Vorpal Blade (44 page)

'Airolo?' Marler sounded taken aback. 'That's way back
from here - almost at the Gotthard.'

'When we arrived back this evening I went to the
night clerk to ask him something. As you know, I read documents upside down. Lying on the counter, which he
removed but not before I'd scanned it, was a large bill for
the Arbogasts, including breakfast tomorrow. They are
slipping away secretly.'

'Secretly?' queried Marler. 'They've probably bought their train tickets.'

'They haven't. I called Beck, who still has his man at
the ticket office at Lugano station. No such tickets have
been bought.'

'Maybe Roman's leaving it until the morning,' Marler
persisted.

'No, he wouldn't. He's a first-rate organizer. He'd have done so by now if they were travelling by express train.'

'Then how are they leaving?'

'When I returned from making my phone call to Beck
after dinner I saw in the drive that stretch limo still parked.
Mechanics were checking it. This time they will drive a
long distance, so we will do the same in the minibus.'

'Where the hell do you think they're going to?' Marler
asked.

'To Airolo.'

'You know that?'

'I am relying on Paula's instincts, which have proved so
accurate in the past. She has been haunted by those two twin towers on the mountain behind Airolo. Then there is the pad she found when she was leaving that weird old house by the lake. Which, I am sure, was left for her to find. The pad marked with Chiasso, where she was nearly killed. Then a crude effort to cross out a word the killer knew I would decipher. Airolo, gentlemen.'

'What could be there in that dump?' Butler wondered.

'The key to everything. The reason why two of the most
powerful men in the world have looked more and more
worried.'

'Roman Arbogast and Russell Straub?' Marler sug
gested.

'Exactly. So tomorrow we'll use the same devious
method we used today to leave the hotel one by one.
I'll get Newman to park the minibus, fully tanked up,
in the same place where he parked it before.'

'Thanks a lot,' said Newman, who had remained silent
up to now. 'The police are probably still prowling round
where Black Jack's body was found at the foot of the funicular. I dodged them before. It could be more tricky
this time.'

'You'll manage,' Tweed assured him.

'Again, thanks a lot. What time do you think the
Arbogasts are moving off?'

'Mid afternoon, I'd guess. I've just remembered. Tomor
row's lunch was on that Arbogast bill.'

'You do realize,' Newman said grimly, 'this could be
yet another trap. Like Chiasso?'

'I do. And I sense we are approaching the final climax.
It is time the trap sprang back in their faces.'

39

It was morning. Tweed had taken over the last phase
of guarding Paula. He stretched, aching from lying on
the couch. He realized Paula was still fast asleep. He
checked his watch. 9.30 a.m. She had slept solidly through
the night.

He stood up and light percolated through the drawn
curtains. Enough light for him to see someone had silently
slipped an envelope under the door. He hadn't even heard
them doing it. A hotel envelope with the flap tucked in.
He opened it and stared at the sheet of hotel paper inside.
One word had been written on the sheet.
Airolo.

He tucked the sheet back inside the envelope and the
envelope inside the pocket of his jacket neatly folded on a
chair. So it was a trap. Newman had been right. Putting
on his shoes, he donned the jacket, looked at himself in a
mirror while he buttoned up his shirt collar, used a comb
to tidy up his hair.

'Time to wake up,' he said quietly as he shook her
shoulder.

'What time is it?' She had woken instantly. He told
her. She covered a yawn with her hand. 'Is that all right? I've had the most marvellous sleep. Hand me that dressing gown.'

She had a quick shower, dressed in the bathroom,
came running back into the room. Her normal colour,
her briskness, was back. She drank more water while
he explained the plan. Her reaction was positive, almost
eager.

'Airolo! Thank heavens. I've felt we should go there for some time. It fits in somewhere. I know it does. Good job
we brought the minimum of luggage. I've only one case
to smuggle out to where Bob's parking the minibus. What about the bill? The Swiss regard it as a major crime not to
pay a hotel bill.'

'I booked all the rooms for a week,' Tweed told her. 'I'll
wait my chance to pay what we've eaten so far when the
desk is quiet. I'll tell the clerk we'll be coming back to use
the rooms for the rest of the time we've paid for them. You
looked excited.'

'I am. I want to lay the ghost of Airolo which has
been nagging at me. Lord, that was a wonderful sleep.
I'm hungry.'

They met Newman in the deserted hall. He was dressed
to go out and looked cheerful at the prospect of action.

'I'm on my way to fill up the tank,' he told Tweed. 'Marler's also had a huge breakfast and will join me shortly. He has volunteered to stay at the hotel so he can warn me on his mobile when the Arbogasts leave. I'll bring the minibus back, park it round the corner, ready to take the rest of you to the Sayonara for lunch.'

Td love to have time to look at the shops in the
Piazza
Cioccaro at the foot of the station funicular,' Paula pleaded.

