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

eleven.”
    She glanced at her watch. The time now was quarter to eleven.
    “I don’t think you should wait,” she said. “If Radnitz is in this, it could be dangerous.”
    Dorey was thinking the same thing. He went over to the telephone and dialled Rossland’s number. After a long pause, he replaced the receiver.
    “He’s not there.”
    They looked at each other.
    “He could be there,” Janine said and got to her feet. “I think we should go. This is bothering me.”
    Dorey nodded. He went to his desk, unlocked a drawer and took from it a .38 automatic. He checked it with the hand of an expert, then put it in his hip pocket. He went to the closet for his coat.
    Twenty minutes later, they were riding up in the lift to Rossland’s apartment.
    As Dorey was about to ring the bell, he saw the door stood ajar. He took out his gun and transferred it to the pocket of his overcoat, then he gently pushed open the door and moved into the hall. Janine followed him. The lights were on in the sitting-room. Moving like a ghost, Dorey edged the door and looked into the room. He gave a convulsive grunt when he saw Rossland.
    “Shut the door,” he said softly. “He’s in there … he’s dead.” Her face expressionless, Janine closed the front door. She then entered the sitting-room and came close to Dorey who was looking down at Rossland. She gave the murdered man one horrified glance, then turned away.
    “Look at his hand,” she said unsteadily.
    Again Dorey grunted. Grimacing, he joined her as she looked around the room.
    “Doesn’t look as if they searched here,” she said. “They were in a hurry. They persuaded him to talk, killed him and cleared out.”
    “We’d better leave, Janine,” Dorey said, moving to the door. “We don’t want to be caught here.”
    They left the apartment as quietly as they had come in.
    Once in Dorey’s car Janine said, “This is something big, John. You shouldn’t have given it to Rossland. You should have seen this woman yourself.”
    “How was I to know?” Dorey said defensively. “I tell you I’m always getting cranks calling me on the telephone.”
    “Where is this cellar club?”
    “Boul’ Clichy.”
    “We’ll go there.”
    Dorey glanced at her.
    “It’ll be too late. It’s half past eleven.”
    “We’ll go there,” Janine repeated, “and hurry.” As Dorey started the car and edged out into the traffic, she went on, “This is Radnitz’s work. I’m sure of it! If this isn’t something really big, he wouldn’t have had Rossland killed. Haven’t you any idea who Rossland sent to meet this woman? Don’t you know any of his men?”
    “No. Rossland would never tell me the names of his agents. He was scared I might take them away from him.”
    “This isn’t going to look very good to Warley, is it, John?” she said quietly. “You get the tip-off. Instead of reporting to Warley, you turn Rossland on to it … Rossland of all people. He turned an unknown onto it and Radnitz moves in. By now Radnitz will have caught Rossland’s man and he’ll know what the woman has to sell … something important to the security of America. Not brilliant, is it?”
    Dorey felt his hands turn clammy. There were times when he found himself uneasy about Janine. Not for the first time, he wished he had made her his mistress. There was a time when she would have been willing. As his mistress, he might have had a firmer hold on her.
    “We all make mistakes,” he said. “I don’t see how I can be blamed.”
    She lit a cigarette.
    He glanced at her uneasily, then decided it would be better not to make further excuses.
    They reached the cellar club at a few minutes to midnight. By then Dorey had recovered from the shock of Rossland’s death and his nimble brain was working efficiently again.
    “You had better wait in the car,” he said. “I’ll handle this.”
    She nodded and he entered the club.
    The fat man in the green smoking jacket whose name was Husson, greeted