Latymer shifted restlessly. ‘None, none! Not that we know of, that is. But all this is by way of being a trifle mysterious, my dear fellow, and I’m merely throwing out ideas. It’s full of imponderables—’ He broke off. ‘By the way, what was your assessment of the dock and its purpose? Any ideas in your head as to what anyone could be meaning to do with it — just in case it’s not precisely true in essentials that it was simply going to be handed over peacefully to an Angola firm?’
‘Yes, sir, I have. From the way it’s fitted out, I got the impression it was probably intended to be used for some very particular purpose…’
‘Such as?’ Latymer rapped.
‘To act as a self-contained base and depot, sir. Possibly — this was Bennet’s for warships, and again that does seem to fit with what you said about Angola. All the same, I had the idea that somewhere rather more remote than a place like Luanda was indicated—’
‘Can you be more precise?’
‘No, sir, I can’t. All I can say is that it looked to me as if it was intended to provide specialized repair, maintenance, and provisioning facilities as well as dry-docking, and I shouldn’t really have thought all that was necessary in Luanda.’ He frowned. ‘I’m still really foxed by the way the dock was just cut adrift and left. So was Captain Bennett. As for the girl’s body… in point of fact we wouldn’t have known about it, probably, if the towing ships hadn’t disappeared. It’s all got me utterly confused so far.’
Latymer stared, his green eyes as hard as steel. He said quietly, ‘Then you’d better unravel yourself as fast as you can. I’m assigning you to this job and I want an answer double quick. Even I can’t hold that dock indefinitely without a cast iron reason — and I’d hate to part with it to Gottlieb Hauser before I know what’s in the wind. Understand?’
‘Yes, sir, but—’
Shaw broke off as a red light came on in a small metal box on Latymer’s desk. Latymer reached out a heavy hand and pressed a switch, and the prim, precise voice of Miss Larkin, his confidential secretary, came into the room.
‘The Medical Director — General’s department to speak to you, Mr Latymer. Surgeon Rear-Admiral Gibson.’
‘Put him on, Clarice.’
Latymer released the switch and picked up one of his telephones, ‘Latymer,’ he said briefly, and listened. After some two minutes he snapped, ‘Positive? I see. Thank you, Gibson. Mum’s the word till I say otherwise, understand? Right.’
He slammed the handset down, planted his elbows on the arms of his chair, and swivelled his thick body from left to right half a dozen times. After he’d tired of this he stared thoughtfully at Shaw for almost a minute, his eyes blank and hooded. Then he said, ‘That was about your cadaver, Shaw. Your judgments were reasonably correct. Twenty-four years old, excellent general health, shot with a .22 rifle. Bullet nicked the heart. Didn’t die right away, but was dead before she was put into the water, near enough fifteen hours ago. The medical evidence suggests that we can discount any theory of rape as having led to her murder. Anyway, there’s something else, which to my mind puts a very different complexion on all this business. Did I say just now that I had no special reason for treating this as big stuff?’
‘You did, sir.’
‘Correction, then. I’ve got that reason now.’ Latymer leaned forward, aiming his ruler at Shaw’s head like a gun. ‘That girl had had plastic surgery carried out recently to her face, and her hair had been bleached — all over. And there’s something else too. Her teeth showed German-style fillings and dentistry at first glance, but someone hadn’t done his cover-up job very well. When those fillings were examined more closely, and some dental excavations carried out behind them, they found traces of fairly extensive American treatment to her teeth. Now, Shaw — if it hadn’t been for the superimposed German work, she could have been assumed to have had some dental treatment while simply on a visit, say, to the States. But the report doesn’t bear that out at all. All work on her teeth was basically American, and it wasn’t just the odd filling you might get on a visit or even a year or two’s residence. And the German dentistry was phoney — in the light of that close examination.’
‘So you think—’
‘So I believe, Shaw, that that girl was very likely a U.S citizen, and that she could well have been carrying out an undercover job for U.S Intelligence, as an agent. Otherwise, why all the remodelling? And if I’m right, I don’t like it very much.’
Shaw was puzzled. What the Americans did was their own affair, and after all they were allies in the cold war. He asked, ‘Why not, sir?’
‘Why?’ Latymer glowered at him. ‘Dammit, I’ll tell you why — and this is hot information, let me warn you. Absolutely Top Secret.’ He lowered his voice as if instinctively, though this room was safer than the Bank of England and he knew it. ‘There’s been an odd thing or two going on recently in Washington. The alliance is friendly enough, but it’s not very… well, there isn’t a great deal of trust and confidence being shown just now, whatever the man in the street may like to think about it. The alliance will endure, of course, but there’s one hell of a lot of suspicion eating into it. Certain people, myself among them, have reason to believe that the U.S isn’t coming across with full defence information to their old pals and NATO allies — largely, I’m bound to admit, because they’re suspicious of British security precautions.’
Shaw made a grimace. ‘That hits us in a tender spot, doesn’t it! But I think it’s understandable.’
‘So do I, much as I hate to admit it. We’ve had too many inexcusable leaks for their liking — or mine, for that matter! Dammit, if I was in their shoes, I’d react in exactly the same way. Anyway — all this could tie in.’
‘Could you be more explicit, sir?’
‘I’ll try.’ Latymer leaned forward massively, thick arms folded on the desk. ‘The States could have been on to something in connection with this dock — trying to find out what we’re now trying to find out — that is, what the dock’s really meant to be doing and where. They could be in possession of some information which they haven’t seen fit to pass on to us, and they could have wanted more — follow? Well, if I’m right, their agent’s been liquidated, and that almost certainly must mean that someone’s on to them. Now, to put an agent, especially a female, aboard a floating dock due for a long tow is a damn tricky business, I should have thought. The Americans must have had some very good and pressing reason for trying to find out all about the dock. By the same token — so, now, have we.’
Shaw nodded resignedly. This began to look like a long job after all. ‘So what do we do now?’ he asked.
‘For a start, two things, Shaw. One: We order the hazarding of the dock by accident on purpose. Put her so hard and fast on the mud that neither Gottlieb Hauser nor the Federal Chancellor himself can shift her without digging out the Thames estuary.’
Shaw raised an eyebrow. ‘Do you think you can get Trinity House to agree to order a shipmaster to hazard his certificate of competency as well, sir?’
Latymer brushed that aside. ‘All certificates’ll be safe. I’ll see to that. There’ll be an inquiry to keep the public and the Germans happy, but all concerned will be cleared most honourably. If Trinity House and the Ministry of Transport don’t like it, I’ll see that the P.M makes ’em like it! I can’t allow that dock to go back to Hamburg until I’ve got all the answers I want — and neither can I simply arrest it, because I can’t risk Gottlieb Hauser getting any suspicions that I’m deliberately holding it. They mustn’t know we’re on to anything, even though I haven’t — yet — the faintest idea what that “anything” may turn out to be.’ He paused, glared at Shaw. ‘Clear as mud, I suppose?’