The Voiceless Ones by John Creasey

Author:John Creasey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-04-13T00:00:00+00:00

Cane stood over Mary Essing, who lay on a couch in a room on the third and bottom floor of the Headquarters of Z5. She wore a pale yellow Turkish towelling robe, and her bare legs and feet showed; her arms were also bare to the elbows. Her eyes were closed. She was speaking in a low-pitched voice, and a tape-recorder stood on a table by her couch, the spools turning very slowly.

“I have always been interested in people and politics,” she was saying, “and in my early teens my sympathies were mainly for the left – extreme left.”

“Were you ever a member of the Communist Party in any land?” asked Cane.

“No, but I had many friends among Communists.”

“Do you have any special hatred of or suspicion of Communists as such?”

“No.”

“Have you ever been a member of a Fascist or similar party?”

“No. But I did discover – after a political meeting, in fact, when hard words had been exchanged, that one of the Union Party’s members thought very much the same as I on many issues. It was that which really set me thinking and brought me finally to the conclusion that only people matter, party labels can be misleading. Freedom matters … ”

She spoke quite naturally and yet seemed to be in a trance. She was, in fact, under hypnosis, quite unable to help herself, and quite unable to lie. She talked about freedom for a few seconds as if it were a material thing she could grasp and hold in her arms, and sometimes she spoke with subdued passion.

In the middle of a sentence, Professor Cane interrupted: “Mary, did you – or to your knowledge did your parents – ever know a Mrs. Leopold Challenger?”

“No.”

“Or a Lady Quellant – QUELLANT.”

“No.”

“Or a Maria Briazzi?”

He named a dozen or more people, mostly women who were extremist in the feminist cause, each one from Palfrey’s list. Each time, quite relaxed, she answered: “ No. ” Then he asked: “Did you or to your knowledge did your parents – ever know a Madame Albanesi Grigori?”

Instead of the quick yet quiet ‘No’, she started. She actually tried to raise her head from her pillow, but dropped down again. She lost colour, and her voice sharpened and seemed to be touched with fear.

“Yes! ” she cried. “She was a professor at Horizon University. She was—she was— she said she was in love with me. Why do you want to know? Where is she now? ”

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