Charlie Muffin U.S.A. by Brian Freemantle

Author:Brian Freemantle
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: OpenRoad Integrated Media LLC
Published: 2011-08-22T22:00:00+00:00

15

Jack Pendlebury felt no hesitation in bringing one of his squads into Palm Beach. Since they were not to be employed in any way connected with the exhibition, he was confident that they would not be detected by any check Giuseppe Terrilli might make.

Within an hour of his poolside conversation with Clarissa Willoughby, the American had withdrawn Roger Gilbert from Lake Worth and appointed him controller of the surveillance operation on Charlie Muffin, with responsibility for thirty men. It took Gilbert a further two hours to get his people into position, identify their subject and establish a rota system under which each group operated every third day.

Charlie recognised the surveillance almost as soon as it was imposed. Relief came with the identification, because since Clarissa’s supposed indiscretion Charlie had been tensed for some response and would have been more alarmed had there not been one.

Charlie was confident that his training and past experience still gave him an advantage. It enabled him to think like Pendlebury, which was of primary importance. And now that he was aware of being watched, it meant he could, without Pendlebury suspecting it, influence the man’s responses.

‘A clever animal, knowing it is being pursued, can always lead its hunters to disaster.’

That had been another of Sir Archibald’s catch-phrases and Charlie had used it before when an operation had temporarily slipped out of control.

He left the Breakers, pausing at the end of the drive to check his watch and then began pacing along South County Road, a man establishing a time schedule. At Bethesda, Pendleton Avenue and Barton Avenue he consulted his watch again, then turned left, to bring himself out to Ocean Boulevard. At the entrance to the private road to Terrilli’s house, he hesitated, looking once more at his watch, continued for about a hundred yards and then retraced his steps. As he passed the private road, he allowed another pause and glanced in towards the unseen, castellated mansion. Despite the heat, which made him sweat, Charlie returned to the Breakers at the same brisk pace. Twice during the journey he checked the time.

Inside the hotel, he queued at the cashier’s for change, then entered one of the public telephone boxes, from which it would be impossible for anyone to establish from the hotel switchboard with whom he made contact. Shuddering slightly as the air conditioning cooled the perspiration upon him, Charlie went through a fifteen-minute charade of making long distance calls, in fact dialling for the time, the weather information, the small-advertisement department of the Palm Beach Daily News to ask about small-ad rates, and the airport to enquire about services to Miami, New Orleans and New York.

He created a satisfied expression on his face before leaving the kiosk and went immediately to the Alcazar, where he had arranged to meet Clarissa.

She was already waiting. She wore a crisp white dress, with little jewellery, hardly any make-up and her hair was tied back in the way he had told her he liked.

He waved exuberantly

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