Vorpal Blade (43 page)

'What's in that?' Newman snapped. 'She needs water.'

'This is water.' The guard had a kindly face, had taken
out a folded clean handkerchief, used it to carefully wipe
the neck of the flask, handed it to Newman.

'Now sip,' Newman urged her. 'Go on sipping. Other
wise you may choke.'

Further back along the platform, a few minutes earlier,
an express from Lugano, bound for Milan, had pulled up
alongside the opposite side. Tweed, who had not heard
Straub's shouts, was standing by the open door of the
long train. A few passengers left the express and then
Marienetta stepped out.

'Welcome to Chiasso,' Tweed greeted her ironically.

'It's good to see you.' She threw both arms round him and hugged tightly. 'I wasn't coming, then I changed my
mind. Thought I'd better make sure. Roman was doing his job properly.' She was smiling warmly as she released him. 'How much poison gas have they discovered?'

'None. Absolutely none.'

'Stupid Swiss. Oh dear!' She covered her mouth as Beck
ran up to them.

'Come with me,' he said urgently. 'Paula's nearly had
a most terrible accident. She's quite all right,' he added
quickly as he saw Tweed's expression.

They hurried down the platform, past where the special
ists had just finished their check, were taking off their
white coats. Other railway men were carrying crates of
cylinders to forklift trucks. They hurried on with Tweed
in the lead, legs moving like pistons. Newman was waving
people away from the seat to stop them crowding in.
Paula was on her feet with Newman by her side. She was walking up and down, testing her legs, swinging
her arms.

'I've had enough now,' she said and sat down on the
seat as Tweed arrived.

'Are you all right?' he asked, bending down, anxiety
written all over his face. 'I heard you had an accident.'

'Accident be damned!' she flared up. She had drunk all
the water from the guard's flask and her voice was normal.
'I was standing on the edge of the platform watching the
shunting over there. Somebody came up behind me and
shoved me over the edge. Not far up the line a wagon was being shunted. I couldn't move. The wagon's wheel would
have sliced me in two across the neck. Bob rescued me just
in time.'

'Show me the exact spot,' Beck commanded.

Paula started to get up but Newman pressed her down again, his hand on her shoulder. He told Beck he would
show him. When he had looked, Beck returned, striding
like a general marshalling his troops. He held his identi
fication under the guard's nose.

'No one leaves aboard that express until I've walked
through it and checked every passenger.'

The guard rushed off and Beck noticed Russell Straub
standing a short distance away. He walked up to him.

'Where were you when this murder attempt happened?'

'You know who I am,' Straub said stiffly.

'And you know who I am,' Beck retorted, holding his
identification under the Vice-President's nose. 'So where
were you?'

'Guess I was quite a way down this curving platform!'

'On your own? Usually Ed Danvers is with you. Body
guard.'

'Sure, on my own,' Straub said breezily. 'Thinking out
the next move in my campaign back in the States.'

'That's right,' the voice of Danvers called out. He stood
behind several railway officials. 'Likes to be by himself
when he's working politics. Before you ask me, I was up
by the platform where the express came in.'

'If it's all right by Mr Beck, you can both just go away,'
said Newman.

As they departed Marienetta sat on the seat next to
Paula. One hand was clutching the collar of her fur coat
closer to her neck. The other hand gently took hold of
Paula's and she lowered her voice.

'Are we really feeling a bit better after your ghastly
ordeal?'

'Much better, thank you.'

'Do you know where Sophie was when this happened?'

Paula thought the question very strange. She looked
round at Marienetta, whose expression was serious. Why
be so concerned about Sophie?

'When I got up from here I left her on this seat. She said
she was going to have a nap.'

'I see.'

'Time we left this dump,' Roman's voice growled. 'This
has been a farce. And there's a train just come in from
Lugano. Going back there soon. We should be aboard
it.' He was standing behind Ed Danvers. He tapped Marienetta on the shoulder. 'Come on. Let's get going.'

Tweed, with Paula and Newman, boarded the same train. Seeing the Arbogasts again choose the front coach they
entered the second coach to be on their own. Paula was
relieved as she sank into a window seat with Newman by her side. She had had enough of the Arbogasts, more than
enough of Chiasso which she never wanted to see again.

When the train crossed the bridge over the lake she stared at the empty seat opposite. The glitter of Lugano
no longer had any appeal to her. Sitting across the aisle,
Tweed noticed, understood her lack of interest. At that
moment the connecting door from the front coach opened and Marienetta appeared. Newman shook his head at her.
She nodded, smiled, disappeared.

