The Tightrope Men / The Enemy (32 page)

I didn’t wrap it up for him. ‘Our pigeons have flown the coop,’ I said baldly.

He was incredulous. ‘What! All of them?’

‘Just the two cock birds.’

He was silent for a moment, then said slowly, ‘My fault, I’m afraid. I ought to have given you your team yesterday. How certain are you?’

‘He left me a note.’ I read it out.

Ogilvie put the French into English. ‘“He who has found a good son-in-law has gained a son, but he who has picked up a bad one has lost a daughter.” What the hell is that supposed to mean?’

I said, ‘It may be my fault that he’s cut and run. He tackled me again last evening about marrying Penny, and I gave him another refusal. I think that since he couldn’t get her to cut loose from him, he has cut loose from her. If you read the note in that context you’ll see what I mean.’

‘Um. What was his attitude last evening?’

‘He was a walking disaster,’ I said flatly.

‘How much start have they had?’

I sorted through the details I had picked up, then checked the time. ‘I don’t know about Benson, but for Ashton say fifteen hours maximum. I might get to know a bit more in the next few minutes.’

‘We don’t know that he went,’ said Ogilvie objectively. ‘He might have been taken. That note to you may be a fraud. Either case is serious, of course.’

‘I don’t think he was taken. The note is too accurately pointed, and this house is well protected.’

‘Yes, it would be.’ Ogilvie knew enough of the background to make a statement like that. ‘How’s the girl taking it?’

‘She doesn’t know yet. Ashton left her a note, too. I haven’t opened it—I’ll let her do that. I’ll let you know anything that’s relevant.’

‘Think she’ll tell you?’

‘Yes. It’s a funny thing, sir, but I did ask her to marry me last night and she accepted. She was going to tell Ashton when she got home but she said he’d gone to bed. I think he’d already left. If he’d waited another couple of hours he might have decided not to go.’

‘Yes,’ said Ogilvie meditatively. ‘But don’t blame yourself for that.’ I looked up as Larry came into the study. Ogilvie said, ‘Did you disclose yourself to her?’

‘No.’

There was a pause. ‘You take your duties very seriously, don’t you, Malcolm?’

‘I try to. Hang on a minute.’ I looked up at Larry. ‘Well?’

‘There’s an Aston Martin short, and both Benson and Ashton left last night at about half past nine, and didn’t come back.’

The Aston Martin was Penny’s car. I said to Ogilvie, ‘We’ve got a pretty firm time. They left together at nine-thirty last night, probably in a hired car.’ He seemed to be a long time digesting that, so I said, ‘What’s the next step?’

‘There’s going to be a row, of course,’ he said, not sounding too perturbed. ‘But I’ll handle that. What you do is to go through that house like a dose of salts. See if you can find
anything to indicate where Ashton has gone. Anything you don’t understand bring here for evaluation.’

I said, ‘That will blow my cover with Penny. I can’t search the house without giving her an explanation.’

‘I know.’

‘Hold on.’ I turned to Larry. ‘Get on the radio—I want everyone here as soon as possible.’

‘Off-shift boys included?’

‘Yes. And go to the gate to make sure they can get in.’

Before speaking to Ogilvie again I glumly contemplated the explanation I’d have to give Penny. It was a hell of a thing to tell a girl you’ve just proposed to, and I had the feeling that our relationship was about to alter for the worse.

I pushed it out of my mind, and said, ‘Do we bring the police in on this?’

I could almost hear Ogilvie’s brains creaking as he thought that one out. At last he said, ‘Not at this stage. I’ll have to push it upstairs for a ruling. Police security is not too good on this sort of thing—they have too many reporters watching them. How long do you think you’ll be there?’

‘I don’t know. It’s a big house and I can see at least one safe from here. If we can’t find keys we may have to take extreme measures. I’ll give you a ring in an hour. I’ll have a better idea by then.’

‘I can’t hold this for an hour. If you look towards London in fifteen minutes you’ll see flames rising from Whitehall. Do your best.’ He rang off.

I put down the telephone and looked thoughtfully at the letter addressed to Penny, then crossed to the safe. It had a combination lock and the door didn’t open when I turned the handle. I went back to the desk and gave it a quick once-over lightly in the hope of finding something useful immediately. There was nothing. Five minutes later I heard
a car draw up outside and, thinking it might be Penny, I went outside.

