The Numbered Account (37 page)

‘Look, Herr von Allmen, don't treat me as a fool,' Julia said, now rather irritably. ‘Would
Paris-Match
bother with
the photograph of an impersonator? Of course it was of the real heiress, Miss Armitage, who left for South America not long ago.'

‘Then how did you know that the resemblance would help us?'

‘Because I saw all the impersonators on the platform at Victoria, when I was coming out here,' Julia replied fearlessly. ‘I was struck by the girl's resemblance to Miss Armitage, and looked at them all carefully. That is why I was able to describe them at the bank, and establish the fact of the fraud. You heard Monsieur Chambertin thank me for this—are the Swiss Police not also grateful?'

‘Undoubtedly, Fräulein.' Von Allmen sketched a bow. But he was still not to be deflected from his enquiries.

‘This young lady, who played the part of the heiress at the bank, has disappeared. Do you know where she has gone?'

Julia was frightened—this was
it.
Playing for time—she must think—‘Why do you ask me that?' she said. But she guessed the answer before it came; that bloody Müller had probably seen her drive June off in the taxi from the Golden Bear. Had he been quick enough to tail them to the Clinic? Or questioned the snobbish taxi-driver? She decided simply to stall completely.

Von Allmen duly gave the answer she expected. ‘You were seen to drive her away, with her luggage, from the hotel.'

‘Why not? Is there a law in Switzerland against rescuing innocent young girls from the hands of international crooks? I know you don't allow women the vote,' Julia said nastily, ‘but is what I did a crime?'

She was pleased to see that the police chief looked annoyed when she spoke of the vote, but he kept his temper admirably.

‘My question is, where did you take her? And a second one—where is she now?'

They stared at one another, both stubborn and remorseless, across the table with its red-and-white checked cloth for a long moment. Then:

‘I am not going to answer either of your questions,' Julia said, very slowly and deliberately. ‘I am alone with you, without a lawyer; I know nothing of Swiss law, so I don't know whether you are even entitled to cross-question a foreign national like this. I can ring up our Embassy and find out, of course; probably I shall.' Again she stared at the police chief across the table; her dove's eyes could become as hard as onyx when Julia was determined. Suddenly, at something she half-saw in the man's face, her own expression altered completely.

‘Herr von Allmen, need we oppose each other?' she asked, in quite a gentle voice. ‘I know you must do your duty, but are we not really on the same side?—the side of right and justice?' Surprised, the man's face also relaxed; he half-nodded. ‘I have seen quite a lot of this wretched little girl,' Julia went on. ‘She is an ignorant child, hardly out of her teens, who works for an advertisement agency to support her mother, a widow.'

‘Ah, this is how they found her?' von Allmen interjected.

‘Precisely. And she took on the job because those brutes bribed her with a lot of pretty clothes! She's vain, and silly, and as stupid as a rabbit,' Julia said candidly—‘but she's fundamentally a good honest girl, who had really no idea of the use to which she was to be put. And because I was a little kind to her—quite by accident—she determined to help me, rather than her beastly employers, and rang me up to tell me that the papers were to be handed over on the
Drei-Pässe
tour.'

‘
Unmöglich!
' von Allmen exclaimed, thoroughly startled.

‘But certainly. So she, not I, is the person you and the Banque Républicaine ought to be thanking for their recovery.'

‘But Herr Antrobus knew this,' the police chief said, still incredulous.

‘Only because I told him, after she had told me. She warned me that they were armed, too. Now, do you still want to harry and pursue her? Or arrest her, and frighten her out of her wits?' She paused—the man was silent.
Julia leaned across the table, her eyes again dove's eyes.

‘Look, Herr von Allmen, I have sent her away to good kind people, who will look after her until I can take her back to England. Can't you just lose her, like you lost the others last week? You've got back the papers, you've caught the real criminals—can't you forget about her, and allow her to disappear?'

He laughed a little at this outrageously barefaced request.

