Valerie. “You don’t know him! If what you say
happened, he was at-tacked first physically
attacked and had no choice but to hit back!”
“Not according to an impartial witness who didn’t
know either man.”
“Then he’s not impartial, he’s Iying! Listen to me.
I lived with that man for four years and, except for
a few trips, all of them in New York City. I’ve seen
him accosted by drunks and street garbage punks
he could have pushed through the pavements, and
perhaps some of them he should have but I never
saw him so much as take a step forward. He’d simply
raise the palms of his hands and walk away. A few
times some damn fools would call him names and
he’d just stand there and look at them. And let me
tell you, Larry, that look was enough to make you
feel cold all over. But that’s all he’d do, never
anything more.”
“Val, I want to believe you. I want to believe it
was self-defence, but he ran away, he’s disappeared.
The embassy can help him, protect him, but he won’t
come in.”
“Then he’s frightened. That can happen, but it
was always for only a few minutes, usually at night
when he’d wake up. He’d bolt up, his eyes shut so
tight his whole face was a mass of wrinkles. It never
lasted long, and he said it was perfectly natural and
not to worry about it he didn’t, he said. And I
don’t think he really did; he wanted all that in the
past, none of it was ever mentioned.”
328 ROBERT LUDIUM
“Perhaps it should have been,” said Talbot softly.
Valerie replied with equal softness, “douche.
Larry. Don’t think I haven’t thought about that
these last couple of years. But whatever’s happened
he’s acting this way only because he’s afraid you
know it’s quite possible he’s been hurt. Or, oh my
CrJd ”
“All the hospitals and registered doctors have
been checked,” Talbot broke in.
‘Well, damn it, there’s got to be a reason! This
isn’t like him and you know it!”
“That’s just it, Val. Nothing he’s done is like the
man I know. ‘
The ex-Mrs. Converse stiffened. “To use one of
Joel’s favorite expressions,” she said apprehensively,
“clarification please?”
”Why not?” answered Talbot, the question was
directed as much at himself as her. “Perhaps you can
shed some light; nobody else can.”
“What about this man in Paris, the one who died?”
“There’s not much to tell; apparently he was a
chauffeur for one of those limousine services.
According to the witness a basement guard in the
hotel, Joel approached him, yelled something at him
and pushed him out the door. There were sounds of
a scuffle and a few minutes later the man was found
severely beaten in an alley.”
‘It’s ridiculous! What did Joel say?”
“That he walked out the door, saw two men
fighting and ran to tell the doorman on the way to
his taxi.”
“That’s what he’d have done,” said Val firmly.
“The doorman at the George Cinq says it didn’t
happen. The police say follicles of hair found on the
beaten man matched those in Joel’s shower.”
“Utterly unbelievable!”
“Let’s say there was provocation we don’t know
about,” Talhot went on rapidly. “It doesn’t explain
what happened later, but before I tell.you, I want to
ask you another question. You’ll understand.”
“I don’t understand a single thing! What is its”
“During those periods of depression, his dark
moods, did Joel ever fantasise? I mean, did he
indulge in what psychiatrists call role-playing?”
“You mean did he assume other personalities,
other kinds of behavior?”
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 329
Exactly.”
‘Absolutely not.”
‘ Oh.”
“Oh, what? Let’s have it, Larry.”
“Talking about what’s believable and what isn t,
you’re in for a jolt, my dear. According to those
people who don’t want me to say very much and
you’ll have to take my word they know Joel flew
into Germany claiming he was involved in an
undercover investigation of the embassy in Bonn.”
“Perhaps he wasl He was on a leave of absence
from T. B. and S., wasn’t he?”
“On an unrelated matter in the private sector,
that much we know. There is no
investigation undercover or otherwise of the
embassy in Bonn. Frankly, the people who reached
me were from the State Department.”
“Oh, my God . . . ” Valerie fell silent, but before
the lawyer could speak, she whispered, “Geneva. That
horrible business in Genevat”
“If there’s a connection and both Nathan and I
considered it first it’s so buried it can’t be
followed.”
“It’s there. It’s where it all started.”