It was Peter Michaelis, one of the team. He came over with an enquiring look on his face, and I said, ‘Stick around.’ He had given Larry a lift from the gate, so I called him over. ‘Take Ashton’s file and start ringing around—his office, factories, every address you find in there. If Ashton is seen he’s to ring his home immediately.’ I shrugged. ‘It won’t work but we must cover it.’

‘Okay.’

An Aston Martin was coming up the drive so I braced myself. ‘Use the telephone in the hall. I want to use the study.’

Larry walked towards the house as Penny’s car came to a fast halt, braked hard. She tumbled out, looking uncertainly at Michaelis, then ran towards me. ‘I’m being followed,’ she said, and whirled around, pointing at the car coming up the drive. ‘He followed me into the grounds.’

‘It’s all right,’ I said, as Brent’s car stopped. ‘I know who he is.’

‘What’s happening?’ she demanded. ‘Who are these men?’ Her voice caught. ‘What’s happened to Daddy?’

‘As far as I know he’s all right.’ I took her elbow. ‘I want you to come with me.’

I took her into the house and she paused in the hall as she saw Larry at the telephone, then quickened her pace again. We went into the study and I picked up the letter from the desk. ‘You’d better read this.’

She looked at me uncertainly before glancing at the superscription. ‘It’s from Daddy,’ she said, and ripped open the envelope. As she read the note she frowned and her face paled. ‘But I don’t…I don’t understand. I don’t…’

‘What does he say?’

Wordlessly she handed the letter to me, then walked over to the window and looked out. I watched her for a moment, then bent my head and read:

My dearest Penny,

For reasons I cannot disclose I must go away for a while. The reasons are not disreputable, nor am I a criminal, although that imputation may be made. My affairs are all in order and my absence should not cause you any trouble financially. I have made all the necessary arrangements: for legal advice consult Mr Veasey of Michelmore, Veasey and Templeton; for financial advice go to Mr Howard of Howard and Page. They have been well briefed for this eventuality.

I do not know for how long I shall have to be away. You will be doing me a great service if you make no attempt at all to find me and, above all, I do not wish the police to be brought into this matter if that can be avoided. I assure you again that my reasons for leaving in this manner are purely private and personal. I will come to no harm because my old friend, Benson, will be looking after me.

It would give me the greatest peace of mind if you would marry your Malcolm as soon as is practically possible. I know that you love him and I know that he wants to marry you very much, and I have a great respect for the intelligence and character of the man you have chosen. Please do not let the matter of poor Gillian impede your plans to marry and, on the occasion, please put a notice in
The Times
.

I have the greatest confidence that the two of you will be very happy together, and I am equally sure that you will both look after Gillian. Forgive me for the abrupt manner of my departure but it is in the best interests of all of us.

Your loving father,

George.

I looked up. ‘I’m sorry, Penny.’

‘But I don’t understand,’ she cried desolately. ‘Oh, Malcolm, what’s
happened
to him?’

She came into my arms and I held her close. ‘I don’t know—but we’ll find out.’

She was still for a while, but pushed herself away as two cars arrived in quick succession. She stared from the window at the gathering knot of men. ‘Malcolm, who are all those men? Have you told the police? Daddy said not to.’

‘No, I haven’t told the police,’ I said quietly. ‘Sit down, Penny; I have a lot to tell you.’ She looked at me wonderingly, and hesitated, but sat in the chair behind the desk. I hesitated, too, not knowing where to begin, then thought it best to give it to her straight and fast.

‘I work for the firm of McCulloch and Ross, and I’ve told no lies about what the firm does. It does everything I’ve said it does, and does it very well, too. Our clients are most satisfied, and they ought to be because of the amount of public money going into their service.’

‘What are you getting at?’

‘McCulloch and Ross is a cover for a sort of discreet government department dealing mainly with economic and industrial affairs in so far as they impinge on state security.’

‘State security! You mean you’re some sort of secret agent. A spy?’

I laughed and held up my hands. ‘Not a spy. We’re not romantic types with double-o numbers and a licence to kill—no nonsense like that.’