‘Fräulein, she cannot cross the frontier. All posts have been told to look out for her passport.'

‘Yes of course; I'd thought of that. But that was a bogus passport anyway—your frontier officials won't be looking out for one in the name of Phillips.'

‘This is her real name?' He drew out a note-book.

‘No, don't write it down,' Julia said, stretching a long, faintly tanned hand across the table, and laying it on the note-book and on von Allmen's hand together. ‘Please! This is off the record—aren't we working together, now?'

The police chief, rather slowly, withdrew his hand from under Julia's, and put the note-book back in his pocket. Instead of answering directly—

‘It was she who told you their names?' he asked.

‘Not told—she's so frightfully stupid that she kept on letting them slip out,' Julia said, half-laughing at the recollection. ‘But I can easily get her a fresh passport, in her real name.'

‘Is this so easy?' the Swiss official asked, looking rather shocked.

‘Goodness yes! I'm always letting my passport run out, or losing it, and having to get a new one. Any Consulate can do it.'

He looked more shocked than ever.

‘Actually I expect horrible Mr. Borovali has got hers,' Julia pursued blithely. ‘If she has it, I shall burn it—and if he has, you can burn it!'

Von Allmen laughed out loud.

‘And we are told that the English are so law-abiding!' he said.

‘So we are—only we realise that laws, like the Sabbath, are made for man, and not man for the Law. Also'—the tone of her voice changed—‘we are a merciful people. I believe you are, too; who invented the Red Cross? Be merciful, Herr von Allmen—and you shall obtain mercy.'

There was a long pause. Julia forced herself not to look at her watch, though surely it must be ten o'clock by now? But June was the first thing. At last von Allmen spoke.

‘Fräulein, I have had a long experience in administering the Law, which you treat so lightly; but I have never yet encountered a person who appeared to be at the same time completely unscrupulous, and also good. This is very curious.'

‘Oh, I'm not good—only merciful on occasion!' Julia said lightly. She did not press her appeal—this rather oblique response was probably as much as she could expect; at least he had not refused outright. Better finish now—and at last she did look at her watch; it was five past ten. ‘Herr von Allmen, have we done? Because if so I ought just to go up and see my old friend before I go down to the town—she got rather over-tired last night.'

‘I am sorry for this. Please convey my compliments to Frau Hathaway—that is a most gracious lady,' von All-men said.

‘Yes, isn't she? She liked you so much too,' Julia said. She held out her hand. ‘Goodbye—thank you for being kind.'

‘Have I been kind?'

‘Well, I rather think you're going to be.
Auf-wiederluoge!'
she said, laughing, and ran away to the telephone-box.

She was too late for Dr. Hertz, who was on his rounds, but the
Schwester
with whom she spoke said that certainly it would be possible to visit Herr Antrobus; he had slept well, taken a good breakfast, and had very little pain. Relieved, Julia went up to Mrs. Hathaway's room, ascertaining on the way from Fräulein Hanna that the
Polizei-Chef
had driven off.

‘All serene,' she said as she entered—at the sound of
the door opening Colin came in off the balcony. ‘I'm not in prison, and von Allmen has gone. He sent you his respects, Mrs. H.—you've made a hit.'

‘What did he want to know?' Colin asked.

‘Why I was in the gorge yesterday, and what I'd done with the little stooge, June. I told him that Herr Antrobus and I were looking for a bird in the gorge, and gave him its name—he hated that,' Julia said, laughing reminis-cently. ‘And I refused flat out to tell him where June was. But it all went very well—we parted friends.'

‘How extraordinary!' Colin said, beginning to jerk his double-jointed thumb in and out, with a horrible clicking sound. ‘He didn't ask about the papers?'

‘Not a word. He said the Hun Frau had accused me of snatching her bag, and I said of course I did, because she was using it as a weapon on John. I gave it to him, and he's taken it off. I shouldn't worry, Colin—either Chambertin didn't know about the prints, or if he did, he didn't tell von Allmen.'

