The Best of British Crime omnibus (16 page)

‘She might pretend to.'

‘Look, bud, I brought her round. She was out – clean out. I'd stake my last nickel that the first she knew of Mullett's murder was when she saw him stretched on the floor.' He pulled savagely on his cigarette. ‘There's another thing too – she wouldn't have had time to do it. Why, I was with her myself until somewhere around quarter after nine. Mullett was probably dead by then. Anyway, we know he was dead ten minutes later, and if there's one thing certain it's that Tanya couldn't have gone to his room and killed him and sealed up his doors all inside ten minutes. You're sure backing a loser.'

I suddenly felt immensely relieved. It was true – she couldn't have done it. That last point of his clinched it, and I'd been slow not to see it before.

‘Stupid of me,' I said. ‘Sorry Jeff! I had to raise the thing – it was on my mind – but don't misunderstand me. I couldn't see her in the part, either.'

He brightened. ‘Well, thank God for that. Let's have a drink.'

I said, ‘I'm afraid it doesn't let her out, though.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘The murderer reached Mullett's room through her room – through her french doors.
Who sealed up her doors after him?
'

He sat very still, groping for an answer as I had done. ‘Well,' he said at last, ‘I guess the guy who unsealed them must have got in again, somehow, and sealed them up. There was such a schemozzle last night, anything could have happened.'

‘What about the time in between? You might as well face it, Jeff – Tanya must have known. It's inconceivable that she could have sat in her room and not noticed what had happened. For one thing, there'd have been a hell of a draught.'

‘There wasn't a draught when I took that drink in to her.'

‘Exactly. That was because she'd already resealed the doors.'

He clutched his hair. ‘Christ!' he said, ‘this is horrible.' He sat for a while, plunged in thought. ‘Okay,' he said at last, ‘maybe she did know, but there must be some explanation. I can see Tanya as a lot of things, but not as a murderer's accomplice. And we're back where we were – why did she faint?'

I shrugged. ‘It's one thing to know a murder's going to be done, and another to see the results before your eyes.'

‘I don't believe it,' he said stoutly. ‘I don't bloody well believe it.'

There was a long, gloomy silence while we both sought afresh for some chink in the evidence. There wasn't one, though – that resealing of Tanya's doors was damning. She must have been in it up to the neck.

Presently Jeff gave up groping and started off on a new track. ‘What beats me,' he said, ‘is how the police came to miss this balcony business.'

‘I suppose they were concentrating on the corridor angle and didn't bother to look any further.'

Jeff grunted. ‘If a man's found murdered in a room, you don't just accept the obvious. Even if it did seem likely that the murderer had come from the corridor, I'd have thought they'd have had a look round to make sure. Hell, they were in there long enough.' He gave me an odd look. ‘Anyway, why did they bother to take the tin and the newspaper away with them?'

I didn't get it. ‘I suppose they thought they might be clues.'

‘What, an old tin and an old newspaper? Those things, bud, were only clues in relation to the balcony doors.'

I stared at him, and a creepy feeling ran slowly up my spine. ‘Good Lord!' I said softly, ‘you mean perhaps they did find out about the balcony!' I thought about it, and suddenly all doubt disappeared. ‘Why, of course they did – what a fool I am! That's why they wanted to look in my room – the explanation they gave seemed phony at the time. They'd discovered that Mullett's doors had been forced from the outside and as I shared a balcony with him they wanted to find out if mine had. Don't you see?'

‘I'm ahead of you,' Jeff said grimly. ‘They'd discovered that your seals were intact. Then they'd do what you did – they'd realise that someone must have climbed from one balcony to the other. They'd examine the marks in the snow. They'd go to Tanya's room and they discover that her doors had been resealed that evening.' With a set face he took the telegram from his pocket and read it again. Then he screwed it up and flung it into a corner.
‘She's
gone to no health resort. I guess they could easily have arranged to have that sent. Oh, God!'

I couldn't contradict him.

