Part 24 (2/2)

She spoke without resentment and with regret. I thought that Greville must have enjoyed having June around him as much as I did. All that bright intelligence and unspoiled good humour and common sense. He'd liked her enough to make puzzles for her and let her share his toys.

'What's this one?' I asked, picking up a small grey contraption with black ear sponges on a headband with a cord like a walkabout ca.s.sette player, but with no provision for ca.s.settes in what might have been a holder.

'That's a sound-enhancer. It's for deaf people, really, but Mr Franklin took it away from someone who was using it to listen to a private conversation he was having with another gem merchant. In Tucson, it was. He said he was so furious at the time that he just s.n.a.t.c.hed the amplifier and headphones off the man who was listeNING and walked away with them uttering threats about commercial espionage, and he said the man hadn't even tried to get them back.' She paused. 'Put the earphones on. You can hear everything everyone's saying anywhere in the office. It's pretty powerful. Uncanny, really.'

I put on the ultra-light earphones and pressed the ON switch on the cigarette-packet-sized amplifier and sure enough I could straightaway hear Annette across the hallway talking to Lily about remembering to ask Derek for time off for the dentist.

I removed the earphones and looked at June.

'What did you hear?' she asked. 'Secrets?'

'Not that time, no.'

'Scary, though?, 'As you say.'

The sound quality was in fact excellent, astonis.h.i.+ngly sensitive- for so small a microphone and amplifier. Some of Greville's toys, I thought, were decidedly unfriendly.

'Mr Franklin was telling me that there's a voice transformer that you can fix on the telephone that can change the pitch of your voice and make a woman sound like a man. He said he thought it was excellent for women living alone so that they wouldn't be bothered by obscene phone calls and no one would think they were alone and vulnerable.'

I smiled. 'It might disconcert a bona fide boyfriend innocently ringing up.'

'Well, you'd have to warn them,' she agreed. 'Mr Franklin was very keen on women taking precautions.'

'Mm,' I said wryly.

'He said the jungle came into his court.'

'Did you get a voice changer?' I asked.

'No. We were only talking about it just before...'

She stopped. 'Well . . . anyway, do you want a sandwich for lunch?'

'Yes, please.'

She nodded and was gone. I sighed and tried to apply myself to the tricky letters and was relieved at the interruption when the telephone rang.

It was Elliot Trelawney on the line, asking if I would messenger round the Vaccaro notes at once if I wouldn't mind as they had a committee meeting that afternoon.

'Vaccaro notes,' I repeated. I'd clean forgotten about them. I couldn't remember, for a moment, where they were.

'You said you would send them this morning,'

Trelawney said with a tinge of civilized reproach. 'Do you remember?'

'Yes.' I did, vaguely.

Where the h.e.l.l were they? Oh yes, in Greville's sitting room. Somewhere in all that mess. Somewhere there, unless the thief had taken them.

I apologized. I didn't actually say I'd-come near to being killed twice since I'd last spoken to him and it was playing tricks with my concentration. I said things had cropped up. I was truly sorry. I would try to get them to the court by . . . when?

'The committee meets at two and Vaccaro is first on the agenda,' he said.

'The notes are still in Greville's house,' I replied, 'but I'll get them to you.'

'Awfully good of you.' He was affable again. 'It's frightfulLy important we tuRN this application down.'

'Yes, I know.'

Vaccaro, I thought uncomfortably, replacing the receiver, wAs alleged to have had his wanting-out cocaine-smuggling pilots murdered by shots from moving cars.

I stared into s.p.a.ce. There was no reason on earth for Vaccaro to shoot me, even supposing he knew I existed.

I wasn't Greville, and I had no power to stand in the way of his plans All I had, or probably had, were the notes on his transgressions, and how could he know that? And how could he know I would be in a car between Lambourn and Hungerford on Sunday afternoon?

And couldn't the notes be gathered again by someone else besides Greville, even if they were now lost?

I shook myself out of the horrors and went down to the yard to see if Brad was sitting in the car, which he was, reading a magazine about fis.h.i.+ng.

Fis.h.i.+ng? 'I didn't know you fished,' I said.

'I don't.'

End of conversation.

Laughing inwardly I invited him to go on the journey.

I gave him the simple keyring of three keys and explained about the upheaval he would find. I described the Vaccaro notes in and out of their envelope and wrote down Elliot Trelawney's name and the address of the court.

'Can you do it?' I asked, a shade doubtfully.

'Yerss' He seemed to be slighted by my tone and took the paper with the address with brusqueness 'Sorry,' I said.

He nodded without looking at me and started the car, and by the time I'd reached the rear entrance to the offIces he was driving out of the yard.

Upstairs Annette said there had just been a phone call from Antwerp and she had written down the number for me to ring back.

Antwerp.

With an effort I thought back to Thursday's distant conversations What was it I should remember about Antwerp?

Van Ekeren. Jacob. His nephew, Hans I got through to the Belgian town and was rewarded with the smooth bilingual voice telling me that he had been able now to speak to his uncle on my behalf.

'You're very kind,' I said.

'I'm not sure that we will be of much help. My uncle says he knew your brother for a long time, but not very well. However, about six months ago your brother telephoned my uncle for advice about a sightholder.' He paused. 'It seems your brother was considering buying diamonds and trusted my uncle's judgement.'

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