Smear job by Mitchell James

Author:Mitchell, James [Mitchell, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Intelligence service
Publisher: New York : Putnam
Published: 1978-08-14T23:00:00+00:00

Fish and salad, and half a bottle of white wine, then back to his bedroom, switch on and wait. Door clicked open, door locked, shutters drawn, the rustling sound of clothes discarded, a drink poured, and no words spoken, until:

‘Always I love it when you bring me a drink,’ said Kleist.

‘I am glad that I please you,’ said Jeanne-Marie, but Meres caught the hint of boredom in her voice.

Who knows? he thought; this could turn out to be fun.

But it wasn’t, not really. There was a Teutonic thoroughness about it, true, but all sadly orthodox. Nothing inventive at all. Sex by numbers, and only two of them. Ein zwei, ein zwei. Would he never get to drei vier funf? Come on, Gunther old sport. How about some hard rock. No? Not even an old fashioned waltz? But ein zwei was all he knew, as regular as jack-boots marching, and just about as exciting, thought Meres. The bird hasn’t even gasped. It seemed that Gunther was in charge of the gasp department. When the time came he did enough of it. Meres yawned, and listened as Kleist babbled endearments, the girl went off to the bidet. This one would have been boring even with pictures....

‘I think,’ Jeanne-Marie said, ‘that we ought to leave this place.’

You and him both, darling, thought Meres.

‘But you forget, darling,’ said Kleist, ‘we cannot leave until I have talked with Hexham.’

‘I have talked to him,’ she said.

‘You?... When?’

‘The night we lost,’ said Jeanne-Marie. ‘After you took your sleeping tablets I went back to the palazzo. He wishes us to go away. It is over, Gunther.’

‘Such damnable luck,’ said Kleist.

‘Luck?’ she said. ‘Does it not occur to you that we were cheated?’

‘Of course not,’ he said. ‘We cheated.’

‘But not well enough, it seems. That is why we lost.’

‘I don’t believe it,’ said Kleist. ‘The old man was drunk. And in any case, we raised the stakes.’

She said sharply. ‘Those two men should be investigated. I do not think there is any reason to pay them anything. Let us go back to Bonn.’

It would seem. Meres thought, that I have work to do after all.

‘But I must talk to Hexham about the other matter,’ said Kleist.

‘Hexham has no wish to discuss the other matter,’ she said. ‘He told me so.’ Then, her voice rising, she added: ‘For God’s sake, Gunther. Can’t you understand? I want to go.’

No doubt about it, thought Meres. There’s work crying out to be done.

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