Part 11 (1/2)

'I think I've already told you.' Her voice was very quiet. 'I'm not particularly brave.'

'And then they'd know who it was they had on their hands. They'd be over the moon. Another lovely blackmailing trump in their hands in addition to their still undisclosed trumps. Apart from your own health, you'd be putting us in an impossibly difficult situation.'

'Couldn't have put it better myself,' de Graaf said. She smiled faintly. 'I'm a coward. I'll do what I'm told.' 'Not told, my dear, not told,' de Graaf said. 'Just a suggestion.' Again the faint smile. 'It sounds like a very good suggestion to me. Where shall I stay?'

'With Julie, of course,' van Effen said. 'An un.o.btrusive armed guard will be lurking in the vicinity. But before you go into purdah, as it were, there's one thing I want you to do for me. I

'Of course.'

'I want you to go to Vasco in the morning. Tell him what we've told you and tell him to disappear. I know where he'll disappear to and I'll contact him there when it's safe to.'

'I'll do that.' She was silent for a moment. 'When you asked me to do something for yon and I said ”of course” - well, I wish now I hadn't. You see what you've done to me, Peter. I'm a quivering wreck.' 'You're not quivering and for a wreck you look in pretty good shape to me. You may be jumped on there and then your gallant fellow Krakers would look the other way?'

'Yes.'

'We are accustomed to those injustices, are we not, Colonel? Nothing will happen to you. You'll be under constant surveillance, and by constant I mean sixty seconds every minute. The trusty Lieutenant van Effen, suitably disguised - not the Hunter's Horn disguise, of course - and lumbered with his usual a.r.s.enal - there's a thought for you, Colonel. I think I'll carry a third Din tomorrow when I meet Agnelli and his friend or friends. They already know that -'

'That you carry two g-L, ns,' de Graaf said, 'and so their minds will, of course, be pre-conditioned against the idea of you carrying a third. It'll be in your book, of course.'

'Of course, it's not. One mustn't put such thoughts in the minds of the criminal element. But, yes, that's the idea. So, no problem, Annemarie. I won't be further away than five metres at any time.' 'That's nice. But you've put all sorts of unpleasant thoughts in my head. I could be jumped on, in your words, anywhere and any time between here and Julie's house.'

'More injustice. No worry. I will transport you there in the safety and comfort of my own limousine.'

'Limousine!' de Graaf said. 'Comfort! My G.o.d!' He bent a solicitous eye on the girl. 'You have, I trust, not forgotten your air cus.h.i.+on?' 'I don't understand, sir.'

'You will.'

They left the restaurant and walked along the street until they came to the Colonel's car, parked, as usual, in a no parking area. De Graaf kissed the girl in what he probably regarded as an avuncular fas.h.i.+on, said goodnight and climbed into his gleaming Mercedes. The back seat of his Mercedes. Colonel de Graaf, inevitably, had a chauffeur.

Annemarie said: 'I understand now what the Colonel meant about an air cus.h.i.+on.'

'A trifling inconvenience,' van Effen said. 'I'm having it fixed. Orders. The Colonel complains.'

'The Colonel does like his comforts, doesn't he?'

'It may not have escaped your attention that he was built for comfort.' 'He's very kind, isn't he? Kind and courteous and considerate.' 'It's no hards.h.i.+p to be all those things when the object of them is as beautiful as you.'

'You do have a nice turn of speech, Lieutenant.'

'Yes, I do, rather.'

She was quiet for a moment, then said: 'But he is rather a sn.o.b, isn't he? A fearful sn.o.b.'

'In the interests of discipline, I must speak severely. You can't expect me to condone, far less agree with, denigrating remarks about our Chief of Police.'

'That wasn't meant to be denigrating. It was just an observation. I refuse to get to the stage where I must watch every word I say. This is still an open society. Or is it?'

'Well, well.'

'Go on. Say it. ”Spoken with spirit” or something like that.' 'I don't think I will. But you're about as wrong with your sn.o.bbism as you were about your warm-hearted Arthur bit.'