Gregory paused there in the doorway staring at her. Then, as though feeling his presence in her sleep, she stirred and, as he stepped forward, her eyes opened.
‘So you are here—at last.’ She raised herself on one elbow. ‘I thought that you would never come and I was so tired I dropped off to sleep.’
He sat down quickly on the bed beside her and took her hands. ‘My dear! How did you get here? Who let you in?’
‘That nice man, Rudd. He said you were at Scotland Yard and that he had just sent up a spare key of the house for you. He offered to telephone to say I was here, but I would not let him and, not knowing how long you would be, I sent him back to bed again.’
A slow smile lit Gregory’s lined face, ‘You can have no possible conception how terribly glad I am to see you.’
She slid an arm round his shoulders and, pulling herself up, let her cheek rest against his. ‘You are safe, chérie, safe. That is the only thing which matters.’
‘Yes, thanks to you, but how did you know they managed to get us out of those devilish sands in time?’
‘Sir Pellinore. All last night and all today I have been almost crazy with anxiety. I got out of the Park early this morning, before anybody was up, and telephoned to Carlton House Terrace from the village. Sir Pellinore was away and no one there could tell me where he had gone to. After that, I had no chance to phone again. I dared not do so from the house, in case Gavin cut in on the line, and all through the afternoon he kept me busy, typing out endless sheets of figures for him because, you see, I have acted as his secretary for all his most confidential business. After dinner he made me play backgammon with him and I thought I should go mad trying to conceal my desperate anxiety from those sharp eyes of his. At eleven o’clock we went up to bed and I had to give him a little time to settle down; but by midnight I had crept out of the house again and down to the village. Sir Pellinore was in when I called him up. He told me that you were safe back in London, so I knocked up a garage, hired a car and drove straight here to you.’
Gregory smiled again, a little bantering smile. ‘Have you come to me for good?’
‘Yes, if you want me.’
‘Sabine, you know I do! But you mean to cut clear of this Gavin Fortescue business for good and all—don’t you?’
‘Yes. You were right about him. I did not know it, because he has always been so good to me, but that man is the devil in human form, I t’ink. Last night, when the Limper telephoned him that you had been caught, he sat there and told me quite calmly what he intended to do with you and the police inspector. I was horrified. Smuggling is one thing but murder another; and what a fiendish mind he must have to conceive such a terrible way of killing his enemies. I determined then that I must get away from him at whatever cost to my mother and myself; yet I had to pretend complete indifference at the time so that he should have no suspicion of my intentions, Immediately he left for Ash Level I telephoned to Sir Pellinore.’
Gregory nodded. ‘It must have been grim for you, darling. It was grim for us, too; because they didn’t get us out until the very last moment. I really thought our numbers were up.’
‘But why? The tide was not low till half past six and I warned Sir Pellinore in ample time.’
‘The police wanted Gavin and the Limper to remain under the impression they had done us in; so our rescue was not attempted until the Limper’s boat had got back to land and we were buried up to our armpits in the quicksand. I take it Gavin doesn’t know that we escaped, does he?’
‘No, otherwise I am sure he would have spoken of it to me during the day. He seemed to have brushed the whole affair from his mind as though it had never happened; that was what made it so terrible for me. I felt quite certain that I should have heard of it if the police had raided his base at Ash Level. I waited hour after hour on tenterhooks, but no news came and I feared most terribly that something had happened to Sir Pellinore, so that he had been unable to pass my warning on to the police at all.’
‘You poor darling; but never mind, we’re safe enough now and it’s the next move we’ve got to consider. Time’s important, so I think, if you’re not feeling too done up, you had best come up to Scotland Yard with me. We’ll get Superintendent Marrowfat out of bed again and you must tell him all you know.’
She drew quickly away from him. ‘But no! It is impossible for me to do that. To break away from Gavin myself is one thing, but to betray him quite another. How can you ask me to, when you know he saved my mother and me from starvation, and that he has been as generous as any father to me, giving me everything that I’ve ever had.’
‘Now listen, Sabine,’ he turned a little and faced her squarely, ‘you’ve got to be sensible about this. I value loyalty myself above any other quality in a man or woman but Gavin Fortescue has placed himself outside the bounds of any decent code. Whatever he may have done for you in the past was done entirely for his own ends. When he saw you first, as a little girl, he had the sense to realise that one day you’d be a very beautiful woman and, even then, you probably showed signs that you’d be a very clever one, too. He realised that by an outlay, which meant nothing to him with his immense wealth, he could forge in you an instrument which would be of the very greatest use in furthering his scheme a few years later; and his foresight has been justified. You’ve already paid him back, more than paid him back, by taking criminal risks which he had no earthly right to expect of you, for every penny he spent on your education or allowed your mother.’