‘All the same,' he said, frowning, ‘I don't get it. She'd have told them everything. She'd have told them who the guy was who went through her room – she'd have had to. They must know who the real murderer is, and they've arrested an innocent man instead. That's a swell set-up. What the hell do they think they're playing at?'

‘It sounds to me,' I said, ‘like “Murder Through the Looking-Glass.”

Once it became clear that the Russians were covering up for the murderer, anything seemed possible. Jeff said: ‘Maybe the M. V. D killed Mullett themselves. They could easily have fixed it.'

I thought about that, and of course he was right. If they'd wanted to get rid of Mullett they could have sent a man through Tanya's room, and instructed her to seal up behind him, and rushed her off afterwards to some place where she'd be safe from curious questions until the affair had blown over. Tanya might simply have been the obedient young Soviet citizen, carrying out orders. In that case, though, surely they'd have removed her from the hotel before the murder was discovered? And anyway…

‘Why would they have wanted to bump off Mullett?' I asked. ‘That really would have been killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.'

‘It seems that way, I agree,' Jeff said slowly. But then what do we really know of Mullett, except that he was a pain in the neck to everybody? A lot of queer things happen to people with Soviet connections. You were suggesting just now that he might have got mixed up with Tanya – well, he might have got mixed up with the Russians. I know it sounds pretty cuckoo, but suppose he was a British agent, and the Russians found out. That pro-Soviet line of his could have been an act. Maybe he's been spying all this time.'

‘You've more faith in the British Intelligence Service than I have, chum,' I said. ‘I don't believe that people who were dumb enough to let that atom man Fuchs get by would be smart enough to plant a man like Mullett. Besides, that stuff he talked had the ring of conviction. If he was putting it on all that time, he was a genius.'

‘Okay – it was just an idea.' Jeff probed around for further possibilities. ‘Suppose he was a
Russian
agent, and for some reason they'd come to the conclusion that he wasn't reliable any more. Plenty of guys have been bumped off for that. Maybe they asked him over here with the deliberate intention of killing him.'

I could sympathise with Jeff's eagerness to exculpate Tanya, but I thought he was being a bit fanciful. ‘They're capable of it, of course,' I said, ‘but there's not a shred of evidence. Frankly, I don't believe the authorities had a hand in it – not in the actual killing. That bottle business was too crude for an official job. It smacks of the amateur to me.' ‘Then why are they covering up?'

I shrugged. ‘Search me. They must feel they've got
something
at stake. I suppose if some important Russian had done it, someone they couldn't bring to trial because he was too useful, they'd have covered up for him.'

‘Would they have covered up for a delegate?'

I felt a sudden stir of excitement. ‘That's a thought! You know, I believe they might have done.'

‘It sure would have wrecked their campaign if they'd had to arrest Bolting or Schofield or Tranter on a murder rap. Hell, though, it's still only surmise. This whole theory is only surmise. How do we prove it? What are we going to
do?'

‘Well,' I said, ‘we could try to break Kira down and get some confirmation from her – she must know a lot more than she's admitted. Or we could follow up the address on that envelope I found – you never know, it might have something to do with the case. Or, of course, we could pipe down and forget the whole thing – that's obviously what they'd like us to do.'

‘And let them get away with murder? Not bloody likely! I reckon Kira's the best bet.'

‘I think so, too. We'd better not both see her together – she'll think it's a hold-up. Shall I talk to her?'

‘I guess you might as well –
I
didn't get much change out of her. Anyway, you British have a smooth line in talk when you want something.'

‘There's just one other thing,' I said, as I got up. ‘How's it going to affect Tanya if we ask a lot of questions?'

‘I figure it can't make things any worse for her,' he said glumly, ‘and there's
just
a chance it might make them better – if we can get at the truth. You see, I still don't think she'd help in a murder. Maybe I'm just a sap, but that's the way it is.' He picked up his coat. ‘So long, George.'

