The Satanist (43 page)

‘Steady on; steady on!’ Verney cut in, but his voice remained as low and even as ever. ‘Don’t let your sense of chivalry run away with you; and try for a moment to appreciate what it means to occupy this chair. I gave you a key role in an important mission, but you are only one of a score of my people who are engaged on it. I have to receive all their reports as well as yours. And that is only one of my jobs. I have to supervise the watch that is maintained in every port in the kingdom against undesirables entering it; I’m responsible for security in all secret Scientific Establishments; I am having at least fifty potential spies or saboteurs either hunted or kept under observation. Even that is no more than half of it. I have to attend conferences at half-a-dozen Ministries and quite frequently others that take me abroad. This afternoon, for example, I shall be flying to Bonn at the invitation of my opposite number there, for a two-day visit to compare our methods with those in use by the West German Security Services. So your suggestion that I can find the time to keep a private eye upon any young woman who elects, against my advice, to play at being an amateur detective is really rather foolish.’

‘I’m sorry, Sir. I’m afraid I hadn’t thought of it like that, but…’

‘That’s all right, Barney. But if you are to go up the ladder
here, as you show good promise of doing, you must train yourself to keep a sense of proportion. If it is any comfort to you, I did tell Mary Morden that should she find herself in danger she was to let me know, and I would at once come to her assistance.’

‘But she is in danger. That’s what I’ve been wanting to tell you. Of course, I should have told you what I’d heard about Ruddy when I saw you but, to be honest, I’d temporarily forgotten all about him. I came here this morning to tell you about Margot – Mary, I mean. She has been kidnapped by these fiends.’

‘Kidnapped? How d’you know?’

‘I was to have taken her out on Saturday evening, but I had to put her off because of our going down to Wales. As soon as we got back on Monday I tried to get in touch with her, but couldn’t. I tried again several times yesterday, but it was no go; so I kept watch outside the house she lives in last night, hoping to catch her when she came in. By two a.m. she was still not back, so first thing this morning I did an illegal entry job in her flat.’

‘You’d have been in a fine mess if you had been caught.’

‘No. We know through Otto that Lothar is the Great Ram. Margo-Mary, I mean – has actually seen the Great Ram; which is more than we have. She told me so; even though she went back on it afterwards. My case would have been that I was searching for evidence of a connection between her and a wanted criminal that might lead us to him; and you would have told the police to lay off me.’

C.B. gave a grim little smile. ‘Good line that. One up to you. I expect I should have hauled you out anyhow, but don’t count on that as
carte blanche
to ride rough-shod over the law in future. Well, what did you find?’

‘That she had been absent from Sunday, if not longer, and her clothes and luggage still being there showed that she had not gone off on a holiday. I went downstairs and questioned the woman who acts for the landlord. She had not seen Margot-damn it, Mary-since midday Saturday, and on Saturday evening Ratnadatta called, asked for
Mary and, on learning that she was out, said he would wait in the downstairs hall till she returned. When she did come back, he must have hypnotised her or used some threat to make her go off with him. Anyhow, it’s certain that he is at the bottom of her disappearance.’

‘But she hasn’t disappeared, much less been kidnapped.’ Verney declared. ‘We know from Ruddy that this photograph was taken on Saturday night, and his description of the house to which Biernbaum took him tallies with the one at Cremorne. It is a fair bet, too, that if Ratnadatta collected her an hour or two earlier that is where he would have taken her. So we have a double check on where she went to and no evidence whatever to suggest that she did not go there willingly.’

Barney frowned. ‘Even if she did, it’s impossible to believe that she played the part that she is reported to have willingly. She must have been coerced.’

‘I’m afraid I can’t agree about that’ Verney tapped the photograph. ‘Take another look at her. Far from appearing to be acting under coercion, she is all smiles. Ruddy says he was left alone with her for several minutes. If she had not been a willing agent, she would have found some way of tipping him off that her prophecy act was a fraud.’

‘You forget, Sir, that, as they were photographed without Ruddy’s knowledge, they were being watched the whole time. She must have known that and did not dare to alter the lines she had been given to say from fear of what they might do to her afterwards.’

