Diamond Solitaire

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

The first person he spoke to in Columbia University Library said with a sense of discovery, "You must be from England!"

He said tamely, "How right you are!" Each time this happened- and here in New York it was commonplace-he felt that simply admitting his Englishness didn't come up to expectations. Something extra seemed to be expected of him: a burst of "God Save the Queen," or a hitch of the trousers to reveal Union Jack socks. He couldn't manage either.

He introduced himself, claiming that he was a detective attached to the New York Police Department, a slight distortion of the facts, but he'd never had a conscience about embroidering the truth in the cause of justice.

The senior librarian he was addressing, a strange, thin man with the peculiar fixed smile seen usually on the faces of politicians and the earliest Greek statues, said that he just adored the British police, and was he at the library on official business, or personal?

Diamond explained that he hoped to consult an international data bank of postgraduate research projects, if the library possessed one.

He already knew it did.

En route to the computer suite, the librarian confided that his knowledge of Scotland Yard owed much to the British film industry. "Did you know mat the late Lord Olivier once played a lowly English bobby in a movie?"

Diamond undermined this promising conversation by saying, "The Magic Box." It happened that he'd seen the film quite recently on TV one afternoon when it was too wet to go walking in Holland Park.

"Oh, you saw it. The story of the man who invented cinematography."

"Friese-Greene."

"You're so right!" the librarian said admiringly.

"But Friese-Green wasn't the inventor of cinematography."

"Wasn't he?" The smile began to look strained.

"My understanding is that several people in different countries, including yours, made the significant discoveries. Friese-Greene was a minor figure."

"You're sure of this?"

"Check the facts, if you like. We're in the right place."

"No need, Mr. Diamond, I'll take your word for it, of course."

"The film was a flag-waving exercise," Diamond went on without much tact. "Britain needed cheering up at the time. As a nation we're unequaled at making heroes out of nobodies."

After a pause, the librarian said staunchly, "This doesn't affect what I was about to say about the movie. The acting was superb. Do you recall the scene?" Without pausing for response, he added, "Just a cameo performance by Laurence Olivier as the bobby invited in to look at the images being projected, but one of his greatest, in my opinion. If he'd done nothing else, you'd have known from that scene that the man was a genius. Hardly a word spoken."

Diamond nodded. "Pity it wasn't true."

"Ah, but remember the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn': 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'"

"Not in my job," said Diamond. He'd never believed in mixing poetry and police work.

They entered the computer suite, a place, he reflected, that a more cultured policeman might have observed had a hum like a hedge of lavender on an August morning. Ranks of display units stretched far back. The librarian showed Diamond to a vacant position and demonstrated how to access information. "It was a directory of scientific research you required?"

"The International Directory of Research Projects in Biochemistry. I'd like to know what a certain Japanese graduate was working on a few years ago."

"We should be able to locate it" He tapped something into the controls. "Maybe I should leave you to find your own way to the information. It's straightforward now. You just follow the instructions when they come up in highlighted text"

"I'd rather you stayed," Diamond admitted without shame. "My brain goes dead when I sit in front of one of these things."

"That's reassuring to hear. From some of the things you've been saying, I thought you were information-oriented, and nothing else. Do we have the researcher's name?"

"YukoMasuda."

The librarian keyed in an instruction. "I hope you weren't serious-about not being able to appreciate the film because it wasn't strictly true."

"Don't let it depress you," Diamond told him. "It's the way I was trained."

"Too much left hemisphere."

"Too much what?"

"Of the brain. The left side of the brain marshals facts. I've always thought the police would do well to recognize that they have a right hemisphere as well, with a capacity for intuition."

"How, exactly?"

"Not 'exacdy' at all, Mr. Diamond. I'm suggesting you clear your mind of all those facts you collect and allow it to be receptive to psychic forces."

"You mean tea leaves and Tarot cards?"

"No, no, I'm being serious. I think you detectives might benefit by tapping into your sixth sense occasionally."

"Don't give me that That's how the wrong people get stitched up," said Diamond. "A detective who thinks he knows the truth in advance of the evidence is a dangerous man. I've met a few in my time."

