Avedissian left the cafe and considered his position. He
decided that they would have to leave the Lehman place
sooner than they had intended for it was just conceivable that
the waitress at the breakfast diner might be asked about an English couple and direct the enquirer to the house. They would have to find somewhere else. He checked his watch
and saw that there would be a bus in fifteen minutes, and he still had things to do.
Avedissian sought out a large chain-store where he would
be anonymous and bought a small Japanese cassette recorder
then, remembering what he had said to Kathleen, he went to
the toy department and bought a few things for the child
before picking up some essential toilet articles and hurrying
to catch the bus. This time he paid the driver and went
straight to a seat at the back of the vehicle to discourage any
questions or conversation.
Kathleen and the boy were playing together in the garden
of the Lehman house when Avedissian got back. They both came to meet him when he appeared at the gate. For the first time Avedissian noticed that all trace of suspicion had dis
appeared from the boy's eyes when he looked at him. He was
pleased.
'Did everything go all right?' asked Kathleen.
'I opened an account but we have another problem. They
know we came north.'
'Who does?'
'Everyone.' Avedissian told her about the story in the
paper. 'We'll have to move.'
Kathleen looked dejected. She said, 'Couldn't we stay here
tonight? I don't think I could face another night like last
night.'
Avedissian considered then agreed. It was against his
better judgement but he wanted to stay too. He gave the boy
the toys he had bought for him and saw him smile for the first
time. It was a good moment.
As the boy played with a toy bulldozer Kathleen looked at
him fondly and said to Avedissian, 'What are we going to call
him?'
'He must already have a name,’ replied Avedissian.
'But we don't know it. We'll have to call him something.'
'You choose,' said Avedissian.
'I already have,’ said Kathleen. 'Harry.’
Avedissian smiled and said quietly, 'Why not. . . Our
Harry.’
Avedissian left Kathleen and Harry in the garden while he
went upstairs to their room. He got out the tapes that he had taken from Innes's room and plugged in the recorder to play
them back. He searched through the first one, listening to
snatches of conversation to establish where he was in the
train of events. It brought back chilling memories.
He ascertained that the tape he was scanning had been for
the room bug. The other cassette must hold the telephone
monitor. He pressed the fast-forward button again then
stopped it. He was listening to the torture sequence. 'The
password!' demanded Innes's voice . . . 'All right
...
all
right. . . it's
ARCHIMEDES
. . . but. . .’
Avedissian cued the tape backwards and lined it up to
deliver the password alone. He removed the cassette and put in the other one to listen to the last telephone call made from
the room. He wrote down the account number that Innes
had asked for then changed over the tapes again.
There was no telephone in the room. He would have to ask
Mrs Lehman if he could use hers.
'Of course,’ said Rosa Lehman. 'Is it a local call?'
Avedissian assured her that it was and she said that she would go speak to Kathleen outside until he had finished.
'Bless you,’ said Avedissian. He looked at the framed photo
graphs that the old woman kept on her dresser while he
waited for the bank to answer. One man looked as if he might
have been Rosa's husband. There were two of young men in
college gowns. The lawyers, thought Avedissian. A woman's
voice answered.
‘
This is Mr Avedissian, account number . . .’Avedissian
read from the paper in his hand, '5523408.1 want to have the
contents of account number 4494552 transferred into mine.’
'One moment, please.’
Avedissian's palms grew damp as he began to imagine the
worst. A man's voice came on the line. 'How can I help you?'
it said. Avedissian repeated his request and the man replied,
This is an unusual request. I take it some arrangement has
been made with the bank in this matter?'
'Yes,’ said Avedissian with his heart in his mouth.,
'Might I ask what arrangement?'
'A password transfer,’ said Avedissian.
'I see . . . one moment, please.’
Avedissian now began to have visions of the bank stalling
in order to trace the call. He considered putting down the
receiver and putting an end to the tension that was becoming
unbearable.
'We don't seem to have a record of any such arrangement,’
said the voice.
'It was made with your branch in Kansas City,’ said
Avedissian, trying a last resort.
'Kansas City?' said the voice. 'You didn't say that. I
assumed that this was a local arrangement.’
'No,’ said Avedissian, walking a tightrope of nerves.
'One moment, please.’
Avedissian found the delay excruciating. The spectre of
police cars already whining their way towards the Lehman
place haunted him.
'Hello, caller?'
'I'm still here.’
'We have confirmed the arrangement with Kansas City
and have a copy of the voice print. Are you ready?'
'Yes,’ croaked Avedissian, for his mouth had gone dry. He
fingered the recorder button in readiness.
'At the tone, give the password . . .’
bleep.
Click . . .
'ARCHIMEDES.’
'Transfer is complete, caller. The money has been credited
to your account.'
Avedissian put down the phone and felt weak at the knees.
