him as OK. Is it Schroder?â
âSomething like that,â I said.
âHe mentioned the killing end. I didnât take him seriously at first. I mean, they must still have special people for that game, surely. But he was in earnest. Ten thousand pounds, he said. He had it all set up, too. Heâd organized a flat in Barons Court stacked up with beer and whisky and cans of beans and soup. Iâm telling you, it was equipped like a fall-out shelter. And he showed me this hypodermic syringe, killing wire and rubber gloves. Talk about horror movies, I needed a couple of big whiskies when I got out of there.â He drank some coffee. âAnd then I realized how Iâd put my prints on everything heâd shown me.â He sighed. âNo fool like an old fool.â
âDid they pay the bill for the tweed jacket we found there?â
âThere was no reason to be suspicious,â said Champion. âThey told me to order the suits, and they paid for them. It was only when they sent a funny little man round to my place to take the labels and manufacturersâ marks out of them that I began to worry. I mean ⦠can you think of anything more damning than picking up some johnny and then finding heâs got no labels in his suits?â
âThere was money in the shoulder-pads,â I told him. âAnd documents, too.â
âWell, there you are. Itâs the kind of thing a desk-man would dream up if heâd never been at the sharp end. Wouldnât you say that, Charlie?â
I looked at Champion but I didnât answer. I wanted to believe him innocent, but if I discounted his charm, and the nostalgia, I saw only an ingenious man improvising desperately in the hope of getting away with murder.
âHow long ago are we talking about?â I said.
âJust a couple of weeks before I ran into you ⦠or rather you sought me out. Thatâs why I wasnât suspicious that you were official. I mean, they could have found out whatever they needed to know through their normal contacts ⦠but that girl, she wasnât one of them, Charlie, believe me.â
âDid you tell her?â
âLike fun! This girl was trying to buy armaments â and not for the first time. She could take care of herself, believe me. She carried, too â she carried a big .38 in that crocodile handbag.â He finished his coffee and tried to pour more, but the pot was empty. âAnyway, Iâve never killed anyone in cold blood and I wasnât about to start, not for the department and not for money, either. But I reasoned that someone would do it. It might have been someone I liked a lot better than her. It might have been you.â
âThat was really considerate of you Steve,â I said.
He turned his head to me. The swelling seemed to have grown worse in the last half hour. Perhaps that was because of Championâs constant touches. The blue and red flesh had almost pushed his eye closed. âYou donât go through our kind of war, and come out the other end saying youâd never kill anyone, no matter what kind of pressure is applied.â
I looked at him for a long time. âThe days of the entrepreneur are over, Steve,â I told him. âNow itâs the organization man who gets the Christmas bonus and the mileage allowance. People like you are called âheroesâ, and donât mistake it for a compliment. It just means has-beens, whoâd rather have a hunch than a computer output. You are yesterdayâs spy, Steve.â
âAnd youâd sooner believe those organization men than believe me?â
âNo good waving your arms, Steve,â I said. âYouâre standing on the rails and the express just blew its whistle.â
He stared at me. âOooh, theyâve changed you, Charlie! Those little men whoâve promised you help with your mortgage, and full pension rights at sixty. Who would have thought
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