The Anvil (12 page)

MacLean ran swiftly to the bottom of the garden and vaulted the fence. He dropped to his knees and listened, holding his breath so that he would not miss anything. He heard movement somewhere ahead of him and guessed at twenty metres. Good! If he had heard nothing there would have been a different game to play, a game, which said that the opposition was waiting to see if he was being followed. There was no reason to believe that the man would have any reason to suspect this but MacLean considered every possibility. The stakes were very high. The comforting snap of twigs up ahead told him that he was still holding all the aces in this encounter.

The man was heading for the towpath. MacLean thought ahead to where he would confront him. He decided on the far side of the first stone bridge. He would circle round and wait for him to emerge on the other side. He headed off at an angle to ensure that he reached the bridge first. He did and pressed himself up against the cold stone to wait and listen.

He heard muted footsteps on the earth of the towpath and waited for the change in sound when the man moved on to the cobbles under the bridge. The change came and MacLean tensed himself. As the man emerged from under the bridge MacLean shot out his hand and gripped him by the neck. He swung him round hard and slammed him against the weeping stonework before twisting his left arm up his back and applying all his weight to keeping him immobile while he searched him. He found the gun in a shoulder holster under his right armpit. He had been right; the man was left-handed.

‘You’ve got it wrong!’ spluttered the man, almost incoherent because his face was being pressed up against the wall.

‘Oh, no,’ hissed MacLean, ‘You’re the one who’s got it all wrong.’

‘You don’t understand!’ insisted the man.

‘I understand only too well,’ growled MacLean. ‘I want to know who in Lehman Steiner paid you; I want to know where and when. I want dates, times, places and I want to know why?’ Is that clear? I do hope so because if you don’t start talking within the next thirty seconds and I am going to place the muzzle of this gun inside your mouth and I am going to pull the trigger. In short, I am going to blow your head off! Now is there anything there that you don’t understand?’ MacLean tightened his grip on the man’s arm until he cried out in pain. ‘No! I saved you … in Glasgow … I saved you from Der Amboss.’

The name had an almost hypnotic effect on MacLean. He relaxed his grip slowly but still kept the gun trained on the man. ‘Who are you?’ he demanded.

‘Jacques Vernay, Lisa’s brother.’

MacLean was dumbstruck. He lowered the gun. ‘Lisa Vernay’s brother? Lisa, at Lehman Steiner?’

‘Yes,’ said the man, holding a hand up to his grazed cheek.

‘What’s your connection with all this?’

Vernay rubbed his arm where MacLean had twisted it and said, ‘I am a policeman Doctor. When my sister was found dead in her swimming pool I didn’t believe for one moment that it had happened as they said. Lisa would never have dived into the water at any depth, let alone at the shallow end of the pool. She hated diving. I was convinced that she had been murdered and said so to my superiors. They instigated an immediate investigation. Three days later it was abandoned. No explanation was given. I was simply told that the case was closed. I couldn’t accept that. I decided to pursue the investigation on my own.’

‘How?’

‘If my own people wouldn’t help I decided to try the other side,’ said Vernay.

‘I don’t understand.’

‘The underworld, Doctor. I used my savings to buy information about my sister’s death.’

‘What did you learn?’

‘I came up with the names of the two professional assassins who had been hired to kill Lisa. I took the information to my superiors expecting them to apologise and re-open the case immediately.’

‘And did they?’

Vernay smiled bitterly and said, ‘I was dismissed from the force for consorting with criminals. I now had no job and no sister. Lisa and I were twins you know.’

‘I didn’t,’ confessed MacLean. He hadn’t known Lisa Vernay well.

‘I decided to seek my own justice. I went after Lisa’s killers on my own and I caught up with one of them in Paris. To my shame I “persuaded” him to talk.’

MacLean did not enquire how. ‘What did he tell you?’ he asked.

‘Nothing,’ said Vernay.

‘But you said you made him talk.’

