Puppet on a Chain

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I sat in the Opel, looked at my gun which I'd recovered from Jacques, and pondered. If there was one thing that I had discovered about that gun it was that people seemed to be able to take it from me whenever they felt so inclined. It was a chastening thought but one that carried with it the inescapable conclusion that what I needed was another gun, a second gun, so I brought up Astrid's handbag from under the seat and took out the little Lilliput I had given her. I lifted my left trouser-leg a few inches, thrust the little gun barrel downwards, inside my sock and the inside top of my shoe, pulled the sock up and the trouser-leg down. I was about to close the bag when I caught sight of the two pairs of handcuffs. I hesitated, for on the form to date the likelihood was that, if I took them with me, they'd end up on my own wrists, but as it seemed too late in the day now to stop taking the chances that I'd been taking all along ever since I'd arrived in Amsterdam, I put both pairs in my left-hand jacket pocket and the duplicate keys in my right.

When I arrived back in the old quarter of Amsterdam, having left my usual quota of fist-shaking and police-telephoning motorists behind me, the first shades of early darkness were beginning to fall. The rain had eased, but the wind was steadily gaining in strength, ruffling and eddying the waters of the canals.

I turned into the street where the warehouse was. It was deserted, neither cars nor pedestrians in sight. That is to say, at street level it was deserted: on the third floor of Morgenstern and Muggenthaler's premises a burly shirt-sleeved character was leaning with his elbows on the sill of an open window, and from the way in which his head moved constantly from side to side it was apparent that the savouring of Amsterdam's chilly evening air was not his primary purpose for being there. I drove past the warehouse and made my way up to the vicinity of the Dam where I called de Graaf from the public phone-box.

'Where have you been?' de Graaf demanded. 'What have you been doing?'

'Nothing that would interest you.' It must have been the most unlikely statement I'd ever made. 'I'm ready to talk now?'

'Talk.'

'Not here. Not now. Not over the telephone. Can you and van Gelder come to Morgenstern and Muggenthaler's place now.'

'You'll talk there?'

'I promise you.'

'We are on our way,' de Graaf said grimly.

'One moment. Come in a plain van and park further along the street. They have a guard posted at one of the windows.'

'They?'

'That's what I'm going to talk to you about.'

'And the guard?'

'I'll distract him. I'll think up a diversion of some kind.'

'I see.' De Graaf paused and went on heavily: 'On your form to date I shudder to think what form the diversion will take.' He hung up.

I went into a local ironmongery store and bought a ball of twine and the biggest Stilson wrench they had on their shelves. Four minutes later I had the Opel parked less than a hundred yards from the warehouse, but not in the same street.

I made my way up the very narrow and extremely ill-lit service alley between the street in which the warehouse stood and the one running parallel to it. The first warehouse I came to on my left had a rickety wooden fire-escape that would have been the first thing to burn down in a fire but that was the first and last. I went at least fifty yards past the building I reckoned to be Morgenstern and Muggenthaler's, and nary another fire-escape did I come to: knotted sheets must have been at a premium in that part of Amsterdam.

I went back to the one and only fire-escape and made my way up to the roof. I took an instant dislike to this roof as I did to all the other roofs I had to cross to arrive at the one I wanted. All the ridgepoles ran at right angles to the street, the roofs themselves were steeply pitched and treacherously slippery from the rain and, to compound the difficulties, the architects of yesteryear, with what they had mistakenly regarded as the laudable intention of creating a diversity of skyline styles, had craftily arranged matters so that no two roofs were of precisely the same design or height. At first I proceeded cautiously, but caution got me nowhere and I soon developed the only practical method of getting from one ridgepole to the next — running down one steeply pitched roof-side and letting the momentum carry me as far as possible up the other side before falling flat and scrabbling the last few feet up on hands and knees. At last I came to what I thought would be the roof I wanted, edged out to street level, leaned out over the gable and peered down.

I was right first time, which made a change for me. The shirt-sleeved sentry, almost twenty feet directly below.me, was still maintaining his vigil. I attached one end of the ball of twine securely to the hole in the handle of the Stilson, lay flat so that my arm and the cord would clear the hoisting beam and lowered the Stilson about fifteen feet before starting to swing it in a gentle pendulum arc which increased with every movement of my hand. I increased it as rapidly as possible, for only feet beneath me a bright light shone through the crack between the two loading doors in the top storey and I had no means of knowing how long those doors would remain unopened.

