Sniffing the air to give him a casual appearance, he sauntered back towards the ferry landing and this time sat next to the duffel-coated man on the public seat. The man had a ginger beard and glasses. As the commercial vehicles came ashore, he checked them off on his clipboard list.
'Counting them in and counting them out, are you?' said Davies amiably.
'Are you a policeman?' asked the man, scarcely looking up from his task.
Davies was shocked. 'Me? Why do you ask?'
'You move about like a policeman,' said the man. 'I've been watching you. Little bit here, a little bit there, then you go back to the promenade, then you come and sit down here. You couldn't be more obvious if you had a flashing blue light on the top of your head.'
'Thanks very much,' muttered Davies. 'As a matter of fact, you're only half right. I'm an insurance investigator.'
'Oh, really. What company?'
'I'm not at liberty to discuss that. What are you doing, if I may ask?'
'Counting them in and counting them out, as you put it,' answered the man. 'Askew, Department of the Environment. We do a check on vehicles entering the country. Various ports. And this is one of them.' To Davies's surprise, he smiled through his stiff beard and held out a hand backed with ginger hairs. He was a big man and the hand was hard.
'Davies
’
said Davies, 'Insurance. How long have you been counting them in and counting them out here in Weymouth?'
'A few months now. Generally they move us about but I seem to have been stuck here for a while.' 'Since October?'
'Since August. Came here straight after my holidays last year. I got more sun here than I did on holiday.'
Davies said: 'I've got an interest in two vehicles which regularly make deliveries of pharmaceuticals and they come ashore in Weymouth. Becker Corporation. Sometimes they're small trucks, other times two cars, station wagons. They usually come over once a month - about this time of the month.'
Askew gave him a sharp look and flicked over the top sheet of the paper on his clipboard. 'Due tonight,' he said. 'Nine o'clock ferry. I don't remember checking them specifically, but I've obviously seen them if they're regular.'
'Thanks,' said Davies. He stood up to go. Jemma was waiting by the Vanguard on the promenade. 'I may see you tonight then.'
'I'll look forward to it.'
'Nine o'clock
’
said Davies. 'That means, if they go straight through, which means they're on their special run, they ought to be at Blissen Pharmaceuticals at about one o'clock in the morning.' They were sitting on the beach in the brisk sun. Jemma threw pebbles into the growling water. 'Look how deep it is, right against the shore,' she said. 'When the wave goes out you can see that the shingle dips down like a chute.'
'I'm going to need someone at the other end,' he said. 'At Blissens, to see what happens there.'
'Ring the police,' she smiled ironically. She tossed another pebble.
'Imagine me phoning Vesty,' he pondered. 'Hello, superintendent old man, how's Mrs Vesty and all the little singlets? Oh, good. Listen, super, why don't you get a couple of hundred coppers to surround Blissen Pharmaceuticals tonight. I'm expecting a big drug smuggling consignment at about one o'clock. Yes, it's Detective Constable Davies down in Dorset. Still following up the Lofty Brock murder. What? Oh, thanks, super, I'll take some leave while I'm down here and then get back in time for my promotion party. No, of course I won't forget my expenses!' He wiped his hand across his eyes. 'Jesus, can you imagine it,' he sighed to Jemma. 'I'd be going back to face the firing squad.'
'It's clever,' said Jemma. 'Smuggling drugs in with pharmaceuticals. Drugs with drugs.'
'It was clever until poor old Lofty happened to pass by and disturb the arrangement.'
'And Dangerous Davies looked in,' she mentioned.
'We shall see about that. With my sort of luck the Jungfrau Harrer is working on a secret mercy mission for the International Red Cross.'
'You don't think Harrison, the boss, is in on it?'
'I doubt it. He may be but in that case he's a good actor. And it's all done after hours. If he were in the know there's no real reason why consignments of heroin, cocaine, and whatever else they're trading in, shouldn't be trundled up to the front door of Blissen Pharmaceuticals in broad daylight.' He looked pensively out to sea. 'I still need somebody to watch the other end.'
'There's only Mod,' she said.
'Unfortunately that's it.'
'Unless you'd like me to go.'
'No. Thanks just the same. I think you ought to be here.'
'Do you think they're on to you?' 'I wouldn't be surprised. You couldn't break wind along here without them knowing in Penzance. This run could be their last. The Jungfrau must know the game is almost up - now the body of Dietrich has been identified. She also knows that I've been making a nuisance of myself. Adding the ones and twos shouldn't be too hard for a Swiss mind. She's probably got her bags packed for Buenos Aires as soon as this consignment of drugs is distributed.'
'Are you going to ring Mod?'
'I can't think of anybody else.' He looked at his watch. 'He's on his lunch break now at The Babe In Arms. I'll get him there.'
Her face was turning away, watching the long waves swelling on to the beach. 'You'll be very cautious tonight, won't you,' she said.
'You don't know how much,' he assured her.
'If you don't get back by a certain time do you want me to call the police?'
'The very word sends shivers down my spine,' he said. 'But if I don't turn up after, say, three hours, I think you could.' He checked his watch again, and they walked back to the inn. In the room he picked up the receiver and gave the girl in reception the number. She rang him back quickly.
'Hello
’
said Davies, 'is that The Babe In Arms? Ah, Patrick, is Mr Lewis there? Mod, yes, Mod. Thanks.'
He sat on the bed and waited. Jemma was framed by the midday light of the window, looking out to the pale blue of the sea. His eyes went down from her hair piled above her slender brown neck, to her shoulders, her arms loosely held behind her backside with her fingers hooked, her tight waist and long brown legs. While he waited for Mod he wondered, a little sadly, what was to become of her and him.