"Isn't this a hunch-4ooking up a research student?"

"No, this is desperation. I know damn all about this woman. I've got to start somewhere."

"And I think we've found her," said the librarian, who had been scrolling the text as they talked.

Diamond stared at the screen and saw, midway down:

Masuda, Yuko, Ph.D., Yokohama Univ. "An insult to the brain: coma and its characteristics." 1979381. S. Manflex. "Narcosis and coma states." (American Journal of Biochemistry, May 1981.) "The treatment of alcoholic coma." Paper presented to Japanese Pharmacological Conference, Tokyo, 1983. "Drug- and alcohol-induced comas." 1983. S. Manflex.

"Talk about an insult to the brain," he said. "My brain cells turn their back and walk away when I'm faced with stuff like this. S. Manflex. Narcosis. Can you understand any of it?"

"That phrase, an insult to the brain, is faintly familiar," the librarian said. "Where have I heard it? Give me a moment." Given a moment, he said suddenly, "I've got it. That wonderful poet from your country, Dylan Thomas."

"Not my country," Diamond interjected. "From Wales."

"Isn't that the same thing? Anyway, they wrote 'an insult to the brain' on Dylan Thomas's death certificate. Seemed appropriate-a kind of irony, considering he imbibed so much alcohol. I thought the doctor must have had poetic leanings himself. I didn't know it was a medical term."

"I was talking about these other words," Diamond said, becoming impatient with the frequent digressions.

"Hold on." The librarian tapped some keys on the console and an insert appeared above the text explaining the abbreviations. "S stands for sponsor, right? The research was sponsored by Manflex. I figure that must be the pharmaceuticals giant. You've heard of Manflex?"

"Vaguely."

"If you buy something for a headache in this country, it's a fair bet it's made by Manflex."

"And what's the other thing?"

"I have no idea. Science isn't my area at all."

"Nor mine. Tell me about Manflex. Is it a Japanese company, by any chance?"

"You mean Japanese-owned? I doubt it"

"It sponsors Japanese research."

"That doesn't make it a Japanese company."

He accepted the correction. He'd been thinking aloud, trying to make connections that didn't exist, but should.

"You could be right," the librarian conceded. "They have their base in America, certainly, but, who knows who owns it? The Japanese have taken over large slices of Manhattan. Even Rockefeller Plaza. Would you like the address?"

This time it wasn't displayed on a screen. Diamond was handed the Manhattan telephone directory. In a few minutes he was phoning the Manflex Corporation on West Broadway, or trying to, because the number was busy. After ten minutes of dialing and swearing, he got through to a telephonist who, if anything, was in a more irritated state man he: "Who is this?"

"Am I through to the Manflex Corporation?"

"Uh huh."

"My name is Diamond and I'd like to speak to the managing director."

"Sorry. No chance. Are you press?"

"No I am not"

"Mr. Flexner is unavailable."

"When do you expect him to be available?"

"No comment"

"Listen, I don't know who you think I am. I'd simply like to speak to somebody in authority. Is there anyone else?"

"You people are so persistent," the voice said accusingly. "A statement will be issued in due course."

"About what? I just want to make an inquiry-"

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm just too busy to prolong this."

And she cut the call.

He could tell that the rudeness wasn't personal. She was clearly under intense pressure.

"Can anyone tell me why a pharmaceuticals firm called Manflex should be under siege by the press?" he appealed to the librarians at me desk nearby.

There was some shrugging and head-shaking before one of them piped up, "I heard something about Manflex. Their price is rocketing on the stock exchange, that's what happening. They slumped badly and now they bounced back, only more so."

If Manflex was currently reversing a fall on the New York stock market, people were making money. And if Manflex had been the sponsor of Naomi's mother's postgraduate research, then perhaps there was some reason why Naomi had been kidnapped just as the company's stock was soaring.

He tried phoning again, but the line was busy.

There was plenty to occupy him in the library. He located some reference books on medical science that were written in English he could follow, so he made a determined effort to interpret the gobbledygook he'd copied from the computer. Yuko Masuda's research papers were all concerned with the treatment of comas induced by alcohol and drugs. All comas were attributed to some kind of insult to the brain, as it was so evocatively expressed. Dr. Masuda specialized in comas induced by poisoning of the brain, rather than by injury, pressure, infection or lack of sugar.

