“She won’t need a nurse after tomorrow.”
“Okay, then let’s wait until tomorrow before you decide to rush off.”
Ginny got up and wandered to the balustrade. She remained still, looking down at the distant lights, then finally, she turned and looked at Girland who was staring up at the stars.
“I’m going to bed. She’ll sleep. Good night.”
Girland felt the tension in her, but he resisted the temptation to go to her. She was too young, he thought irritably. I can’t afford complications.
“Okay, Ginny,” he said casually. “Good night.”
She went into the villa.
He lit a cigarette and picked up the paperback, but he found he couldn’t be bothered with it. He threw it aside, got to his feet and looked around him. Somewhere in the garden, he could hear O’Halloran’s men talking in subdued voices.
“Is there anything else, sir?” Diallo asked as he came out onto the terrace. “A drink, perhaps?”
“No... fine, thanks. You go to bed. I’m just turning in,” Girland said.
“Then I will, sir. Good night.”
When the Senegalese had gone. Girland flicked his half-smoked cigarette into the darkness, then turning off the terrace light, he walked into the villa. As he was about to climb the stairs, the telephone bell began to ring. He went into the big living room and picked up the receiver.
It was Dorey.
“My secretary died half an hour ago,” Dorey said, in a hard, tight voice. “She fell from her apartment window. The post mortem is being rushed through. There is a puncture mark on her arm. I think she has been injected with scopolamine. If she has, she has talked. Be very much on guard, Girland. I’m sending down six more men. On no account is Erica Olsen to be allowed out into the open. Do you understand? Don’t let her out onto the terrace. It is just possible someone could snipe her from the Corniche if he was a first-class shot. She is to remain in the villa. This you must see to and I hold you responsible.”
“Okay,” Girland said. “I’ve already thought about the terrace. Is this Malik?”
“It must be, but I have no proof,” Dorey said bitterly. “The roads and airport are being watched. If he heads south, I will let you know.”
“I’ll talk to O’Leary right away. I’ll get him to put a man up on the Corniche.”
“Do that.”
“Oh, another thing. I want to see the file you have on Kung. Can you let me have it?”
“Why?”
“I know nothing about him. If she says something connected with him, I want as much information about him, to make sure she isn’t talking nonsense, as I can get.”
“Has she said anything yet?”
“She said something about a black grape.”
“A grape?”
“Yes. I don’t know what it means... it could mean nothing, but if she’s going to let drop things like that, I want to be sure I’m not missing anything.”
“Well, all right, I’ll send the file down with O’Halloran’s men. What exactly did she say about this grape?”
Girland told him.
“Hmm. Well, I don’t know. Extraordinary. All right, Girland, keep at it and report to me anything else she comes out with,” and Dorey hung up.
Girland left the villa and went down to the lodge. He told O’Leary what had happened.
“Get a man and a dog up on the Corniche. From up there, a class shot could pick us off like rabbits.”
“Oh, no,” O’Leary said firmly. “You’re wrong. I’ve checked from the Corniche. There’s no way down and the villa is completely screened from the road. If I had thought there was any danger from up there, I would have had a man there right away, but our rear is safe. Trouble is my business, Girland. You look after the woman. I’ll take care of the trouble.”
“I want a man and a dog up there,” Girland said quietly. “It’s an order, O’Leary.”
The two men stared at each other, then O’Leary, his eyes sparkling with anger, said, “If that’s what you want, then that’s what you’ll get.” He paused, then added, “but it’s a waste of a man.”
“You’re getting another six by tomorrow... and that’s what I want.”
Girland returned to the villa and walked slowly up the stairs, his mind occupied. He paused at Erica Olsen’s door, opened it quietly and looked into the room. She was sleeping, her blonde hair spread out on the pillow, her face with its classical beauty, relaxed and peaceful.
Girland closed the door and went along to the bathroom. He took a cold shower, then carrying his clothes, he walked the few paces to his bedroom and opened the door.
A small voice said, “Mark... please... don’t put on the light.”
He stood in the doorway, his clothes held against him, covering his nakedness.
“Ginny?”
“I don’t care! I know I will lose you tomorrow. Once that woman is up, you will never even look at me.” The moonlight coming through the slats in the wooden shutters gave him enough light to see Ginny sitting up in his bed, holding the sheet against her. “Please don’t hate me.”
“Ginny, darling, I could never hate you.”
Girland moved across the room, dropped his clothes and sat on the bed. He pulled the sheet from her.
“But, Ginny, are you sure?” His arms went around her slim, naked body.
“I know I am shameless,” she whispered, her fingers caressing his back, “because I am so very sure.”
She was an irresistible gift that Girland took gently and with pleasure.
Malik and Smernoff completely fooled the police who were watching for them on all roads leading south. They drove rapidly to Le Touquet Airport, then chartered an air taxi to Aix-en-Provence Aero Club. There one of Smernoffs men was waiting for them in a fast car. They drove through Draguignan, Grasse, Tourettes and down to Cagnes-sur-Mer. Here, in a shabby villa by the sea which one of the Soviet Embassy’s contacts owned, they sat around a table and Malik questioned Petrovka who Smernoff had alerted as soon as they suspected that Nice was the likely hiding place.
Petrovka, thin and young, with a burning ambition to be as successful as Malik, had gone to Dorey’s villa while Malik and Smernoff were on their way down to Cagnes. His report was brief and to the point.
“The villa is impregnable,” he said. “There is no way of breaking in except by a frontal attack. There are six heavily armed men guarding the place.”
He then produced a sketch map of the villa which Malik studied. Malik lit a cigarette and pushed back his chair.
“This needs thinking about. A frontal attack is out of the question.” He pointed to the map. “Are you sure we can’t get down the mountain from the upper road? Is there no path?”
“There is no path shown on the local maps.”
Malik made an impatient movement.
“That doesn’t mean there isn’t one. Go there at once and make sure.”
Petrovka got to his feet.
“At once,” he said and left.
Malik looked at Smernoff, his green eyes glittering.
“He should have checked. He is a fool.”
Smernoff shrugged.
“Show me anyone as young as he who isn’t a fool,” he said. “I have to make do with what I can get.”
There were a number of French and American tourists on the 7.30 a.m. flight from Paris to Nice which arrived at 8.55 a.m. Among them was a young Chinese girl who carried a violin case. She wore a cheap-flowered dress and stiletto heel shoes. She walked a little awkwardly. She passed through the police barrier with the other tourists and then walked out into the lobby.
Jo-Jo, in a bad mood because he had had to get up so early, came over and joined her. He had no interest in Chinese women. He thought their short, thick legs unsightly and their hips so much lumps of meat.
“Have you got it?” he asked the girl as she paused before him.