Читать книгу Double Entry - Margaret McKinlay - Страница 8

CHAPTER 2

Rees walked to the Sentinel office with Tollis. ‘John seems to have taken all that very well,’ he murmured with a slight frown. ‘Surprising, really.’

Tollis shrugged, his mind already on other things.

‘What’s the emergency?’ Rees went on, and Tollis turned and shook his head.

‘You can’t keep away, can you, Rees? Retired my foot!’ He hesitated and then jerked his head. ‘Well, maybe you should hear what I have to say at that. Some of the men will be in by now.’

It was not Tollis’s office that they entered, but the long narrow room where the men were assigned their work each day. The room wasn’t large, and was crowded now with eight men sitting in any available seat and others perched on desks or leaning against the walls. A couple wore the blue uniform with the Sentinel flash over the breast pocket, others were in dark suits.

Most of them had come from the police force or the services and the discipline was still stamped on them, like an invisible uniform of a different kind.

The majority were young and fit, with the short haircuts that they had grown used to and were encouraged to keep. They followed Tollis with their eyes as he made his way through them to the desk at the top, their expressions alert. It was obvious from the smokey atmosphere that they had been waiting for some time, fidgeting with impatience. Rees joined Tollis but stayed behind him, and he noticed that one of the older men, Mike Cairns, was in the front row. Mike was an old hand and a personal friend but now he seemed unaware of Rees and kept his eyes fixed on Tollis.

He was bent forward, resting his elbows on his thighs and his large hands were clasped so tightly that the flesh of his fingers was white. Rees looked uneasy. He recognized the signs of anxiety and turned to watch as Tollis leaned across the desk and murmured softly to Mike, who seemed to be insisting that he intended to stay. Tollis shrugged and glanced through the papers on his desk before starting to speak.

‘As you’ve probably heard, we have lost touch with Mike’s young son, Toby,’ he said slowly. Tollis never revealed any emotion and his tone was flat. Rees glanced at Mike Cairns with alarm as Tollis went on.

‘Toby is a new employee, a bit uncertain of the need to keep in touch, perhaps, but Mike is concerned so I want everyone to ask around. Use any contacts you have and let us know if you hear anything.’ There was no mistaking that he meant exactly what he said and all those listening knew that Tollis was understating his anxiety.

For a few moments no one moved and then they slowly began to file out, but Mike remained and he looked angry.

‘Is that it? That’s all you’ve got to say to them?’ He turned and appealed to Rees, but Rees said nothing.

Tollis sighed. ‘Go home, Mike—Toby may phone you.’

‘If he does it’ll be here. He knows I’ll be at work.’

‘OK. You can co-ordinate any information that comes in but let’s not start imagining things yet.’

Mike jumped to his feet and his face was red with anger. ‘I didn’t imagine his phone call. I said I’d keep quiet about the job he was on, but surely the men should have been told what he was doing?’

Tollis looked startled and puzzled. ‘But he wasn’t, Mike. I would never send someone as raw as Toby out on his own.’

Mike pointed an accusing finger at Rees. ‘Well, he did. He sent Toby to Gumley’s house.’

‘What?’ The word was an angry hiss, and Tollis too turned to stare at Rees. ‘Is that true?’

Rees’s face was set but he nodded.

‘There was no danger. I simply wanted to keep an eye on the place and report any comings and goings.’

Mike was looking from one to the other. ‘You did this off your own bat, Rees? What the hell’s going on here?’

Tollis sensed that Mike was about to explode and he tried to calm the situation. He laid a hand on Mike’s arm and spoke quietly to him.

‘I’ll talk to Rees and get the full story—there’s just been a cock-up in orders. I’ll get back to you when Rees and I have sorted it all out—you take incoming calls in the meantime.’ He was edging Mike towards the door as he spoke and the discipline that was part of the man took over and he did as Tollis asked, but before he went out he shot a glance in Rees’s direction that was both angry and disgusted.

Tollis marched past Rees into his own office and once Rees was inside he slammed the door. ‘Now perhaps you’ll tell me what the hell is going on.’

It was a large room, quite like Rees’s own but here there was evidence of the amount of work that the agency had to handle. Files were piled high on the desk and the walls were lined with cabinets, some with drawers open on crammed-in files. Dirty coffee cups and full ashtrays littered a small table and the air was stale. Tollis threw open a window and a freezing draught sent papers fluttering to the floor.

‘Well?’ Tollis snapped as he scooped the papers up and slammed them on the desk.

Rees was pale and his eyes seemed to have sunk into shadowy sockets but he still protested that Toby couldn’t have come to any harm at Albert Gumley’s home. ‘He was just to watch and report back,’ he said.

Tollis couldn’t keep still. He paced as Rees spoke and then turned on his partner. ‘Report what, for God’s sake? Are we still in the service, Rees, still playing little secret games?’

Rees hesitated. ‘I know we agreed not to do any more jobs for Special Branch but this seemed like a couple-of-days affair—there was a rumour that Gumley was back in action and there’s been a flood of heroin in circulation.’ He seemed to lose confidence in what he was saying as he went along, as if Tollis’s anger had shocked him.

Tollis stooped and leaned on his desk, taking all his weight on his spread hands. ‘Tell me again what Special Branch wanted, Rees,’ he said coldly.

Rees lowered himself into a soft leather chair and he seemed to shrink at the same time. His shoulders became rounded and his hands shook slightly. Tollis had never seen Rees like this before and that made him all the more concerned.

‘It was all very vague,’ he said.

Tollis snorted. ‘Gumley was never involved in drugs and he’s been confined to that house of his for years. John told me that he was slowly dying—why the hell would that man suddenly risk everything he’s stacked away?’

Rees’s head came up at the mention of John’s name and a gleam of hope crept into his eyes. ‘John could go to Gumley and find out about Toby,’ he said, but Tollis dismissed the suggestion with a wave of his hand.

‘And what would he say—“please could you tell Rees what has happened to the man he sent to spy on you”? Besides, Gumley may be John’s father-in-law but John can’t stand the man. We all know that he never goes near him willingly, except to comply with that custody agreement he made regarding young David. Gumley would smell a rat and right now I don’t want him knowing that Toby works for me.’ Tollis emphasized every word with a stabbing finger.

‘He’ll be all right. He’s young and inexperienced,’ Rees said. ‘He was desperately keen to work here like his father … maybe Toby doesn’t realize how important it is to keep to schedules. He could have a girl, could have gone off somewhere …’ But Rees knew he was clutching at any hope and Tollis didn’t even answer.

Tollis suddenly leaned forward and stared directly at Rees. ‘Something stinks. I have a gut feeling about this … that young Toby is in trouble. It was drummed into him how important it was to phone in if he couldn’t get to work and last night he called his father and said he was on his way home. Mike says he sounded agitated but he didn’t think anything of it until he failed to turn up.’ Tollis suddenly thumped his desk with his fist and more papers spilled on to the floor but he ignored them and turned his back on Rees.

‘He’s only twenty-two,’ he said softly. ‘And my guts tell me he’s in real trouble. Your fault. He should never have been sent there and if anything’s happened to that young man I hope you live with it for the rest of your life.’