It had worked! It had actually worked! There was now
twenty-five million dollars in the account he had just
opened. He went outside but did not have to tell Kathleen for
she read it in his face. She smiled.
They left the Lehman place after breakfast next morning after
telling Rosa Lehman that they had had to change their plans and were heading south to St Louis, Missouri. She wished
them well and waved to them from the gate as they drove off.
They filled the car's tank at a local gas station and bought a
route map at the same time, for it was Avedissian's intention
to head north-west on country roads, the more remote the
better. They had agreed that, whenever they had to stop for petrol or supplies, the child should be kept very much in
evidence, thus promoting their image as a family on the
move rather than an English couple who might provoke
memories of the newspaper article.
The day grew hot and Harry began to get restless as they
drove across seemingly endless deserts of corn. Occasionally
they would see a farm vehicle in the distance or, more
usually, a dust cloud thrown up by something moving along
a far-off dirt road but, for the main, they were alone on the
road.
'I think he's thirsty,' said Kathleen.
'Me too,’ said Avedissian. 'We'll stop when we find some
place.'
The vision of ice-cold Coke was snatched from them by the
sound of tortured metal being turned against its will.
Avedissian stopped the car and got out, fearing the worst. He
was not disappointed. When he looked underneath the
differential casing looked red-hot. Blue smoke was curling
out from what Avedissian could see was a crack in the metal.
‘
The car is finished,' he said. 'We've lost all the oil from the
rear axle. It's seized up.'
Kathleen and Harry got out to survey the useless heap of metal and stood in silence before it in the burning heat.
'Do you know where we are?' asked Kathleen quietly.
'Not really.'
'Maybe we can thumb a lift?'
'Maybe,' replied Avedissian but he was thinking of how little
traffic they had come across on this route. That had been the
whole idea. 'We can’t just leave the car at the side of the road,'
he said. The police will find it and identify it as the car from the
motel. Innes and
NORAID
will be waiting for news of the car too.
We could have them all down our necks.'
'What do you suggest?' asked Kathleen, looking at the cornfields. There's no place to hide it.'
'We'll get it off the road anyway. Anything that gives us a bit
more time.'
Avedissian set the steering wheel and let off the brake. He put
his back against the front grille and dug in his heels to get
purchase before heaving. Sweat glistened on his face as the car
edged slowly back. Kathleen and Harry helped by adding their
weight to the wing until, with painful slowness, the rear wheels
cleared the apron of the road and eased over the edge on to a slight downhill run.
'Heave!' groaned Avedissian, putting in a final effort to
impart as much momentum to the car as possible. It rolled back
about twenty feet into the corn and stopped for ever as far as
they were concerned. 'Better than nothing,' said Avedissian,
doing his best to disguise the path of the car's entry into the corn.
Half an hour passed without any vehicle coming along the road. The sun was now unbearably hot and thirst was becoming a fixation, then Avedissian had an idea. He got up from
where they had been sitting at the edge of the road and said,
'Maybe we can drink the contents of the windscreen washer in the car.'
Kathleen watched as Avedissian waded through the corn
to reach the car and released the hood to look for the screen
wash bottle. He removed the cap and stuck in his fingers
before putting them up to his mouth. 'Water!' he exclaimed.
'Plain water!'
The bottle was clamped to the wing valance with a metal
band. Avedissian found an adjustable spanner in the back
and released it. He brought the bottle over to Harry and Kathleen and they took turns at drinking. 'You're a genius,’
gasped Kathleen after taking her turn.
'If I was I'd know how to get us out of this mess,’ said
Avedissian.
'Stop blaming yourself,’ pleaded Kathleen. 'Somebody
will be along soon. You'll see.
Avedissian smiled and Kathleen got up to look along the
road. She put her hand to her eyes and stood on tip-toe
saying, 'That just might be a dust cloud in the distance.’ She
was craning her neck as she spoke. She took a few steps forward without looking where she was putting her feet and
tripped over a stone to go tumbling down the bank and into a
shallow ditch. Avedissian sprang to his feet in alarm but
Kathleen laughed and assured him that she was all right. She
was sitting up in the ditch looking more embarrassed than
injured.
'Out you come,’ smiled Avedissian but the smile froze on
his face as he saw something move in the dirt beside her.
'Look out!' he yelled but the warning came too late. The snake had sunk its fangs deep into Kathleen's leg and her
scream rent the air. She rolled over in panic and Avedissian
could see that the snake had not left her. It was preparing to bite again as he threw himself down the bank and struck out
with the adjustable spanner that was still in his hand. The
blow did not kill the snake outright but he managed to get a grip on it, holding it firmly behind the head so that it could
not strike at him. He held it against a rock to bring down the spanner on its head and destroy it with all the fear and anger
he felt behind the blow.