The half hour's concentrated study may not have turned Peter Diamond into a neurological specialist, but he reckoned he was better equipped to talk to the people at Man-flex.

He pressed out the number again. No one was answering.

Instead, he left the library and went to look for a taxi.

The Manflex Building was one of the older landmarks on West Broadway, tall by most standards, yet dwarfed by the twin towers of the World Trade Center nearby. When Diamond got close, he saw that the two sets of revolving doors to the entrance hall appeared to be locked. Armed security guards were preventing anyone from using the doors at the side. Two young women with the look of secretaries quite junior in the firm came out and were routinely approached by press people with microphones. They said with equal casualness that they were making no comment. It had the look of a ritual that had been going on for some while.

He ambled across to one of the reporters, a woman in an oversize suede coat and white boots. "Excuse me, could you tell me what's going on here? Is someone famous in there?" He added in excuse for ignorance, "I'm from England."

She gave him a sympathetic look. "This is the Manflex Building."

"Should I have heard of it?"

"Pharmaceuticals."

"Ah? Is that of interest to the press?"

Now she looked at him as if he were Rip Van Winkle.

"Manflex's rating on the stock market has been rocketing on rumors of a new wonder drug. They're due to make an announcement Tuesday and there's any amount of speculation."

"Manflex-is that an all-American firm?"

She was obviously starting to think that she was stuck with a headcase. "Haven't you heard of Manny Flexner? He was a legend in the pharmaceuticals business. Very dynamic. His son just became Chairman."

"What's he like?"

"Nobody knows yet. He only took over a few weeks back. He's keeping his head down right now."

"If this rumor is true, he's off to a good start."

"He needs it. There was a big loss of confidence after Manny jumped."

"Jumped?"

"Out of bis office on the twenty-first floor."

Diamond stared upwards.

"He fell on the other side," the reporter informed him. "A small executive parking lot"

Diamond thanked her and took a walk along Broadway, working out what to do next He'd heard enough about the seesawing fortunes of Manflex to justify more inquiries, but he doubted whether he'd be able to convince Lieutenant Easdand that something should be done. For the present he preferred to pursue this tenuous line of inquiry independently. However, he wasn't going to be able to bluff his way past the security guards. Some different strategy was wanted.

He found a stationery store and went in to buy a notepad and envelope. Then he wrote a letter to David Flexner, die Chairman of Manflex, introducing himself as a detective from England conducting an inquiry involving murder and the abduction of a child. As a matter of extreme urgency, he went on, he needed an interview with the Manflex management to discuss the mother of the child, Dr. Yuko Masuda, who had carried out research sponsored by Manflex at Yokohama University in the early 1980s. He gave the address and phone number of bis hotel and added the words "Detective Superintendent" below his signature. He addressed the envelope to Flexner, marking it "Personal-Extremely Urgent" Then he returned to the Manflex Building and handed the letter to one of the security guards, stressing that it was vital that it was delivered to the Chairman immediately. And once again his old police identity card came in useful; security staff are invariably ex-policemen themselves.

Before returning to the hotel he called at a bank and used his credit card to get more cash to patronize a deli he'd just passed. Later, he thought, he'd be able to tell Steph that for lunch he'd restricted himself to a sandwich. She'd never seen the size of an American sandwich garnished with dill pickles.

It wasn't surprising that he took a postprandial nap in his room.

The phone woke him.

"Hello."

"Superintendent, er, Diamond?"

He sat up in bed. The digital clock beside it said 3:36. "Yes."

"David Flexner. You wanted to speak to me about this Japanese lady."

"Correct."

"There isn't much I can tell you at this point in time, and you'll understand that things are pretty busy here."

"I appreciate that, but the child's life-"

"Sure." There was a pause. "I can meet you, but it would be easier someplace else, not in this building. Let me think a moment You know the Staten Island Ferry?"

"I can find it."

