Night of Error. Desmond Bagley

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ little?’

      ‘That he was. A little squirt of not more than five foot four.’

      ‘So two men went down the stairs, there was one in the car – and one went over the fire escape,’ the Inspector summarized. He had a blunt, square face with watchful grey eyes which he suddenly turned on me like gimlets. ‘You say this man threw a suitcase into the alley.’

      ‘That’s right.’

      ‘We haven’t found it, Mr Trevelyan.’

      I said, ‘The others must have picked it up. That’s when they nearly ran us down.’

      He said softly, ‘How did they know it was there?’

      ‘I don’t know. They may have seen it coming over. I guess the car was parked in the alley waiting for the others to come down that way.’

      He nodded. ‘What was in the suitcase – do you know?’

      I glanced across at Geordie who looked back at me expressionlessly. I said, ‘Some stuff belonging to my brother.’

      ‘What kind of – er – stuff?’

      ‘Clothing, books – geological samples.’

      The Inspector sighed. ‘Anything important or valuable?’

      I shook my head. ‘I doubt it.’

      ‘What about the samples?’

      I said, ‘I only saw the specimens briefly. They appeared to be manganese nodules of the type which is often to be found on the ocean bed. They’re very common, you know.’

      ‘And valuable?’ he persisted.

      ‘I don’t think that anyone with knowledge of them would regard them as valuable,’ I said. ‘I suppose they might be if they were generally accessible, but it’s too hard to get at them through two or three miles of water.’

      The Inspector seemed at a loss. ‘How do you think your brother will regard the loss of those specimens, and his other things?’

      ‘He’s dead,’ I said.

      The Inspector sharpened his attention. ‘Oh? When did he die?’

      ‘About four months ago – in the Pacific.’

      He looked at me closely and I went on, ‘My brother, Mark, was an oceanographer like myself. He died of appendicitis a few months ago and I’ve just received his effects today. As for the specimens I would say they were souvenirs of the IGY survey in which he was engaged. As a scientist he would naturally be interested in them.’

      ‘Um,’ said the Inspector. ‘Is there anything else missing, Mr Trevelyan?’

      ‘Not that I know of.’

      Geordie clattered his cup. ‘I think we were too quick for them,’ he said. ‘They thought they were on to a good thing, but we didn’t give them enough time. So one of them grabbed the first thing he saw and tried to make a getaway.’

      I carefully didn’t mention that the case had been hidden under my bed.

      The Inspector looked at Geordie with something approaching contempt. ‘This isn’t an ordinary burglary,’ he said. ‘Your explanation doesn’t account for the fact that they went to a lot of trouble to retrieve the suitcase, or why they used so many weapons.’ He turned to me. ‘Have you any enemies in Spain?’

      I shrugged. ‘I shouldn’t think so.’

      He pursed his lips. ‘All right, Mr Trevelyan, let’s go back to the beginning again. Let’s start when you say you first saw the light on in your flat …’

      It was after three a.m. before we got rid of the police, and they were back again next morning, to recheck the premises and to hear the whole tale yet again. The Inspector wasn’t satisfied but neither he nor any of his colleagues could pin down what was wrong. Come to that – neither could I! It was a great way to start my leave. His last word to me that morning was, ‘There’s been a fatality here, Mr Trevelyan, and that’s a very serious matter. I shall expect both of you to hold yourselves in readiness for the inquest. You are not under arrest,’ he added in such a way as to make me feel that I was. He strode out of the flat with his myrmidons trailing behind.

      ‘In other words – don’t leave town,’ I said. ‘There goes a very unhappy policeman.’

      Geordie said, ‘He’ll be burning up the wires looking for an expert on manganese nodules. He thinks there’s something fishy there.’

      ‘By God, so do I! But he won’t find much. He’ll phone the Institute of course, and speak to Jarvis or some other big noise and get exactly the same story I told him.’

      I got up, went into the kitchen and got a couple of bottles of beer from the refrigerator and took them back into the living room. Geordie eyed them and said, ‘You have some good ideas, sometimes. Tell me, these nodules – are they really valueless?’

      ‘I told the coppers the plain truth,’ I said. ‘But Mark seemed to have some curious ideas about nodule formation – still, the notebooks are gone and I can’t check up on his theories without them.’

      Then suddenly I remembered something. ‘Wait a minute,’ I said and went into the bedroom. Sure enough, there it was – the little leather-bound diary, still lying on my dressing-table. The police would have had no reason to think it wasn’t mine, and hadn’t touched it.

      I went back and tossed it to Geordie. ‘They didn’t get that. I meant to tell you – I found it in a pocket of one of Mark’s suits. What do you make of it?’

      He opened the book with interest but I watched the enthusiasm seep out of him as he scanned the pages. ‘What the hell!’

      ‘That’s Mark’s patent Pitman variation,’ I said. ‘I doubt if old Isaac himself could make anything of it.’

      ‘What are all the drawings?’

      ‘Mark was an inveterate doodler,’ I said. ‘You’d have to apply psychological theory to make anything of those.’

      I sat mulling over the events of the previous day, trying to piece them together.

      ‘Geordie, listen to this,’ I said. ‘Mark dies, and Norgaard, his colleague, disappears. Jarvis keeps his ear close to the ground and knows all the gossip of the profession, and if he says he hasn’t heard anything of Norgaard then it’s unlikely that anyone else has either.’ I held up a finger. ‘That’s one thing.’

      ‘Do you know anything about Norgaard?’

      ‘Only that he’s one of us oceanographers. He’s a Swede, but he was on an American survey ship during the IGY. I lost sight of him after that; a lot of comradeship went for a bust when the operation closed down.’

      ‘What’s his speciality?’

      ‘Ocean currents. He’s СКАЧАТЬ