Matt Helm 09 - The Devastators by Donald Hamilton

Author:Donald Hamilton [Hamilton, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Helm 09
Published: 2012-07-14T18:29:11+00:00

I shrugged. "How should I know? But it's kind of a coincidence. I come to London with a wife, and right away the wife disappears, and you're sitting in the lounge downstairs. I meet another girl, never mind who, and immediately she's poisoned, and you're hanging around in the hall outside. And this time there aren't even any extraneous Oriental ladies around to confuse the issue. Could it be that for some reason you want me all to yourself, Vadya? It's a flattering thought. And what did you really come here for, to substitute a harmless bottle for the poisoned one to confuse the police, perhaps?"

Vadya gave the same soft, throaty chuckle. "Your ideas are very ingenious, but look at me, darling. Just look at me. I admit I am a fine womanly figure of a woman in this stupid Dumaire disguise, but surely I am not so well-developed that I can hide a whole fifth of Scotch under my dress. If I came to switch bottles, where is my bottle?" She turned to face me. "And you are being inconsistent, also. If I am getting rid of little girls so I can have you to myself, as you so modestly suggest, would I put poison where you might drink it? I am under orders to work with you, not kill you, Matthew. Until the work is done, you are safe from me."

It wasn't really a watertight argument, but I found myself inclined to believe her, just as a working hypothesis. I guess what I really believed was her involuntary start when she saw the dead girl: she hadn't been expecting that. At least I didn't think she had. I took my hand from my pocket and grinned.

"Okay, Vadya. It was just a notion. I thought I'd better check it out. Well, we'd better get out of here. Just let me pick up my own stuff and wipe off a few fingerprints. No sense making things too easy for the British constabulary-"

I stopped talking and put my finger to my lips. Somebody had been passing in the hall

outside. At least I'd thought they were passing, but then the footsteps had stopped. I waved a hand at Vadya. She nodded, reached down to slip off her pumps and, moving very quietly in her stocking feet, on tiptoe, she vanished into the bathroom. I looked around quickly. The dead girl looked convincingly poisoned with her glass beside her. I went over to my own broken glass and arranged myself carefully on the rug, closed my eyes, and started breathing as shallowly as I could.

There was a wait of at least three full minutes, as the person in the hall stood silent, presumably listening. At last I heard the sound of a key being inserted into the lock, and the door opened.

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