Read Online The Last Two Weeks of Georges Rivac by Geoffrey Household - Free Book Online

and that’s that,’ Rivac said. ‘And if you are thinking of Rippmann—well, individuals must often be drowned without getting into the news. He followed me on to the boat and that’s the end of him. He can’t report on either of us, thanks to you.’
    â€˜But the East German consulate or someone will make enquiries.’
    â€˜And just hear he fell overboard. It isn’t as if there was a case for the magistrates or the coroner. You’re clear anyway. Harbour Police hardly questioned you. You’re just a name on a file with a dozen others. Me, I may not have heard the last of it. Serves me right for jumping in when I needn’t have done. What we must do now is to find the right place and they’ll get us out of trouble.’
    â€˜What right place?’
    â€˜The place where Kren ought to have gone. Somebody gave him the wrong address. Wrong something. I don’t know.’
    â€˜How can we find it in all this?’—she pointed to the imposing remnants of Empire massed along Whitehall—‘and if we could, we haven’t the brochures.’
    â€˜I think they were just an excuse to make me call on Bridge Holdings. All straightforward they were. And Kren would never have risked secret ink when they were sure to test for it. But I can get the damned things. I’ve only to telephone my secretary. And you must fly back to Switzerland.’
    â€˜No, I’ll wait. I can get away with it somehow. There is always that charming Frenchman.’
    â€˜Yes, he wouldn’t let you go in a hurry, Miss Fodor. Well then you and I might have a weekend in the country.’
    Zia had not expected this. Mr Rivac seemed to alternate between treating her as his commanding officer or his younger sister. But beautiful spies could not take offence at the drearier duties of the profession. She had to be tactful.
    â€˜Mightn’t it be embarrassing for you, Mr Rivac? We have to remember that you told the captain we were only casual acquaintances. And if they do keep an eye on me . . .’
    â€˜ Nom de Dieu , I did not mean . . . that is to say, it would be an honour, Miss Fodor. But never entered my head. No, I assure you. Just somewhere to stay quietly till the brochures arrive. Out of reach of all enquiries, you see. It is possible that I have not told you I was brought up in England. The village—I should be welcome there. And for you, not far away, is a choice of small hotels. When we meet it will be as strangers. And to my secretary I shall give the address of a Post Office.’
    They decided it was wise to separate at once before British or other police had a chance to suspect any connection between them. Before Rivac left her he called his office in Lille asking his secretary to send to him at Poste Restante, Thame, the two new brochures of the Intertatry engine which were in the drawer of his desk. She was not to give away the address, saying that he was only in England for a few days and she did not know where he was staying. There had been, she told him, no enquiries except from the Intertatry manager who had invited him to Prague. Mr Appinger had seemed surprised to hear that he had been called away to England.
    â€˜You can trust her?’ Zia asked.
    â€˜Suzi is a dragon, my dear! But very conscientious. I pay her, therefore she obeys me—quite often.’
    â€˜And asks no questions?’
    â€˜Naturally she asks questions, but sometimes I myself do not know the answers. It is the essence of a good business man to be alive to his intimations. So she is accustomed to not understanding. “But why, M Rivac, are you going to Paris?” she will say. “I have an idea, Suzi,” I reply. That is true, and as often as not I return with a new agency which is not the one I thought I intended. Then she sniffs and asks to what account she is to debit my travelling expenses. On this occasion what shall I say to her? Services to Mr