Terminal. Part 14

'I'm engaged,' Newman protested as she spread herself. 'Of course you are - engaged in battle...'

She giggled as her slim hands industriously burrowed, whipping open the b.u.t.tons of his coat, the b.u.t.tons of his jacket underneath, unfastening his tie, his s.h.i.+rt b.u.t.tons. He had never known a woman's hand operate with such skill and agility. He sighed. When it's inevitable... relax... enjoy ...

Julius Nagy was livid with rage and resentment. He shuffled back along the deserted Finsterga.s.schen Finsterga.s.schen. They never expected you to come back the same way. This was twice he had been subjected to violent abuse. First the obscene experience with that thug in the lavatory aboard the express to Zurich. Now the same thing had happened again at the end of this alley.

The injury to Nagy's dignity hurt him even more than the injury to his throat. Only the Englishman, Newman, had treated him like a fellow human being. Well, he would get his revenge. He emerged from the end of the alley and peered cautiously both ways along the Munsterga.s.se. No one in sight anywhere. Pulling up the collar of his shabby coat against the bitter cold, he turned left towards the Munster.

'Make a sound and I'll blow your spine in half...'

The violent threat, spoken in German, was accompanied by the equally violent ramming of something hard against his back. A gun barrel. Nagy froze with sheer fright, standing quite still.

'Keep walking,' the voice ordered. 'Don't look round. That would be the last mistake you'd made. Cross the street. Head for the Munsterplatz...'

There was still no one else about. It was still the interval between the workers going home and the night revellers appearing. Nagy crossed the street, the gun muzzle glued against his back, and walked down under the other arcade, praying a patrol car would drive down the street.

'Now walk round the Munsterplatz - on the pavement...'

The gunman knew what he was doing, Nagy realized with growing terror. Following this route they stayed within the dark shadows. On the far side of the square the huge bulk of the front facade of the Munster sheered up. The great tower was enclosed inside a series of builder's boards - like tiers in a theatre. Above that speared the immense spire, all k.n.o.bbly and spiky.

Nagy began to suspect what was their ultimate destination - the Plattform. The large garden square alongside the Munster which overlooked the river Aare. He was pushed and prodded through the gateway and guided across the square towards the far wall. The naked trees in the garden were vague skeletal silhouettes, the only sound the crunch of two pairs of feet on the gravel. Nagy, sweat streaming down his face despite the cold, was trying to look ahead to predict the next move. His mind wouldn't function.

'I need information,' the voice growled. 'Here we can talk undisturbed...'

So that was it. The raw wind beat across the exposed heights of the Plattform, sliced at his face. No one would come out here on such a night. His attacker had worked it out well. And this was the third time! A hint of fury welled up, faded into fear again. His feet walked with leaden step. Then they reached the wall near the corner furthest from the lift which descended to the Badga.s.se. Nagy was pressed against the wall.

'Now I will tell you what we want to know. Then you will tell me the answers to the questions I put to you...'

Nagy stared out beyond the wall which was thigh-high, stared out at the lights of houses twinkling in the chilling night on the Bantiger, the hill which rises from the far bank of the Aare. The gun had been removed from his back. Suddenly Nagy felt two hands like steel handcuffs grasp his ankles. He was elevated bodily and projected forward over the wall. He screamed. His hands thrust out into s.p.a.ce. The earth, one hundred and fifty feet below, rushed up to meet him. The scream faded into a wail. Then it ceased. There was a distant thud. Steps retraced their path across the gravel.

Fifteen.

Newman took the devious route to the Taubenhalde (the Pigeon Hill) which houses Federal Police Headquarters in Berne.

He was becoming almost neurotically wary of shadows - and not only the shadows which cloaked the arcades. He had heard Nagy's footsteps but he had missed Lee Foley's cat-like tread. So, when he walked back up the Munsterga.s.se from Blanche's apartment, made his way back past the Casino and crossed to the Kocherga.s.se, he quickened his pace.

He proceeded on past the entrance to the Bellevue Palace, stopped to light a cigarette while he glanced back, checked the far pavement, and disappeared down an alley leading to the Terra.s.se Terra.s.se in front of the Parliament. At that hour the elevated walk was deserted. Beyond the walk the ground fell away, sloping steeply towards the Aare. Ahead he saw the funicular - the Marzilibahn - which travels down the slope almost to river level. The small red car had just reached the top of the slanting rails. He broke into a run. in front of the Parliament. At that hour the elevated walk was deserted. Beyond the walk the ground fell away, sloping steeply towards the Aare. Ahead he saw the funicular - the Marzilibahn - which travels down the slope almost to river level. The small red car had just reached the top of the slanting rails. He broke into a run.

