“We have evidence to support it,” he told her firmly. “A deathbed confession linking you to an underground organization known as S.M.U.T. According to this confession, by one Domino Diego, your whole operation is nothing but a front for this organization. Now, my dear, a little vice is one thing. We in this oflice are understanding and tolerant of—”
“For a price! ” Madam Renado interrupted bitterly.
“Your counter-accusations needn’t concern us at the moment,” the Commissioner overruled her smoothly. “As I was saying, a bit of illicit sex is one thing, but treason is something else again. The charge against you is most serious. My advice to you is to confess all and throw yourself on the mercy of the authorities.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Madam Renado clamped her jaws firmly shut and lapsed into silence.
“I trust that you will relinquish your stubbornness,” the Commissioner told her. “We shall see that you have plenty of time to think over the advantages of doing so. Take her away for now,” he ordered the guards.
As she was being led out, Major Worthby erupted again. “I am a British officer, and I demand—”
“You may tell your demands to your own government,” the Commissioner cut him off. “They are most anxious to speak with you. According to this Domino Diego, you are the one who handed out the orders for S.M.U.T. in Malta. Her testimony links you with a certain illegal cargo of faulty contraceptives and with Madam Renado’s operation as well. You are to be returned to London under guard immediately. There you can explain the extent of your activities. And perhaps you will explain the details of a certain closed ‘party’ held at Madam Renado’s last night. You may turn him over to the British soldiers now,” the Commissioner instructed the guards. “Your wife will also be placed under arrest and will accompany you to London,” he added as Major Worthby was led from the room.
“And what is the charge against me?” Tanya wanted to know. “I have nothing to do with this S.M.U.T., or whatever it’s called. I’m only an innocent employee of Madam Renado’s. What do you want of me?”
“Quite simple.” It was Lagula who answered now. “You’ve been gathering information about S.M.U.T. for some time now. We’d simply like you to tell us what you’ve learned.”
“That’s ridiculous. I know nothing. I’m just a simple peasant girl gone wrong.”
“S.M.U.T. evidently has reason to think otherwise,” Lagula told her. “They’re onto you. According to Domino Diego, they’ve already compiled a complete dossier on you. They know you’re a Russian agent.”
“I deny everything! I demand to know the specific charges against me.”
“Illegal entry into the country,” the Commissioner told her. “At the least you’ll be deported. But we’d like to know the answers to some questions first. Think it over.” He motioned to the guards and Tanya too was led out.
“And that leaves me,” I observed. “Okay, Lagula, suppose you fill me in on what’s happened. What’s this about a deathbed confession of Domino’s? Is she really dead? Who killed her? What’s been going on?”
“I don’t mind answering your questions.” Lagula shrugged. “Perhaps by doing so I’ll convince you that you should answer mine. To start with, based on what Domino told us, it seems that Major Worthby’s spirited pursuit of us had a threefold motive. Firstly, he thought you were Steve Victor and was out to stop you before you could report back to Intelligence on the connection between S.M.U.T. and the brothel.”
“I am Steve Victor,” I said automatically and without any longer having much hope that I’d be believed.
“We needn’t debate that point any longer,” Lagula said. “Anyway, Worthby’s second motive was that he’d bought a quite innocent red herring you and I huckstered last night at the casino. He was convinced that I was some sort of high African mucky-muck who’d been making deals on the highest level with the British. He wanted to get his hands on me so that he could force me to tell him the nature of those deals.”
“He sure is gullible,” I observed.
“Quite.” Lagula allowed himself a small smile. “But it’s really his third motive which concerns us most. You see, Worthby had cause to be very frightened of the prospect of Domino’s falling into our hands. She knew too much. In addition to her other duties at the brothel, she was also Worthby’s mistress whenever he wanted her. She knew all about the S.M.U.T. operation because he’d told her. Sexually, she seems to have had great influence over him. Like many a man obsessed, he couldn’t resist bragging to her about his activities and what a big man he was going to be once S.M.U.T. took over. Yes, he told her a lot. Not just about the brothel, but about other S.M.U.T activities as well. The contraceptive- smuggling deal, for instance.”
“Just what was that deal?” I asked.
“I’ll get to that,” Lagula replied. “But first consider another important factor. Domino—and I’ll never understand why—actually fell in love with the Major. She began putting pressure on him to divorce his wife and marry her. When he balked, she made several veiled threats about revealing their affair to his wife. Probably she didn’t mean them. But from Worthby’s viewpoint, he was in a fix. You see, his wife was as involved in S.M.U.T. as he was. All Domino had to do was let drop a piece of info he’d fed her to his wife, and Mrs. Worthby would know he was Domino’s lover and that he’d blabbed to her. The Major knew his wife as a very jealous type. He knew that if she found out about him and Domino, she would tell some higher-up in S.M.U.T. and he’d be branded as a traitor. There was only one punishment for that—death. Then, when he got to the farmhouse tonight, went to the room where Domino was supposed to be torturing you, and realized that you’d escaped with her, he jumped to the conclusion that she’d defected. During the chase that followed, he gave orders to his men to kill her on sight.”
“But they didn’t,” I remembered.
“Right. Because she voluntarily surrendered to the Major himself. He intended to deal with her himself, afterwards. At least, so it seems. Anyway, he passed the word to his men that if it looked like she was going to be recaptured by us, they should kill her. Then, after I took her and the wounded Maltese prisoner, when we got to Valetta, that’s exactly what he tried to do. I hadn’t had time to search him, and he had a knife strapped to his leg. As we stepped from the car, he leaped or her and stabbed her. I shot him immediately, but it was too late. The wound was fatal, although it took two hours for Domino to die.”
“And during those two hours she did a lot of talking,” I surmised.
“Yes. She told us about the Major and what she knew about the S.M.U.T. operation. She said the Major said he was in charge in Malta, but she had a sneaking suspicion that he was bragging and that maybe the real one who ran things was his wife. She told us about the ‘private party’ at the brothel last night. Remember I told you we couldn’t go there because it was closed to the public for the evening?”
“I remember.”
“Well,” Lagula continued, “it was a very unusual affair. Not an orgy, or anything like that at all. The Major had arranged it with Madam Renado. He showed up at ten o’clock with two trucks. One was loaded with cartons of small, empty bottles. Each of these bottles was labeled. The labels identified them as containing birth-control pills. The second truck contained several large barrels of small pills. According to Domino, these were made of a perfectly harmless chalk substance. The ‘party’ consisted of the girls of the brothel sitting around and putting the useless pills into the labeled bottles. Domino said the Major told her the stuff had been smuggled in the night before, and that after leaving the brothel, it would be distributed throughout Malta.”