At Tweed's suggestion Paula sat beside Marler, who was behind the wheel of the Audi. Tweed chose to sit by himself in the rear. He wanted to concentrate on the complexities of this strange case.
The gates opened before they reached them. Tweed instructed Newman to turn left and head into Gladworth. `You think that's where Calouste is hiding?' suggested Paula. `No, I don't. But Heather Cottage will be within ten or maybe twelve miles of Hengistbury. Far enough away to avoid his being seen, near enough to the manor to react to a development.' `Oh, I said Snape had gone missing,' Marler began. `I tried to find his cottage in The Forest. Failed. Coming back I thought I saw him on the edge of The Forest overlooking the drive. He appeared to be using a mobile phone. I went over to where I'd seen him and no one was there. Could have been an optical illusion.' `When we've driven through Gladworth,' Tweed instructed again, 'look for a minor road or lane which turns off to the right.' `Why not the left?' Paula wondered. `Because according to the map you gave me, beyond Gladworth the left side is covered with The Forest. No escape route. On the right it's open country…' `Marler,' Paula said tentatively, 'what do you do in your spare time?' `Fly my plane, look after it. Or I practise shooting on a range. Keeps me in top form.' `Any girlfriends?' she ventured. `Well, I do like women. Not infrequently when I'm out and about attractive women smile at me. Some quite a bit younger than me. But there seems to be a sort of barrier between me and women. They like to be amused. I can never think of anything to say. Silly.'
Paula had a shock. She had known Marler a long time and it was only now she realized what he was really like. Mader was shy. Where women were concerned. `Keep your minds on the road – with a right-hand turning,' Tweed growled from the back. `Oh, don't be so crochety,' Paula snapped. 'Marler is checking all the time, for Heaven's sake.'
Tweed had learned that there were times when it was wiser not to respond. A moment later Marler slowed, swung the Audi over to the right up a hedge- lined lane. Beyond the hedges were rolling-green hills. No more fir trees. No houses either.
Marler had pulled down his visor. The brilliant sun blazed through the windscreen. After a while of driving round bends in the lane Marler informed Tweed they had travelled fourteen miles. `Keep going,' Tweed ordered.
"There's a white brick house on the edge of the road,' Paula called out.
Marler slowed down. Tweed took out the handkerchief to wave and warn the two cars behind to stop. Paula leaned forward as Marler crawled past. She shook her head and told Marler to keep moving. `No good,' she called out. 'I saw the signboard. Dogwood is the weird name of that place.' `It's also too close to the road,' Tweed commented. `I'm sure Calouste would choose a house well back from the road.'
They drove on another mile without seeing another residence. Paula suddenly leaned forward, looking partly to her left. She told Marler to crawl again. Tweed took out his handkerchief, lowered his window. `Heather Cottage!' Paula called out triumphantly. 'I saw it on the name board… ' `Tricky place to assault,' Tweed decided after studying it through his pocket binoculars. 'Open ground up to the place.'
The Audi was parked out of sight a few yards up the lane. Newman had reacted to Tweed's signal. His Merc was parked out of sight of the target, with Harry's Ford parked behind him. Paula borrowed the binoculars. Heather Cottage was a large two-storey thatched cottage with windows open on both floors, its walls painted white.
Marler lifted up the golf bag from the floor under their feet. Unzipping it, he took out the Armalite rifle, carefully attached the 'scope. Getting out, he aimed it at a rock by the side of the lane, adjusted a screw slightly, checked his aim again. `I'm going up the far side of the hedge running along the edge of the place. There may be a back door they could slip out of.' `I'll come with you,' said Paula, her Walther in her right hand.
By now Harry, heavy satchel on his back, had crawled to the cover of the front hedge, followed by Newman. Harry extracted two large grenades from his satchel, held one in each hand. He grinned. `Tear-gas grenades. One through the open window downstairs and one through the upstairs window, same side. I go in through the right-hand window.' `I come with you,' said Newman. `I'll watch the front door,' Tweed decided. 'They may come out that way.'
The grenades went in, exploding inside their target areas. Harry rushed forward, dived in through the open right-hand window. A lean evil-faced man wearing jeans and a jacket, neither of which fitted him well, staggered in from the hall, holding a machine-pistol. He tried to aim it. `Behind you!' Harry shouted.
Instinctively the lean-faced gunman looked back. No one was behind him. He vanished into the narrow hall, ran out through the open back door. He had recovered from the whiff of tear gas he'd absorbed. He saw Paula standing by the hedge, swivelled his machine-pistol to mow her down. Two shots were fired from her Walther. The first bullet hit him in the forehead, the second penetrated his chest. He fell against the cottage wall, slid down it, sagged in a heap. `You did well,' said Marler. 'My Armalite slipped on my shoulder. Must be losing my grip.'
Paula ran forward, stooped to check the gunman's carotid arteries. She shook her head as she straightened up. Tweed had just appeared round the front corner of the cottage. `He's dead,' Paula called out. 'From his features he looks French.' She put on a glove, searching his trouser pocket, brought out an almost empty cigarette packet. `Gauloise; she called out. 'He was French.'
Newman's head poked out of an upstairs window. 'Is everything OK out there? Oh, I see it is. Harry and I have checked the place upstairs as well as downstairs. No one here. What's that motorcycle doing leaning against the wall there?' `Escape vehicle he won't be needing any more,' Marler replied, pointing to the corpse. `Kitchen's a real mess,' Newman reported.
Tweed darted inside through the back entrance, followed by Paula. They entered the kitchen. A sudden breeze blew soiled napkins out of the window. The table was laid for three. Plates had remnants of food, two with eggs and bacon, the other with unsavoury- looking sausages. Cups were half-filled with coffee. Paula used a latex glove to pick up and examine a large piece of wrapping paper. It had the name of a butcher's shop in Paris. `French again,' she said. 'So what happened here?' `Calouste was warned by his informer we were on our way,' Tweed said grimly. `Left behind one chap to clean up, the dead one outside.' `He's going to be difficult to capture,' Paula mused. `Or kill,' Tweed said. 'After what Buchanan told me about his track record, the bit known, in France and Austria, that would probably be the best solution. He's one of the most ruthless, cold-blooded villains I've ever encountered. In the meantime we search this place from top to bottom. It's obvious he left in an almighty rush, which means he could have left something behind.'
Newman and Tweed disappeared to search the upstairs while Butler and Marler checked the downstairs. Paula stayed in the kitchen. She emptied the food off the plates in the dustbin outside the back door, then closed the window and began a systematic search.
Under the cooker she found a screwed-up piece of paper. Still using the latex gloves, she cleaned a portion of the table and carefully spread out the sheet of paper. It was perforated down one side, which suggested it had been torn from a notebook. A single word had been written on it in black biro.
Sheebka.
Sounds Turkish, she thought. She then went outside to pick up the napkins blown out of the open window. Half under the side hedge she spotted a large coloured sheet. She brought it in, spread it on the table. She was looking at a single page torn from an Ordnance Survey atlas. It was a section of the West Country with a black circle marked round the county of Cornwall. At that moment Tweed returned, followed by Newman, Marler and Butler. `As I expected, not a thing in the whole house,' Tweed told her. `You're wrong,' Paula contradicted. 'Look at these two items.'