CHAPTER TWO
It was obvious that Maxwell wanted to speak to me. In the mirror backing of the shelves behind the bar I could see him seated at one of the little tables well away from the light of the windows. He was reading a newspaper and didn’t once glance in my direction. I waited until the bar had filled up. Then I got myself another drink and went over to his table. ‘Permit me, pane,’ I said in Czech, and took the chair opposite him.
‘I was beginning to get worried about you, Dick,’ he said without glancing up from his newspaper. ‘Are you being watched?’
‘I don’t think so,’ I answered.
‘GOOD. Will they let you take the plane tomorrow?’
‘I think so. They don’t seem to have anything against me except the fact that I saw Jan Tucek on Wednesday. How did you know I’d been arrested?’
‘I was at the airport.’
‘Were you catching that plane?’
‘No. I was waiting to see you.’ I saw the whites of his eyes in the shadow of his face as he glanced quickly round the room. Then he smoothed his paper out flat on the table and leaned slightly forward. ‘You probably know by now why the S.N.B. police picked you up for questioning.’ I shook my head and he said, ‘We got Tucek out of the country last night. That’s why I couldn’t meet you as arranged. There was a lot to do.’
‘You got him out of the country!’ I stared at him. ‘But — he was in protective custody. How—’
‘A little diversion. The house next door caught fire. But don’t worry about the details. We had an old Anson waiting at Bory airfield. There were two of them — Tucek and a senior Czech air force officer, general letectva Lemlin.
They should have been in Milan early this morning.’ He was talking very fast, his lips hardly moving. ‘Reece wouldn’t be expecting them till Sunday morning, but they knew where to contact him, and I should have had confirmation of their arrival by wire this morning.’ He paused and then said, ‘I’m very worried, Dick. I’ve heard nothing. When you get to Milan tomorrow, I want you to go straight to the Albergo Excelsior, opposite the Stazione Centrale. Tell Reece to wire me immediately. Will you do that?’
‘The Excelsior! Is Reece staying there?’ I asked him.
He nodded and I cursed the luck that had booked me at the same hotel. I didn’t want to see Reece. I think Maxwell knew that, for he added, ‘It’s very urgent, Dick. They may have crashed.’
‘All right,’ I said. ‘I’ll see Reece.’
‘Good man. Just one other thing. A message from Tucek. He told me to tell you that he wished to see you as soon as you arrived in Milan. He was very insistent.’
‘All right,‘I said.
A waiter appeared and collected our glasses. Maxwell folded his newspaper. ‘Would pane care to have a look at the paper?’ he said in Czech. I thanked him and took the paper. He collected his brief case and got to his feet. ‘Goodbye, Dick,’ he whispered. ‘See you again sometime.’ And he strolled down the length of the bar and out by the street door.
I had another drink and then went in to lunch. Time passed very slowly during the rest of that day. I drank it away watching the hands of the clock over the bar move steadily through afternoon into evening. The airport had made no difficulty about transferring my booking to the following day. The only question was, would the police let me go? Everything seemed to hinge on whether the night porter kept his mouth shut about Tucek’s extraordinary visit to my room. The more I thought about that, the more odd it seemed. If he had come to see me, then why hadn’t he wakened me? Perhaps I’d been so drunk he couldn’t wake me? But then why did he want to see me as soon as I reached Milan?
These speculations became more and more confused in my mind as I drank the evening out. And they became confused with my promise to see Reece. I didn’t want to see Reece. Alive or dead, I didn’t want to see him. He’d been so bitter. He’d turned his sister against me, smashed my life. Shirer I didn’t mind so much. Shirer had been older. He knew what I’d been through. But Reece was young. He didn’t understand. He’d never faced real pain in his life. Those letters he’d written her from the hospital — he’d told me what he was writing to her. He’d taken it out of me that way. Suddenly I didn’t care about the Czech security police. I didn’t want to leave Czechoslovakia any more. Let them arrest me. I didn’t care. All I knew was that I didn’t want to go to Milan and see Reece. God! For all I knew Alice might be there. I began to sing Alice Blue Gown. That was when they got me out of the bar and I found the night porter helping me up to my room.
As we reached the landing he said, ‘I hear,pane, that you have trouble with the S.N.B. to-day?’ His greedy little eyes peered up at me. I wanted to punch his face. I knew what he wanted. He wanted money. ‘You go to hell!’ I said.
I couldn’t get his face in focus, but I knew he was leering up at me. ‘Perhaps I go to the police.’
‘You can go to the devil for all I care,’ I mumbled.
He opened the door of my room and helped me inside. I tried to shake him off and fell on to the bed. He shut the door and came over to me. ‘Also I hear pan Tucek is escaped. Perhaps his visit to you is more important than the fifty kronen you give me, eh?’ He was standing beside the bed, looking down at me.
‘Get the hell out of here, you little crook,’ I shouted at him.
‘But, pane, consider for a moment, please. If I tell the police what I know it will be a very bad for pane.’
I didn’t care any more. As long as I didn’t have to see Reece I didn’t mind. ‘Go to the police,’ I said wearily. ‘It doesn’t matter. Go and tell them what you know.’ I saw the baffled, frustrated look on his face and that was the last thing I remember. Whether I passed out or just fell asleep I don’t know. All I know is that I woke fully clothed and very cold to find myself sprawled on my bed in the dark. It was then just after one-thirty. I undressed and got into bed..
In the morning I felt frightful. Also I was scared. Everything is much simpler when you’re drunk. Perhaps it is because the urge to live is less. At any rate, in the sober grey light of day I knew that I’d rather face Reece in Milan than be held here in Pilsen by the Czech police. I’d been a fool to refuse the porter money. I dressed quickly and went down to find him. But he’d already gone. I was in a panic then lest he’d gone to the police. I tried to steady myself with cups of black coffee and cigarettes. But my hands were trembling and clammy and I knew that I was waiting all the time for my name to be called, waiting to go out and find the man with the sandy eyelashes standing by the reception desk. But my name wasn’t called and in the end I got up and went out to pay my bill. As soon as I looked in my wallet I knew why the police hadn’t come for me. Most of my money was gone — all the pound notes and lire. The little swine had left me just enough kronen to pay my bill.
I got my bags down and took a drozka out to the airport. I was sweating and my head was swimming as I went towards the passenger clearing office. I searched the faces of the men standing around the room. Several of them seemed to be watching me. I reached the desk and presented my passport. The same clerk was on duty there. He waved the passport aside with a little smile and made some crack about there being no reception committee for me this morning. I got a paper and sat waiting for my flight to be called. I tried to read, but the print hurt my eyes and I couldn’t concentrate. I watched the main entrance, suspicious of every man who came in without any baggage.