Henry left. Dunnet wrote a brief note, addressed a stout buff envelope, marked it EXPRESS and URGENT in the top left corner, inserted the note and micro-film and left. As he passed out into the corridor he failed to notice that the door of the room next to his was slightly ajar: consequently, he also failed to observe a single eye peering out through this narrow gap in the doorway.
The eye belonged to Tracchia. He closed the door, moved out on to his balcony and waved an arm in signal. In the distance, far beyond the forecourt of the hotel, an indistinct figure raised an arm in acknowledgment. Tracchia hurried downstairs and located Neubauer. Together they moved towards the bar and sat there, ordering soft drinks. At least a score of people saw and recognized them for Neubauer and Tracchia were scarcely less well known that Harlow himself. But Tracchia was not a man to establish an alibi by halves.
He said to the barman: ‘I’m expecting a call from Milan at five o’clock. What time do you have?’
‘Exactly five, Mr. Tracchia. ‘
‘Let the desk know I’m here.’
‘The direct route to the Post Office lay through a narrow alleyway lined with mews-type houses and alternate garages on both sides. The road was almost deserted, a fact that Dunnet attributed to its being a Saturday afternoon. In all its brief length of less than two hundred yards there was only an overalled figure working ‘ over the engine of his car outside the opened door of a garage. In a fashion more French than Italian he wore a navy beret down to his eyes and the rest of his face was so streaked with oil and grease as to be virtually unrecognizable. He wouldn’t, Dunnet thought inconsequentially, have been tolerated for five seconds on die Coronado racing team. But, then, working on a Coronado and on a battered old Fiat 600 called for different standards of approach.
As Dunnet passed the Fiat the mechanic abruptly straightened. Dunnet politely side-stepped to avoid him but as he did so the mechanic, one leg braced against the side of the car to lend additional leverage for a take-off thrust, flung his entire bodily weight against him. Completely off-balance and already falling, Dunnet staggered through the opened garage doorway. His already headlong process towards the ground was rapidly and violently accelerated by two very large and very powerful stocking-masked figures who clearly held no brief for the more gentle arts of persuasion. The garage door closed behind him.
Rory was absorbed in a lurid comic magazine and Tracchia and Neubauer, alibis safely established, were still at the bar when Dunnet entered the hotel. It was an entry that attracted the immediate attention of everyone in the foyer for it was an entry that would have attracted such attention anywhere. Dunnet didn’t walk in, he staggered in like a drunken man and even then would have fallen were it not for the fact that he was supported by a policeman on either side of him. He was bleeding badly from nose and mouth, had a rapidly closing right eye, an unpleasant gash above it and, generally, a badly bruised face. Tracchia, Neubauer, Rory and the receptionist reached him at almost the same moment.
The shock in Tracchia’s voice marched perfectly with the expression on his face. He said: ‘God in heaven, Mr. Dunnet, what happened to you?’
Dunnet tried to smile, winced and thought better of it. He said in a slurred voice: ‘I rather think I was set upon.’
Neubauer said : ‘But who did — I mean where — why, Mr. Dunnet, why?’
One of the policemen held up his hand and turned to the receptionist. ‘Please. At once. A doctor.’
‘In one minute. Less. We have seven staying here. She turned to Tracchia. ‘You know Mr. Dunnet’s room, Mr. Tracchia. If you and Mr. Neubauer would be so kind as to show the officers —’
‘No need. Mr. Neubauer and I will take him up.’
The policeman said: ‘I’m sorry. We will require a statement from — ‘
He halted as most people did when they were on the receiving end of Tracchia’s most intimidating scowl. He said: ‘Leave your station number with this young lady. You will be called when the doctor gives Mr. Dunnet permission to talk. Not before. Meantime, he must get to bed immediately. Do you understand?’
They understood, nodded and left without another word. Tracchia and Neubauer, followed by a Rory whose puzzlement was matched only by his apprehension, took Dunnet to his room and were in the process of putting him to bed when a doctor arrived. He was young, Italian, clearly highly efficient and extremely polite when he asked them to leave the room.