"Battery Park. Anyone in New York will tell you. I'll see you in the ticket office around seven-fifteen. That's the earliest I can do. How will I know you?"

"I wear a fawn-colored raincoat."

"Like Columbo?"

"Like five Columbos. I'm well fed. I'm also bald, but you won't be able to tell, because I wear a brown trilby."

"A what?"

"I believe it's called a derby here."

"Fine. Look out for a stringbean with long, blond hair and a red windbreaker. We shouldn't have much trouble, Super."

He got up and took a shower. Super. No one had ever called him mat before. Flexner had sounded like a sixteen-year-old. If he had anything to be ashamed of, it hadn't come through in the voice. When this comes to nothing, Diamond thought, where do I go next? No messages had been left by the police, so they hadn't made any progress. These intervals of inactivity were the devil to endure. In his days on the force, he'd have spent this time chivvying the murder squad, or-as they would put it-making their lives a misery. Here, in this godforsaken hotel room, he had only himself to goad.

He went out and took a walk in Central Park that didn't deserve to be called a walk when compared with the gait of the exercise-minded fanatics who continuously strode past. When he rested on a bench he was immediately accosted by someone who wanted to compose a poem in his honor for five bucks. He said grouchily that he'd already heard enough poetry for one day and the poet spat on his shoe.

He tried some creative work of his own, devising scenarios in which Naomi's mother had given up her research as a result of getting disillusioned with the drugs industry; or that she had become a whistle-blower on malpractices in Man-flex; or even a victim of some drug experiment that had failed. He still couldn't work out why she had been parted from her child if she was still alive.

About six, no further on in his conclusions, he took the subway south and found his way to Battery Park. The Statue of Liberty was already a blue silhouette fading in the evening light. A ferryboat came in and he watched the procedure as the iron trellis snapped back and the passengers disembarked. With a strong breeze blowing, he was glad of his raincoat-which he'd never thought of as anything like Lieutenant Columbo's. It was a trenchcoat really, well lined and with flaps that could button across the chest With the hat, it was definitely more Bogart than Peter Falk.

He watched the ferry fill up and depart and then strolled across to the ticket office. Just after seven, too soon to be looking out for Flexner. The benches were fast filling up with passengers for the next ferry. Guessing that he might face a wait of twenty minutes or more, he claimed a seat.

Ten minutes passed. A mother brought her fractious toddler to the place beside Diamond and waged a noisy battle of wills over some chocolate that was certain, the mother said, to make the child very sick indeed after all he'd eaten. When junior had screamed enough to get his way, Diamond decided maybe the mother had not been bluffing. To safeguard the trenchcoat-which in his size wouldn't be easy to replace- he got up and moved away.

Nobody matching young Flexner's description was in sight

"Are you Mr. Peter Diamond, by any chance?"

He turned. Someone he must have seen and mentally dismissed had stepped over to talk to him, a pretty, dark-haired young woman in a cherry-colored bomber jacket and jeans.

"That's my name."

"Mr. Flexner sends his apologies. He had a problem escaping from the press, so the meeting-place had to be changed. I'm Joan. I'm going to drive you there."

"Drive me where, exactly?"

"I'm sorry but I can't tell you yet There's a phone in the car. He's going to let us know."

"You want me to come with you now?" What was being suggested sounded reasonable enough. He checked his watch and saw that it was already past the time Flexner had suggested that they meet

"It must be such a burden for him, all this pressure from the media," she remarked, leading Diamond across the park towards a place where several cars were parked.

"I appreciate that," he said. "Are you his PA or something?" She smiled. "Or something-I've no idea what you could possibly mean by that."

"So you're on the payroll?"

"I drive a car. That's all."

It was a smart car, a long, black limousine, the sort that would cause heads to turn in England but make no impression in New York. From some distance away, Joan used a remote control to disengage the security system. The indicator lights flashed briefly and the locks clicked. Just as automatically, Diamond went towards the left side.

Shes-said quickly, "I'm driving."

He came to his senses. "My mistake."

Inside, she picked up the phone and pressed out a number. "This won't take a minute," she told him.

He sat back casually, trying to listen without appearing interested, but the voice on the end of the line was inaudible.

