’t give her time to dwell on that startling information. “Now we’ve got two things to do. Find where Francesca put the diamonds—Gianetta swears she knows nothing—and see when your friend William is due in. I suggest ringing the airport first.”

“And then do we go back to England to question Francesca?”

“I’ve questioned her until I’m blue in the face. She’s a child of few words. She just goes blank and says she doesn’t understand. She’s the original Mona Lisa.”

Kate smiled reminiscently.

“She’s a remarkable child. Is she really safe now?”

“She’s never been in danger, as far as she knows. She’s having a whale of a time, refusing to speak English and demanding enormous platefuls of ravioli. But you’ll see for yourself soon enough.”

“I can’t believe it. What utter heaven! Who cares about the loathsome diamonds?”

A
T FIRST LUCIAN COULD
get no satisfaction from the airport.

“They say the last flight from London Airport came in two hours ago.”

“But that must be the flight William was on. Miss Squires said he had left ages ago. Why isn’t he here?”

“Don’t panic,” said Lucian. “They’re going to check and call me back. Let’s see if we can get some sandwiches and coffee sent up.”

“You can eat,” Kate said, clenching her hands and beginning to walk about the room trying to combat her now familiar apprehension.

“And so can you.” Lucian’s cool eyes surveyed her. “Look at you. Thin and haggard. Is that any way to greet your fiancé?”

“I told you he isn’t my fiancé. We’re not even good friends. Or amicable friends.” Kate’s voice was curt with nervousness and suspense. “But if that plane came in two hours ago why isn’t he here? He’s an editor and a writer. He’s not used to this sort of thing. He’s done something foolish—”

“If it comes to that, you’re both babes in arms,” Lucian said with his air of detached amusement. “It’s a good thing you’re an attractive young woman.”

“Why?” Kate asked, with her sharp suspicion.

“Italians—and other nationalities—are rather susceptible to pretty girls.”

Was that why she had been allowed to come back safely after last night? She remembered Johnnie, with his sudden wistfulness, saying, “It’s a pity you’re so attractive.”

“William isn’t a pretty girl,” she said involuntarily. “He hasn’t that invisible weapon, or whatever it is.”

“He’s probably looking at the Pantheon. Relax, Kate. Didn’t we say on the train that it will be the same in a thousand years.”