In the corridor Rory said: ‘Why would anyone do that to Mr. Dunnet?’
‘Who knows?’ Tracchia said. ‘Robbers, thieves, people who would sooner rob and half-kill than do an honest day’s work.’ He flicked a glance at Neubauer, one that Rory was not intended to miss. there are lots of unpleasant people in the world, Rory. Let’s leave it to the police, shall we?’
‘You mean that you’re not going to bother — ‘
‘We’re drivers, my boy,’ Neubauer said. ‘‘We’re not detectives.’
‘I’m not a boy! I’ll soon be seventeen. And I’m not a fool.’ Rory brought his anger under control and looked at them speculatively. there’s something very fishy, very funny going on. I’ll bet Harlow is mixed up in this somewhere.’
‘Barlow?’ Tracchia raised an amused eyebrow in a fashion that was little to Rory’s liking. ‘Come off it, Rory. You were the person who overheard Harlow and Dunnet having their confidential little ‘Ste-ci-tete.’
‘Aha! That’s just the point. I didn’t overhear what they said. I just heard their voices, not what they said. They could have been saying anything. Maybe Harlow was threatening him.’ Rory paused to consider this fresh and intriguing prospect and conviction burgeoned on the instant. ‘Of course that was what it was. Harlow was threatening him because Dunnet was either double-crossing or blackmailing him.’
Tracchia said kindly: ‘Rory, you really must give up reading those horror comics of yours. Even if Dunnet were double-crossing or blackmailing Harlow, how would beating up Dunnet help in any way? He’s still around, isn’t he? He can still carry on this double-crossing or blackmailing of yours. I’m afraid you’ll have to come up with a better one than that, Rory.’
Rory said slowly: ‘Maybe I can. Dunnet did say he was beaten up in that narrow alleyway leading towards the main street. Do you know what lies at the far end of the alleyway? The Post Office. Maybe Dunnet was going down there to dispose of some evidence he had on Harlow. Maybe he thought it was too dangerous to carry that evidence around with him any more. So Harlow made good and sure that Dunnet never got the chance to post it.’
Neubauer looked at Tracchia then back at Rory. He wasn’t smiling any more. He said: ‘What kind of evidence, Rory?’
‘How should I know?’ Rory’s irritation was marked. ‘I’ve been doing all the thinking up till now. How about you two trying to do a little thinking for once?’
‘We might just at that.’ Tracchia, like Neubauer, was now suddenly serious and thoughtful. ‘Now don’t go talking around about this, lad. Apart from the fact that we haven’t a single shred of proof, there’s such a thing as the law of libel.’
‘I’ve told you once,’ Rory said with some acerbity, ‘I’m not a fool. Besides, it wouldn’t look too good for you two if it was known that you were trying to put the finger on Johnny Harlow.’
That you can say again,’ Tracchia said. ‘Bad news travels fast. Here comes Mr. MacAlpine.’
MacAlpine arrived at the head of the stairs, his face, much thinner now and far more deeply lined than it had been two months previously, was grim and tight with anger. He said: this is true? I mean about Dunnet?’
Tracchia said : ‘I’m afraid so. Some person or persons have given him a pretty thorough going over.’
‘In God’s name, why?’
‘Robbery, it looks like.’
‘Robbery! In broad daylight. Jesus, the sweet joys of civilization. When did this happen?’
‘Couldn’t have been much more than ten minutes ago. Willi and I were at the bar when he went out. It was exactly five o’clock because I happened to be checking a phone call with the barman at the time. We were at the bar when he came back and when he came back I checked my watch — thought it might be useful for the police to know. It was exactly twelve minutes past five. He couldn’t have got very far in that time.’
‘Where is he now?’
There. In his room.’
Then why are you three — 9
‘Doctor’s in there with him. He threw us out.’