Paul Chavasse 6 - A Fine Night For Dying by Jack Higgins

Author:Jack Higgins
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-08-14T11:52:35+00:00

Chapter 9

Montefiore--Enrico Montefiore." Mallory turned from the window, filling his pipe from an elegant leather pouch. "One of the richest men in Europe, though very few people have ever heard of him. Dosen't like having his picture taken, but you'll find one or two in his file. He's the kind of big financier who's almost gone out of style. A shadowy figure somewhere in the background, with his finger in so many pies you lose count."

"And Hellgate?" Chavasse asked. "What about that?"

Mallory shook his head. "Doesn't mean a thing. As I recall, Montefiore has a place on Lake Lucerne and a palazzo in Venice. Actually, he's rather dropped out of sight during the past three or four years." He shook his head. "This doesn't make any kind of sense at all. Why on earth would a man of Montefiore's background be mixed up in a thing like this?"

There was a knock at the door and Jean Frazer came in. She handed Mallory an envelope. "More material from S2, sir, courtesy of the C.I.A. China Section."

She went out and Mallory opened the envelope and took out several record cards, each with a photo pinned to it. "Better look at these, Paul. See if anyone strikes a chord."

Cheung was number five, only his name was Ho Tsen and he was a colonel in the Army of the People's Republic of China. It was an excellent likeness and Chavasse passed it across.

"That's our boy."

Mallory checked through the card and nodded, a slight frown on his face. "Quite a character. One of their best men, from the looks of this. Rather stupid to pass him off as a military attache in Paris for three years. The C.I.A. was bound to catch on to him."

The telephone buzzed, and he picked it up and listened for just over a minute. When he replaced the receiver, he looked thoughtful.

"That was Travers calling in from this place, Fixby. It's a little village on a creek near Weymouth. There's a broken-down boatyard just outside it, run by a man named Gorman. He's missing at the moment. Last seen moving out to sea at about six this morning in a thirty-foot launch he uses to take people big-game fishing."

Chavasse looked at his watch and saw that it was almost noon. "They'll be almost there by now, if the weather holds."

"Saint Denise?" Mallory nodded. "Yes. I'm inclined to agree with you, and our friend from the People's Republic will have returned with them if I'm any judge. For one thing, he's going to need some kind of medical attention, and for another, he won't want to hang around now that things have turned sour. Very practical people, the Chinese."

"What about Rossiter?"

Mallory picked up a flimsy and examined it. "Now he really is an amazing character. I can't get over him. Stoneyhurst, a double first at Cambridge, five years at the English College in Rome and then Korea. The Chinese had him for four years--four years behind the wire. That must have been hell.

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