Angel's Ransom (19 page)

Freddy took his injured hand out of its sling and tried the movement of his fingers for the twentieth time since coming
to the pilot-house. In what he tried hard to make a normal
voice he said, ‘I’ve been wondering how I could take another mashed finger or two. I guess I don’t have to worry.
If Holtz is what you say he is, it will be a bullet next time.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘There isn’t going to be any hundred thousand dollars waiting when we get back to Monaco. I cooked the scheme
right from the beginning. That
check
took Roche straight
to
jail
!’

Neyrolle said, ‘I called you here because I have received a piece of important news that makes cooperation between
us not only desirable but imperative. Before I tell you what
it is, have you thought of anything to add to what you had
to say this morning about Marian Ellis?’

‘I’ve told you everything there is to tell,’ George answered doggedly.
‘S
he
’s
a girl I knew casually in Paris. I don’t
know why she came to Monaco, or where she is now, or
anything else about her except what you know yourself.’

‘What I know leads me to believe that she is aboard the
Angel
. I would welcome any shred of information that might
help explain why, and how she got there.’

‘I can’t give it to you. But if you think she
’s
joined up with some gang of crooks in a plan to take Freddy Farr in
some melodramatic way, you’ve been seeing the same kind
of cinema that Cesar goes to. She
’s
a dancer, not an
apache
’s
moll. She wouldn’t know one end of a kidnap plot
from another.’

‘I have never believed t
hat she helped Holtz plan a kid
nap plot,’ Neyrolle said. ‘The fact that she left such easily findable identification behind her speaks against it. At this
point, I am inclined to believe that she has been - let us say,
utilized, in some manner. But whether she has a part in it or
not, the kidnap plot exists.’

He handed George the blue slip of a telegram. It read:

REQUEST DISCREET URGENT EMPHASIZE DISCREET URGENT INQUIRY INTO CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING SIGNATURE OF CHEQUE DRAWN DOLLAR ACCOUNT
FREDERICK FARR BANQUE SUISSE GENEVA AMOUNT
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND U.S.A. DOLLARS PAYABLE
LOUIS ROCHE STOP FARR
’
S
LAST KNOWN ADDRESS
YACHT ANGEL YOUR PORT STOP PROBABILITY
CHEQUE SIGNED UNDER DURESS STOP REEMPHASIZE
DISCREET URGENT STOP CABLE REPLY.

It was signed by the Geneva police.

George read the telegram twice before he could believe it, but the implications of the message were too obvious to
deny. He said, ‘By God, what a story this is going to make!
Who is Louis Roche? Holtz?’

‘No. Not Holtz.’ Neyrolle sighed. ‘The Swiss are a remarkable people; always discreet, always cautious. Observe the careful use of the word “probability”, and the almost
complete lack of any information in the cable. I was on the
telephone for more than an hour with Geneva before I
learned that Roche has a face like a Belgian hare.’

‘Cesar
’s
rabbit-faced
salaud
from the jetty!’

‘Of course.’

‘And the
check
?’

‘Ransom, clearly, although
Banque
Suisse prefers not to use the ugly word.’

‘How did they get on to it?’

‘Like many very wealthy men, Farr has a signature code with his bankers, for protection in just such circumstances
as seem to have involved him. The improper dotting of an
“
i
”, to be exact, indicated that the
check
, as well as a very
plausible explanation for its existence which the bearer
carried in Farr
’s
undeniable handwriting, had both been
written under pressure. It was my suggestion to Geneva that
Roche be banged about by a couple of experts until he gave
up further information, but unfortunately the Swiss do not
bang their criminals. Roche stands on his story that he is a
fellow-member with Farr
in a gambling syndicate that Farr
is financing, and Geneva requests that we supply them with
evidence that he is lying.’

‘What did you tell them?’

‘Nothing, yet. It seemed more important to ask questions than to answer them. Among other things I learned that, in
searching Roche, their men found that he carried a pistol, a
return plane ticket from Geneva to Nice, and a return
train ticket from Nice to Monte Carlo.’

Neyrolle
lit a
Gauloise
and left his chair to pace around the room. At intervals he looked at the clock on the wall
behind his desk. He talked rapidly, like a man who had
much to say but only a limited time in which to say it.

‘I asked myself: Why was this Roche type planning to come back to Monaco with the money? Obviously that was
his intention. It would not be to gamble at Monte Carlo,
although that reason was given in the letter signed by Farr
to explain the need of such a large amount of cash. Clearly
there was to be a rendezvous here, a reassembling of the
crooks when the loot was in hand. It followed that those of
the gang who had made off with the
Angel
must have
planned to return here,
and an even more provoking ques
tion then presented itself. Why should they take the risk?
If the existence of a gambling casino is essential to their
scheme, why not Cannes, or Nice, or the Lido, or
Estoril
, or
Biarritz, or any of a doze
n other convenient places uncon
nected with the kidnapping? On the face of it, a rendezvous
here is a stupid chancing of arrest and punishment.’

‘Too stupid for a man who cuts the labels out of his clothes.’