Sixty centimes bought him a ticket from the attendant inside the small building at the top of the funicular. The car, very new and toy-like, was empty and the door slid shut as soon as he stepped inside. It began its steeply-angled descent down a pair of ruler-straight rails.

Newman stood at the front, surrounded by windows, his hands on a rail. In the dark the lights across the river were sharp as diamonds. The descent continued and Newman felt exposed inside the illuminated car. He realized his hands were gripping the rail tightly.

The lower station came up to meet him. The car slowed, slipped inside, stopped. The moment the door opened he stepped out and left the cover of the base station. The wind blasted along the river and hit him in the face. He kept walking as he turned up his coat collar. There appeared to be no one about.

He pa.s.sed one of the original wooden cars, preserved as a monument and perched on a tiny hill. The Taubenhalde was still some distance when he entered a modern building and presented his pa.s.sport to the receptionist.

'I have an appointment with Arthur Beck,' he said. 'Seven o'clock...'

Seated behind his counter, the receptionist examined the pa.s.sport, stared at Newman and then at the photo. He opened a file and took out a glossy print which Newman recognized as a photograph of himself taken the previous year during the Kruger affair. They were careful inside this place.

'You know the way to the Taubenhalde, M. Newman?' the receptionist asked as he returned the pa.s.sport. 'It is a little complex ...'

'I know the way. I've been here before..

From this building a long subterranean pa.s.sage leads to Pigeon Building. Newman walked along it while behind him the receptionist picked up the phone and spoke rapidly. At the end of the pa.s.sage a travelator - an 80-metre-long moving staircase - ascends to the main entrance hall to the Taubenhalde. Newman stood quite still, working out what he would tell Beck, as the travelator carried him upwards.

He had come a long way round to reach this entrance hall - by doing so he avoided being recognized by any watcher checking who entered the building through the main doors. The moment Newman entered the hall he knew something was wrong. Arthur Beck was waiting for him by the reception counter where normally all visitors filled in a detailed form.

'I will deal with the formalities,' Beck told the receptionist curtly and pocketed a pad of forms. He walked to the lift without even greeting Newman. Inside the lift the policeman pressed the b.u.t.ton for Floor 10 and stood in silence as the lift ascended. Reaching 10, the lift door remained closed until Beck inserted a key into a slot and turned it. The security inside the place, Newman recalled, was formidable.

Beck still said nothing as he unlocked the door of his office and stood aside for Newman to enter. It was unnerving - especially the business downstairs about not filling in any form. Beck explained that as he went round to the far side of his desk, sat down, and gestured for Newman to occupy the chair opposite.

'Officially, you may never have been here. We shall see..'

Beck was plump-cheeked, his most arresting feature was his alert grey eyes under thick brows. His manner was normally recessive, observant. He moved his hands and feet quickly and his complexion was ruddy. He was one of the cleverest policemen in western Europe.

Dressed in a navy blue business suit, blue-striped s.h.i.+rt, a blue tie which carried a kingfisher emblem woven into the fabric, he fiddled with a pencil, watching Newman. No welcoming words, nothing to indicate that they were old friends. Suddenly he threw down the pencil. His voice was abrupt.

'Can you tell me where you were this evening between six fifteen and seven o'clock?'

'Why?' Newman demanded.

'I'm asking you if you have an alibi for those forty-five minutes?'

'Alibi?' Newman's tone expressed astonishment, irritation. 'What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?'

'You haven't answered the question.'

'Is this something to do with the crisis you mentioned in your note dragging me over here?' Newman realized his mistake. 'It can't be - I got that note earlier...'

'It is my duty to put the question to you once more formally. Think before you reply...'

Newman was thinking. There was no way he could tell Beck where he had been. That would mean dragging in Blanche. He wasn't going to do that. Not because of the possible publicity. Not because of Nancy. Because of Blanche. He was surprised by the strength of his own decision.

'I'm not prepared to answer the question until I know exactly what this is all about.'

'Very well.' Beck stood up stiffly. 'I will show you what it is all about. I think you had better wear some different clothes - to avoid the chance of recognition...'

