This Was Tomorrow (29 page)

“Get dressed and come back to the flat with me,” he said curtly. “We’ll have to get Jeff going on this right away. He may think of something.”

“Jeff will only rave at me for letting her go—” she began defensively.

“Get dressed—hurry up—he may want to ask questions that you can answer. I don’t even know where to start. Either put something on or come as you are, we’re wasting time.”

As she went off to the bedroom he grabbed the telephone and rang the flat till Jeff, a light sleeper, answered. Stephen told him the facts, to give him time to digest them, said he was bringing Hermione back with him, and hung up as she appeared in the doorway with a hat and coat on.

The first pinkish grey light of dawn lay over London as they reached the street, and Stephen took her elbow in a firm grasp and set off along Bays water Road for Marble Arch.

“There’s a cab rank at Lancaster Gate,” she gasped, unable to hold his pace, and without slackening he said grimly, “All right. Keep moving.”

They found Jeff and Sylvia dressed and having coffee and rolls in the living-room in Upper Brook Street, while Dinah still slept behind her closed door further down the hall. Stephen’s telephone call saved a lot of conversation to begin with, and Jeff, ignoring Hermione’s guilt, plunged at once into essentials. Before long he put in a call for Johnny in Berlin, and when it came through he began to
speak slowly and without visible excitement, in a sort of code, to which the rest of them listened spellbound. Virginia’s youngest had made a mistake and started for Berlin alone last night, he said—it was a misunderstanding—and would be joining Rosalind’s son there at once, but the address had been mislaid—would Johnny please take steps to find the boy and keep track of him—and meanwhile
Phoebe’s son would be flying over to act as escort back to England, and would Johnny have him met on arrival—passports were doubtless in order as the travellers were experienced, but owing to the misunderstanding there might be a shortage of money which would hamper independent movement—and would Johnny please notify the Embassy at once on Virginia’s behalf and get what aid he could in tracing the address. When Jeff finished they realized that the sex and nationality of the fugitive had not been mentioned, and yet Johnny was now in possession of all the facts he needed.

Sylvia was the first to break the silence which ensued when Jeff hung up the receiver.

“You’re going after her,” she said quietly, and he nodded.

“That talk with Johnny will give him a head start,” he said. “Every good newspaper man in Europe has his own private intelligence system, and he can put his to work for what it’s worth, till I get there, besides whatever the Embassy can do. They can probably pick up Victor’s trail without much trouble, and find out where he lives. But Johnny is too well known there after all these years to be able to move—they watch him all the time, and if he started towards Victor now they would know we’re after them and anything might happen. I’m a comparative stranger in Berlin and I stand a better chance of getting to her and walking her out of any mess she has got into.”

“Will they try to prevent her from leaving?” asked Sylvia in some surprise.

“Depends on just what Victor is up to. If he’s really gone underground it’s going to be tough. If he’s playing both ends against the middle as I think he is, we can get at him. It depends too on how much Evadne has been allowed to know about his activities by the time I try to move her. If she has put herself into his hands and knows too much—she may not be free to go.”

“I wouldn’t trust him an inch,” said Hermione vindictively. “He doesn’t
intend
for her to
come back, you can count on that!”

“I’d go with you,” said Stephen miserably, ignoring her, “if
you think I’d be any good. I don’t know my way around, and I can’t speak the language, but—”

“You stay right here,” said Jeff firmly, “and no nonsense about that. You’ll be wanted when we get back.” His eyes found Sylvia’s. “We’ll have to pack a bag for me,” he said. “Everything all in order—no sign of emergency—I just happen to fly to Berlin, in case anyone is looking.”

She nodded and went into the bedroom, and Jeff rose to follow her.

“But, Jeff, what can you
do
when you get there?” said Hermione, beginning to realize the enormity of the thing they were up against.

“I haven’t much idea yet,” he admitted. “If Johnny has got Victor’s headquarters spotted I shall just go there, I suppose, first of all, and ask embarrassing questions in a friendly sort of way. Johnny will cover me from behind, of course. There’s no risk—for
me
.” He walked to the door and turned there. “If—when I find her, I shall get her to the Embassy as fast as I can. They can deal with it from there if there’s any argument. Unless Johnny has some better idea, of course.”

He found Sylvia bending over his bureau drawers, and laid his arm around her from behind.