She seemed to feel the thought because she turned from the sunlit window and smiled wistfully at him.
She could make even a single pace graceful and she took it and sat on the bed beside him. The telephone was still against his ear but she manoeuvred herself around it and kissed him quietly.
Mod came on the line. He sounded breathless. 'Oh, Dangerous, it's you,' he said, apparently relieved. 'I thought it was my brother in Wales, with bad news about my mother.'
'I didn't know you had a brother or a mother,' said Davies.
'I don't tell you everything,' said Mod. 'My family is better left unsaid.'
'Oh, I see what you mean.'
'Are you having a nice holiday?'
'I'm sitting here in my bathing costume. Now, Mod
...
there's a favour I need.'
'I thought so. What is it?'
'You know little Edwin Curl, the security man at the trading estate?
...'
'Snow White's fiance.'
'Yes. Well, tonight will you trundle over there, tell him you're working for me, and get yourself into some place where you can observe the comings and goings at Blissen Pharmaceuticals.
'I don't like the sound of this, Dangerous.'
'You'll be all right. Keep out of sight, that's all. See if you can see what the Jungfrau is up to.'
'What time is all this?'
'After closing time. Get there about midnight.' 'That's very late for me.'
'Mod, I think there's going to be some drama there tonight.. . .'
'What sort of drama?'
'Cars turning up and that sort of drama.'
'The last time there was that sort of drama, Lofty ended up dead in the canal.'
'I know, but it won't be like that. You keep well out of sight but make sure you can see what's going on. If there's any danger I'll make sure the police will be there.'
'Why can't the police be there anyway?'
'You know as well as I do. Because they won't believe me and if it goes wrong, if I've got the whole scenario wrong, I'll be for the biggest high-jump since the last Olympics.'
'I can't say I like the sound of this at all,' muttered Mod. 'It's way past my bedtime. But
...
as it's you
...'
'Good old Mod. I'll buy you a pint when I get back.'
'It may cost you more than one.'
Davies put the phone down. 'That's that bit done, anyway,' he said.
'He'll go, won't he? He'll not let you down?'
'He'll go. He'll probably be so well hidden he'll see nothing, but he'll go.'
Jemma regarded him solemnly. 'Don't you think it might be a good idea if you threw yourself at the mercy of the police,' she suggested.
'I
can'tl
You know that.' His hand touched her face. His voice dropped.'... They'd throw the book at me. Maybe nothing will happen. Maybe the cars will arrive and the drivers put up cosily at the Seashore Hotel in Weymouth, like they do on their legal run.'
'Not even a call to the drug squad?'
He shook his head. 'It won't be any good. As far as the Metropolitan Police are concerned, I'm a marked man.'
The telephone sitting on his lap rang so sharply that he threw it in the air like a bomb. It landed on his knees again and he picked up the headset. 'Hello.'
'Is that Mr Davies
...
Insurance?'
'Yes, Davies, Insurance speaking.'
'This is Askew, Department of the Environment. We talked at Weymouth quay. 'Yes, Mr Askew.'
'The parties you're interested in are definitely booked on the ferry to arrive here at nine this evening. I checked for you.'
'Oh, you did. That's very kind.'
'I thought I might be of further help. Naturally I don't know the nature of your investigations
...
business
...
but I think I can help. I'll show you a few short cuts. I can even get aboard the ferry before she docks, while she's out in the bay. We can go aboard the pilot cutter. Are you interested?'
'I think I might well be.'
'Right. I'll pick you up at eight.'
In the late afternoon a dusky rim appeared on the western horizon, moving quickly and within an hour darkening the whole sky. The wind which pushed it convulsed the sea, and rain began to drop in heavy pellets. By seven o'clock a storm was in full voice. The shutters of the inn rattled and the curtains in their room were agitated. 'It's no night to go adventuring,' grumbled Davies.
'Great dramas are played out on nights like this,' said Jemma, lying beside him. 'Ask Shakespeare.'
Askew arrived promptly at eight, and with his overcoat up to his ears Davies hurried across the front yard and climbed into the waiting Land-Rover. 'How did you know I was staying here?' he asked when they were driving east.
'I saw your car in the front when I came by, after I'd been talking to you,' said Askew.
'It's not easy to miss,' conceded Davies. 'I keep going to change it but my dog likes it. Are we going to be able to get out to the ferry before she docks? I'd like to get a good look at these characters before they get ashore.'
The rain was thick against the windscreens, the wipers swinging frantically. 'You
are
a policeman, aren't you,' said Askew. It was scarcely a question.
'Since you ask, yes,' said Davies. 'You spotted my funny walk, didn't you.'
'What is this? Drugs?' asked the man.
'Yes.'
'It makes it easier that you are a policeman because it gives us more elbow in getting on the pilot boat. An insurance man might be difficult to explain.'
'I don't want this getting too official,' said Davies, alarmed. 'It's a bit of an undercover effort.'
'I see. Well, just to get on to the pilot landing and to go out on the pilot boat is always difficult. They're naturally security conscious like everybody else these days. God, you ought to see it at the Department of the Environment. On the other hand, if somebody wants to get out to the incoming ferry, the pilot cutter may well pick them up off-shore. Then it
’
s not so official, nobody has to sign things or know the reason why.'
That sounds more like it,' said Davies. 'The more unofficial the better.'
'I'm enjoying this,' said Askew frankly. 'A bit of skulduggery. Checking vehicles on and off ferries gets incredibly dull.' He laughed. 'One day I'll be able to boast about it. There's a rumour that it's tied up with that chap who was found drowned on the Bank last year, the Swiss. Is that true?'
That's true,' agreed Davies. 'Everybody around here knows so much, I'm beginning to feel like a tail-ender.'