John smiled a little awkwardly. `I'm afraid I can't take any great credit for that, as it's a natural instinct not to want to see murder done. But of what were you thinking, when you said things are different now?'
`Simply that as we have already handed over the goods I don't think there is much that we can do.'
`You could put us on to the men who met the Canon, and those who later kidnapped Christina.'
`Perhaps; but that would mean laying certain friends of mine open to criminal proceedings; and that I am naturally not prepared to do.'
`I'm ready to ante up handsome, Count,' Beddows put in. `I've quite a tidy sum on me, and if more is needed I don't doubt I could fix passing it through the Tangier International Zone.'
`Thank you, sir,' said Jules, with a frigid little bow. `But it is not in the tradition of my family to sell our servants.'
John was tempted to make a swift retort to the effect that it was even more shameful to traffic in dope, arms and women; but he checked himself in time, and said, `May I ask you a question?'
`By all means.' Jules snapped a gold, pocket gas lighter to the Gitane cigarette that was hanging from his lips. `Do you know where Christina is now?'
`I haven't an idea.'
`Then do you know where the Canon plans to hold this abominable ceremony to night?'
With a genuinely puzzled look Jules asked, `What ceremony?'
`Surely you are aware of the reason why he has been trying to get hold of Christina?'
`No. I thought he just had a yen for her. Old boys do get that sort of thing for young girls, you know; and are often willing to part with a lot of money for a chance to gratify it.'
`This is something very different. He wants to use her
in what, for lack of a better name, we will call a Black Mass.'
`Really!' Jules' plump face showed only cynical interest. `That sounds very intriguing. Ellen, or Christina, or whatever you like to call her, would look pretty good stretched out naked on an altar. I think I must try to muscle in on that.'
John fought down an impulse to hit him, and said, `If you did, as the culminating point of the ritual consists in cutting her throat, you might find yourself later being charged as an accessory to murder.'
Letting out a low whistle, Jules stood up. `So it's not just fun and games, eh? Well, I don't wish her any harm, even if she is half off her nut; but I'm afraid there is not much I can do about it.'
`You said that you might muscle in on the ceremony. Could you do that? Or, at all events, find out where it is to take place?'
`I might, but it would not be easy. We did all that was required of us last night and were paid well for our trouble; but, to be honest, I don't think my own people could help much. What you have just told me explains a lot. You must already have a pretty shrewd idea how the two jobs were done; so there's no point in my concealing from you what happened afterwards. The Canon and the big crate he brought with him were taken to a villa on the outskirts of the town. Some three hours later Christina, doped and concealed in a large trunk, was delivered at what I imagine to have been the same place; but of that I can't be certain. You see, when the men who did these jobs reported to me this morning, none of them had anything but the vaguest idea where they had been. They couldn't even recall the district in which the villa lay.'
`Oh hell!' John groaned, at the thought that his last hope was slipping away. `Then that swine of a Canon pulled a fast one on you too, and hypnotized your men into forgetting where they had driven.'
Jules nodded. `That's about it. I couldn't understand what had come over my chaps this morning; but now you tell me that he is contemplating murder, the reason why he went to such lengths to cover up his tracks is obvious.'
`All the same,' Beddows put in, `you said just now that you might be able to find out where the ceremony is going to take place.'
`I could try; but it would mean putting a lot of people on the job, and they would have to work fast. You see, by this time the Canon may have carted Christina off to anywhere between Mentone and Marseilles, to have her handy to some devil ridden spot suitable for doing her in; so we shall have to cast a very wide net.'
`Thin get to it ! Money is no object.'
Giving Beddows an unfriendly stare Jules remarked, `If I do anything at all it will be for John, because he prevented that crazy daughter of yours from killing my father.' Then, as an afterthought, he added, `Still, we may as well look after the old firm as far as expenses are concerned. How much are you willing to pay?'
`I'll give you a thousand pounds down and another thousand if you get results.'
`Good. I'll have my people get a line on all the queers along the coast. There is an old priest at Cagnes who has a pretty gruesome reputation, and a fortune teller in Monte Carlo who does not stick to telling the cards. There is one man in Nice, too, who might know something if only we can persuade him to talk. He is an elderly cabaret singer with a husky bass voice, and he does his act in a dirty little dive off the Place Massena. One of his stunts is to intone the Paternoster backwards. However, the telephoning I am about to do is strictly private; so I must ask you to leave me now. I may be unlucky; in any case it will be a couple of hours or more before I am likely to have anything to tell you; so you had better make yourselves as comfortable as you can in the lounge downstairs.'
Beddows produced the thousand pounds; and John, now blessing the impulse which had caused him to save the Marquis from a bullet in the heart, thanked Jules for what he was about to do. Then they went down, collected Molly from the car, and ordered tea in the lounge as a means of killing a little time, although none of the three felt like drinking it.
John never remembered a longer hour than the one that followed. From time to time one of them endeavoured to start a conversation, but it inevitably tailed off into silence after the exchange of a few sentences; and, now that he had the leisure to con the cold, hard facts, the slenderness of their chance of saving Christina became more and more apparent to him. He pinned his faith on either bribing or bullying Jules into giving them the information that they needed so desperately; but it had turned out that he had not got it to give. He had, through a strange freak of fate, become friendly instead of hostile; but, in the event, all that he had actually done was cynically to accept a thousand pounds to institute the same sort of enquiry as Malouet was already engaged upon gratuitously.
John knew that on the Riviera there must be more people than anywhere else in the world who, having once been rich, had through wars, revolutions or gambling lost all but a pittance, and so were peculiarly susceptible to the temptation to attempt to regain something of their past affluence by trafficking with the supernatural; yet it seemed beyond all reason to hope that, in a matter of a few hours, one such could be found who was not only in the Canon's confidence, but prepared to betray him.
Outside, the sun was shining. Through the broad windows could be seen the lovely prospect of the blue, unruffled bay; with, in the foreground, two mimosa trees in blossom, a row of striped yellow cactus, and some brilliant scarlet geraniums in pots. Inside, there was the constant passing of well dressed men and women, laughing and carefree, all intent on the enjoyment of a summer holiday snatched from the grim winter in northern lands whence most of them came.
The contrast between the scene and the thoughts of the little party at the tea table made the long wait all the more intolerable. The minutes crawled by. For John each of them brought a new vision of Christina as she might be now, locked in some cellar; or in an attic room with barred windows; or with her clothes removed so that she could not escape, lying in bed half drugged as she would be tonight, carried away again, stifling in a trunk, to some secret place; fighting on her release until she was beaten into submission; stripped and cowering among a group of ghouls excited to a frenzy by unnatural lusts; screaming as the sharp sacrificial knife severed the muscles of her throat; still and dead with the blood gushing from her neck.