As soon as he'd gone I turned in, but it was some time before I slept. I had to decide what would be the best approach to Kira, and it was a bit tricky. I didn't know how much she'd been told, or how tough she was, or what sort of strain she was under. I thought I'd go easy to start with and see how she shaped.

It was a few minutes after nine on the following morning when I knocked on her door. This time she was fully dressed, and all set for a day with the delegation. If she was surprised to see me she didn't show it, but there was still a hint of reserve about her manner. I had a feeling that she must have been specially warned against newspaper-men. She was trying hard to be natural but not quite succeeding. I told her there was something particular I wanted to talk to her about and that it wouldn't take long, and she threw a glance over at the watchdog and let me in. ‘I'm afraid I've finished all the coffee,' she said.

‘Thanks – I've just had some.' I came straight to the point. ‘Kira – Jeff's still worried about Tanya.'

She smiled, showing pretty teeth. ‘I know,' she said. He's very foolish to do so. I told him yesterday that there was nothing to worry about.'

I nodded. ‘It's just that – well, you know how things are here. Girls do kind of disappear sometimes. He's rather fond of Tanya and she left so very suddenly.'

‘He will hear from her, I am sure.'

‘He's already heard, if a telegram can be called “hearing.” He's not satisfied, though. For two pins he'd rush off to the Crimea himself.'

She smiled again. ‘Americans are so impetuous. He is a nice man – I like him. Of course, he could apply for a permit to visit her before he leaves.'

I regarded her narrowly. ‘He could apply,' I agreed, ‘but he wouldn't get it – do you think? Kira, did you see your sister before she went away?'

‘I didn't see her myself, no, but Madame Mirnova looked after her and saw her on to the plane and she is quite all right just rather upset. It is very natural that she should be. I assure you, Mr Verney, that all this anxiety is quite unnecessary. I, too, am fond of my sister. Should I not be the first to worry, if there were anything wrong?'

She was completely composed now. Indeed, her blue-eyed candour was disarming, and I had to remind myself that we'd got precisely nowhere. If she was putting on an act, it was a good one. The only hope was that shock tactics would make her forget her lines.

I walked across to the french doors and ran a thumbnail down one of the seals. It still wasn't quite dry.

‘Does it mean anything to you,' I said, ‘that these balcony doors have recently been opened?'

She struggled hard to control herself, but the very effort betrayed her. Her face lost all its colour. A written confession couldn't have told me more.

She still remembered her lines though. ‘I don't understand,' she said. ‘Perhaps they have been opened – I don't know. It has nothing to do with me.'

‘It has a great deal to do with you. Mullett's murderer went through those doors and Tanya's all mixed up with the murder and the police are holding her and you're covering up. That story about the Crimea is a lie, and you know it.' She gazed at me in horror. ‘You must be out of your mind. You'd better go.'

‘Not yet. I want to know the name of the murderer. You can tell me.'

‘It was Nikolai, the waiter. You saw the papers. That's all I know.' Her voice was high and scared.

‘Kira, you're just repeating a lesson – you're saying what they told you to say. You've been put here to keep us quiet. Why are you doing it? Is it because they've threatened to take it out of Tanya if you don't?'

She looked at me with eyes full of anguish, and it seemed to me that she gave an almost imperceptible nod. ‘
Please go
,' she whispered.

‘You poor frightened kid!' I said. ‘All right – I'll go.'

I turned at the door. ‘Don't worry, Kira – I asked questions but you didn't answer them. You tell them that. Good luck!'

I went in straightaway to tell Jeff what had happened. It was something to have confirmed – as I felt I had – that our thinking had been on the right lines and that the Russians were indeed engaged in a complicated manoeuvre to conceal the truth about Mullett. All the same, I had singularly little sense of achievement. Rather rashly, perhaps, I had shown our hand – and we still didn't know who the murderer was. I was depressed, too, by my glimpse of the police state at close quarters. I loathed the idea of anyone being made to act under duress, particularly out of fear for someone else's safety, and it would be a long time before I forgot that look on Kira's face.