‘That all sounds very satisfactory,' Mrs. Hathaway said. ‘The police in most countries are quite reasonable as a rule, if one treats them sensibly.'

‘Now, Colin, are you going to Berne?' Julia asked. ‘Because if so you'd better drive down to Interlaken with me and get a train from the West-Bahnhof—much less hanging about than with the steamer.'

‘Yes, I think I'd better go and report,' Colin said. ‘There are bound to be repercussions from the Swiss end, and I hope to Heaven there won't be a fuss with the Embassy.'

‘Colin, I am quite sure there won't,' Mrs. Hathaway said. ‘Letters quite often are sent to Embassies to be called for. Anyhow if you go with Julia you will be in Berne as soon as the package. Dear boy, do keep that thumb of yours quiet; it makes such a disagreeable sound.'

‘Yes, go and pack your ghastly great rucksack quickly,' his cousin adjured him. ‘I want to be off in ten minutes.'

Colin got up—at the door he paused. ‘I ought to see Antrobus, and let him know what's happened.'

‘I'll tell him; I shall be seeing him. Do go and pack,' Julia said impatiently.

When Colin had gone—‘Have you heard how Mr. Antrobus is?' Mrs. Hathaway asked.

‘Yes, I rang up just now. The operation went all right, and he slept well, and ate a huge breakfast.'

‘The operation?'

‘Oh, didn't you hear that part? That revolting Wright shot him through the leg in the Schlucht, and they had to take the bullet out, and stitch up the artery. That was why he threw Master Wright into the Aar—he felt a little cross with him.'

‘No wonder,' said Mrs. Hathaway.

Chapter 15
Interlaken—The Clinic

‘Ah, there you are at last. I expected one of you before this,' Antrobus said, when a nurse ushered Julia into his small austere room at the Clinic next morning.

‘Couldn't get away any earlier—I was stuck with von Allmen. He turned up at 9.30 to cross-examine me about the goings-on in the Schlucht,' Julia said, seating herself in the single wicker chair, with its bright cretonne cushions. The sight of Antrobus lying rather flat in bed, in pyjamas, a cradle over his right leg, brought about in her a set of emotions so strong that she spoke even more slowly and casually than usual.

‘Why didn't Colin come?'

‘He's gone to Berne to report.'

‘I think he might have reported to me first,' Antrobus said.

‘There wasn't time. Anyhow I can tell you all he can, and a good bit more,' Julia replied, rather chilled by his tone.

‘I don't see why the rush to get to Berne. However, as you're reporting you'd better report. Is everything all right? Did you get the papers?'

‘Yes, I got them. They weren't in the black brief-case, though.'

‘Good gracious! Then where were they, and how did you get them?'

‘They were in the Hun woman's tartan bag.'

‘And where are they now?'

‘Well, all old Thalassides' stocks and shares I gave to Chambertin; the drawings—'

‘Yes, what about them?' he interrupted sharply.

‘They're in the post, on the way to the Embassy in Berne. That's why Colin's raced off—he wants to be in time for his people to ring up the Embassy to say they'll call for them.'

‘Why on earth did you do anything so idiotic as to post them to the Embassy?' he asked, quite irritably.

‘I didn't. Mrs. Hathaway did. Look,' the girl said, becoming irritated in her turn by his carping manner—‘if you want to hear my report, I'll report, but I don't see why I should be scolded by anyone. If I hadn't snatched that bag, by now your papers would be safely on their way to East Germany or wherever, and you'd have got nothing but a brief-case full of old newspapers.' She was upset that this meeting was turning out so disagreeably.

‘Not really? So they did manage to switch after all. I wonder where—your cousin swore he'd never taken his eyes off the black case.'

‘He had to take them off Frau Dortmund when she went into the lav at Andermatt, which is almost certainly where it happened,' Julia said, and rehearsed what Colin had told her.