“Assuming your husband’s rational.”
“He’s not my husband and he is rational!”
“The scars, Val. There had to be scars. You
agreed with me.”
‘Not the kind you’re talking about. Not killing,
and Iying and running away That’s not Joel! That
isn’t wasn’t my husband!”
“The mind is a highly complex and delicate
instrument. The stresses of the past can leap forward
from years ago ”
“Get off it, Larry!” shouted Valerie. “Save it for
a jury, but don’t pin that nonsense on Converse!”
“You’re upset.”
“You’re damned right I am! Because you’re
looking for explanations that don’t fit the man! They
fit what you’ve been told. By those people you say
you have to respect.”
“Only in the sense that they’re
knowledgeable they have access to information we
don’t have. Then there’s the overriding fact that they
hadn’t the faintest idea who Joel Converse was until
the American Bar Association gave them the address
and telephone number of Talbot, Brooks and Simon.
“And you believed them? With everything you know
330 ROBERT LUDLUM
about Washington you simply accepted their word?
How many fumes did Joel come back from a trip to
Washington and say the same thing to me? ‘Larry
says they’re Iying. They don’t know what to do, so
they’re Iying.’ ‘
‘Valerie,” said the attorney sternly. “This isn’t a
case of bureaucratic clearance, and after all these
years I think I can tell the difference between
someone playing games and a man who’s genuinely
angry angry and frightened, I should add. The man
who reached me was an Undersecretary of State,
Brewster Tolland I had a call-back
confirmation and he wasn’t putting on an act. He
was appalled, furious, and, as I say, a very worried
man.”
“What did you tell him?”
“The truth, of course. Not only because it was
the right thing to do, but it wouldn’t help Joel to do
anything else. If he’s ill he needs help, not
complicity.”
“And you deal with Washington every week.”
“Several times a week, and of course it was a
consideration.”
“I’m sorry, Larry, that was unfair.”
“But realistic, and I meant what I said. It
wouldn’t help Joel to lie for him. You see, I really
believe something’s happened. He’s not himself.”
“Wait a minute,” cried Valerie, the obvious
striking her. “Maybe it’s not Joel!”
“It’s him,” said Talbot simply.
“Why? Just because people you don’t know in
Washington say it is?”
“No, Val,” replied the lawyer. “Because I spoke
with Rene in Paris before Washington entered the
picture.”
‘`Maffilon?~,
“Joel went to Paris to ask for Rene’s help. He
lied to him just as he lied to me, but it was more
than the lies Mattilon and I agreed on that. It was
something he saw in Joel’s eyes something I heard
in his voice. An unhinging, a form of desperation;
Rene saw it and I heard it. He tried to conceal it
from both of us but he couldn’t. When I last spoke
to him, he hung up before we’d finished talking, in
the middle of the sentence, his voice echoing like a
zombie’s.”
Valerie stared at the harsh, dancing reflections
of sunlight off the waters of Cape Ann. “Rene
agreed with you?’ she asked, barely above a whisper.
“Everything I’ve just told you we said to each other.”
THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION 331
‘ Larry, I’m frightened.’
ChaimAbrahms walked into the room, his heavy
boots pounding the floor. ‘So he did it!’ shouted the
Israeli. ‘The Mossad was right, he s a hellhound!”
Erich Leifhelm sat behind his desk, the only
other person in the book-lined study. “Patrols,
alarms, dogs!’ cried the German, slamming his frail
hand on the red blotter. “How did he do it?”
“I repeat a hellhound that’s what our specialist
called him. The longer he’s restricted, the angrier he
gets. It goes back a long time. So our provocateur
starts his odyssey before we planned. Have you been’
in touch with the others?”
“I’ve called London,” said Leifhelm, breathing
deeply. “He’ll reach Paris, and Bertholdier will have
the units flown up from Marseilles, one to Brussels,
the other here to Bonn. We can’t waste an hour.”
“You’re looking for him now, of course.
“Naturlich! Every inch of the shoreline for miles
in both directions. Every back road and path that
leads up from the river and into the city.’