Read Online The Janus Man by Colin Forbes - Free Book Online Page A

floating. Now Ziggy goes up in smoke. That's a direct link if ever I met one. Who was that man who joined you for breakfast'?' he asked suddenly.
    `Hugh Grey. I neither expected or wanted to see him. He's a nuisance …'
    `His face is familiar. Care to enlighten me a little more on Mr Hugh Grey?'
    `Not really.' Which was a pointless answer. Tweed was aware that Kuhlmann would also put Hugh Grey through the computer. But he was playing for time. 'Someone else you might put through that computer of yours,' he suggested. 'A blond giant — over six foot tall. Ziggy told me he was the man who brought those petrol drums. No name, so I don't know where you'd start...'
    `With a fuller description.'
    `I asked Ziggy for that myself. The blond wore a woolly sailor's cap, large tinted glasses and a silk scarf pulled up over his chin. Oh, yes, he had a large nose...'
    `That's one hell of a description. Tell me everything else Ziggy said about this blond.'
    Tweed told him. Kuhlmann took out a well-used notebook, wrote a few words in it, put it back in his pocket and stood up.
    `You'll be staying in Hamburg — both of you?'
    `Is that a request?'
    `A question...'
    `We shall be staying in North Germany for the moment. More than that I can't be sure of...'
    `Stay here long enough and one of you could end up having a very nasty accident …'
    `What is it with Kuhlmann?' Newman asked when they were alone. 'Two major crimes — if he's right — have been committed in Hamburg. Surely the Hamburg state police should be handling the case? And he looked very pleased about something when he left.'
    `Normally the Federal Police wouldn't get within a mile of it,' Tweed agreed. 'But from something he said at the morgue he's pally with the local police chief. That helps the Federals a lot in Germany. Also, I suspect he hasn't told us all he knows. And that look of satisfaction stems, I'm sure, from the arrival on the scene of that blond giant who visited Ziggy. He thought he smelt of East Germany — I'm sure Kuhlmann has the same idea. That would bring in Wiesbaden overnight. And Otto is one of the best men they have. He's supposed to have the ear of the Chancellor — an open sesame to anywhere in the Federal Republic...'
    `Before Kuhlmann marched into the dining-room, I was going to ask you, is Hugh Grey as big an idiot as he seems.'
    `No. It's a pose which has fooled a lot of people. He finds it useful. Abroad he's a foreigner's idea of a typical Englishman — so they underestimate him. At home, when he's playing politics with Howard, his old boy network act goes down well.'
    `A regular stinker, as they used to say. Now what do we turn to next? Visit Martin Vollmer at Altona, that contact Ziggy phoned you about early this morning?'
    `I think we'll give Vollmer a miss. I want to get out of Hamburg today, poke around on our own for a bit. This is a dense area...'
    `Dense?'
    `Office jargon for a zone crammed with enemy agents. The Old Guard used to call it a full pack — they played a lot of cards. I suggest we pack our bags, pay the bill quietly and catch the 11.15 Copenhagen Express for Lübeck.'
    `The Hotel Jensen?'
    `Exactly. And the mysterious Dr Berlin.'
    Nine
    By train from Hamburg Hauptbahnhof it was a forty-minute run non-stop to Lübeck. In his anxiety to leave the city, Tweed had arranged it so they arrived at the Hauptbahnhof fifteen minutes before the express came in.
    They bought single tickets, crossed the high bridge over the tracks and descended the staircase to the platform. To pass the time, Tweed paced up and down the platform with Newman. On the open bridge above them Martin Vollmer stood watching them.
    A thin-faced man with pale eyes and small feet, he waited until they had boarded the express — until the express started moving north. He then ran to the nearest phone booth and dialled a number.
    In his bedroom at the Hotel Movenpick in Lübeck Erwin Munzel, alias Kurt Franck for registration purposes, again sat by the phone.