‘You’ve got the wrong angle on this, Sullivan. You don’t seem to have yet caught up with the fact that we are talking not about Margot Mauriac but about Mary Morden, and the two are poles apart. The woman you have been seeing a lot of has presented herself to you as a nice respectable girl, fascinated by the occult to a degree that for the sake of a little excitement she was prepared to play with fire. Having taken a liking to her and believing yourself to know better than she did the risks she would be running, you have naturally done your utmost to prevent her from getting herself
badly burned, and now you are afraid that she has landed herself right in the middle of the fire. But the real woman is the widow of Teddy Morden and, although warned by me, she went into this thing with her eyes open. By getting herself accepted into the Satanic circle she has done far better than I ever expected; and we must not hold it against her that she led poor Ruddy up the garden path. Obviously they picked her for the job because she is very good-looking, but the fact that they asked her to play prophetess shows that they trust her; and, since she did it so well, they will now trust her even further. There is no question whatever of her having been kidnapped or coerced. On the contrary, every move she made has been deliberate and, with a little luck now, she is going to step right out of the fire, bringing the chestnuts with her.’

‘Maybe you are right about Saturday night,’ Barney admitted, reluctantly, ‘but that doesn’t account for her continued absence from her flat. If she had meant to stay away several nights she would have taken a suitcase and some clothes.’

‘Not necessarily. At that place in Cremorne I don’t doubt they have all sorts of exotic raiments to dress themselves up in.’

‘That does not explain her not having taken her toilet things,’ Barney argued. ‘No woman would go off to stay anywhere without her own tooth brush, scent, powder and that sort of thing. I’ll bet every cent I’ve got that she intended to return home in the early hours of Sunday morning. But having got her there they wouldn’t let her, and they are holding her there against her will.’

C.B. shrugged. ‘Then I think you would lose your money. If she is still there all the odds are that they asked her to stay on and she agreed to because she thought it would prove worth her while. But, say that you are right and that she is no longer a free agent, what do you expect me to do about it?’

‘Why, have the place raided, of course. We have ample grounds on which to apply for a search warrant. Have the
place raided and get her out.’

‘Nothing doing, young feller.’ Verney shook his head. ‘There is still a chance that Lothar might return there, although I’m afraid now that is unlikely.’

‘Does that mean that you have had news of him?’ Barney asked quickly.

‘Well, hardly news. Otto has been doing his utmost to get a line on him. He seems to be able to look down on him without much difficulty, but to locate him is a very different matter. All Otto is certain about is that Lothar is somewhere among high mountains that have snow on their tops. At times he actually goes up one of them to a great cave in its side. Otto says there is a cable railway up to the cave, and that he can feel it vibrating when Lothar goes up there. Of course, all this may be Otto’s imagination playing him tricks, but if he is right it sounds as though Lothar was in Switzerland or Norway, or perhaps even the Caucasus. Anyhow, these visions give some grounds for supposing that he has left this country and, as he has got the fuel that he came for, there seems no reason why he should return.’

‘Then why not raid the house at Cremorne tonight?’

‘Be your age, Sullivan, Lothar or no Lothar, to bag this nest of Satanists with Communist affiliations will be a fine feather in the cap of the department, and for having unearthed it most of the credit will go to you. But Thompson tells me that his men who have been keeping the place under observation report that hardly anyone goes in or out of it during the week. To raid it while it is nine-tenths empty would be a crazy thing to do. We must wait now until all these boys and girls have gathered there for their Saturday orgy; that’s the time to pounce.’

‘But, damn it all!’ Barney protested ‘Think what may happen to Margot – oh hell, Mary – in the meantime. She must have gone there in ordinary outdoor clothes. If she is a free agent there would be nothing to stop her leaving the place for an hour or two whenever she felt like it. Her flat in Cromwell Road can’t be more than a mile away; so she would have walked to it at least once to collect some of her
things. But she hasn’t; therefore, they must be keeping her a prisoner.’