Newman carefully said nothing as Beck opened a cupboard, took out a dark blue overcoat and handed it to Newman. 'Put that on. Leave your sheepskin here. We shall be coming back afterwards.'

'After what?' Newman enquired. 'And this coat is pretty floppy. You're fatter than I am...'

'It will do. You look fine. Now try on this hat...'

Beck slipped on a fawn raincoat he took from the cupboard as Newman put on the hat. The police chief slammed the cupboard door shut, picked up the phone and spoke rapidly.

'Be sure the car is ready. We're coming down now...'

'The hat is too big,' Newman commented. 'Your head is fatter than mine...'

!You look fine. Put on these dark gla.s.ses. Please do not argue. It is very important that you are not recognized - and G.o.d knows there will be enough people hanging around ...'

'Hanging around where? I want to know where you're taking me before I move from this office.'

'Not far, Bob. This is just as unpleasant and unsettling for me as well as for you. It blew up in my face very recently. I ask you to say nothing, to talk to no one but me. If you don't do as I request you may well regret it...'

'Request- that's a bit more like it. Try and push me around and we won't be cooperating on anything ever again. You do know that, I hope, Beck?'

'I know that. Time is precious. The car is waiting. We have only a very short distance to go. Not five minutes' walk from the Bellevue Palace. Something terrible has happened ...'

Seated in the back of an unmarked police car neither Beck nor Newman said a single word during the short journey. Newman peered out of the window and realized they were driving along the Aarstra.s.se in the direction of the Nydeggbrucke. In the darkness lights across the river reflected in the water.

A tram was crossing the Kirchenfeld bridge high above them just before they pa.s.sed under its span. Very little traffic at that hour. Then, ahead, he saw a line of parked police cars, their blue lamps flas.h.i.+ng on the roofs. The car slowed down at a barrier which had been erected at the entrance to the Badga.s.se, the street which runs immediately below the Munster Plattform.

Beck opened the window as a uniformed policeman approached and showed his ident.i.ty card without saying a word. The barrier was raised and they pa.s.sed up a narrow street into the ancient Badga.s.se. Here there was frenetic activity.

More police cars, more winking blue lamps. Flash-bulbs lighting the street in brief blazes of brilliance. Newman was reminded of the strobe lights in a disco. They drove slowly to a point near the far end of the Plattform wall on their right which faced old houses on their left. A high canvas screen had been erected around something. The car stopped. Beck grasped the door handle.

'This is pretty nasty,' he warned.

Newman stepped out of the warmth of the car into the raw chill of the night. He felt slightly ridiculous in Beck's blue overcoat and the ill-fitting hat. Fortunately the gla.s.ses he wore were only lightly tinted. Police milled around. A grim- faced man in plain clothes pushed his way through to Beck.

'This is Chief Inspector Pauli of Homicide, Cantonal Police,' Beck remarked without introducing Newman. 'Pauli, would you kindly repeat the message you received over the phone?'

'The caller was anonymous,' Pauli reported in a clipped voice. 'He said we'd find a body in the Badga.s.se. He also said that a Robert Newman had been seen arguing with the deceased earlier this evening in the Munsterga.s.se.

'Pauli is from Hauptwache - police headquarters on the Waisenhausplatz,' Beck commented. 'He came at once and this is what he found...'

Behind the canvas s.h.i.+eld a Ford station wagon was parked at a right angle to the base of the wall, facing outwards ready to be driven away. The hideous mess which was the remains of Julius Nagy lay spread all over the roof, his head twisted at an impossible angle, one eye staring at Newman like the eye of a dead fish in the beam of a searchlight mounted on top of a police car.

Newman recognized the mangled corpse as Nagy by the Tyrolean hat rammed slantwise across the crushed skull, a hat with a tiny blood-red feather. But it was not really the colour of blood - the real colour, much darker and coagulated, smeared the Ford's windscreen in snake-like streaks.

A man in civilian clothes, carrying a black bag, climbed down a ladder which had been perched against the far side of the car. Removing a pair of rubber gloves, he shook his head as he gazed at Beck.

'Dr Moser,' Beck said briefly. 'Cantonal police pathologist.'

'I'd say every other bone in his body is broken,' Moser commented. can tell you more later - or will you be taking over?'

'I will be taking over,' Beck informed him.