‘Exactly. I said to myself, very well. Here is a gang of crooks who have brought
off a well-executed coup. Every
thing points to careful planning; the trick of the
permis
, the smooth seizure of the yacht, an elaborate and plausible
story prepared for the benefit of the banker, everything. The
guiding mind is not
unclever
. Therefore the return to
Monaco is neither stupid nor unnecessary.’

The
sous-chef
lit a second cigarette from the stub of the first, looking again quickly at the clock as he ground out the
stub.

‘I dismissed the possibility that the crooks were so contemptuous of the efficiency of my office that they did not think the risk worth considering. Not as a matter of pride,
but because underrating one
’s
opponent is a stupidity in it
self. No, they would be well aware of the danger of the
return. Why do they plan it, then? Can it be that Monaco is
a less dangerous place for a rendezvous than France, or
Italy, or Portugal? What is there about this Principality that
distinguishes it from other countries in Europe? The answer,
of course, is informality of entry and exit. On the entire
Mediterranean coast of Europe, only the borders of Monaco
can be crossed without need of passport,
piece
d’identité
or
laissez-passer
, and without questions asked. Five minutes
from the port, a stranger can disappear into another country
as easily as crossing a road. You will see the possibilities.’

‘I see that the gang can be in France and out of your reach within five minutes after they return, if they return.
But they could reach France even more easily by leaving
the yacht in a French port, and you have extradition
treaties. I still don’t get it.’

‘To leave the kidnapped
Angel
in France is to commit a crime in France. That, by my reasoning, is the whole point
of the gang
’s
termination of the coup here. The crime
remains localized. They can be punished only in the
Principality, only under the laws of the Principality. As for
extradition, once they have fled, we have the treaties you
speak of, but it is not possible to extradite shadowy figures
without name, nationality, or dimension from a country of
refuge which is itself unknown. No, once they have slipped us
here, they will have slipped us forever. That is the reason I
am explaining the situation to you with such care.’

George, who had been frowning at his shoes, looked up. ‘I still don’t understand.’

‘I will try to make myself wholly clear during the next’ -Neyrolle looked once more at the clock - ‘minute and a half. Forgive me for being pressed for time. You have
suggested
that a request for help be made to Interpol or to your
American Sixth Fleet. Very well. Assume that I report a
stolen yacht, with captives being held under duress at sea.
A search would be ins
tituted immediately; planes dis
patched, radio calls sent out, other vessels asked to be on
lookout for the
Angel
. The yacht would be found, inevitably.
But we already know that we are not dealing with fools.
They are alert, on guard for any warning that their scheme
has failed; listening to the radio, watching the air, searching
the horizon. They are prepared to take certain steps if
necessary
. Once the warning comes
–’

Neyrolle threw his arms wide in a frank gesture of helplessness. ‘I do not know what will happen. I do not know what may already have happened. The scum we are dealing
with have too little dimension to be judged. But I believe it
more than possible that in fear of a capture they would
leave no witnesses to speak against them, alive or dead.
Unless that possibility can be extinguished, I will not
institute
the search, nor agree to the release of news that might
set it off.’

‘
S
o that
’s
it!’ George
’s
chair went over as he sprang to his feet. ‘Not with my help! A story as big as this one can’t be
bagged at this stage of the game!’

‘It is not a game. Nor is it only a newspaper story. I am thinking of lives. We made an agreement, you and I, that
the story should be wholly yours. I have lived up to my part
of the bargain. No one else has even a suspicion of what is
going on aboard the
Angel
except its abandoned crew, and I
have already taken steps to stop their mouths. I am leaving
here within the next few minutes to fly to Geneva to see
what further information I can get from Roche, and I will
make sure that he is muzzled as well. Before I go, I want
your parole that no word of what you know will be released
until I give permission.’

‘You don’t get it! Aside from the story, your job is to go after crooks, not to help them bring the job off. I never
agreed to cooperate in a kidnapping, even the kidnapping
of a crumb like Freddy Farr!’

A faint
color
came to Neyrolle
’s
cheeks at the insult, but he kept his temper. He said formally, ‘I regret that I do not
have the time to correct your misunderstanding of my purpose, monsieur,’ and turned to open the door near which he
had stopped his pacing.

A pair of uniformed agents stood in the hall outside. The
sous-chef
said, ‘Take him. He is to talk to no one, under any
circumstances.’

George did not go down without a struggle. He was bigger and heavier than either of the agents, and he knocked
one of them over in his quick charge for the door. But the
second man put a hold on him that meant a broken wrist if
he fought against it, and the first man was in action again
before he could knee the other. Neyrolle left the office while
they were still struggling.

Jules
came to take the wheel shortly after one in the morning, when Blake ha
d reached the ragged edge of ex
haustion. He kept falling asleep on his feet, to start awake
and catch his balance as his knees gave way under him, then
bring the
Angel
back on the course from which she had
wandered. It did not occur to him until later that Jules must
have held off from relieving him until the cruiser
’s
erratic
strayings
from the prescribed bearing had told of her wheels-man
’s
condition. It seemed increasingly apparent that
Holtz
’s
plan was to keep him helpless from fatigue as well as
preoccupied by the
Angel
’s
demands for his attention. If so,
the plan was succeeding.