The Stilson, which must have weighed at least four pounds, was now swinging through an arc of almost 90 degrees. I lowered it three more feet and wondered how long it would be before the guard would become puzzled by the soft swish of sound that it must inevitably be making in its passage through the air, but at that moment his attention was fortunately distracted. A blue van had just entered the street and its arrival helped me in two ways: the watcher leaned further out to investigate this machine and at the same time the sound of its engine covered any intimation of danger from the swinging Stilson above.

The van stopped thirty yards away and the engine died. The Stilson was at the outer limit of its swing. As it started to descend I let the cord slip another couple of feet through my fingers. The guard, aware suddenly but far too late that something was amiss, twisted his head round just in time to catch the full weight of the Stilson on the forehead. He collapsed as if a bridge had fallen on him and slowly toppled backwards out of sight.

The door of the van opened and de Graaf got out. He waved to me. I made two beckoning gestures with my right arm, checked to see that the small gun was still firmly anchored inside my sock and shoe, lowered myself till my stomach was resting on the hoisting beam, then transferred my position till I was suspended by hands. I took my gun from its shoulder-holster, held it in my teeth, swung back, just once, then forwards, my left foot reaching for the loading sill, and my right foot kicking the doors open as I reached out my hands to get purchase on the door jambs. I took the gun in my right hand.

There were four of them there, Belinda, Goodbody and the two partners. Belinda, white-faced, struggling, but making no sound, was already clad in a flowing Huyler costume and embroidered bodice, her arms held by the rubicund, jovially good-natured Morgenstern and Muggenthaler whose beaming avuncular smiles now began to congeal in almost grotesque slow motion: Goodbody, who had had his back to me and had been adjusting Belinda's wimpled headgear to his aesthetic satisfaction, turned round very slowly. His mouth fell slowly open, his eyes widened and the blood drained from his face until it was almost the colour of his snowy hair.

I took two steps into the loft and reached an arm for Belinda. She stared at me for unbelieving seconds, then shook off the nerveless hands of Morgenstern and Muggenthaler and came running to me. Her heart was racing like a captive bird's but she seemed otherwise not much the worse for what could only have been the most ghastly experience.

I looked at the three men and smiled as much as I could without hurting my face too much. I said: 'Now, you know what death looks like.'

They knew all right. Their faces frozen, they stretched their hands upwards as far as they could. I kept them like that, not speaking, until de Graaf and van Gelder came pounding up the stairs and into the loft. During that time nothing happened. I will swear none of them as much as blinked. Belinda had begun to shake uncontrollably from the reaction, but she managed to smile wanly at me and I knew she would be all right: Paris Interpol hadn't just picked her out of a hat.

De Graaf and van Gelder, both with guns in their hands, looked at the tableau. De Graaf said: 'What in God's name do you think you are about, Sherman? Why are those three men — '

'Suppose I explain?' I interrupted reasonably. 'It will require some explanation,' van Gelder said heavily. Three well-known and respected citizens of Amsterdam — ' 'Please don't make me laugh,' I said. 'It hurts my face.' That too,' de Graaf said. 'How on earth — ' 'I cut myself shaving.' That was Astrid's line, really, but I wasn't at my inventive best. 'Can I tell it?' De Graaf sighed and nodded. 'In my way?' He nodded again.

I said to Belinda: 'You know Maggie's dead?' 'I know she's dead.' Her voice was a shaking whisper, she wasn't as recovered as I'd thought. 'He's just told me. He told me and he smiled.'

'It's his Christian compassion shining through. He can't help it. Well,' I said to the policeman, 'take a good look gentlemen. At Goodbody. The most sadistically psychopathic killer I've ever met — or heard of, for that matter. The man who hung Astrid Lemay on a hook. The man who had Maggie pitchforked to death in a hayfield in Huyler. The man — '

'You said pitchforked?' De Graaf asked. You could see his mind couldn't accept it.

