‘Just over two hundred thousand dollars,’ said the British Director, indicating the money. ‘About half of what was stolen from you … and no affidavits that might have caused problems.’
‘So now we kill him,’ Ruttgers interrupted impatiently.
‘No,’ said Wilberforce simply.
For several moments there was no sound from any of the men in the room. It was Sir Henry Cuthbertson who broke the silence.
‘What do you mean, no?’ he demanded. ‘We’ve achieved what we set out to do. Let’s get the whole stupid business over.’
‘No,’ repeated Wilberforce. ‘There are other things to do first.’
‘Director,’ said Onslow Smith, trying with obvious difficulty to control himself, ‘this affair began with the intention of correcting past problems. We’ve put ourselves in a position of being able to do so. Let’s not risk making any more.’
‘I intend teaching the Russians a lesson,’ announced Wilberforce.
‘You’re going to do what?’
Onslow Smith’s control snapped and he looked at the other Director in horror. The damned man was on an ego trip, he realised.
‘For almost two years they’ve mocked and laughed … I’ve been ridiculed. Now I’m going to balance the whole thing.’
‘Now wait a minute,’ said Onslow Smith urgently. He stood up, nervously pacing the room. ‘We agreed, not a month ago, that what we were attempting to do was dangerous …’
He looked intently at the Briton for reaction. Wilberforce nodded.
‘But it worked,’ continued Smith. ‘Charlie Muffin is now back in England. We can do anything we like with him. So now we just complete the operation as planned and invite no more problems.’
‘There will be no problems,’ insisted Wilberforce, quietly. They were all very scared, he decided.
‘With Charlie Muffin, there’s always risk,’ said Braley breathily, risking the impertinence. Surreptitiously he slipped an asthma pill beneath his tongue.
‘How do you intend teaching the Russians a lesson?’ asked Cuthbertson.
From the rack on his desk, Wilberforce selected a pipe and began revolving it between his fingers. Sometimes, he thought, he felt like a kindergarten teacher trying to instil elementary common sense. It would be pleasant hearing them apologise for their reluctance in a few days’ time.
‘I’ve already seen to it that the Russians know we’ve located the man,’ he admitted.
‘Oh, Christ!’ blurted Onslow Smith, exasperated. Already, he thought, it might be too late.
Wilberforce shook his head sadly at the reaction.
‘And tonight, for a little while at least, we are going to borrow the Fabergé collection that has just arrived from Russia for exhibition here.’
‘You’re going to do what?’
Onslow Smith appeared in a permanent state of shocked surprise.
‘Take the Fabergé collection,’ repeated Wilberforce.
‘The Russians will go mad,’ predicted Braley.
‘Of course they will,’ agreed Wilberforce. ‘That is exactly what I intend they should do: And what will they find, when we leak the hint about one of the insurers of the collection? What we found, by elementary surveillance and checking the company accounts after the churchyard encounter with Rupert Willoughby – that their precious Charlie Muffin is a silent partner in the firm.’
‘It’s lunacy,’ said Smith, fighting against the anger. ‘Absolute and utter lunacy.’
‘No it’s not,’ insisted Wilberforce. ‘It is as guaranteed against fault as the method I devised to get Charlie Muffin back to England.’
‘But we can’t go around stealing jewellery,’ protested Cuthbertson.
‘And I’m not interested in settling imagined grievances with Russia. It’s over, for Christ’s sake. It has been, for years,’ said Smith.
‘Not with me, it hasn’t,’ said Wilberforce. He turned to the former Director. ‘And I’ve no intention that we should permanently steal it. The Fabergé collection is priceless, right?’
Cuthbertson nodded, doubtfully.
‘But valueless to any thief,’ continued Wilberforce. ‘He’d never be able to fence it.’
‘So why steal it in the first place?’ asked Ruttgers.
‘For the same reason that such identifiable jewellery is always stolen,’ explained Wilberforce. ‘Not to sell or to break up. Merely to negotiate, through intermediaries, its sale back to the insurers who would otherwise be faced with an enormous settlement.’
They still hadn’t understood, realised Wilberforce. Perhaps they would, after it had all worked as perfectly as he intended.
‘With something as big as this, the insurers are guaranteed to co-operate and buy it back,’ he tried to convince them. ‘Every piece, apart from those which are absolutely necessary to achieve what I intend, will be back in Leningrad or Moscow within two months. And the only sufferers will be Willoughby’s insurance firm who have had to pay up on the missing items. And Charlie Muffin, who will lose the other half of what he stole from you … paying America back for something stolen from Russia. Can’t you see the irony of it? Charlie Muffin will. That’s why I’m letting him stay alive, to see it happen. There’s no hurry to kill him now … he can’t go anywhere and he knows it.’
When there was still no response, Wilberforce pressed on: ‘We’ll have put the Russians in their place and there won’t be a service, either in the West or the East, who won’t know about it … because I’ve already made damned sure it’s being spelled out, move by move …’
‘It’s very involved,’ said Cuthbertson reluctantly.
‘And foolproof,’ said Wilberforce. ‘No risk. No danger.’
‘There are too many things over which we haven’t any control,’ said Ruttgers, through a tobacco cloud. ‘Charlie Muffin has only got to do one thing we don’t expect and the whole thing is thrown on its ass.’
‘But it won’t be,’ said Wilberforce. ‘The jewellery is being taken tonight. Once that goes, everything else follows naturally. It hardly matters what Charlie Muffin does. He’s helpless to affect it, in any way. In fact, that’s exactly what he is – helpless.’
‘What about the civil police?’ protested Smith. ‘They’re already involved in the bank robbery. There’s a risk there.’
‘We employed a petty crook on that … the same one who will be used tonight. We’ll arrange his arrest, so that most of the stuff taken from the Brighton bank can be recovered and returned to its owners – those not too frightened of any tax investigation to claim it, anyway.’
‘He’ll talk,’ said Smith.
‘About what?’ enquired Wilberforce. ‘A mystery man called Brown who seems to have an enormous amount of inside information and knowledge?’
He nodded towards Snare, whose reluctance at the instructions he had been given that night was growing with the objections from the other people in the room.
‘The meetings are always arranged by telephone. They’ve only ever met at crowded railway stations. And they’ll part immediately after the Fabergé robbery, just as they separated directly after the Brighton bank robbery. Packer can talk for as long as he likes and it won’t matter a damn. He’s a villain, with a list of previous convictions. Which is exactly why we chose him. We’ve even ensured that during the bank robbery he drank from a mug which was left behind, so there will be saliva contrasts for blood type identification. He’ll be sufficient for the police, especially when they’ll be able to return most of the property. Why can’t you accept that there is nothing that can go wrong?’
‘Because I’m not convinced it’s that easy,’ said Smith. He hesitated, then added quietly: ‘So I won’t agree with it.’