The Short Forever(63)

“Oh, yes; he met them when we were in Cairo. I believe they were complicit in the bombing of my safe house there.”

“Turns out they had a shop in the market. Also turns out that I wasn’t the only one following Lance; so were the two men who abducted me and took me to the interrogation. They were in the same Daimler limousine.”

“Did you make a note of the number plate?”

“No,” Stone replied, a little embarrassed that he had not thought of that.

“Next time you get the chance,” Hedger said. “It would help.”

“Certainly. Anyway, the two men followed Lance into the building. I went inside and found Ali and Sheila’s shop, phoned Lance there, and told them to get out. I got them into a cab, and as we drove around the building, a bomb destroyed the shop.”

Hedger’s considerable eyebrows went up. “Sounds like these people are getting serious.”

“They’re not the only ones,” Stone said. “Lance called Erica and told her to get out of the house; then they went to the home of a friend, and I had a look around Lance’s house; got the keys from Monica, Erica’s sister.”

“Oh, good,” Hedger said, obviously pleased. “I assumed you searched it thoroughly.”

“I did. There was absolutely nothing that revealed anything about Lance or whatever business he’s conducting.”

“I’m not really surprised,” Hedger said. “Lance is too smart to leave sensitive materials lying around.”

“Then I had a look in the wine cellar, where I found a small office, concealed behind a couple of wine racks.” He gave Hedger a description of how he got in. “There was a desk, a computer, and filing cabinets, all secured. As I was trying to get into the computer, I heard someone entering the house; more than one person. I shut myself up in the office and waited for them to leave. After a few minutes, two men came into the wine cellar; a moment later, another person came in and shot them both.” He had Hedger’s undivided attention now.

Their first courses arrived, and Stone waited for the waiter to depart before continuing. “When I got out of the office, they were both dead—two small-caliber shots to the head, in both cases.”

“I hope to God you didn’t call the police.”

“No, I got the hell out of there, after removing any fingerprints I might have left on various surfaces.”

“Good,” Hedger said, relieved.

“The two men were my former abductors.”

Hedger looked surprised. “Oh, really?”

“They were carrying Greek passports.”

“Greek?” Hedger grunted. “Probably false.”

“They looked good to me.”

“Would you recognize a false passport?”

“I’ve seen a few, but to answer your question, probably not a good one.”

“Well, let’s sum up,” Hedger said.

“Not yet, there’s more.”

“More?”

“I went to find Lance and Erica; we had a drink, and then we returned to the Farm Street house. Erica cooked, and Lance asked me to go to the cellar and bring up some wine. I did, and the bodies were gone, everything cleaned up.”

Hedger looked really interested. “How long were you out of the house?”

“An hour and a half, maybe two hours.”

“Long enough for Lance to visit the house, clean up, and return to the other house?”

“If he hurried, and if he was very efficient. He was on the phone when I arrived at the other house, but I’ve no idea how long he had been there.”

“Could Lance have had any idea you’d been to the Farm Street house?”

“Possibly, since I got the keys from Monica. Maybe she told him.”

“So he sent you down to the cellar so you could see for yourself that everything had been cleaned up.”

“Perhaps. I’ll have to find out if Monica told him I had the keys.”

“Do that. Now, as I said, to sum up, what does this tell us about Lance?”

“You tell me.”

“It tells us that Lance is a part of something bigger than himself.”

“How does it tell us that?”

“You obviously didn’t read the papers this morning.”

“Not thoroughly.”

“Your two ‘Greeks’ were found in Hyde Park, in the trunk of a stolen car. The police are quite excited about it.”

“Oh.”

“I very much doubt if Lance had time to steal a car, load the bodies into it, and clean up the wine cellar, all on his own.”

“You have a point. But what if it wasn’t Lance?”

“Who else might it be?”

“The bald man?”