She said into the mouthpiece, "We got here… Sure, he was… Yes, Mr. Flexner, I know it. You want to speak to him?… Fine, we won't be long." She replaced it between them and started up. "Talk about cloak and dagger. You won't believe where we're going."

Deviously, he suggested, "The Trump Tower?"

It made no visible impression. "No."

"Where, then?"

"It's on the West Side."

"You're being mysterious yourself. Is it anywhere I'm likely to know?"

"I shouldn't think so, but it's one of the in places."

He had a depressing image of a trendy nightclub, the sort of venue a wealthy young hotshot like David Flexner might frequent. "Am I dressed all right?"

"Just fine."

She would keep this going indefinitely, and he didn't know New York well enough to pin her down. He didn't like secrecy when he was the one being kept in ignorance. They were heading north, along the Hudson River waterfront. Occasionally they had glimpses of the lights of New Jersey. A diversion sent them away from the river, and they picked up their northward route on 10th Avenue. The Lincoln Tunnel was signposted, but they passed the approach roads and soon after slowed. Joan the driver was obviously counting streets, so Diamond helped.

"Forty-seventh."

"Thanks."

"Which one are we looking for?"

"Forty-ninth will do."

They turned left and tracked the street to its limit, under the girders of the highway. Soon they were back in a dockland area. Presently she turned onto a tarmac stretch between warehouses. Red hazard lights marked the tops of some cranes.

"He's hereV said Diamond in disbelief.

"I told you it was cloak and dagger," she said. She flashed the headlights a couple of times.

A figure came from the shadows of one of the warehouses. "Doesn't look like David Flexner," Diamond commented as if he knew him well.

"This is one of his team," she said, touching the control to let the window down on Diamond's side.

"I hope you'll be waiting," Diamond remarked to Joan as he prepared to get out "I wouldn't want to walk back to my hotel from here."

"I'm in no hurry," she said.

The man stooped to look in. "Mr. Diamond?" The face was unshaven and smelt of liquor. As the face of an executive's personal aide, it wasn't convincing.

Diamond turned to look at the woman who called herself Joan. Even at this stage she returned a level look without a trace of perfidy. If this was a setup-and he now believed that it was-she had played her part immaculately. She'd disarmed him with her poise.

The man outside reached for the door handle. Diamond snapped down the lock.

Joan said, "Why did you do that?" And before she'd got out the words she had released the lock from the central control at her side.

The man outside swung open the door. He was built like the stevedore he probably was.

Joan shrilled, 'Take him!"

Diamond jerked away from the door and made a grab for the steering wheel, whereupon Joan stabbed the sharp end of the keys into the back of his hand. The searing pain weakened his grip. She opened her door and leapt out on her side, yelling something across the quayside.

At the same time the thug leaned inside the car and put an arm lock around Diamond's throat. It was painful and disabling, but it wasn't enough to eject him. He braced his legs to press his back against the seat and groped for the man's face, which was close to his own. He found a handful of hair, but he knew better than to work on that. You go for the eyes and ears.

He slid his hand across the surface of the face, got bitten badly in the fleshy area under his thumb, but succeeded in thrusting the same thumb hard into a fold of soft, moist flesh that could only be the man's eyesocket.

There was a scream and the arm lock loosened.

But there were voices. Someone was shouting, "Get out of my way!"

Something swung in a huge arc towards Diamond's skull. He couldn't duck. He put up an arm a fraction too late. The impact was terrific. His face hit the dashboard and smashed through glass. A second blow crunched into his shoulder. He was lucky to be registering anything.

"You got him," someone was saying.

What now? he thought. Do I come quietly, or play dead?

Someone had two hands under his armpits and dragged him off the car seat. He went limp before hitting the ground.

"Bastard."

Words, he guessed, wouldn't be enough for the man whose eye he had damaged. Two kicks in his kidneys followed. He couldn't stop himself crying out in pain. For this, he got another mighty crack on the head.

He was losing consciousness.

"Grab a leg, will ya?"

He didn't expect to survive. Joan had said this was the "in place" and now he knew what she meant. They were going to dump him in the Hudson River.