'Later. The man who drove George Lemay so mad that he killed him. The man who tried to kill me the same way; the man who tried to kill me three times today. The man who puts bottles of gin in the hands of dying junkies. The man who drops people into canals with lead piping wrapped round their waists after God knows what suffering and tortures. Apart from being the man who brings degradation and dementia and death to thousands of crazed human beings throughout the world. By his own admission, the master puppeteer who dangles a thousand hooked puppets from the end of his chains and makes them all dance to his tune. The dance of death.'

'It's not possible,' van Gelder said. He seemed dazed. 'It can't be. Dr Goodbody? The pastor of — -'

'His name is Ignatius Catanelli and he's on our files. An ex-member of an Eastern Seaboard cosa nostra. But even the Mafia couldn't stomach him. By their lights they never kill wantonly, only for sound business reasons. But Catanelli killed because he's in love with death. When he was a little boy he probably pulled the wings off flies. But when he grew up, flies weren't enough for him. He had to leave the States, for the Mafia offered only one alternative.'

'This — this is fantastic.' Fantastic or not the colour still wasn't back in Goodbody's cheeks, 'This is outrageous. This is — '

'Be quiet,' I said. 'We have your prints and cephalic index. I must say that he has, in the American idiom, a sweet set-up going for him here. Incoming coasters drop heroin in a sealed and weighted container at a certain off-shore buoy. This is dragged up by barge and taken to Huyler, where it finds its way to a cottage factory there. This cottage factory makes puppets, which are then transferred to the warehouse here. What more natural — except that the very occasional and specially marked puppet contains heroin.'

Goodbody said: 'Preposterous, preposterous. You can't prove any of this.'

'As I intend to kill you in a minute or two I don't have to prove anything. Ah yes, he had his organization, had friend Catanelli. He had everybody from barrel-organ players to strip-tease dancers working for him — a combination of blackmail, money, addiction and the final threat of death made them all keep the silence of the grave.'

'Working for him?' De Graaf was still a league behind me. 'In what way?'

'Pushing and forwarding. Some of the heroin — a relatively small amount — was left here in puppets: some went to the shops, some to the puppet van in the Vondel Park — and other vans, for all I know. Goodbody's girls went to the shops and purchased those puppets — which were secretly marked — in perfectly legitimate stores and had them sent to minor heroin suppliers, or addicts, abroad. The ones in the Vondel Park were old cheap to the barrel-organ men — they were the connections for the down-and-outs who were in so advanced a condition that they couldn't be allowed to appear in respectable places — if, that is to say, you call sleazy dives like the Balinova a respectable place.'

'Then how in God's name did we never catch on to any of this?' de Graaf demanded.

'Ill tell you in a moment. Still about the distribution. An even larger proportion of the stuff went from here in crates of Bibles — the ones which our saintly friend here so kindly distributed gratis all over Amsterdam. Some of the Bibles had hollow centres. The sweet young things that Goodbody here, in the ineffable goodness of his Christian heart, was trying to rehabilitate and save from a fate worse than death, would turn up at his services with Bibles clutched in their sweet little hands — some of them, God help us, fetchingly dressed as nuns — -then go away with different Bibles clutched in their sweet little hands and then peddle the damned stuff in the night-clubs. The rest of the stuff — the bulk of the stuff — went to the Kasteel Linden. Or have I missed something, Goodbody?'

From the expression on his face, it was pretty evident that I hadn't missed out much of importance, but he didn't answer me. I lifted my gun slightly and said: 'Now, I think, Goodbody.'

'No one's taking the law into his own hands here!' de Graaf said sharply.

'You can see he's trying to escape,' I said reasonably. Goodbody was standing motionless: he couldn't possibly have reached his fingers up another millimetre.

Then, for the second time that day, a voice behind me said: 'Drop that gun, Mr Sherman.'

I turned slowly and dropped my gun. Anybody could take my gun from me. This time it was Trudi, emerging from shadows and only five feet away with a Luger held remarkably steadily in her right hand.

