Shaw smiled to himself. “All confidences are safe with me,” he said gravely.
“Of course — I’m certain of it! Well, you know, Worth-Butters is a very decent fellow. You ought to meet him. You’d like him. Everyone gets on well with him, including the Russians, I believe. Naturally he has to be careful in his Russian friendships — I’ve no doubt of that. Security’s in everyone’s minds these days, isn’t it? Take you, for instance!” Henderson laughed, and seemed to go off at a tangent. “I’m surprised you were ever allowed to come on this trip at all, my dear fellow. After all, you must handle more or less secret figures from time to time—”
“Not in my particular job.”
“Well, for the sake of argument, let’s assume you do. Now, the modern trend in espionage is to glean little pieces of apparently harmless information from newspapers and so on — small things that make up a big picture when fitted together. Like a jig-saw, you know. For instance — in your line — someone in the Defence Ministry’s going to know the amounts expended on, say, aircraft-carriers, Polaris submarines, atomic weapons and equipment in general, defence of such overseas bases as are left… details of that kind could be very handy pointers, surely, to the real size and distribution of the naval buildup — or lack of it — as opposed to what’s announced publicly? A man with such knowledge could fill in much of the jig-saw if the security police decided to make him the subject of a disappearing act — or frame him in some way!” Again, Henderson laughed. “You know, I’ve so often wondered what would happen if someone with specialized knowledge should be hooked off one of these trips. Accidents can be rigged so easily… or a man can always be charged with spying, as has happened in the past — and what does our Government do about it when that happens? I’ll tell you — nothing!” He paused. “Now, let’s take another aspect, and a purely hypothetical case to illustrate it. Suppose that for some reason or other I wanted you out of the way, Cane. Suppose I was one of your juniors say, frustrated in the race for promotion? What simpler than to leak some cock-and-bull yam across the Curtain, possibly via the Russian Embassy in London, that you were here on a spying mission? What would be the reaction of the authorities?”
Shaw said, “I imagine they’d arrest me and interrogate me.”
“Exactly, my dear fellow, exactly! You have it! And once they’d got the excuse they’d find plenty of other reasons for not letting you go again… that is, of course, if you turned out to be a person of sufficient knowledge for it to be worth their while hanging on to you. And that junior of yours would be rubbing his hands — wouldn’t he now?”
Henderson glanced sideways and gave Shaw a penetrating look from under those shaggy brows, a look that seemed to leave the agent stripped. They were almost at the hotel now; conversation languished as Hartley Henderson quickened his pace — as though he had said all he meant to say. Shaw was once again alarmed. Had that hypothetical case of Henderson’s got some hidden meaning, some undercurrent of reality… and if so, why? Did it link with Virginia MacKinlay’s casual remark earlier?
There was as yet no ray of light anywhere — and they were not so far from Moscow now.
As they went up the hotel steps towards the foyer, the rest of the party was returning from the tour of the old town. Shaw, halting at the entrance, could see them disembarking from the coach and straggling along towards the hotel, shepherded by Major Pope. The courier, who was looking somewhat agitated, was talking, without much attention, to the little man Rumbold and the Williamses. As the coach emptied Shaw, who couldn’t see the American girl among the passengers, did a quick count of heads and noted that three were missing: Virginia MacKinlay, Wicks and Fawcett.
He started down the steps towards Pope, then thought better of it. He mustn’t show undue curiosity too fast. Turning again, he followed on behind Hartley Henderson.
Six
“Miss MacKinlay,” Shaw said in the bar just before dinner, “isn’t back yet, Major Pope. At least I don’t think she is. For that matter, neither are Wicks and Fawcett.”
The courier, who was looking really worried now, took a pull at his drink. “I know. Halfway through the tour she told me she wanted to look round on her own. I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t listen.” He shrugged and ran a hand through his scanty hair. “I’m not her keeper — there was nothing I could do short of holding her down. And Superluxury Tours don’t pay me to manhandle my passengers… much as I’d like to sometimes,” he added with feeling. “Anyway, she wasn’t back by the time we all rendezvous-ed at the coach, and we couldn’t go on waiting indefinitely.”
“But you did wait?” Shaw’s tone was cold.
Pope nodded. “Yes, of course. But after a while we had to move.”
“Wicks and Fawcett?”
“Same with them — they didn’t show up. I don’t know when they left the party, haven’t a clue. No one seems to have noticed them go, only that after a while they just weren’t with us. I suppose they just drifted off… but those two can look after themselves. I’m not really worried.”
“You didn’t look for any of them?”
“Well, of course I did,” Pope answered sharply. “But, look here, old man, they all knew perfectly well where the coach was waiting! As it was I hung on half an horn: after the advertised time. When the others began complaining about the delay I really had no option but to tell Tanner to drive back here.”
“Yes, I see that.” Shaw noticed a shake in Pope’s hands — whether from anxiety or annoyance at being questioned, he didn’t know.
“Look, I realize it’s absolutely no business of mine, Major — but have you reported this to anyone at all?”
Pope shook his head. “Not exactly reported it, no. I asked a policeman near the rendezvous if he’d seen anyone who looked lost, and I gave him a rough description of Miss MacKinlay and the other two. He wasn’t any help. I didn’t make a report of — of missing persons or anything like that. It really didn’t appear to be called for — not at that stage, that is.” Again, he ran a hand nervously through his hair. “I do admit it begins to look a little tricky now. What d’you think, Mr Cane?”
“Well, for a start I don’t think I’d make a missing-persons report just at the moment, Major.” Shaw put his glass down on the bar and looked at Pope. “We don’t want to alarm or — er — embarrass anyone, do we… if you follow me?”