Read Online At Swords' Point by Andre Norton - Free Book Online Page B

hours before. Her face expressed no surprise, andthis time she gave him no greeting but waited, as did Johan, for an explanation.
    “I want shelter.” He made that demand with all the boldness he could gather.
    Her lips unfolded to shape a single word.
    “Why?”
    How much or how little of his story should he tell her now? Had she been more cordial earlier he might have spilled the whole of it — out of his need for some reassurance in this shadow world he had entered without knowing or guessing the cost. But now he compromised on half the truth.
    “My room was entered tonight, and the thief fell to his death from the window — at least, I think it was the man. The police —”
    Her hand came down on the desk top in a flat slap which made the papers piled there skip.
    “Johan!”
    “Ja, Jonkvrouw?” The Luger disappeared under the waiter's coat. He slipped out into the hall.
    “So a thief dies and the police begin to sniff at your trail?”
    “I think so.”
    “You were sent to me by those who have some claim on my help — or you say that you have been so sent —”
    “Check with them.” Quinn was defiant. “You will find that I am Roajact.”
    “Those who sent you do not step outside the law — though you say that the police are interested in you —”
    “Neither am I outside the law by my own choice, Jonkvrouw. In my country we have a term for the situation in which I find myself. It is called a ‘frame.’ “
    “That term I have heard, Mijnheer. Its meaning I also know. So you believe that you have had the law invoked against you with intent?”

    “There is this, Jonkvrouw. If I am caught by the law now it will take me some time to clear myself. Thus it seems to me that this series of events has been planned by someone for no other purpose than to delay me. Why I do not know.”
    “That has reason to it. But why should an enquiry into the death of your brother need to be delayed?”
    “There are several reasons I can think of, Jonkvrouw. So that someone may be sent away safely beyond the reach of the law, for example. But you can also guess them for yourself. I was not in my brother's complete confidence, but it is my belief that in Maastricht he sought some information. And when he came too close to the answer he was eliminated.”
    “But you tell me, Mijnheer — or so you did earlier tonight — that you are not official.”
    “And that is the exact truth, Jonkvrouw. I am interested only in bringing to justice those who dealt with my brother. But in doing this it will be necessary to discover the nature of the information he was seeking when he died.”
    “You are very young,” she observed.
    “I think my age of little importance in this matter,” he replied stiffly.
    To his surprise she chuckled, a sound as rich as the full tones of her voice, though her eyes and mouth betrayed no signs of amusement.
    “I am answered fairly, Mijnheer.”
    “Jonkvrouw?” Johan stood again inside the door.
    “Yes?”
    “The police were informed that a currency smuggler was at the de Witt. The information came in the form of an anonymous telephone call early this evening. When they arrived they found on the street the body of the Doppelganger —”
    She digested this in silence, then asked, “Who was hispaymaster?”
    “It is not said.”
    She moved then, squaring around in her chair to more nearly face her subordinate.
    “I am displeased, Johan. When I wish information, it must come — in full. You will now discover for whom the Doppelganger was working tonight!”
    Johan again disappeared. And now the Jonkvrouw motioned for Quinn to seat himself on one of the chairs near the wall. There was a subtle alternation in the atmosphere. She had been antagonistic and purposefully aloof, now she was reserving judgment. Quinn seated himself and dared to unbutton his raincoat. His eyes, adjusted to the half gloom of the room, saw a black shape move on the wide cushion of the chair just opposite him.