‘There may be some other explanation. Anyhow, just on the chance that you are right, I can’t afford to lose the bulk of our bag by having the place raided before Saturday.’

‘I am right. I know I’m right. And you must raid the place, C.B.’ Barney argued desperately. ‘This girl has put up a wonderful show. She has displayed magnificent courage; but now she is in the soup. You can’t just leave her there. And some of these swine must live in the place. Just think what they may be doing to her.’

‘If I am thinking of the same thing as you are, she’ll come to no harm from it. She probably won’t even mind very much.’

‘What the hell d’you mean?’

C.B. sighed. ‘I’m sorry to have to disillusion you but, to set your mind at rest, it is best that you should know the truth. Before her marriage, Mary Morden was a prostitute.’

Barney rose slowly to his feet. The blood had suffused his cheeks and his eyes had become unnaturally bright. Suddenly he blurted out, ‘I don’t believe it! You’re lying! You’re lying for some purpose of your own.’

‘Sit down!’ Verney’s voice, for once, was sharp. ‘I am not in the habit of lying to the members of my staff. Perhaps the word prostitute was a little strong; but I used it deliberately in order to bring you back to a truer sense of values. If I remember rightly, she said she was a cabaret girl. Anyhow, she told me herself that she had come up the hard way and had had to throw her morals overboard in order to earn a living. And that, within the meaning of the act, is prostitution. She told me this in reply to my telling her that the Satanist creed was the glorification of sex, and that she would not stand a dog’s chance of getting anywhere with her investigation unless she was prepared to go to bed with at least one man, and probably more, whom she would have no reason whatever to like. She said that she had done that before and was ready to do it again, if that would give her a chance to nail her husband’s murderers.
So, you see, you have no need to harrow yourself with visions of her being held down and raped.’

For a long minute Barney remained silent, then he said: ‘I suppose you are right. But what you’ve just told me came as a bit of a shock, and it is going to take me a little time to get used to the idea of her being so very different from what I thought her.’ Then he stood up, and added, ‘Well, I’d better be going, Sir, and get down to some work.’ ‘That’s the spirit,’ C.B. nodded. ‘I shall be back on Friday night. Come in on Saturday at midday and I’ll let you know about the final arrangements for the raid. I’ll have you sworn as a temporary Special Constable so that you can take part in it.’

‘Thank you, Sir; but I’d rather not. From now on I’d prefer to stick to my major mission of narking on the Reds, and keep out of this other business.’

‘I’m afraid that is not possible. You’ll be needed to identify Ratnadatta, and to substantiate certain portions of the statement we shall take from Mary Morden. As far as she is concerned, I think you should look at it that she is doing no more and no less than what quite a number of other brave women did during the war – putting a good face on some rather unpleasant experiences as the price of outwitting the enemy, gaining his confidence and bringing home the goods. It is important, too, that we should endeavour to get hold of the negative and all the copies of that photograph of her and Ruddy; and, if they can be found, you would be the most suitable person to take charge of them at once; so I think you had better go in with the police.’

A ghost of Barney’s old grin momentarily lit up his face. ‘Yes, I can well imagine a bawdy-minded copper trying to slip one in his pocket if he got the chance. I’ll do as you wish, then, and make getting hold of the photographs my special task.’

When Barney had left him, C.B. thoughtfully refilled his pipe. He felt far from happy at having given away Mary Morden’s past, but he had seen no other means of dealing
with the situation that had arisen. Personally he had no doubts at all that Mary had gone willingly to the house in Cremorne on Saturday night, and that she had remained there because she believed that doing so would give her the chance she had been seeking to win the confidence of the Satanists; therefore the only danger she was in was that she might give herself away, and that was no greater risk than she had run when making her earlier visits to the place.

But Barney, not knowing the true facts about Mary, had naturally viewed the situation very differently, and the acute anxiety he had displayed on her account had made it evident that he was in love with her. It was that which had shown C.B. the red light. Knowing that Barney was not only brave and resourceful but, under the skin, a wild Irishman, there had emerged the possibility that he might take the law into his own hands and attempt, unassisted, Mary’s rescue.