'Trudi!' De Graaf stared at the young happily-smiling blonde girl in shocked incomprehension. 'What in God's name — ' He broke off his words and cried out in pain instead as the barrel of van Gelder's gun smashed down on his wrist. De Graaf's gun clattered to the floor and as he turned to look at the man who had struck him de Graaf's eyes held only stupefaction. Goodbody, Morgenstern and Muggenthaler lowered their hands, the last two producing guns of their own from under their pockets: so vastly voluminous was the yardage of cloth required to cover their enormous frames that they, unlike myself, did not require the ingenuity of specialized tailors to conceal the outline of their weapons.

Goodbody produced a handkerchief, mopped a brow which stood in urgent need of mopping, and said querulously to Trudi: 'You took your time about coming forward, didn't you?'

'Oh, I enjoyed it!' She giggled, a happy and carefree sound that would have chilled the blood of a frozen flounder. 'I enjoyed every moment of it!'

'A touching pair, aren't they?' I said to van Gelder. 'Herself and her saintly pal here. This quality of trusting child-like innocence — '

'Shut up,' van Gelder said coldly. He approached, ran his hand over me for weapons, found none. 'Sit on the floor.

Keep your hands where I can see them. You, too, de Graaf.'

We did as we were told. I sat cross-legged, my forearms on my thighs, my dangling hands close to my ankles. De Graaf stared at me, his face a mirror for his absolute lack of understanding.

'I was coming to this bit,' I said apologetically. 'I was just on the point of telling you why you've made so little progress yourselves in tracing the source of those drugs. Your trusted lieutenant, Inspector van Gelder, made good and sure that no progress was made.'

'Van Gelder?' De Graaf, even with all the physical evidence to the contrary before him, still couldn't conceive of a senior police officer's treachery. 'How can this be? It can't be.'

'That's not a lollipop he's pointing at you,' I said mildly. Van Gelder's the boss, van Gelder's the brain. He's the Frankenstein, all right: Goodbody's just the monster that's run out of control. Right, van Gelder?'

'Right!' The baleful glance van Gelder directed at Goodbody didn't augur too well for Goodbody's future, although I didn't believe he had one anyway.

I looked at Trudi without affection. 'And as for your little Red Riding-hood, van Gelder, this sweet little mistress of yours — '

'Mistress?' De Graaf was so badly off balance that he no longer even looked stunned.

'You heard. But I think van Gelder has rather fallen out of love with her, haven't you, van Gelder? She has, shall we say, become too much of a psychopathic soulmate for the Reverend here.' I turned to de Graaf. 'Our little rosebud is no addict. Goodbody knows how to make those marks on her arms look real. He told me so. Her mental age is not eight, it's older than sin itself. And twice as evil.'

'I don't know.' De Graaf sounded tired. 'I don't understand — '

'She served three useful purposes,' I said. 'With van Gelder having a daughter like that, who would ever doubt that he was a dedicated enemy of drugs and all the evil men who profit by them? She was the perfect go-between for van Gelder and Goodbody — they never made contact, not even on the phone. And, most important, she was the vital link in the drug supply line. She took her puppet out to Huyler, switched it there for one loaded with heroin, took it back to the puppet van in the Vondel Park and switched it again. The van, of course, brought it here when it returned for more supplies. She is a very endearing child, is our Trudi. But she shouldn't have used belladonna to give her eyes that glazed addict look. I didn't catch on at the time, but give me time and clobber me over the head with a two-by-four and eventually I'll catch on to anything. It wasn't the right look, I've talked to too many junkies who had the right look. And then I knew.'

Trudi giggled again and licked her lips. 'Can I shoot him now? In the leg. High up?'

'You're a charming little morsel,' I said, 'but you should get your priorities right. Why don't you look around you?'

She looked around her. Everybody looked around him. I didn't, I just looked straight at Belinda, then nodded almost imperceptibly at Trudi, who was standing between her and the open loading doors. Belinda, in turn, glanced briefly at Trudi and I knew she understood.

'You fools!' I said contemptuously. 'How do you think I got all my information? I was given it! I was given it by two people who got scared to death and sold you down the river for a free pardon. Morgenstern and Muggenthaler.'

There were some pretty inhuman characters among those present, no doubt about that, but they were all human in their reactions. They all stared in consternation at Morgenstern and Muggenthaler, who stood there with unbelieving eyes and mouths agape and it was with mouths agape that they died, for they were both carrying guns and the gun I now had in my hand was very small and I couldn't afford just to wound them. In the same moment of time Belinda flung herself back against an off-guard Trudi, who staggered backwards, teetered on the edge of the loading sill, then fell from sight.

