The Arms Maker of Berlin

TWENTY-SEVEN

The Candalusa police department was a southern variant on Willis Turner’s base of operations in Blue Kettle Lake, except these guys had better radios and packed more heat.

From the glass-walled interview room Nat could see a giant poster for Florida Gators football and a gun rack stocked with high-powered rifles. There was little he could see beyond that, because the policeman had handcuffed him to a table bolted to the floor. This must be where they locked down the drunks and rowdies before booking them.

The room was sweltering, but his warders were ignoring his questions and his requests for water and a phone call. No one had charged him, or even written down his name. They did check his driver’s license, so they had at least confirmed his identity.

An hour passed, then another. By then, Berta had probably either boarded a connecting flight from Orlando or Daytona or was well on her way south to Miami on I-95. A third hour passed, and his anxiety rose accordingly.

Then Clark Holland strolled into the office, nodding to the arresting officer as he stepped into the interview room. The officer followed him and wordlessly unlocked the handcuffs. Nat rubbed his wrists. He was spoiling for a fight, but he waited for the cop to leave before unloading on Holland.

“What the hell is this all about?”

“Maybe if you occasionally picked up the phone you wouldn’t be asking that question. This seems to be the only way I can get an update. And frankly, it’s for your own good.”

“What’s that mean?”

“You’ll see. Soon as you’ve answered some questions.”

“Water first.”

Holland shouted for some drinks. The cop, none too pleased to be serving as a waiter to a fed and a misbehaving out-of-towner, tossed two plastic bottles of Coke from across the room. They fizzed over when Holland unscrewed the caps.

“Cops just love you guys, don’t they?”

“Glad you brought that up. Your friend Willis Turner-any idea what he did with his copies of those pictures you shot? The ones of the stolen documents?”

“I don’t believe we ever confirmed I took any.”

“For the sake of argument let’s assume you did. Why did he want them?”

“He said it was part of an investigation. Suspicious death, remember?”

“How ’bout a real reason?”

“Why don’t you ask Turner?”

“We tried. Went to serve him this morning with a subpoena and a search warrant.”

“There you go.”

“The server found him dead. Shot with his own weapon. Apparent suicide, according to the state police, but it’s not like they’ve got such a great track record on this case. The search came up empty. No photos, no copies.”

Nat swallowed hard. He tried to think of some reason for Turner’s death other than the obvious one.

“If he knew you were coming with a warrant, maybe it really was suicide.”

“More likely is that someone else knew. Your German friend, Berta Heinkel-how long has she been back in the country?”

“You don’t think she did it?”

“Just answer the question.”

“She didn’t make it across the water until last night, at the earliest. And she was camped outside my door by seven this morning.”

“She staying the same place as you? The Sea Breeze?”

“I think so. But by now she’s probably either on a plane or sitting in an airport.”

“Where’s she headed?”

If Nat answered honestly, he’d have to explain the rest, and he didn’t want to. But he did want the FBI to try and pick her up. Anything to slow her down.

“Home, I guess. Berlin. She’s all done here. But-”

“But what?”

“Well, last time I talked to Turner-”

“When was this?”

“A few days ago. He phoned me in Berlin.”

“Go on.”

“He was beginning to think Gordon was murdered. Berta was his prime suspect.”

“We heard that, too. False lead. The toxicology tests came back negative. The medical examiner’s report was on Turner’s desk, dated yesterday. Heart attack, plain and simple.”

Holland’s cell phone rang. He grimaced at the incoming number.

“Wait here,” he said. Then he left the room.

It was a relief to hear Berta was in the clear on Gordon. But she was still the competition, and it didn’t sound like the Bureau was too interested in picking her up. Holland returned a few moments later, frowning.

“Fresh news,” he said. He showed Nat a photo. “Ever seen this guy?”

Nat recognized the face right away.

“Yeah, he was at the Denny’s where I was having breakfast. Might be staying at the Sea Breeze, too.”

“When did you last see him?”

“Ten thirty this morning.”

“His name is Tim Scoggins. He’s a private eye. If you check your engine block, dollars to doughnuts you’ll find a GPS tracking device. Two days ago he wrote a check for $25,000 to Willis Turner. Any idea why he’d do that?”

“He was working for Turner?”

“Last I checked, PIs weren’t in the business of paying their clients.”

“Oh. Right. Why pay Turner, then?”

“We figure he was buying something.”

“The copies of the files?”

“Possibly.”

“And Scoggins told you this?”

“Scoggins’s rental car was just found on the shoulder of I-95, just north of Daytona. Blood on the seat. No body.”

Nat took a deep breath. Assuming the worst about Scoggins meant four bodies in two days, and he had recently met or talked to all of them. Even if Gordon’s death was by natural causes, Berta and he were certainly stirring up a world of trouble.

“There’s an old guy I was just talking to across town, Murray Kaplan. Maybe you should make sure he’s all right.”

“Will do. Just leave me his number and address.”

“Who’s doing all this? I mean, I know who killed Qurashi. But Turner? And this PI?”

“If they were working for Bauer, then it was the Iranians. Or vice versa. Somebody must be getting close, I guess. Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s someone else.”