‘That may be so, but nothing would induce me to trompé him.’
‘But, my darling, you must think of yourself. You don’t seem to realise that you’ve committed yourself to all sorts of criminal actions. The net is closing in on the whole of Gavin’s organisation now. You’ll be arrested with the Limper and the others and charged like any ordinary female crook. The Court will deal lightly with you compared with the others, because you gave information which saved myself and Wells from death, but they won’t let you off entirely. You’ll be sent to prison, Sabine. Don’t you understand what that means. You can’t, of course, or you’d never hesitate, but for a woman like you it will be a living hell and there’s only one way you can save yourself from that: you’ve got to turn King’s Evidence before the balloon goes up, so the court may use their full discretion in your case.’
‘I can’t, I tell you. I will not.’
‘Please, Sabine, I beg you to.’
‘No, Gregory, no. Whatever he has done, he has also been my friend. If I did as you wish—my self-respect—it would be gone for ever.’
‘Then there’s only one thing for it; I’ve got to get you out of England before the police decide to act.’
‘That would mean your having to give up your job—no?’
‘Oh, to hell with the job! I would have given a lot to be in at the death, when we corner Gavin and the Limper, but that’s a bagatelle compared with your safety.’
‘Are there not extradition laws so that they could bring me back?’
‘There are, but I don’t think they would apply them. You see, your having saved Wells and myself makes the police reluctant to prosecute you in any case now. It’s only that they’re bound to do so by the law—if they catch you.’
She nodded thoughtfully. ‘Where could we go?’
Gregory stood up and, forgetting the abrasions on his chest and back, stretched himself. He grimaced suddenly and lowered his arms. ‘The world’s big enough and there are plenty of places where the two of us could lose ourselves very happily for a time.’
‘When—when do we start?’ she asked a little timidly.
‘Mid-day will be time enough. Nobody knows you’re here and zero hour for mopping up Gavin’s crowd will certainly not be before tonight. They may even leave him on a string for some days yet; until they’re satisfied they’ve gathered together all the threads of his organisation.’
‘By mid-day he’ll know that I’ve left him. Don’t you t’ink that may make him uneasy. He knew I liked you. That, I think, was why he did not speak again of the business at Pegwell Bay all through today. He mentioned at lunch, too, that he had sent up to London for some sapphires that I might like to see; as though such things could possibly compensate me for your murder! It was horrible! But he is clever. When he finds I’ve left him he may think I cared about you far more than I said and have gone to the police to tell them how you died.’
‘That’s true; and if he does think that he’ll hop over to France in his plane so as to be out of the way until he’s certain you haven’t split on him. Then the police will miss him, after all; which would be a tragedy. I wish to God you’d change your mind and come clean with the people at the Yard. We wouldn’t have to make a moonlight flitting if you did and, with the information you could give them, the police would be able to fill in their gaps. Then they could raid Quex Park right away. If we acted now there would just be time for them to get Gavin in his bed before he finds out you’ve cut adrift from him.’
‘It’s no good, Gregory. I will not give evidence against Gavin.’
‘All right, my dear, in that case we must get out at once. The police don’t know you’re here so we’ll have a free run to Heston where we can pick up the plane. Before I leave I’ll telephone the Yard that if they don’t pinch Gavin within the next two hours they’ll lose him. I need not say what makes me believe that; or where I got my information.’
‘But you should rest. You’re worn out—mon pauvre petit—and you’ve been through a time incredible. How can you possibly talk of just walking out of the house and flying the Channel when you must be so desperately tired.’
He shrugged and put a hand up to his bandages again. ‘I’m all right. Slept all through the day at the Granville Hotel, Ramsgate. Bit sore where the ropes cut into me when they pulled us out of those blasted sands—that’s all. It’s been worse for you than for me, really. You had no sleep last night and a gruelling day worrying your lovely head whether I was alive or dead. But you can sleep in the plane once we’re in it.’
‘You are a very wonderful man, Gregory—the most wonderful man. I did not think that there was anybody in the world quite as wonderful as you. I love you.’
He bent above her. ‘The gods are being kind to me in my old age. Most beautiful women are either good, stupid or vicious. And you are the marvellous exception. Lovely as a goddess, clever as an Athenian and a bad hat like myself, yet one who still has decent feelings. I’m going to kiss the lips off you once we land in France.’