‘He didn’t know anything, Doctor. That’s often the way with these people. They are told only what they have to know. He had no idea why his employers wanted Lisa dead only that it was something to do with something called, Der Amboss.’ Vernay watched MacLean’s reaction when he said the word. He saw that it meant something.

‘That’s what the man in Glasgow said,’ said MacLean. ‘He said that Der Amboss was too big. I couldn’t win.’

‘The man you threw out of the window?’

‘I didn’t,’ said MacLean.

‘Whatever,’ said Vernay. ‘What else do you know about Der Amboss, Doctor?’

‘Nothing. Tell me.’

‘It’s a German word. It means “the anvil” but it’s some kind of code for an agreement between Lehman Steiner and ultra-right wing political factions. My sources say that this includes a group in the United Kingdom.’

‘Is that why you’re here?’

Vernay shook his head. ‘No I was following the second of the two assassins who killed my sister.’

‘The man who fell from the window?’

‘The man you led to the river,’ said Vernay.

‘Ah,’ said MacLean, suddenly making sense of what had happened by the riverside walk.

‘When I saw you lead him there, I assumed you had some plan,’ said Vernay. ‘It was only at the very last moment that I realised that you were going to let him kill you. I shot him instead.’

‘Thanks,’ said MacLean, embarrassed at how strange it sounded.

‘Why do Lehman Steiner want you dead Doctor?’

‘I don’t know,’ said MacLean. ‘But if it is any help, it’s for the same reason that they wanted your sister dead. We both worked on Cytogerm.’

Vernay looked blank.

‘Lisa didn’t tell you about her work?’ asked MacLean.

‘We had an agreement not to speak about each other’s work,’ said Vernay.

MacLean balked at telling Vernay the whole story. He was mentally exhausted and Tansy would be worried.

‘Perhaps we could continue our talk at the house?’ suggested Vernay.

‘No!’ said MacLean with a vehemence that took Vernay aback. ‘I don’t want anything to do with this business in the house.’

‘Very well,’ said Vernay. ‘What do you suggest?’

MacLean thought for a moment before saying, ‘Meet me here tomorrow evening at eight.’ Almost as an afterthought MacLean asked, ‘Why did you come here? When you shot the man in Glasgow, your job was over. You had found both of the men involved in your sister’s death.’

‘These men were just tradesmen Doctor. I want to find the men who gave them their orders. I want to find out about Der Amboss. I thought you could tell me.’

Tansy flew into MacLean’s arms and they held each other tight without speaking. Carrie still didn’t understand what was going on but she thought that she would cuddle MacLean’s leg anyway. MacLean acknowledged her by reaching down to press her to him.

‘What happened?’ asked Tansy, her voice filled with trepidation.

‘He wasn’t from the company,’ said MacLean.

Tansy looked up at him with relief showing on her face. ‘Then it was a false alarm?’ she asked, the tone of her voice willing him to say yes.

‘Not exactly,’ said MacLean.

‘I don’t understand.’

MacLean told her about Vernay and why he had come.

Tansy’s eyes, which had been filled with happiness a moment before, began to cloud over. She shook her head, as if unwilling to accept what she was hearing. ‘Policemen, professional killers, revenge killing, right-wing politics … ‘

MacLean held her close again and said, ‘The main thing is that Lehman Steiner has not found me. We are still safe.’

Tansy responded to MacLean’s hug and said, ‘You’re right. I’m sorry. Why did Vernay come here? What did he want with you?’

‘He thought I knew more than I do. He thought I could tell him about Der Amboss.’

‘I see,’ said Tansy but MacLean sensed that she was thinking about something else. She seemed to withdraw from him mentally. She went off to the kitchen and pretended to do things for a few minutes before coming back and saying, ‘I think I’ll go out for a walk. Carrie! Stay with Uncle Dan please. I won’t be long.’

MacLean nodded and felt helpless as he watched her go out through the door without turning.

Carrie was close to tears. She looked up at MacLean in the silence, her eyes tortured by uncertainty.

