The Numbered Account (35 page)

‘Operating? What for?' Julia was horrified.

‘To take out the bullet. It won't be much, that man Hertz says, but they can't leave it in. I say, have you got those papers all right?'

The urgency in his voice caused Julia to look at her cousin more attentively than she had done so far, concentrated as she was on Antrobus; Colin looked battered, almost bruised, by the day's events, and his anxiety about the job.

‘Yes rather—both lots. They weren't in the black briefcase, though.'

‘Then where?'

‘In that tartan bag I snatched from the German Frau.'

‘But she emptied that out; all that fruit and stuff!'

‘Ah yes, but there was an inner pocket, and all the doings were zipped into that. There was nothing in the brief-case but old newspapers. I expect the eats were just camouflage.'

‘Where on earth can they have done the switch?'
Colin speculated. ‘I never let them out of my sight for a moment.'

‘Even in the loos? That's where I'd expect. In lots of these Swiss pubs the
Herren
and
Damen Toiletten
are side by side.'

‘So they were, in Andermatt!' he exclaimed. ‘And they all went there in a bunch together. The man from Berne went into the Gents, and I was hovering outside, but I didn't see anything—there was a huge crowd, as there always is when a bus-tour makes a halt.'

‘Well, I bet the greedy Frau took the brief-case from Wright in the corridor, did the switch inside, and handed it back to him as she came out. They must have had the old newspapers on them somewhere—no, I expect they were in the black case all the time; the real papers aren't all that bulky.'

‘You've actually looked at them?' the young man enquired anxiously. ‘Is what we want there?'

‘Well a great big envelope of those drawing things.'

‘Where are they now?' Colin asked, almost trembling with excitement.

‘In two places. What you and John want is where no one would ever think of looking; we must fetch them as soon as we can. What the Swiss police and old Chambertin want—Aglaia's good money—is hanging up here in the hotel.' She looked at her watch. ‘Goodness, we haven't a minute to lose! Come and get a drink from Watkins, while I satisfy these types and push them off.' She moved across the garden.

‘Good God! Are
they
here?' Colin said nervously—he now saw who was sitting with Mrs. Hathaway.

‘Oh yes—I was tailed all the way from the Schlucht,' Julia said cheerfully. ‘And I did my
triage
in a loo, too. What goings-on the Swiss lavatories have seen today!' She spoke to the maid as she passed. ‘Watkins, I know Mrs. Hathaway has some whisky—could you get some for Mr. Colin?'

‘Of course, Miss. I'll fetch it. It's not a known brand, but Madam says it's quite all right.' She bustled away.

Von Allmen was looking distinctly restive as Julia returned to Mrs. Hathaway's table after this colloquy, Colin beside her.

‘Monsieur Chambertin, I don't think you've properly met my cousin Colin, have you?' She turned to von Allmen. ‘And Herr von Allmen, this is really Mr. Monro; the young man in the hospital at Meiringen is a Mr. Wright, though he has a forged passport in the name of Monro.'

The police chief had risen for the introduction and bowed politely to Colin; but he looked thoroughly disconcerted at Julia's last remark, and threw an angry glance in Chambertin's direction. Julia flowed on. ‘And now, shall we go and get those papers you want, Monsieur Chambertin?'

They went through the
Kleine Saal
to the lobby, where Julia reached down the black brief-case from under her nylon wind-jacket and handed it to Chambertin.

‘You'd better look at the papers, and see that everything is there, hadn't you?' she said.

‘Most certainly. But where can we do this?'

The lobby at the Silberhorn leads into a sort of coffee-room adjoining the bar, with French windows opening onto a broad terrace or balcony which commands the view; since dinner was already going on in the restaurant both these places were empty. But a few people were still in the bar; Chambertin went through onto the terrace, followed by von Allmen, and sat down at one of the small tables, on which he placed the brief-case. ‘Where is the key?' he asked.

‘It isn't locked—I never saw a key.'

‘Incroyable!'
the Swiss exclaimed. He opened the case, drew out the papers, and then from his pocket-book took a sheet of paper covered with spider-fine hand-writing and figures; this he spread out on the coloured table-cloth and then, taking the papers one by one he began to go through them, ticking off items on the sheet of paper as he did so.

‘Oh good—you've got a list,' Julia said. ‘Well while you're checking it, will you excuse me? I must take Mrs.
Hathaway to get some dinner; she's stayed out far too late as it is.'

‘Fräulein, I shall require to get your account of what took place in the Aares-Schlucht, and of other matters,' von Allmen said as she made to leave.

‘Yes, of course. But can't that wait till the morning? I shan't run away, and my friend is still a convalescent; I must take care of her.'

‘Very good. Will half-past nine tomorrow morning be too early?'

‘No, perfect. See you then.' She hastened back to the garden, where Colin was drinking the un-branded whisky—‘Wait here,' she told him, and led Mrs. Hathaway through the whole length of the hotel to the restaurant, where the heels of the waitresses were clacking on the parquet as they served the rather sparse guests.

‘Dear Julia, what are those men doing? Have they gone?' Mrs. Hathaway asked.

‘Not yet—they're checking,' Julia said laughing. ‘And the policeman is coming back to interview me tomorrow morning.'

‘Well now do sit down and have something to eat, dear child, and Colin too,' Mrs. Hathaway said comfortably, unfolding her napkin and buttering a roll while she waited for the soup.

‘No, I can't eat yet; Colin and I have got to go out again,' Julia said, casting a horrified glance at the restaurant clock, which said five minutes to eight. ‘Ask Fräulein Hanna to keep something hot for us. I'll come up to see you last thing.'

On her way through the coffee-room she encountered Colin. ‘Where do we go?' he asked eagerly.