“How come they haven’t killed me or Berta? Not that I’m complaining.”

“Probably because you’re still useful. I’d advise you both to keep it that way.”

“Then I should get moving.”

Holland shook his head.

“Just because they’re picking up the pace doesn’t mean you should panic. We’d like you to stick around until we have a better handle on recent events. Neil Ford is going to escort you back to the motel. To be on the safe side, he and another special agent will be posted outside your room. Just sit tight. Unless, of course, you’ve got something to tell me?”

He was tempted to tell Holland all about Bern, and the Hotel Jurgens. Maybe then the agent would turn him loose, or, at the very least, dispatch someone to beat Berta to the punch. But if the FBI got there first, and the lead panned out, then Nat would probably never get first dibs on the material, or any dibs at all. After what he’d been through, he wasn’t willing to risk losing everything now. So he said nothing.

“Don’t worry,” Holland said. “This shouldn’t take more than a day or so. Then we’ll put every means at your disposal to get moving as fast as possible, to any destination. Provided you behave in the meantime. I’m tired of having to rely on other people to bring you in. At least so far you’ve still been warm and breathing. Next time, I wouldn’t count on it.”

NEIL FORD SEEMED PLEASED as always to see Nat. The agent waved through the windshield as he pulled in behind Nat’s car on the way back to the Sea Breeze. A second agent was with him.

By now, Berta was almost certainly winging her way across the Atlantic, and when Nat reached the motel he glumly climbed the stairs to his room. He mixed a stiff drink from the minibar, then flicked back the curtains to see if the FBI was really watching.

There they were, two Eagle Scouts in a black sedan. He turned away from the window and surveyed the room. Clothes on the floor. Laptop open. Gordon’s box of keepsakes atop the TV. Time for another look, especially now that the matchbook had turned out to be important.

He emptied the contents on the bed and inspected them with renewed interest: a vial with powder for making invisible ink, complete with printed instructions typed in 1946 by Gordon himself; a German officer’s cap, which may or may not have been Gordon’s size; plus the key that he had already used at the storage locker and the matchbook from the Hotel Jurgens. Then there was the old crime novel that had belonged to Sabine Keller, Gordon’s Swiss miss, with a dried flower for a bookmark.

He studied them awhile, as if hoping for a message. Nothing. Nor did they offer any help in eluding FBI agents.

“So, tell me, Gordon,” he asked aloud. “How would an old OSS man get out of this fix?” He didn’t expect an answer, and he didn’t get one. “Too bad I never got any of your training, or maybe I’d know.”

Or maybe he did, seeing as how there was more than one way out of the room. Nat stood and slid open the glass door to the balcony. He looked down. A long drop, but it was sandy at the bottom, with a path heading straight to the beach. Better still, no one was watching the back. The problem was how to get down without breaking a leg.

Moments later he decided upon the solution, feeling sheepish if only because it was such a cliché, borrowed from innumerable cartoons and comedies and damsels in distress. Bedsheets. The only thing available. So he packed for departure, carefully placing Gordon’s items back in the box and tucking it between his shirts, and then he went to work. The Sea Breeze linens were so flimsy that he doubled them up to support his weight, twisting together the top and bottom sheets. That meant the line would come up short. He would have to jump the final seven or eight feet to the sand. So be it. He slid open the balcony door and tied one end of the sheets to the railing.

He then dropped his suitcase over the side and slung his camera bag and laptop over his shoulders, bandolier style, one on either side. Feeling like a novice alpinist about to tackle a mountain well beyond his technical skills, he then slung a leg over the rail and awkwardly climbed to the other side while gripping the sheets for all they were worth.

His feet slipped, and for a moment he dangled like an oversized spider, bumping his face against the railing. He steadied himself by bracing his soles against the balcony. Once he felt secure, he slid his left hand down the sheets, then his right, all the while bouncing his toes against the railing as he dropped.

After he’d lowered himself farther, his feet slipped below the bottom of his balcony and he again dangled free, thighs bumping the overhang. But he continued to grunt his way down to the limit of the makeshift line. When he let go he jumped outward to avoid catching his feet on the railing of the balcony below. Fortunately no one was in the ground-floor room, and the view from the beach was blocked by a row of dunes.

He landed heavily and toppled onto his suitcase. But nothing seemed broken, and he was elated to have made it. He grabbed his bags and lumbered across the dunes. From there it was only a quarter mile to the fishing pier. Fishermen and beachcombers stared curiously at this fellow hauling luggage up the strand, but he paid them no mind. When he reached the pier he dropped two quarters into a pay phone and dialed for a taxi. Then he ducked into the tackle shop to wait for its arrival.

Two and a half hours later, Nat boarded a flight to Miami. Judging from the earlier-scheduled flights, he guessed Berta would arrive in Zurich around seven the next morning, meaning she could reach Bern as soon as eight thirty by train. Nat’s connection out of Miami was due to land shortly after noon. At least a four-hour advantage for Berta. And that was assuming he made it out of the country before the FBI discovered he was gone. He settled into his seat, ready for the chase.