MacLean stood staring at the message until the other two were becoming impatient. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said in bemusement. ‘It’s from Tansy. It says… “Don’t go to Geneva”.’
FOURTEEN
‘Don’t go?’ exclaimed MacFarlane. Leavey just shrugged his shoulders.
MacLean looked at his watch and said, ‘We’ve still got thirty minutes. I’ll call her.’
MacLean was convinced that something awful must have happened at home for Tansy to send such a message. Something connected with Carrie was his fearful guess. His fingers felt like thumbs as he punched in Tansy’s number and waited. After the fourth ring he hoped that Tansy was in the bathroom, after the seventh, that she had been in the bath, after the tenth he accepted that she wasn’t there. He put down the receiver slowly and turned to face Leavey and MacFarlane. ‘No answer,’ he said.
‘What now?’ asked MacFarlane.
‘We’re going back to Edinburgh.’
They flew back to Edinburgh on a British Airways shuttle, which left forty minutes later. Leavey and MacFarlane were subdued, with a sense of anti-climax about them. MacLean was preoccupied with worry over what might have happened. As soon as they landed MacLean called Tansy again but found that there was still no reply. It did nothing to reassure him.
‘I think we better just go to the flat and wait,’ he said.
It was nearly five in the evening when Tansy arrived home and found the three of them camped on the doorstep. ‘Good,’ she said, ‘I see you got the message.’
MacLean was bemused. ‘Where have you been?’ he exclaimed.
‘I spent the morning in the local public library — I sent you the message from there — and this afternoon I’ve been at the hospital seeing Carrie,’ replied Tansy.
‘What’s wrong? What’s happened?’
‘Nothing’s wrong and nothing has happened,’ said Tansy evenly.
‘But Carrie?’
‘Carrie is fine.’
‘Tansy will you please explain,’ said MacLean, frustration getting the better of him.
‘I’ve just been doing some thinking that’s all. When you said the other night that Jean-Paul Rives had been looking for a place and not a person I got to wondering how he came up with a woman’s name.’
‘May Haas,’ said MacLean.
‘Precisely. It’s been niggling away at me. There was also the fact that Lehman Steiner were adamant that she’d never worked for them. This morning I worked it out. May Haas is not the name of a woman at all, it’s the name of a place.’
‘A place?’ exclaimed MacLean.
‘I was so sure of it that I spent the morning searching for it through the atlas in the library.’
‘And?’
‘For a while I thought I was barking up the wrong tree but then I mentioned to the librarian what I was doing. She’s been doing Spanish classes at night school. She thought the name could be Spanish and suggested a likely spelling. I found it. It’s a small town in southern Spain. It’s spelt, M-I-J-A-S but it’s pronounced, May Haas. ‘
There was silence in the room until Leavey said, ‘That makes a lot of sense.’
‘You’re absolutely right,’ agreed MacLean. ‘Eva told me that Jean-Paul’s search had been successful. She wouldn’t have said that if all he had come up with was a woman’s name. Tansy, that was brilliant.’ He gave her a hug.
Tansy brought out a map of Spain, which she’d gone into town to get after leaving the library. She spread it out on a low coffee table and the others crowded round. She traced her finger along the south coast of Spain, exaggerating the contours as she searched for Mijas. ‘There!’ she announced. ‘A few miles west of Malaga and three or four kilometres up into the mountains.’
‘Is there an airport at Malaga?’ asked Leavey.
‘Yes,’ replied Tansy. ‘I’ve been to the airline office as well.’
‘Well done,’ said MacFarlane.
‘We can’t use it,’ said MacLean.
‘But why not?’ asked MacFarlane.
‘Lehman Steiner would pick us up right away.’
‘But we’ve only just found out about the place!’ said MacFarlane.
‘If X14 is located in Mijas, Lehman Steiner will be watching the local airport.’
‘You’re right,’ said Leavey.
‘Apart from that,’ continued MacLean, ‘Jean-Paul must have confessed that he had found out the location of X14 before they killed him. Lehman Steiner would have to assume that he passed the information on even if he said he hadn’t. They’ve probably been wondering what’s taking us so long! They don’t know we’ve had to wait for Tansy to figure it out for us.’
‘So they’ll be lined up ready for us,’ said Leavey.
‘Geneva is beginning to sound attractive after all,’ said MacFarlane.
‘Our only edge is that they don’t know who we are or what we look like.’
‘And the fact that we haven’t turned up yet,’ said Leavey. ‘Maybe that will work in our favour. They must be starting to think by now that maybe Jean-Paul didn’t pass on the right information after all.’
‘So what do we do?’ asked MacFarlane.
‘We certainly can’t risk flying in to Malaga,’ said MacLean. ‘Three men arriving together…’
‘What about a holiday charter flight?’ suggested Leavey.
‘That’s a possibility. The south coast’s a popular holiday area but it still leaves us with the problem of being three men travelling together. Lehman Steiner might be monitoring charter flights too.’
‘Valencia!’ exclaimed MacFarlane out of the blue.
‘What about it?’ said Leavey.
‘Rangers are playing there on Wednesday night in the European Cup.’
There was a stunned silence before MacLean said what he and Leavey were both thinking. ‘Perfect! Absolutely bloody perfect!’ They rushed back to the map and found Valencia.
Leavey put his finger on it and said, ‘We could rent a car and drive from there down to the south coast.’
MacLean agreed but asked whether or not it would be possible to get on to supporters’ plane at this late stage.
‘Leave it to me,’ said MacFarlane, asking Tansy with exaggerated politeness if he could use the phone.
‘Of course Willie,’ she said with a smile.
The sound coming from the hall suggested that it was not going to be as easy as MacFarlane had thought to get them on the flight. Tansy, Leavey and MacLean had no trouble filling in the missing half of the conversation.
‘Aw c’mon Rab, there must be room… I know it’s a big game and it’s a bit late but… Rab! You owe me a few favours pal… ‘ There was a long silence before MacFarlane spoke again. This time he said, You can? Magic! I won’t forget this Rab. Right, let’s have the details.’
MacFarlane came back into the room to an expectant audience. He smiled and said, ‘We’re going. Wednesday morning at Glasgow Airport; Rab will meet us at the check-in.’
‘Well done Willie,’ said MacLean. Tansy and Leavey echoed their praise.
‘Now we have to get the gear,’ said MacFarlane.
‘The gear?’
‘Aye. Scarves, bunnets, rosettes. You know, the colours…’
Tansy hid a smile behind her hand.
As the three of them stood in the departure lounge at Glasgow Airport, MacLean looked around him and blessed Glasgow Rangers Football Club’s involvement in European competition. The cover of travelling to an away match was perfect: they would be as inconspicuous as grains of sand on the beach. His initial reservations about wearing a scarf and Tammy had worn off and he now saw them as badges of immunity, protection from officials who waved on the many-headed beast, anxious to see the back of football supporters.
There was a carnival atmosphere in the lounge, full of optimism and anticipation, amplified by booze and encouraged by camaraderie. MacFarlane brought over three large brandies from the bar and said, ‘Might as well enter into the spirit of things eh?’
MacLean swallowed a comment about the hour before it reached his lips and chased it down with brandy. Willie was right, he decided. There would be little enough time for relaxation when they arrived in Spain and who was he to lecture men like MacFarlane and Leavey when they were risking their lives for a child they’d never even met.