“Please don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll be all right, Johnny can keep track of me. But that girl is really out on a limb this time.”

Sylvia leaned against him for a moment, and then went on to lay things into the suitcase which waited open on the bed.

“Take that bottle of stuff in the bathroom,” she said steadily.

“Oh, that. Yes, I’ll sure load up with that,” he agreed easily. “We’ll see how much good it does. Sort of a dress rehearsal, maybe.” He went into the bathroom and came back with the bottle, which he wrapped casually in a pyjama jacket and tucked into the suitcase. “I think the best thing for me to do is go right down to Croydon and sit there till I can get a seat in a plane going in the right direction,” he said.

“But Johnny won’t know when to meet you.”

“He’ll do the same. Somebody will go and sit at the Berlin
airfield till I come. We get used to that kind of thing in our business. You know, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find Bracken back in Berlin.”

“It’s really serious, then—” she said uncertainly, and Jeff glanced towards the door beyond which was Stephen, trying to behave sanely and leave things to somebody who knew how.

“It’s about as bad as it can be,” he said. “Nobody but Evadne would expect anything else.”

“Oh
Jeff
—
!
”

“Sh. Stick tight to Stevie, and don’t let him start imagining things—you’ll have to let Virginia know too. If we can just move fast enough, it may be all right.” He closed the suitcase and turned to her. “I’m off now. Try not to fret, won’t you. I’ll send you word as soon as I can.”

She went speechlessly into his arms.

Jeff stepped down on the Tempelhof field at Berlin the same afternoon. Johnny was nowhere to be seen, but as the formalities of arrival were completed and he was free to continue his journey into the city, a small nondescript man appeared beside him and walked along with him, murmuring, in German, “Mr. Day—please come with me—”

“Who sent you?” Jeff asked suspiciously, and the man said, “It is in the matter of Virginia’s youngest—”

Jeff recognized his own code and stepped into a respectable little car which the man drove himself, and they finally stopped before a small, furtive-looking house in an unimportant street.

“I live here,” said the man. “Please come inside.”

Inside, Jeff was introduced to a mousy woman who was the wife of his guide, and the man, whose name was Kranzer, went straight to the telephone, announced to someone at the other end of the line that their guest had come, and said to Jeff as he hung up, “Herr Malone will be here soon. You will sit down, please? My wife will make coffee—”

Jeff sat down in the rancid little parlour with Herr Kranzer and his wife, who had brewed some very nasty ersatz coffee. There was little conversation, in spite of Jeff’s excellent German. They were all listening. In what seemed after all a remarkably short time Johnny arrived, bringing with him the same impression of competence and unstampedable knowledge of what was what that made Bracken such a tower of strength wherever he went. Even though he looked a bit anxious, and had practically no news so far, Johnny was in the driver’s seat. Jeff, as at the moment of taking off from Croydon and again when landing at Tempelhof, felt the breathless upward seethe of his nervous sytem which brought his heart action into his consciousness and warned against any quick movements or increased tension. The dose he had taken at Croydon had worn off and it was time for another. The coffee too might have been unwise, but he had craved something hot and hoped that since it wasn’t real coffee—

“You look a bit done up,” said Johnny, with a kindly but searching glance. “Up all night, I suppose.”

“Most of it.”

“Well, what for God’s sake is she playing at now?”

Jeff told him as briefly as possible, while the Kranzers, as unblinking as idols, listened. When he had finished, Johnny took out a pencil and pad and made notations.

“Evadne left London Thursday evening, night Channel crossing to unnamed port, bound for rendezvous in Berlin. Might have gone on from the coast by train, by air, or by car for all we know, if she was met by one of Victor’s friends. Why didn’t Hermione know which route and when and all that?”

“I guess they never got that far,” said Jeff. “It ended in a row because she wouldn’t come too.”

“Mm-hm. I’m not surprised.” Johnny wrote again. “Victor was leaving London by air today—”

“Didn’t see him at Croydon,” said Jeff. “Doesn’t mean he wasn’t there, before or after I was.”

“Flying all the way, he would arrive at Tempelhof this
afternoon,” said Johnny. “Like you.” He glanced at Kranzer, who shook his head. “Not seen,” said Johnny.

“Oughtn’t we to keep a watch—” Jeff began.