‘Half a moment.' Through the huge windows Julia could see Chambertin and von Allmen talking; neither the list nor the envelope were visible on the table. She went out to them.

‘Are the papers in order, Monsieur Chambertin?'

‘Grâce à Dieu, Mademoiselle,
yes,' the Swiss said, deep relief in his voice. ‘On the part of the Banque Républicaine
I wish to thank you for what you have done to recover them.

‘De rien!
—it was a pleasure,' Julia said. ‘
Au revoir.
Till tomorrow morning, Herr von Allmen.' She almost ran out to the car, followed by Colin, and shot down the pretty winding road to the foot of the Sessel-Bahn, where she again swung the Porsche into the lay-by.

‘Can't help it if they see the car—we must get up there at once,' she said, and darted up the zigzag path to the little station.

Chapter 14
Beatenberg

‘We are about to close, Fräulein,' said the man at the entrance who sold tickets, making no move to produce any.

‘We only want to go as far as the midway halt,' Julia said pleadingly, making dove's eyes at him. ‘And you must send some of the chairs up there to take the water on to the hotel, mustn't you? They've been busy today,
am Week-end.'
(This word has practically become part of most European languages.)

‘The Fräulein seems to know a great deal!' the man said with a smile, as he gave her the tickets. ‘Is she
einheimisch?'
(native-born).

‘No, foreign. But so much I know!' Julia said, smiling too. ‘
Schönsten Dank.'
The man drew round one of the twin seats, clamped the metal bars across their stomachs, pulled a lever, and launched them on their airborne career up the mountain-side.

‘What on earth
is
all this?' Colin asked as they swung through the pine-trees, whose branches were still set with small upright tufts of a brilliant carmine; these are the cones, which later bend over on the branch to droop downwards, turning brown in the process. ‘Are the papers up here? If so, why on earth?'

‘Simply to have them somewhere where that infernal von Allmen would never think of looking,' Julia said. ‘I don't know if Chambertin knows that they were in the same pigeon-hole as all Aglaia's stocks and shares—if he doesn't, he ought to, and I didn't trust him not to put von Allmen onto the fact. John was furious that he'd told him about the bus-tour.'

‘But why up here?' Colin persisted.

‘You'll see in a moment, if we aren't too late. Oh goodness, I hope I can find the right one again! Anyhow it's
no good fussing—we are in time or we aren't, I can or I can't. Tell me, is it true that there was a hospital nurse as
well
as a bobby in that lot of tourists? Chambertin said there was, and that she put a tourniquet on John's leg.'

‘Yes—she was a splendid person. She took off Antrobus's trousers to get at the place; he was furious! But she simply ignored him. It really was a damn peculiar scene,' Colin said, grinning at the recollection; ‘I wish you'd been there. That nurse kneeling on the planks, completely professional in her rather dim civvy clothes, doing the necessary and ordering me about; the policeman—who came from Wolverhampton, just to add to it—booming on about “culpable homicide in the presence of witnesses”; and the German woman bellowing that her bag had been stolen. Why did you take her bag, by the way?'

‘I don't really know. I just felt angry with her. Anyhow it's lucky I did, since that's where everything was. Go on.'

‘Oh well, just when I'd gone and cut a bough off a bush to twist the tourniquet with, and another female tourist had contributed her scarf to fasten it, that old Bank Manager comes processing through the tunnel, complete with the Swiss police—who took depositions from everybody on the spot.'

‘How? I mean in what language?'

‘English. That von Something man speaks it perfectly, and that bus-load of tourists have had the day of their lives—especially the constable from Wolverhampton!' He paused. ‘Then the ambulance men arrived with a stretcher and lugged Antrobus out, and the rest of them all came back to Interlaken on the bus, I suppose.'

‘And you?' Julia asked.

‘I waited to see the ambulance go off, and then got a lift in a car, and somehow persuaded the people in it to tail the ambulance—they were quite amused when I said there'd been an attempt at murder,' Colin said, giggling.

‘Ought you to have said that?'

‘Oh don't be silly! The whole place was buzzing with it. Do you suppose anything or anyone on earth could keep those tourists' mouths shut? Anyhow they took me to that
Clinic place, and I went in and saw Antrobus, and then came on up here.'

At that point they reached the midway halt. The man in dungarees stared in surprise at seeing passengers arriving so late, but grinned amicably at Julia when she called to him to let them out—he was busy shifting churns, but did as she asked. So many churns had been moved to be filled with water—and were even now being loaded by another man onto the seats, by day occupied by tourists, for their trip up to the summit hotel—that Julia rather lost her bearings; she went from one of the tall white-metal vessels to another, lifting off the lids and peering in, while Colin looked on, an expression of delighted comprehension beginning to dawn in his face.

‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,' he muttered, just as Julia, with an exclamation of satisfaction, bent down and from at least the twelfth churn pulled out the tartan bag.

‘Oh, you clever darling! No—they'd never have thought of looking here,' he said, and dealt her a shattering blow on the back.

‘The Fräulein is removing something?' said the man in dungarees, coming over.

‘Only something I put in when I was up here earlier this evening,' Julia said, making more dove's eyes at him. ‘Now, can we go down?'

‘Ah, Fräulein, it is after the hour—I ought not to allow this.'

‘Oh, but do allow it! I'm so tired, and we shall lose our way in the forest in the dusk, if we have to walk,' Julia beguiled.

The man lifted a wall-telephone, spoke, and then beckoned them into a seat. ‘For the Fräulein,' he said, clamping them in—Julia said, ‘
Schönsten Dank'
again as they swung out of the shed.

In the air—safest of places—Julia showed Colin the shiny envelope and its contents; he examined them carefully, and replaced the blue sheets.

‘That's IT!' he said triumphantly. ‘Do you know, I think I'd better take this on to Berne at once.'