The Spy in the Ointment by Donald E. Westlake

Author:Donald E. Westlake
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 2018-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

13

High on a hill north of Tarrytown, overlooking the majestic Hudson, Marcellus Ten Eyck owns a turreted and gabled country estate of the kind occupied these days mostly by Franciscan monks and Episcopalian girls’ schools. Ten Eyck’s estate was one of the last of the privately owned fiefdoms, and Ten Eyck one of the last of the patroons. At this manse, along about midnight, we left Angela, amid a flurry of kisses from me, while her choleric, grumpy, and altogether constipated old man, cross-armed, looked on.

This had been the ultimate compromise deal between Angela’s father and the Feds. He would keep the secret of Angela’s continued existence, and they would allow him to keep her hidden in his own house upstate. Where, no doubt, he could attempt to fill her head full of vile misstatements about me.

Well, bad cess to him. My Angela was not about to be dissuaded by the sort of crotchety old man who existed in Boccaccio exclusively to be horned. I parted from her at the manor house with a heavy heart, but not because I was afraid for her fidelity. It was my own immediate future that weighed the old pumper down.

P and I were alone in the car now. Once back on the highway, P said, “Now then. Let’s get the story straight.”

“Let’s,” I said.

He said, “Miss Ten Eyck managed to infiltrate your organization without your ever suspecting she might be a spy. In fact, it wasn’t until she ran away from the meeting that you realized she’d tricked you. So you ran after her, followed her, caught up with her, convinced her you wanted to help, took her over to New Jersey, and murdered her.”

“Out of rage,” I suggested.

“Partly,” he said. “Also, your pride was hurt. And, more important, the security of the group Eustaly and Ten Eyck were setting up was endangered as long as she was alive.”

I nodded. “Right. That’s good.”

“After the murder,” he said, “you hid out in New Jersey for five days, afraid to risk entering the city until tonight. But finally you couldn’t wait any more, you returned to New York, and decided your best move was to contact the organization again.”

I said, “You know, the thought occurs to me they might consider me more of a liability than an asset. Wanted by the law and all.”

He shook his head. “You’re the first member of the group, other than its organizers, to have committed a murder for the sake of the group. It would be bad politics and bad for morale if the group rejected you. Ten Eyck and Eustaly will welcome you with open arms and praise you to the skies in front of the other members, just wait and see.”

“I can wait,” I said.

“Once you’ve re-established contact,” he said, “you’ll pretty much have to play it by ear. Whatever details they may ask you for, make up something that sounds sensible. We’ll be listening, and we’ll cover whatever you say, just so it isn’t too implausible.”

“I’ll be careful,” I said.

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