'In that case, it's a pleasant night's work for Dr Kleist - and better her than me. I'll send over my written report...'

'Any suggestion - an educated guess - as to how it happened?' Beck enquired.

'I never guess.' Moser stared upwards at the wall towering above them. 'Of course, he'd hit the car like a cannon-ball from that height. Obviously it was either murder, suicide or an accident.' Moser paused. 'There are pleasanter ways of ending it all. And I managed to extract this envelope he had in his overcoat pocket.' He handed a crumpled envelope to Beck and glanced at Newman. 'I'll be off to start work on my report. Another late night - and my wife is already beginning to wonder why I get home so late...'

Beck produced a cellophane packet, held the envelope by one corner and slipped it inside the packet. 'Probably useless for fingerprints but one goes through the motions. What idea are you playing with now in that fertile brain of yours, Newman?'

The Englishman was staring up into the night where the ma.s.sive wall sheered up. At intervals huge flying b.u.t.tresses projected. It was vertiginous - even gazing up the terrifying drop. He looked at Beck as they stood alone with the pathetic and horrifying crumpled form which had once been a living, breathing man. At that moment Moser returned briefly.

'One suggestion, Beck. I'd cover the top of the Ford with a waterproof sheet and have it driven slowly to the morgue. Kleist will find she has to sc.r.a.pe some of the remains clear of the car. He's practically glued to the roof. Enjoy yourself...'

I think,' Newman said after Moser had gone, 'it might be an idea to go up to the Plattform by the lift at the corner. If I remember rightly it doesn't stop working until eight thirty pm.'

'You have a remarkable memory for details about the Plattform.'

It's up to you...'

'I'll get the car to drive round and meet us at the exit... 'No. Near the top of the Munsterga.s.se...'

'If you say so...'

They emerged from the canvas shelter into hectic activity in the Badga.s.se. Uniformed police in leather greatcoats, 7.65-mm. automatics holstered on their right hips, walking up and down to no apparent purpose that Newman could see. Beck spoke briefly to his car driver and followed Newman who was striding to the distant corner of the wall.

The ancient lift is a small cage which ascends vertically inside an open metal shaft to the top of the Plattform. Newman had bought two 60-rappen tickets from the old boy who attended the lift when Beck arrived. They stood in silence as it made its slow ascent.

On a seat was perched a piece of newspaper with the remains of a sandwich and the interior of the lift smelt of salami. The old boy had moved from the entrance door to the exit door at the opposite end of the cage. Beck watched Newman as he stared out of the window overlooking the Aare, then switched his gaze to the facing window where he could see the slope terraced into kitchen gardens, the continuous walls of houses along the Munsterga.s.se running into the Junkernga.s.se. In one of those houses Blanche would be in her apartment, probably phoning the man who would develop and print the films. At all costs he had to keep her name out of this horror.

The lift door was opened by the attendant after it reached the tiny shed at the corner of the Plattform. Newman did not make any move to get out. He spoke casually.

- 'You won't have many pa.s.sengers at this time of night. Can you recall anyone who used the lift at about six thirty pm? Maybe six forty-five?'

Tor sixty rappen you want me to answer foolish questions?'

Beck said nothing. He produced his ident.i.ty folder and showed it to the attendant, his face expressionless. Returning it to his pocket he stared out of the open doorway.

'I am sorry..' The attendant seemed confused. did not know. That awful business of the man who fell...'

'That's what I'm talking about,' Newman said amiably. 'We think he may have had a friend - or friends - who could identify him. Someone who was so shaken they took your lift down after the tragedy. Take your time. Think...'

'There was a big man by himself.' The attendant screwed up his face in his effort to concentrate. 'I didn't take all that notice of him. He carried a walking stick...'

'How was he dressed?' Beck interjected.

'I was eating my supper. I can't remember. A lot of people use this lift ...'

'Not at this time of night,' Newman pointed out gently. 'I imagine you can remember the time?'

'Seven o'clock I would say. No earlier. The lift was at the bottom - he called it up - and I heard a clock chime...'

Beck walked out of the cage and Newman followed. In the distance, almost at the end of the thigh-high stone wall protecting them from the drop, uniformed policemen with torches searched the ground. A section was cordoned off by means of poles with ropes. The point, Newman guessed, where Nagy had gone over.

'Nothing, sir - at least as yet,' one of the policemen reported to Beck who shrugged.