She was no coward, I’ll say that for her. She was in greater danger than I was at that moment; he was as unstable as a two-legged table, his adolescent ego smarting and hurting. But she didn’t cower or cringe or try to apologize. She gave me a twisted smile.
‘Like other tyrants, I have been supplanted, you see. A palace coup. Behold the new ruler.’
‘He’s right, of course,’ I said smoothly. ‘Without him, you couldn’t have done it. He’s a genius. You know, Luigi, you could be the greatest jeweller the world has ever seen.’
He liked the first part of that disingenuous speech. His scowl smoothed out as he turned towards me. But at the last sentence he shook his head.
‘Jewellers are artisans, craftsmen. I am an artist. If my father had not tried to crush my talent, this would not have been necessary. I am no stupid craftsman!’
‘Cellini was a maker of jewellery,’ I said. ‘Holbein designed jewels for Henry the Eighth.’
‘That is true,’ he said thoughtfully.
It was like trying to cross rotten ice; a false move, a single wrong word could break through the flimsy rapport that lay between us. He was thinking, too. He wasn’t stupid, that boy, even if he was crazy.
‘What was it you said to her just now?’ he demanded. ‘About letting you go away from here? You have laid a trap. What is it?’
I hesitated. His eyes narrowed and his finger tightened on the trigger of the gun.
‘I didn’t understand,’ I said quickly. ‘I didn’t realize you were involved, Luigi – not like this. I don’t want to get you in trouble.’
‘Wait,’ he said, as if to himself. ‘Let me think a moment. You have some scheme . . . Ah! The telephone calls you made. My father told me, it was to some man in Munich. That is your plan, is it not? If you don’t telephone this person, he will send the police. You see, I am more clever than you thought!’
His young face beamed with pleasure. My brain knew this handsome, charming boy was a killer, but my emotions just wouldn’t take it in.
‘You are clever,’ I said. ‘Yes; that was my idea. But I won’t – ’
‘Make your call.’ The gun dipped towards a low table that held a telephone. ‘Go on, make it. You will be very careful. You will say all is well. And to be sure you are careful – ’ He turned. ‘Bruno! Bring him in here.’
I looked at the principessa. She raised slim shoulders in that ineffable Italian shrug.
‘Fat lot of help you are,’ I said bitterly.
The door through which Luigi had come was still open, the draperies flung back. I heard footsteps, very slow and dragging. Then John appeared, supported by Bruno. His face was bruised, and he had the makings of a magnificent black eye.
‘I was questioning him,’ Luigi explained simply. ‘I wanted to know where you were hiding, with the information he had given you.’
John and I contemplated one another across the length of the room. He was leaning heavily on his captor. I couldn’t read his expression, his face was too battered, but his first words left me in no doubt as to his state of mind.
‘You’ve really mucked it up this time, haven’t you?’
‘You might have warned me,’ I said, stung to the quick. ‘You knew – damn it, that’s why you looked so funny, in the apartment, when I said – ’
‘Warned you! I didn’t have time to take a deep breath with those gorillas battering at the door. I have heard of stupid heroines in my time, but you are the prize. I risk my life and limb to save you from violent death, and you turn right around and walk back into – ’
Luigi, who had been listening with a disapproving frown, put an end to John’s tirade – which I had to admit had some justice behind it – by pointing the gun at him.
‘Enough,’ he snapped. ‘That is no way to talk to a lady, especially when she has risked herself to save you. You should be ashamed.’
I thought for a minute John was going to laugh, and I made a horrible grimace at him. Luigi seemed to be very sensitive about being ridiculed.
‘You are right,’ John said, after a moment of struggle. ‘I apologize. Maybe we ought to try something more in keeping with this hideous farce we seem to be involved in. How about this? Oh, darling, how brave and how foolish of you! Don’t you know I would rather die a thousand deaths than see a single hair of your silly little head in jeopardy?’
‘But, sweetheart,’ I said. ‘I couldn’t go on living if your unfortunate habit of reticence had cost you your life. I had to come, if only to die with you.’
John had that effect on me anyway, but there was some method in our madness – at least, there was in mine. Maybe if we stalled long enough, Luigi would forget about the telephone call. It was an awfully dim chance. Even if Schmidt called the police promptly at five, it would take them a long time to get rolling, and even longer to extract an admission from Pietro that the principessa was one of the conspirators. In fact, the chance was so dim as to be nonexistent. If I could have thought of any sensible alternative, I would have tried it.
John had launched into another speech. I turned my wandering wits back to him in time to catch the last part of it.
‘. . . the memory of your courage and unthinking devotion. Fear not, my dearest, we will not die in vain. The minions of the law will avenge us, and as my last request I would like to compose a suitable epitaph, which I feel sure our gallant adversaries will have carved on our tombstones. “They were lovely and beautiful in their lives, and in their deaths – ”’
I might have known he would get carried away and go too far. Luigi finally caught on that he was being kidded. His face darkened ominously.
‘You mock me!’ he exclaimed.
‘Impossible,’ said John. ‘I mean, I wouldn’t dream of it, Luigi.’
‘The telephone,’ said Luigi. ‘Call. Bruno – ’
Bruno let go of John, who promptly collapsed onto the floor. Luigi snapped out an order; Bruno picked John up and dumped him into a chair. Luigi pressed the gun to John’s forehead.
‘Do watch your words, love,’ said John. There was nothing for it but to place the call. With the perversity of things in general, this one went through as smoothly as silk. I didn’t even have to penetrate the impenetrable wall of Gerda’s chitchat. Schmidt answered the phone himself.
‘Ah,’ he squeaked, as soon as I had identified myself. ‘There you are, Vicky. Gerda told me you had called. I am sorry I was not here. What is the emergency?’
‘Oh, it’s still here,’ I said heartily, wishing Schmidt’s voice wasn’t quite so shrill and penetrating. I wondered whether Luigi knew any German. The principessa probably spoke it quite well.
‘You don’t understand me,’ Schmidt said. ‘I hear you quite well; can you not hear me?’
‘Oh, yes,’ I said, laughing hysterically. ‘I can hear you just fine. But I’m afraid you can’t understand me.’
‘But it is an excellent connection.’
‘Oh, no, it isn’t,’ I said.
‘How is the case proceeding?’
‘Not too well. You might even say disastrously. At the moment, that is.’
‘I am so sorry,’ Schmidt exclaimed. ‘But I have great faith in you, Vicky. You will solve it; I know you will.’
I felt like biting the telephone. I had been as direct as I dared. I thought of referring obliquely to Herr Feder of the Munich police, but I was afraid to risk it; the principessa might know who he was, and Luigi was already uneasy; he was mouthing suggestions at me from across the room, and the muzzle of the gun was pressed so hard against John’s head that it dented the skin. John didn’t dare move, not even his lips, but his eyes were eloquent.
‘It’s all right,’ I said feebly. ‘I – goodbye, poopsie. Auf Wiedersehen. I hope.’