The Ambassador by Peter Colt

Author:Peter Colt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448307906
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2022-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

After dinner Stevenson said, ‘Let’s go downstairs and have a snort.’ Since he didn’t seem like the type to do coke, I figured he meant a drink.

‘Sure, why not.’

‘Bradley, bring the mail down. Honey, Maureen, come on down for a drink.’

Maureen said she would, and Honey begged off. We trooped downstairs into the land of lightly stained knotty pine and mementos of Stevenson’s glory. He flipped lights on as he went, and when he turned on the light in the bar, I realized that it was made from a bazooka round. Jesus, this guy took himself seriously.

‘What does everyone want to drink? Roark, another bourbon? Maureen, bourbon or a beer?’

‘Beer, please,’ she said in her accented voice. Years of watching PBS had given me a slight bias toward women with English accents.

‘Bourbon would be great,’ I said. Stevenson set about getting us our drinks, and Bradley came downstairs with some mail in hand. Stevenson offered him a beer and Bradley accepted. He took out two St Pauli Girls and popped off the caps. I liked the lady on the label, but not so much that I splurged on it over Löwenbräu. When everyone had a drink and had taken seats, or in my case, leaned against the wall by the spear, Stevenson spoke. ‘Bradley, show Mr Roark the letter.’

Bradley quickly riffled through the pile of correspondence he had with him and handed me an envelope that had already been opened. I put my drink down on the edge of the bookshelf and slid the letter out. It was like the others, typed and to the point. This variant said, ‘You know what you’ve done. You took everything from me. You have to pay! Either with Treasure or Blood you will pay!’

‘Short and to the point,’ I said, for want of anything more clever.

‘Yes, it looks like Mr Kovach is at it again,’ Stevenson said.

‘You have to stop him, Mr Roark.’ Bradley seemed quite earnest in his worry for his boss.

‘Exactly, Gordon, you need to take this seriously … this Kovach sounds dangerous. Pay him if you must.’ This from Maureen.

‘Pay him,’ Stevenson spluttered out, ‘pay him? Never. I won’t give in to threats. This isn’t something that can be bought and paid for.’

‘Did you tell me that part of your job had been bribing your country’s allies to stay allied with you? Didn’t you deal with mercenaries and warlords? How is this any different?’

‘Maureen does have a point, sir. If this can be resolved financially that might be best, save us potential embarrassment before your memoirs come out.’

‘Roark, what do you think?’ He pointed an index finger at me while the rest of his meaty hand was wrapped around his glass of bourbon.

‘First, we don’t know if it is Kovach. He looks good, but I haven’t proven he is our letter writer.’ And dog poisoner, window shooter, and would-be car blower-upper. ‘Second, if it is Kovach, there is nothing to say that paying him off will make him stop. He might take the money and keep coming back to the well as many times as he wants.

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