‘But you were watching and investigating my father like a common spy.’ Anger flamed in her. ‘And was I just a means to an end? Did you snuggle up to me just to get to know him better?’

I lost the smile fast—this was where the crunch came. ‘Christ, no! I didn’t know a damned thing about him until yesterday, and I don’t know much more now. Believe me when I say it was something I stumbled into by accident.’

She was disbelieving and contemptuous. ‘And just what did you
stumble
into?’

‘I can’t tell you that because I don’t know myself.’

She shook her head as though momentarily dizzy. ‘That man in the hall—those men outside: are they in your department, too?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then I’d like to talk to the man in charge.’ She stood up. ‘I’d like to tell him just what I think of all this. I knew Daddy was under pressure. Now I know where it was coming from.’

I said deliberately, ‘You’re talking to the man in charge, and you’re dead wrong.’

That stopped her. She sat down with a bump. ‘
You
are in charge?’

‘That’s right.’

‘And you don’t know what you’re doing?’ she laughed hysterically.

‘I know what I’m doing, but I don’t know why. There’s a hierarchy of levels. Penny—wheels within wheels. Let me tell you how I got into this.’

So I told her. I told her everything, holding nothing back. I told her about Nellie and the colour codes; I told her about Ogilvie and Lord Cregar. I told her a damned sight more than I ought to have done, and to hell with the Official Secrets Act.

She heard me out, then said thoughtfully, ‘Your people aren’t very trusting, are they?’

‘They’re not in the trust business.’ I lit a cigarette. ‘The pressure didn’t come from us, Penny. We threw no acid. We came into it after that, and my brief was to watch over your father and protect him—your father, you and Gillian, and Benson, too, if I thought it necessary.’ I walked over to the window and looked at the cars. The gang had all arrived. ‘I’ve not done a very good job so far.’

‘It’s not your fault that Daddy went away.’ Her words hung heavily in the air, and she seemed to take another look at her father. ‘That he
ran
away.’

I turned to her. ‘Don’t start blaming him without knowing what you’re blaming him for.’

She said pensively, ‘I wonder if he’d still want me to marry you, if he knew what I know now?’

‘I’ll ask him as soon as I catch up with him,’ I said grimly.

‘You’re not going after him?’ She picked up her letter. ‘He said…’

‘I know what he said. I also know he’s regarded by my people as a very important man, and he may be going into danger without knowing it. I still have my job to do.’

‘But he doesn’t want…’

I said impatiently, ‘What he wants or doesn’t want is immaterial.’ I plucked the letter from her fingers and scanned it. ‘He says he doesn’t want you to go looking for him. Well, you won’t—I will. He says not to involve the police. Right; they haven’t been told. He says, “I will come to no harm because my old friend, Benson, will be looking after me.” Good God, Penny, how old is Benson? He must be pushing sixty-five. He’s in no position to protect himself, let alone anyone else.’

She started to weep. She didn’t sob or make an outcry, but the tears welled in her eyes and ran down her cheeks. She cried silently and helplessly, and she was shivering as though suddenly very cold. I put my arm around her and she clung to me with a fierce grip. One of the worst things that can happen is when a hitherto cosy and secure world falls apart. An icy wind seemed to be blowing through that pleasant panelled study from the greater and more vicious world outside.

‘Oh, Malcolm, what am I to do?’

I said very quietly, ‘You must do what you think is best. If you trust me you will help me find him, but I wouldn’t—I
couldn’t—blame you if you refuse. I haven’t been open with you—I should have told you about this yesterday.’

‘But you were under orders.’

‘A common plea,’ I said. ‘All the Nazis made it.’

‘Malcolm, don’t make it harder for yourself than you have to.’ She put my arm aside, stood up, and went to the window. ‘What are your men waiting for?’

I took a deep breath. ‘For your decision. I want to search the house, and I can’t do that without your permission.’

She came back to the desk and read her father’s letter again. I said, ‘He wrote to me, too,’ and produced the letter. ‘You can read it if you like.’

She read it, then gave it back to me. ‘Bring in your men,’ she said tonelessly.