The temptation to set about it now was strong within him, but time was precious: it was already after five o’clock. He had to get his car, take Sabine down to Heston in it, and see that his plane was fuelled for a cross-Channel flight. He did not intend to telephone Scotland Yard until the last minute before leaving. It was doubtful if Superintendent Marrowfat would be able to reach Birchington before Gavin Fortescue was up but he could telephone the local police with orders to prevent him leaving the Park until the Yard men arrived.
Gregory bent down and pulled a couple of suitcases from under his bed. ‘Pack for me, will you?’ he said. ‘Anything you can lay your hands on that you think will prove most useful. Rudd sleeps down in the basement so it would only waste time for me to go and dig him out of bed.’
She stood up at once and began to collect things from his dressing-table.
‘I’ll go round and get the car,’ he told her. ‘It’s garaged in Elvaston Mews, about ten minutes’ walk away, but I’ll be back in a quarter of an hour. Bless you.’
‘Bless you,’ she echoed, as he smiled over his shoulder, and his tall, slouching figure disappeared through the door.
She heard him let himself out and his footsteps echo along the pavement of the deserted street in the silent hour that preceded dawn. A greyish light already filtered sluggishly through the chinks in the window curtains of the bedroom. She pressed the electric switch, flooding out those signs of approaching day; then she set to work rummaging through Gregory’s drawers.
In less than five minutes she had the two cases crammed to capacity with the things she thought would prove of the greatest use to him and carried them out to the sitting-room where she put them all ready, just behind the door, with the little dressing-case which was all she had been able to bring with her.
As she set them down she suddenly grew tense. She had caught the sound of cautious footsteps on the stairs. Gregory could not have got back so soon she felt sure.
A second later a key clicked in the lock. The door swung open and she saw the Limper standing there with two other men behind him.
Before she had time to scream he stepped into the room and had her covered with his automatic.
‘So we were right,’ he said. ‘The wife of the garage man in Birchington only overheard you say the word “Gloucester” when you knocked him up, but, as I had some of Sallust’s letters from when we searched him on the marshes, I had a hunch you’d said Gloucester Road, and we’d find you here.’
Sabine stared at him with wide distended eyes; then backed slowly away before him. ‘What d’you want?’ she whispered, tonelessly.
‘You,’ the Limper smiled. ‘The Big Chief’s a light sleeper. He heard the crunching of your feet on the gravel, looked out of his window, and saw you making your get-away from Quex a few hours ago. It wasn’t difficult for him to find out from which garage in Birchington you got a car. He telephoned me at Ash Level to come up and get you.’
‘Get me,’ breathed Sabine, her face gone ashen.
‘That’s it,’ said the Limper slowly. ‘He was afraid that because we bumped off your boy friend you might have ratted on us and told tales to the police. We can’t afford to have that sort of thing happening, you know, and it’s lucky for you that you came here instead of going to Scotland Yard. Why did you come here, though—as Sallust is dead?’
‘I—I thought I might get some of his papers, find out just how much he knew, which would have been useful to us,’ lied Sabine.
‘Who let you in? I got in with the keys we took off him the night before last—but you couldn’t have. Who let you in here?’
‘His servant Rudd. He doesn’t know yet that his master’s dead and he knows me because I’ve been here once before. I said Sallust had telephoned me to come but he might not be here for an hour or two. Then I sent Rudd off to bed.’
‘I see; so that’s the way of it, but if you had this bright idea of collecting Sallust’s papers why didn’t you tell the Chief what you meant to do?’
Sabine suddenly straightened herself. ‘I am answerable to him and not to you.’
‘Got the papers?’
‘I’d just finished searching the place: there is nothing here that matters. He evidently keeps any notes he has somewhere else.’
‘Right then. We’ll be moving. I don’t believe your story and I doubt if the Chief will either; but he’s mighty anxious to see you again and put you through it. Come on; get downstairs to the car.’
Sabine hesitated only a second. Gregory would be returning soon now. How could he possibly overcome three armed men if he was taken by surprise by them on entering his sitting-room. They believed him dead, but if they found that their last attempt upon him had failed they were capable of shooting him out of hand, and they had silencers upon their automatics. The thought of trying to explain her movements under the steady gaze of Lord Gavin’s cold soulless eyes, terrified her; but Gregory’s life lay in the balance.
When he drew up before the house a few minutes later a large car was just disappearing round the corner of the street. Upstairs he found the bags packed and ready; but no sign of Sabine. He called aloud for her but there was no response. The flat was empty. With a bitter, hopeless feeling of distress he suddenly concluded that, for some incomprehensible reason, she had changed her mind and left him once again.