Her thin wailing scream had not yet ended when de Graaf reached up desperately for van Gelder's gun hand, but I'd no time to see how de Graaf made out, for I'd pushed myself to my toes, still in a crouching position and launched myself in a low dive for Goodbody, who was struggling to get his gun out. Goodbody pitched backwards with a crash that spoke well for the basic soundness of the warehouse floors, which remained where they were, and a second later I'd twisted round behind his back and had him making strange croaking noises in his throat, because I'd my arm hooked around his neck as if I were trying to make the front and back ends meet.

De Graaf was lying on the floor, blood streaming from a cut on his forehead. He was moaning a little. Van Gelder led a struggling Belinda in front of him, using her as a shield, just as I was using Goodbody as a shield. Van Gelder was smiling. Both our guns were pointing at each other.

'I know the Shermans of this world.' Van Gelder's tone was calm, conversational. 'They'd never risk hurting an innocent person — especially a girl so lovely as this. As for Goodbody there, I don't care if he's shot as full of holes as a colander. I make a point?'

I looked at the right side of Goodbody's face, which was the only part of it I could see. Its colour varied between purple and mauve, and whether this was because he was being slowly strangled by me or because of his reaction to his erstwhile partner's ready and callous abandonment of him was difficult to say. Why I looked at him I don't know, the last thought in my mind was to weigh up the respective value of Belinda and Goodbody as hostages: as long as van Gelder had Belinda as a hostage he was as safe as a man in a church. Well, any church, that was, except the Reverend Goodbody's.

'You make a point,' I said.

'I make another point,' van Gelder went on. 'You have a pop-gun there. I have a police Colt.' I nodded. 'So, my safe-conduct.' He began to move towards the head of the stairs, keeping Belinda between us. 'There's a blue police van at the foot of the street. My van. I'm taking that. On the way there I'm going to smash the office telephones. If, when I reach the van, I do not see you at the loading door there, then I shall no longer require her. You understand?'

'I understand. And if you kill her wantonly, you will never be able to sleep easy again. You know that.'

He said, 'I know that,' and disappeared walking backwards down the stairs, dragging Belinda behind him. I paid no attention to his going. I saw de Graaf sitting up and taking a handkerchief to his bleeding forehead, so apparently he was still able to fend for himself. I released my throttling grip on Goodbody's neck, reached over and took his gun away, then, still seated behind him, brought out the handcuffs and secured both his wrists, one to the wrist of the dead Morgenstern, the other to the wrist of the dead Muggenthaler. I then rose, walked round to the front of Goodbody and helped a very shaky de Graaf to a chair. I looked back at Goodbody, who was staring at me with a face carved in a rictus of terror. When he spoke his normally deep, pontifical voice was almost an insane scream.

'You're not going to leave me like this!'

I surveyed the two massive merchants to whom he was chained.

'You can always tuck one under either arm and make good your escape.'

'In God's name, Sherman — '

'You put Astrid on a hook. I told her I would help her and you put her on a hook. You had Maggie pitchforked to death. My Maggie. You were going to hang Belinda on a hook. My Belinda. You're the man who loves death. Try it at close quarters for a change.' I moved towards the loading door, checked and looked at him again. 'And if I don't find Belinda alive, I'm not coming back.'

Goodbody moaned like some stricken animal and gazed with a horrified and shuddering revulsion at the two dead men who made him prisoner. I walked to the loading doors and glanced down.

Trudi was lying spreadeagled on the pavement below. I didn't spare her a second glance. Across the street van Gelder was leading Belinda towards the police van. At the door of the van he turned, looked up, saw me, nodded and opened the door.

I turned away from the loading doors, crossed to the still groggy de Graaf, helped him to his feet and towards the head of the stairs. There, I turned and looked back at Goodbody. His eyes were staring in a fear-crazed face and he was making strange hoarse noises deep in his throat. He looked like a man lost for ever in a dark and endless nightmare, a man pursued by fiends and knowing he can never escape.