We found a number of surprising things in that house but nothing that did us much good, at least, not then. In the basement there was a remarkably well-equipped workshop and chemical laboratory, way beyond amateur standard. There was also a small computer with a variety of input and output peripherals including an X—Y plotter. Still on the plotter was a sketch which had been drawn under computer control; it seemed to be a schematic of a complicated molecule and it made no sense to me, but then I’m no expert. For bigger problems with which the little computer couldn’t cope there was a modem and an acoustic coupler so that the little chap could be used as a terminal to control a big computer by way of the post office land lines.

In the workshop was a bench on which a thingamajig was under construction. Whatever it was intended to do it was going to do under computer control because there were no fewer than fifteen integrated-circuit microelectronic chips built into it, and that’s a fair amount of computing power. Also coupled into it was a laser, a cathode ray tube, a lot of laboratory glassware and a couple of gadgets I didn’t recognize.

I didn’t snap any switches or push any of the unlabelled buttons because I didn’t know what would happen if I did.
Instead I said to Larry, ‘Any of Ashton’s firms connected with electronics or computers?’

‘No, just chemicals and plastics moulding. Some of the chemical processes might be computer-controlled, though.’

I grunted and had the entire basement sealed. The boffins from the department would have to check it out, and I wasn’t going to touch anything until they had done so.

Penny had the combination for the safe in the study, and I knew by that we were unlikely to find anything of conesquence in it. I was right. There was a bit of money, less than £50, which was not much considering Ashton’s resources—I suppose it was emergency pocket money. There were some account books on which I wasted some time until I discovered they related to the running of the household, the stables and the cars. All very orderly. There was a whole sheaf of balance sheets headed with the name of the firm of accountants, Howard and Page. A quick glance at the bottom lines told me that George Ashton was doing very nicely, thank you, in spite of the economic recession.

And that was all.

Ashton’s own quarters were a bit more productive. He had a suite-bedroom, bathroom, dressing-room and sitting-room which were as clean as a whistle. He seemed to live somewhat spartanly; there was less than the usual amount of junk which a man tends to accumulate and it was all very clean and tidy. There was nothing at all in any of the pockets of the clothes hanging in the wardrobes; whoever did his valeting—Benson probably—did a good job.

But a considerable amount of panel-tapping discovered a tambour which, when slid aside after a complicated procedure involving switching on certain lights in all four rooms thus releasing an electrically-controlled lock, revealed a massive metal door of armour-plated steel. The way I’ve
described that might make you think we were lucky to find it, but it wasn’t luck. The boys were good at their jobs.

Not good enough to open that vault door, though. After Simpson had done some architectural measuring with a tape I knew that beyond that door was not merely a safe but a sizeable room, big enough to swing a kitten in, if not a cat. Now, any man who would put a door like that as entrance to a room would be sure to take other precautions. The walls, floor and ceiling would be very thick concrete, well reinforced with toughened steel, and the whole package would weigh a lot even when empty. It was on the second floor which meant that a special underpinning structure must have been built to support it. I made a note to look up Ashton’s architect.

When the vault door was shown to Penny she was as surprised as anyone. She had never suspected its existence.

All this doesn’t mean that I was prowling about the house personally knocking on walls. I left that to the boys and only inspected the results when they came in. I supervised the search of Ashton’s study in Penny’s presence, then settled down to talk to her because I assumed she would know more about her father than anyone else.

‘Benson,’ I said. ‘How long have you known Benson?’

She looked surprised. ‘He’s always been around.’

‘That’s a long time. How long is always?’

‘Always is always, Malcolm. I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t Benson.’

‘As long as that? Twenty-five or twenty-six years?’

Penny smiled. ‘Longer than that. He was with Daddy before I was born.’

‘Always is a long time,’ I agreed. ‘He does the faithful family retainer bit very well, I must say. But he’s more than that, isn’t he?’

She crinkled her brow. ‘I don’t know. That’s difficult to assess. When a man had been with a family as long as
Benson he tends to become regarded as more of a friend than a servant.’

‘To the extent that your father would share a bottle of whisky with him?’

‘I don’t think he ever did that.’

‘He did on Sunday night,’ I observed. ‘Has Benson always been a personal servant to your father?’

