Judas Country

The hilt looked oddly thin: just a bar of rough metal leading up from a straight crosspiece and loosely wrapped with a tangle of grimy gold wire. There'd probably been a grip of wood, long rotted, with the wire binding it in place. And at the top, fat as a small plum, the pommel, with the crest on one side, a wine-coloured jewel on the other.

Mitzi had her sharp eyes right down on it, almost as if she was trying to pick up a scent.'Ufert… the name is right… and three leopards, passant guardant…' she rubbed the crest carefully with her thumb; '… that is right… and the jewel. Yes!'

'Is that a ruby?' Ken asked.

'Ruby?' Ben Iver leant forward.

Mitzi shrugged. 'Miss Travis told you: they did not put yet real gems in German swords.' She had a ring on her finger with a tiny diamond; she scratched at the 'ruby'. 'No, it is what you call"balas".'

'Spinel,' Ben Iver said sadly. I think he'd have been more at home with a genuine gem and a doubtful sword, but you can't have everything.

Mitzi lifted the sword reverently. It must have weighed like a bad conscience and I'd hate to have been on the consumer's end, but it still looked just a rather crude old sword.

Not to her. 'It was mine and now Ihave it! '

Ken said gently: 'Bruno didn't plan on you getting it'

She swung round on him. 'He had no right. / am his daughter. When he is dead his money is mine, not to some criminals in here and Beirut! '

I said: 'But he wasn't going to die…' then remembered he was, anyway. Then I knew why he'd died.'You told him he'd got cancer. The doctors had told you secretly, the way they do, and you got into a row that night – it would be about money, wouldn't it? – and you said "Screw you, dear daddy, you'll be dead in two months and it'll all be mine anyway." The jolt of that, and knowing he'd got just two months of pain to come, he rings Gadulla then posts the two letters… It figures.'

Mitzi was looking at me with a little mousey Mona Lisa smile.

Ken swallowed. 'If he's determined to do her down, why not leave a note saying what happened?'

'Let's put in one more scene. For neatness. She doesn't go out. She hears a shot. She goes in next door: one dead father, one suicide note. She confiscates that, maybe she goes through his papers. But nobody's come running. So she can walk out, to prove her uninvolvement -and get rid of the note. She daren't dispose of that around the hotel.'

Ben Iver said: 'Please do not go on. These family dramas make us Jews feel very sentimental.'

Mitzi turned and glared at him. 'I did not know he would kill himself!'

I nodded. 'It caused you a lot of trouble when he did. You just wanted him to appreciate his last two months to the full.'

Beside me, Ken gave a little shiver.

Gadulla said calmly: 'If I may have the photograph?'

Ben Iver seemed surprised to find it in his hand, then crunched it and tossed it across. Gadulla picked itöS the floor – Arabs aren't ball players – uncrumpled it, looked at it unemotionally. Then stood up again slowly. 'May I?'

He went to the table and lit the spirit stove. 'Of course, you may have copied this.'

Ben Iver shrugged. 'So may the Professor. But you have what you always expected. And we are both in business… there may be a time when we can work together.'

Gadulla nodded briefly, held the photo to the stove. There's something about flame that makes you watch it. Ben Iver said: 'I think that is the best-'

Mitzi hit him with the sword.

It was a simple back-hand swing, and if she couldn't put much weight behind it, the sword had plenty of its own. Ben Iver got his arms up and the sword chopped into them, swept them back past his head and sliced into the bridge of his nose, exploding his glasses. And stuck there. He slammed back against the wall – and then I got my eyes shut.

I heard the Uzi clatter free, then the thud and clang as Ben Iver's face hit the floor. Reluctantly, I looked again.

Mitzi was grabbing for the gun, Gadulla pushing the stove off the table and it bursting in a whuff of flame around the gun. Ken took two long strides, kicked the Uzi clear.

I got on my feet to watch Gadulla. He went quietly back to the corner and sat down again.

Ken snick-snacked the Uzi's bolt and a cartridge clunked on the floor. Loaded, all right 'First, you'll be wondering why I called you here… somebody put that fire out.'

I pulled the rug off the wall.

Mitzi screamed: 'Give me the gun! I want it! That is why I did it!'

'Going for a hundred per cent, huh?' Ken said. I threw the rug on the flames and tramped it down, then bent over Ben Iver.

I think he moved as I touched him, but never again. The blood was oozing where it should have been pouring.

Mitzi was still screaming. Ken pointed the gun at her. 'Stand aside and shut up. You don't get a third chance.'

She took a pace back and stood there, looking a little mad.

I said: 'Ken, forget about Ben Iver.'

'Fine. I didn't fancy explaining him at a hospital.'

Gadulla said, calm as ever: 'I do not want him found in that uniform in this place.'

Ken said: 'Amen and join the club.'

The phone rang.

Ken and I looked at each other. He said: 'Ben Iver must have friends.'

I turned to Gadulla. 'His or yours?' He made a tiny shrug.

'Answer it – in English.'

All he had to say was 'Hello', then listen a moment. Then hold it out to me. 'He wants Mr Case or Mr Caviti.'

*

It seemed a long time before I got to saying: 'Roy Case.'

'Inspector Tamir.'

I mouthedpolice at Ken. His face hardened.

Tamir said: 'I am sorry to trouble you but I want you to know the shop is surrounded and all gates to the City watched. So it would be simplest if you came out quietly, and with the sword.'

I absorbed some of this, then asked: 'What's your number?'

He gave it. Probably the police barracks just inside the Jaffa Gate.

I rang off. 'He says we're surrounded and come out quietly.'

Gadulla shook his head. 'You cannot surround a street like this, with all the back doors… And they will not use much force in the City. They are afraid of riots.'

Ken looked at him steadily. 'But somebody sold us out. Again.'

He spread his hands. 'For what? What would the police offer me?'

I picked up the phone, dialled the number. It was a police station, all right. 'Do you speak English? – good. I want to speak to Miss Eleanor Travis. The American lady. I think she came with Inspector Tamir.'

'Yes. I will find her.'

I put the phone down, feeling suddenly tired. 'Little Eleanor, all right. She met the cop in Tel Aviv. She discovers the sword for the government, they give her the inside track for the first bid.'

Mitzi said: 'But I promised her first refusal.'

'But this way,' I said, 'it's legal and above-board and the Met's reputation isn't hurt. Fame and promotion for our Eleanor.'

Ken leant against the wall. 'We're in real Judas country, aren't we?'

Mitzi suddenly panicked. 'But when the police come in, what will they think abouthim?' She flustered a hand at Ben Iver.

They won't believe he committed suicide,' I said. 'What you mean is you murdered somebody and you'd rather it didn't become public knowledge. You should think of these things in advance. Can we manage to lose him?' I asked Gadulla.

'We will have to,' he said calmly.

Ken nodded. 'Right. And then out the back door.'

I said: 'Ken – they're watching the gates, and at night they don't need many men for that. There's only seven ways out of the City.'

'There's always another way.'

Gadulla shook his head dubiously. "The City was always a fort. It still is.'