“I’ve had about enough of the cabins, if you don’t mind. Why not over there—my breakfast table. And by the way, thank you very much for your thoughtfulness. I was starving.”
“Don’t thank me, Miss Michel.” The Captain’s eyes twinkled frostily. “It was your English friend, Commander Bond, who suggested it”—he paused—”among other things.”
So he was a commander. It was the only rank I liked the name of. And of course he was bound to have put the captain’s back up—an Englishman with all this authority. And with the C.I.A. and F.B.I, of all people! Nothing would irritate the regular police more. I decided to be extremely diplomatic.
We sat down and, after the usual police preliminaries, I was asked to tell my story.
It took two hours, what with Captain Stonor’s questions and men coming up from time to time to whisper hoarsely into his ear, and at the end of it I was exhausted. Coffee was brought and cigarettes for me (“Not while I’m on duty, thank you, Miss Michel”), and then we all relaxed and the stenographer was sent away. Captain Stonor sent for Lieutenant Morrow and took him aside to radio a preliminary report to headquarters, and I watched the wreck of the black sedan, that had by now been hauled up the cliff, being towed over the lawn to the road. There the ambulance was driven over beside it, and I turned away as a wet bundle was carefully lifted out onto the grass. Horror! I remembered again those cold, red-flecked eyes. I felt his hands on me. Could it have happened?
I heard the captain say, “And copies to Albany and Washington. Right?” And then he was back sitting opposite me.
He looked at me kindly and said some complimentary things. I looked appreciative and said, “No, no.” I asked when he thought I could get on.
Captain Stonor didn’t answer immediately. Instead he slowly reached up and took off his cap and put it on the table. The armistice gesture, a copy of the lieutenant’s made me smile inside. Then he rummaged in his pockets and took out cigarettes and a lighter. He offered me one and then lit his own. He smiled at me, his first non-official smile. “I’m going off duty now, Miss Michel.” He sat back comfortably and crossed his legs, resting his left ankle on his right knee and holding the ankle. He suddenly looked like a middle-aged man with a family, taking it easy. He took his first long draw on his cigarette and watched the smoke drift away. He said, “You can be going any time now, Miss Michel. Your friend Commander Bond was anxious that you should be put to as little trouble as possible. And I’m glad to accommodate him—and you. And”—he smiled with unexpected humor and irony—”I didn’t need Washington to add their wishes in this matter. You’ve been a brave girl. You got involved in a bad crime and you behaved like I’d wish any child of mine to behave. Those two hoodlums are both wanted men. I’ll be putting in your name for the rewards. Likewise to the insurance company, who will certainly be generous. We’ve booked those Phanceys on a preliminary charge of conspiracy to defraud, and this Mr. Sanguinetti is already on the run, as the Commander suggested this morning he would be. We checked with Troy, as we would have checked anyway, and the normal police machinery is in motion to pick him up. There will be a capital charge against Mr. Sanguinetti, if and when we catch up with him, and it may be that you will be needed as a material witness. The state will pay for you to be brought from wherever you may be, housed, and taken back again. All this”—Captain Stonor made a throwaway gesture with his cigarette—”is normal police routine, and it will look after itself.” The astute blue eyes looked carefully into mine and then veiled themselves. “But that doesn’t quite end the case to my satisfaction.” He smiled. “That is, now that I’m off duty, so to speak, and there’s only just you and me.”
I tried to look just interested and nonchalant, but I wondered what was coming.