‘You’ve got mud on your nose,’ said MacLean.

Carrie rubbed her nose ineffectually with the back of her hand. The gesture had an air of defiance about it. MacLean beckoned her to him. He removed the smudge with a tissue and said, ‘There, that’s better.’

Carrie suddenly broke into tears when the dam of emotion that had been building up inside her broke. MacLean rocked her in his arms, trying to assure her that all would be well.

‘What’s wrong, Uncle Dan?’ Carrie asked tearfully. ‘I don’t understand.’

MacLean felt a lump come to his throat. He didn’t know what to say. ‘Life is sometimes very difficult for grown-ups Carrie. We make a terrible mess of things and then we get unhappy. But, if we all work at it, the unhappy times will pass and everything will be all right again. What do you say you fetch your train and we’ll play with it till Mummy gets back?’

Carrie went off to get her train, happy that at least someone was speaking to her … even if she didn’t understand a word of it.’

MacLean did his best to concentrate on playing with Carrie. He was aware that she was watching him for signs of distraction and equally aware that he was over-compensating for this by laughing a little too loudly or exaggerating his movements in the game. He felt relief flood through him when he heard Tansy put her key in the door.

Tansy stood in the doorway and smiled at the sight of the pair of them on the rug. Carrie ran towards her and was swept up into her arms. Tansy looked over Carrie’s shoulder to MacLean and said, ‘I’m sorry, I just had to be alone for a bit.’

MacLean nodded.

‘You two must be starving,’ said Tansy taking off her jacket. ‘Let’s see what we can do about that.’

The three of them played at being one big happy family until it was time for Carrie to go to bed. Carrie had been the only genuine player. When Tansy came back after tucking Carrie she looked at MacLean uneasily as if suffering from pangs of guilt. MacLean said gently, ‘It’s all right you know, I understand. You found out this afternoon that you’d bitten off more than you could chew.’

Tansy smiled weakly and said, ‘True. I discovered that I wasn’t nearly as brave as I thought I was. When that man came to the house and you went outside with a gun …’

MacLean nodded.

‘Suddenly it all seemed so close to us! Before it was a story, far away. Something that happened somewhere else. I was so afraid this afternoon. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared.’

‘There’s no shame in that,’ said MacLean softly.

‘Even when you came back and told me he wasn’t from the company the only thing I could think was, if he found you, so could they!’

‘Now you know why it’s better that I go,’ said MacLean.

‘No!’ replied Tansy vehemently.

MacLean looked at her questioningly.

‘I made a decision when I went for my walk. We will see things through together. I discovered that I’m not the bravest person in the world but I’m not the weakest either. We stay together.’ Tansy put her head back on the chair and said, ‘God, I feel exhausted.’

‘Go to bed,’ said MacLean gently.

‘Join me?’ asked Tansy, reaching out her hand for MacLean who took it and kissed the back of her fingers. ‘Soon,’ he said.

Tansy went to bed leaving MacLean with his thoughts. She had been wrong in supposing that Lehman Steiner could find him just because Vernay had. Vernay had destroyed any direct link when he had shot their man in Glasgow. On the other hand, any prolonged contact with Vernay was something to be avoided. He had seen the look in Vernay’s eyes when he spoke of the death of his sister. The man was on a mission. That could make him a liability. He wished that Vernay had never appeared on the scene but then felt guilty at the thought. Vernay had saved his life. If it had not been for him he would be rotting in a Glasgow grave.

MacLean decided that he would have to keep his meeting with Vernay but that there should be no more contact between them. He would not join Vernay on his crusade against Lehman Steiner. He would simply tell him about Cytogerm and ask him to be on his way. In the back of his mind he suspected that the company were not going to take the loss of their men lying down. However uncharitable the thought, he had no wish to be discovered by accident by men hunting down Vernay. With any luck Vernay would be on his way by Monday and Dan Morrison could go back to being happy.