“There’s somebody on the job there,” said Johnny easily. “Had to put my whole damn’ staff on this. If Evadne flew from the Channel port this morning she too would have arrived in Berlin by now. Coming by rail, she would still be on the way. By car—some time still later. If they really want to smuggle her in, of course, they will use a car, at least the last part of the way.”

“But if they don’t know we’re looking—”

“They think of everything,” said Johnny, staring at his pad.

“Do you think”—Jeff swallowed—“they would try anything against her will?”

“From what I hear she was willing enough,” said Johnny.

“But if she—smelled a rat somewhere along the way she may have baulked. Could she—would that do any good?”

“Not much, I should think. Not if she had crossed the German border.” Johnny did not look up. “Not if they really wanted her.”

“Well, oughtn’t we to—”

“There’s a man at the airfield, and Camilla is with the man at the railway station. Myself, I’m afraid they’ll bring her in by car. In that case we’re helpless till we can catch Victor in one of his usual haunts and begin trailing him. I would like to put you up at my place, and Camilla sent her love. But you will probably be more useful if you’re not seen with me. So I have arranged for you to have a room here with the Kranzers for tonight.”

“But can’t we—”

“My dear boy, we don’t want to tip our hand,” said Johnny patiently. “We can’t storm the city, we have to wait till we can catch sight of one of them. Evadne knows I’m in Berlin and how to reach me here, and the first indication we have may come from her to me, if she finds herself in trouble.”

“Couldn’t I go to his apartment—”

“You could when we can find out where that is. But if she’s not there—not there
on
purpose
—it might be the worst possible thing to do.”

“I see what you mean,” said Jeff, thinking of Stephen’s face as he had seen it last, and of his own reckless promise to let him hear at once.

“The thing is to get her,” said Johnny. “In time, if possible, but anyway,
get
her.”

“Yes,” said Jeff, and avoided his eyes.

“I leave here roundabout, and I probably won’t come back,” Johnny said matter-of-factly. “You don’t always know if you’re being watched, but it’s safe to bet on it, and of course my ’phone is tapped.” He took a small blunt revolver out of his pocket and handed it to Jeff. “It’s loaded,” he said. “You know how to use it, I imagine.”

“Mm-hm,” said Jeff, and swung the cylinder out familiarly to see its nest of six cartridges. “Any more of these?”

“It’s not a war—yet,” Johnny told him with a grin. “Don’t use it at all, I hope!” He turned with a smile to Mrs. Kranzer and asked her to give their guest some dinner and show him to his room. She started obediently towards the kitchen, and her husband picked up Jeff’s suitcase and carried it towards an inner door. Johnny and Jeff looked at each other with rueful smiles in the moment’s privacy. “I have always been crazy about your family,” Johnny said. “Individually and collectively. But to marry into it is a life-work. You’ll hear from me tomorrow, one way or another. Bracken is arriving from Prague—no war this week, anyway. But you probably won’t see anything of him either—till afterwards.”

“How long can this go on?” Jeff asked, conscious of loneliness.

“We’re sure to pick up Victor any minute, unless he’s gone to earth for good. Of course it’s a nuisance dodging the police instead of asking them to co-operate, but there’s no Scotland Yard here.”

“Are these people reliable?” Jeff nodded towards the kitchen.

“Completely. There are still a few. But if you should get
hold of Evadne don’t bring her here or to me. Take her straight to the Embassy.”

“I see.”

“Good night,” said Johnny, with a hand briefly on Jeff’s shoulder. “Got something to read?”

“Always. In my bag.”

“Good. I have a theory,” said Johnny in the doorway, “—mind you, I could be sued for it—that it is the people who have never learned to lose themselves in a printed page who fill up the booby hatches.”

“Why don’t you write an article?”

“Some of my best friends would take offence,” admitted Johnny, and was gone.

Jeff woke the next morning to the ringing of the telephone, and recognized his unfamiliar surroundings with the good old leap and bubble of the heart which he so dreaded. He lay still on his back and the commotion in his chest subsided when the telephone conversation ended and no one came to tell him of anything requiring his immediate response. He rose cautiously and dressed and shaved, and swallowed another dose from the bottle. Suppose this went on so long that the bottle was empty before it was time for him to act. It didn’t do to think about that.