'No,' Newman said. He gave her a look. 'I mean it. From
now on you stay with the team. Enjoy your breakfast. . .'

Later, they had another leisurely meal in the restaurant in
the centre of Lugano. The sun was shining, Paula enjoyed her lunch, but now she couldn't wait to get out of Lugano.
It was mid afternoon when Marler called to say they
had
left, that he was on his way to join them.

Marler arrived on a motorcycle. Tweed, standing out
side, raised an eyebrow. It was a powerful machine and he
watched as Newman helped Marler to put it aboard the minibus, storing it at the back.

'What's the idea?' he asked Marler.

'May come in useful. It's rough country outside Airolo.
You have the same model back in London, don't you?'

'Yes. Now let's get moving.'

Tweed only used his motorcycle in London when he
left his flat very early - and returned late in the evening,
to avoid the gridlock traffic. He sat at the front next to Newman who took the wheel. Behind Newman sat Paula
with Marler alongside her. Butler and Nield were in the
back. They moved north out of Lugano quickly. Paula, with a map on her lap, was navigator.

Travelling on the motorway, they bypassed castle-
encircled Bellinzona. It wasn't long before the great ascent
towards the Bernese Oberland began. Looking out of the
window Paula saw the barren slopes on either side which
reminded her of a wilderness. No more palm trees, no
exotic lake. She wasn't sorry to leave it all behind. What
lay ahead was what counted. She suddenly recalled the
faces she'd seen floating in her mind before she'd fallen asleep. One had been missing.

Sam Snyder.

It was getting dark now, which caused the wilderness to seem even grimmer, desert-like. They climbed higher and
higher as night fell. The only illumination was Newman's
headlights. She called out to Tweed.

'I expect you've booked rooms at a hotel for us?'

'I have not. Airolo has only two hotels, the Supremazia and the Grandezza. We don't know which one the Arbogasts will
stay at and I want to be in the other one.'

'Sounds five-starrish. Supremazia means Supremacy,
Grandezza is Grandeur.'

'I wouldn't expect much in Airolo,' Tweed warned her.

'You seem so confident the Arbogasts are heading for
Airolo,' Marler remarked.

'I am.' Tweed took out the sheet of paper which had
been slipped under Paula's bedroom door in the night.
'Written in the same block letters as those two places on
the hotel pad you picked up when you were having fun in
the old dark house.'

'What does it mean?' Paula asked.

'It means the killer wants us to go there. So be it.'

His words created a silence inside the minibus which
lasted a long time. Now the road was really climbing. They
came to a point where the motorway suddenly started to
descend round a diabolical hairpin bend. From the top
they could look down on the road immediately below.
That was when Newman told them.

'Red lights ahead. A very big black stretch limo. Some
body hand me a pair of night glasses. Give Paula the
second pair. When we come to another twister I'll stop.
Then we should be able to look down on the limo, see who's inside . . .'

Newman had slowed down to avoid catching up with
the vehicle ahead of them. Tweed rested binoculars in his lap, gave the other pair to Paula. It wasn't long before they
came to another twister. Newman stopped, picked up the binoculars at the same time as Paula pressed them to her
eyes. The hairpin was so dangerous the limo was moving
slowly. Through their lenses they both scanned the interior
of the crawling limo.

'You were right,' Newman told Tweed. 'Your gamble
paid off. Marienetta is driving with Roman next to her.
Behind them Sophie is sitting next to Snyder, staring away
from him - typical. They probably haven't exchanged
a word.'

'And in the back,' Paula called out, 'are Russell Straub
with Ed Danvers next to him. I saw them clearly.'

'Slow down,' Tweed ordered. 'We don't want to catch
them up. But don't lose them.'

'Catch-22,' said Newman. 'I lose either way.'

'When we reach Airolo,' Tweed continued, 'I want to
see which hotel they choose - without them seeing us.'

'Piece of cake,' Newman replied sarcastically. 'Maybe
you would like to take over the wheel?'

'How high up is Airolo?' Paula asked to stop an argu
ment.

'Eleven hundred plus metres,' Tweed replied. 'Over
three thousand feet.'

'It's getting cold,' she commented.

'So I turn up the heater,' Newman replied. 'And from now on maybe everyone will keep damned quiet.'

The moon had come out, a luminous glow over deso
late Airolo. The Arbogasts had chosen to stay at the
Supremazia, a hotel a short distance up the main street
from the Grandezza. To Paula's amazement several shops were still open, one next to their hotel with motor scooters
for sale parked on the pavement. Fascinated, she walked
up to them with Marler, sat on one. Marler showed her
how to start it, how to control its speed. The owner, small
and swarthy, came out and smiled. He told her the price for hiring, for one day, for one week - plus the deposit.
She said she'd think about it.