She thought for a moment. ‘We moved into the house in 1961—I was twelve then. It was then Benson moved in here as Daddy’s valet and dogsbody. Before that we had a house in Slough; just a little one, nothing as grand as this. Benson worked in one of Daddy’s factories, but he visited the house quite often—at least once a week.’ She smiled. ‘He was one of our favourites. He used to bring us sweets—forbidden fruit because Daddy didn’t like us to eat too many sweets. Benson used to smuggle them to us.’

‘What was Benson doing in the factory?’

‘I don’t know. I was only a little girl.’

‘When did your mother die, Penny?’

‘When I was four.’

I thought that was bad luck on Ashton, having to bring up two small daughters. Still, he hadn’t made a bad job of it. It seemed he didn’t make a bad job of anything. I said, ‘Do you know how your father got started? I mean, how did he start in business? Did he have inherited money, for instance?’

She shook her head vigorously. ‘Daddy never talked much about his early life but I know he didn’t inherit anything because he was an orphan brought up in a foundling home. He was in the army during the war and when he came out he met my grandfather and they set up in business together. They didn’t have much money at the time, so my grandfather said before he died. He said Daddy’s brains made it a success.’

‘What was he in the army?’ I asked idly.

‘Just a private.’

That surprised me. Ashton would have been twenty-six or twenty-seven when he was demobbed and it was strange that a man of his drive and character should still have been a private soldier. Perhaps his army record would bear looking into.

‘Did your father ever carry a gun?’

She misunderstood me. ‘He did rough shooting at times, but not often.’

‘I don’t mean a shotgun. I mean a revolver or automatic pistol.’

‘Lord, no! He hasn’t got such a thing.’

‘Would you know?’

‘Of course I would.’

‘You didn’t know about that strong room upstairs.’

She was silent and bit her lip, then said, ‘You think he’s armed?’

I was saved from answering that because Larry popped his head around the door. ‘Can I have a word, Malcolm?’ I nodded and joined him in the hall. He said, ‘Gillian Ashton’s rooms are clean, nothing there of consequence. I read her diaries; she seems to live a quiet, upper-middle-class life—theatre, ballet, opera and so on. She reads a lot, too.’

‘Not any more. Any liaisons?’

‘Nothing very strong; a string of men who appeared one at a time and then petered out after a while.’ He grinned. ‘No mysterious assignations with people referred to by only their initials, nothing like that.’

‘What about Penny’s rooms? Have you checked there?’

Larry looked at me a bit queerly. ‘But I thought…’

‘I don’t care what you thought,’ I said evenly. ‘Do it.’

‘Okay.’ He went downstairs again, and I thought that young Larry still had a lot to learn.

I was about to return to the study when Michaelis came through the hall. I said, ‘Found anything?’

‘Nothing for us. But in an attic there’s the damnedest thing—the biggest model railway set-up I’ve seen in my life.’

‘Model railway!’ I said incredulously.

‘It’s a real enthusiast’s job,’ he said. ‘I’m a bit keen, myself, but I’ve never seen anything like this. There must be over a mile of HO-gauge track up there—it’s like a bloody spider web. You’d have to do some smart scheduling to keep that lot running smoothly.’

It was a facet of Ashton I wouldn’t have dreamed of, but it didn’t have a thing to do with the matter at hand. I dismissed it. ‘Where’s Jack Brent?’

‘Giving the out-buildings a going-over—the garages and stables.’

‘Tell him I want to see him when he’s finished.’ I went back into the study and thought it was time to try to find Ogilvie again. I’d been ringing every hour on the hour but each time he’d been out of the office so I’d passed my stuff on to Harrison. I put my hand out to dial again but the telephone shrilled before I got there.

It was Ogilvie. ‘What have you got?’ he said abruptly.

‘I’ve passed it all to Harrison. Have you spoken to him?’

‘No. As you may have gathered the balloon went up on schedule and I’ve been busy the last few hours. Give me the gist of it.’

‘We’ve got a bloody big vault here,’ I said. ‘Not a safe, but a professional bank vault. We’ll need experts to open it, and it’ll probably take
them
a week.’

‘It had better not,’ said Ogilvie. ‘You’ll have them within the hour. What else?’