'I can't imagine who tried to shove me under that wheel,'
Paula said suddenly.

'There's a limited cast of suspects,' Newman told her.
'You want some dinner when we get back?'

'I just want bottles of mineral water and bed.'

'Then that's what the lady will get.'

'Sorry if I've been unsociable since we left Chiasso. I do
feel like talking now.'

'In that case,' Tweed called across, 'maybe you can tell
me exactly where you found that hotel pad with Chiasso
and Airolo written in it.'

'It was just in the open, near the driver's door of my car.
I saw it easily after I'd fired one shot at the ghost in the
mist, whoever it was. Why?'

'Because it strikes me now you were intended to see it
and to pick it up.
It
is a very good planner. Which gives
me food for thought.'

'What thought is that?' she enquired.

'Still turning it over in my mind.'

'Cryptic devil,' she chaffed him. Which made Tweed
realize she was recovering from her state of shock. He was
relieved. He looked across the aisle a few minutes later
and Paula's head was resting on Newman's shoulder,
eyes closed. She had fallen fast asleep.

Arriving in Lugano, Newman had to wake her. They
left the coach cautiously, with Tweed the first one out,
standing on the platform. He gestured for them to follow
him. It was pitch dark in the car park but in the distance
they could see Roman climbing inside a chauffeur-driven
stretch limo. Sophie followed him, carrying all her suit
cases herself, then Marienetta.

'Sophie must be very strong,' Paula observed. 'And
independent.'

They watched as Russell Straub, followed by Danvers,
entered the limo. Its red lights were disappearing down
the hill towards the hotel when Tweed made his remark.

'I find it very curious the way Straub always travels with
the Arbogasts. Maybe that's the key.'

Paula was too tired to ask him what he meant as they
boarded their parked minibus. She again told Tweed that when they got to the hotel she wanted to go straight up to
bed with plenty of bottles of mineral water.

When they arrived and Tweed, with Newman, escorted
her to her room she was very relieved when he made his
suggestion.

'If you don't mind I'm going to draw up a roster so
there's always one of us sleeping on that couch through the night.'

'I'd welcome it. That way I'm sure to get a good
long sleep.'

Pete Nield, who wasn't hungry, volunteered to act as
guard for the first few hours. He waited on the balcony while she took a quick shower, put on her pyjamas and
dived under the sheets. She was only half-asleep for a
while. In her mind faces flitted vividly. Roman, looking
like the ferocious picture Marienetta had painted of him in
London; Sophie, on the seat at Chiasso, the seat which had
a dry patch when she returned from her ordeal; Marienetta,
cat's eyes glowing as she took hold of Paula's hand on the
same seat; Straub, who had said he had been walking
further down the platform; Danvers, grim and distant as
he stood behind the guard. Normal? Abnormal? They all looked abnormal. Her mind closed down. She fell into a
very deep sleep.

After dinner Tweed assembled his team in his suite. He
told Harry Butler to tell Nield later what he had said when
Newman took over the duty of guarding Paula.

'Who is going to tell Paula?' Marler enquired.

'No one. That's an order.' He looked round at Newman,
Butler and Marler. 'Before I asked you to come here
I slipped out to phone Monica from a public box I'd
noticed. She gave me some interesting information which just about completes the family tree of the Arbogasts she's
been building up so very assiduously. Not an easy task.
She's had to rely on the network of contacts she's built
up over the years. But it still required a lot of persuasion.
The data is supposed to be unavailable except to family
members.'

'Good for Monica,' said Butler. 'She's a treasure.'

'We know,' Tweed continued, 'that Roman's father
had a brother, Vicenzo, who emigrated to the States,
changed his name to Vincent. We also know there was
another brother, Mario, who also emigrated to America,
got married, produced a family. His son, Aldo, later also
produced a family - a son and a daughter. We have now
reached Sophie's generation. Monica hopes soon to have
their names. I find this development highly significant.'

'Why?' asked Marler.

'Because we are tracking a
monster.
A very clever one. But we must always be on our guard. I have puzzled greatly over the motive for these ghastly murders. I think I have it now. This grim business is all about power. Enormous
power.
So ponder what I have said.'

'Why not tell all this to Paula?' Marler insisted.

'First, because she has suffered terrible ordeals. Second, because I believe she now knows the truth. Which is why
we are all going to Airolo tomorrow.'