Read Online This is For Real by James Hadley Chase - Free Book Online

Rossland a job?” she asked.
    This unexpected question so startled Dorey that for a split second his usual poker face expression slipped.
    Janine noted the slip as she noted every change in any man’s expression.
    “Why do you ask?” Dorey said carefully.
    “Look, John. I either work with you or I don’t,” Janine said quietly. “I’m asking you a simple question: is Rossland working for you tonight?”
    Dorey regarded this immaculate, cold-faced woman and he remembered various things she had done for him in the past. He wished now he had consulted her before he had talked to Rossland.
    “He is working for me tonight,” he said.
    “Something important?”
    “Could be. I don’t know yet.”
    She opened an expensive handbag, took out a gold cigarette case, removed a cigarette and lit it with a gold lighter.
    “Do you want to tell me about it, John?”
    Dorey hesitated.
    “What is all this? It is really nothing to do with you, Janine.”
    She let smoke drift down her small nostrils and she smiled.
    “All right. If that’s the way you want to play it.” She smoothed down her skirt. “Then I’ll go and let you get on with your work.”
    As she made no move, Dorey said, “You know I rely on you, Janine. You know something, don’t you? What is it?”
    She sighed and flicked ash onto the Persian carpet.
    “All right. It was mere chance. I saw Harry Rossland tonight. He was being followed by a youngish man with a beard. Ahead of him was another man. Harry caught on to the bearded man, but not to the front tail. He lost the bearded man in the Métro. I didn’t think it was all that important so I let him go. Then I remembered seeing the bearded man before.” She paused, then went on, “He works for Herman Radnitz.”
    Dorey sat forward.
    “You’re sure?”
    She made an impatient gesture.
    “You should know by now, John: I’m always sure.”
    “Well?”
    “I wondered, knowing Rossland worked for you. I had a date, but I passed it up. I went to the George V Hotel. Radnitz was in the bar, waiting. The bearded young man appeared, talked with Radnitz, then left. He returned after five minutes and made a telephone call. I was, by then curious, so I called Harry’s apartment. There’s no answer. So I called you and here I am.”
    Dorey took off his glasses and began to polish them with his handkerchief. He looked disturbed. For a long moment he frowned in thought while Janine watched him.
    “This happened in a hurry,” he said finally. “I should have talked to you, but there wasn’t time. I didn’t take it very seriously at first. I thought Rossland could handle it.”
    “People get into a rut,” Janine said. “They get too sure of themselves. I think you’re getting too sure of yourself, John. You won’t accept the fact that Rossland is finished. I told you that before, but you are so used to him, you continue to employ him. Well, never mind … just what is all this about?”
    “This morning I had a telephone call from a woman who called herself Madame Foucher. She said she had information to sell,” Dorey said, shifting in his chair. “We get quite a lot of nuts offering information. I thought she could be another of them. She said she couldn’t give me details over the telephone but would I meet her? She said she would be at a third rate cellar club tonight. She then said that her business was to do with the security of America and she hung up. So I decided to send Rossland to meet her.”
    Janine stubbed out her cigarette in the ash tray by her side.
    “What has he to report?”
    “I’m waiting. He’s not seeing the woman himself. He has given the job to one of his men.”
    “Why?”
    “You know Rossland. He keeps to the sidelines.”
    “Then who is seeing this woman?”
    “I told you … one of his men.”
    “You don’t know who he is?”
    Dorey took off his glasses and began to polish them again.
    “No.”
    “When do you expect to hear?”
    “They don’t meet until