‘I’d like some boffins—electronic and chemical. There’s a cellar full of scientific stuff to look at. And you’d better send someone competent in computers.’ I grinned. ‘And maybe a model railway expert.’

‘What’s that?’ he barked.

‘Ashton has a model railway lay-out in his attic. I haven’t seen it but I’m told it’s quite something.’

‘This is no time to be funny,’ said Ogilvie acidly. ‘What else?’

‘Damn all. Nothing of use to us.’

‘Keep looking,’ he said sharply. ‘A man can’t live fifteen years in a house and not leave something of his personality lying around. There’ll be
some
indication of where he’s gone.’ He thought for a moment. ‘But I want you back here. Put someone else in charge.’

‘That’ll be Gregory,’ I said. ‘I still have a few things to wrap up—I’ll be back in two hours.’ I rang off and said to Penny, ‘Well, that’s it, love. The boss wants me back.’

She said, ‘Just before you went out you said something about Daddy having a gun. What did you mean?’

‘He’s armed,’ I said.

She shook her head disbelievingly but, since so many strange things had occurred that day, she could not combat my statement. ‘And will you find him?’

‘Oh. we’ll find him. What’s worrying me is that perhaps someone else is looking for him who will find him first. And the hell of it is we aren’t sure, one way or another.’

Brent came in. ‘You want me?’

I waved him out and joined him in the hall. As I stripped off my jacket I said, ‘Find anything?’

‘Nothing.’

I unhitched the shoulder-holster from under my left armpit. Take this; you might need it.’ I waited until he’d put it on, then took him into the study. ‘Penny, this is Jack Brent; he’s your guardian angel from now on. He sticks with you everywhere you go, excepting the loo and the bedroom—and he inspects those first.’

Penny looked at me as though she suspected me of joking. ‘Are you serious?’

‘You’ll have to find a room for Jack—he’ll be living here as long as you do.’ I turned to Brent. ‘Make yourself acquainted with the burglar precautions here, and make sure the damn things work.’

He nodded, and said, ‘Sorry about this. Miss Ashton; I have to do as I’m told.’

‘Another man under orders,’ she said tightly. There were pink anger spots in her cheeks. ‘Do you really mean that this man goes everywhere I go?’

‘As long as you want to keep your schoolgirl complexion.’

Maybe I was a bit brutal about it, but the force of what I said hit her hard. She went very pale. ‘My God, Malcolm. What
is
my father?’

‘I don’t know; but I’m going to wring it out of Ogilvie if it’s the last thing I do.’

Jack Brent gave me a look as though he thought it would be the last thing I did. Twisting the boss’s arm in any organization is not the way to promotion and that indexed pension.

I said, ‘I have things to do. I’ll see you before I go, Penny.’ I went to brief Gregory on the latest developments and to hand over to him. I found him with Simpson going over Benson’s quarters which were a bit more opulent than you’d expect of a house servant—a three-roomed suite. Gregory and Simpson had torn the place apart on my instructions because I was particularly interested in Benson. ‘Any luck?’

Gregory grunted. ‘Not much. There’s this.’ He pointed to a small can of oil. ‘Recommended for gun actions. And we found a single round of ammunition—unfired. It had rolled under the bed and dropped into a crack near the wall.’

It was a 9 mm parabellum round, popular with the military and the police. ‘We know he was armed,’ I said. ‘Now we know what with—not that it helps. Anything else?’

‘Not yet.’

I told Gregory the score and then went to check the activities of the rest of the team. I had to find
something
to take to Ogilvie. In the attic I found two of the boys playing trains. ‘Oh, Jesus!’ I said. ‘Cut it out. We’re here on business.’

Michaelis grinned. ‘This is business—all in the line of duty. If you want this place searched thoroughly we’ll have to look inside every engine, carriage and truck in this layout. The only way to do it is to bring them to this central control point a trainload at a time.’

I examined the lay-out and saw he had a point. You might have found a more complicated system in an international model engineering exhibition but I doubted it. There were about ten levels of track and a complexity of points and sidings which was baffling, and the whole lot was controlled from a central console which looked like the flight deck of Concorde. Michaelis seemed to have got the hang of it; maybe he was a budding genius.