Battle for Inspector West by John Creasey

Author:John Creasey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime
Publisher: House of Stratus
Published: 2014-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

Carosi wore a maroon tuxedo with grey revers. His round sallow face was set in the familiar, apparently meaningless smile. His thick hands were resting on the desk, palms downwards. His narrow eyes were turned towards Grant.

Grant didn’t speak, but turned to a cabinet which was built into one of the rows of bookshelves. He opened it with unsteady hands, took out whisky, a syphon and a glass, and poured himself a drink. He drank, turned away from the cabinet, took out his cigarettes, sat down in an easy-chair and lit up.

Then he said: ‘Where is my wife?’

‘She is safe,’ answered Carosi, in his curiously flat voice. ‘She is safe for a while.’

‘My father?’

‘He is now aware that he was wrong to defy me,’ said Carosi. ‘You will discover the same thing. You made one great mistake, you must not make another.’

Grant said: ‘Yes, I made a mistake. I didn’t choke the life out of you.’

Carosi lifted his hands, and Grant saw that they had been covering an automatic. ‘Don’t make another mistake,’ he said. ‘I am not vindictive any more. You have paid for that. With your wife’s help. So charming. I did not understand before. I like her.’

Grant swallowed whisky, and then gripped the arms of his chair. He must not throw his life away, he must wait, wait, wait and listen to this leering brute, this …

‘I like her, very much,’ went on Carosi. ‘It is perhaps a good thing for her. Perhaps. It may be a good thing for you. I do not know, yet. Grant, I have much to do. No time to waste with you. The past, it is past. I have new plans.’

‘Which concern me?’ Grant forced himself to ask.

‘In some ways, a little, in other ways a great deal.’ Carosi spread his thick hands over the gun. ‘Grant, I bring you here, I show you I am in possession, your father works with me. He does not do so willingly.’

Grant couldn’t keep the question back.

‘Is he here?’

‘He is here,’ said Carosi. A faint sing-song note had crept into his voice. ‘He will assist me. You, also. Until you have done what I wish, you will not see your wife again. Your father and your wife are both my hostages. I can ruin your father, easily. Those papers you destroyed, they were but part of the whole story. I have the rest. He does exactly what I require, because he must. No one can help him—or you. You think perhaps of Scotland Yard, that they “protect” you—protect! They allow your wife to be taken away, they cannot save anyone from Carosi. You begin, I hope, to believe that.’

Grant said: ‘Yes, I think I do.’

‘It is beginning,’ approved Carosi. ‘Understand this. I am not a mean man. I am big. I forgive you for what you did in the past. But I will make you, all of you, suffer very much if you do not do what I tell you in future. That is understood?’

Grant felt suffocatingly hot.

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