The Melting Man

CHAPTER TEN

The Facel Vega was still where I had left it. I crawled into it like a hermit crab going back to its shell and drove off. A fire tender nearly put me into the bushes before I reached the main gates. Nobody can accuse a French pompier of not driving with panache. A police car nearly did the same for me as I turned into the main road. Somebody shouted at me through an open window. I didn't stop. It could have been Aristide Marchissy la Dole.

I went down to the lake and along to Geneva, and I kept seeing that melting wax face, bubbling and seething, and the horror coming up through it. I was going to have bad dreams for a long time unless I got away and grabbed my long-promised holiday.

I stopped at a call box and rang through to Najib.

I said, 'I've got the parcel for you. How long will it take you to get Julia?'

'No damned time at all.'

'I'll meet you outside the west end of the Cathedrale de Saint Pierre in half an hour. Okay?'

'We'll be there, and as a bonus you'll also get two thousand pounds.'

'You're slipping,' I said. 'The Alakwe brothers always pay in guineas.'

'Guineas,' he said.

I drove to the cathedral and waited.

They made it in twenty minutes, so they must have been holding Julia in Geneva somewhere.

They came trooping across to me in a merry family party, the Alakwe brothers, Miss Panda Bubakar and Julia.

I stood by the car and waited for them.

Jimbo patted Julia on the shoulder and pushed her gently towards me. He was wearing a green corduroy jacket, black trousers, a yellow shirt and a red tie with a great leaping salmon on it. He couldn't have known that the salmon touch was the reason for my frown.

He said anxiously, 'You tell him, missee, we treat you with every respect and courtesy.'

Julia came into the crook of my arm. She didn't have to tell me anything. It was all in her face.

I handed the parcel to Najib. He fingered it, and I knew he was itching to open and check it.

'Go on,' I said, 'It won't offend me.'

'I trust you,' he said.

Panda semaphored her teeth and eyes at me and said, 'You never gave me a chance. Everything I had I was ready to trust you with. Don't forget, lover-boy, when she throws you back in the pond you come swimming to Mamma. Whoof! Whoof!' She did a high kick, pirouetted, and tossed me a fat envelope.

'American dollars,' said Najib. 'All you do now is avoid the arm of the law.'

I shook my head. I said, 'You can twist it a bit for a while, but never avoid it.'

We drove off, heading for Bonneville and then the road to Megeve.

She said nothing for a long while.

I said eventually, 'Where do you want to stop and do the shopping?'

'Anywhere. You sold the parcel to them?'

'No — it was a straight exchange for you. I didn't ask for any money. But when it was offered I thought I had earned a bonus.'

I went on and told her all that had happened since I had last seen her. Before I had finished her hand was out just touching me on the arm, and when I had finished she said, 'But what happens about you and Interpol now?'

I said, 'I don't know and I don't care. I'm just not going to think about it. What are you planning to cook for dinner?'

We had poulet sauté aux olives de Provence. While she was making it I had a bath and changed and laid out my ritzy pyjamas, and then I came down and sat and drank and got up each time she called from the kitchen for her glass to be refilled and it was on the second refill that her arms went round my neck and her lips found mine.

'I'm a shy girl, really,' she said. 'I always need time.'

'Don't rush anything.'

The poulet was delicious.

As she disappeared to make the second course, the telephone rang.

It was Aristide.

He said, 'I thought I should find you there. You have company?'

I said, 'She's just served me with poulet sauté aux olives de Provence.'

He said, 'Did she serve the chicken on top of the hot sauce, or pour it over the bird?'

'On top.'

'Treasure her.'

'For the time that is left to me, I shall.'

'Ah yes, it is of that which I wish to speak. You had much trouble with O'Dowda, of course.'

'Of course.'

'The whole room was gutted, including many valuable paintings. However, enough was left to establish the secondary matter of murder. My people are pleased about that.'

'I am so happy that they are.'

'They were disappointed about the parcel, though.'

'Naturally.'

'Until I explained that you were, in fact, making an heroic effort to recover it for us, and that it was not your fault that the flames consumed it. On your behalf — and you will understand that I can think of no one else for whom I should do such a thing, and not a very strong reason why I should do it for you, except that, of course, I have a sentiment for you which, illogical though it be, I am forced to acknowledge, since I feel — and you will bear with me in this—'

'I can bear with you, Aristide, but somewhere I have lost myself in your sentence.'

'Enfin, I have persuaded them to abandon any drastic action. You were trying to get the parcel for us, you failed. Disobedience is punishable, but not failure. So you should be happy now, yes?'

'Very.'

'Good. But also you must not go unscathed.'

'It's a good word.'

'Najib drew a large sum of American dollars today, we are informed by his bank. I presume they are in your possession?'

'You speak officially or privately?'

'Both. Interpol have a charitable fund with which they do much good. Often it receives anonymous contributions. May we expect another soon?'

'I will send the money to you.'

'I am delighted. Money is always to be treated seriously, and talking of money, I would advise you, if you can bring yourself to it, to marry this Miss Julia. She will undoubtedly inherit much wealth from O'Dowda. She will have you, and you will have her and her money, and I shall never be bothered with you again. We shall all be happy.'

'Except Miss Julia,' I said. 'If you keep me on the line after she brings in the omelette souffiée aux liqueurs, which she is now making.'

He gave a deep sigh, and said. 'In the village of Inxent in northern France there is an inn where they make it perfectly. If she does not bring it to the table frothing and on the point of spilling over the dish, do not marry her.'

It came to the table, as he had said it should, filling the room with the aroma of fresh eggs, sizzling butter and the warm, heartening smell of liqueurs.

There were many times in the next two weeks when I knew that I would marry her, and then there were days when I wasn't sure, and in the end I agreed with Meredith, Kissing don't last: cookery do! But who wants to spend his life just eating?

So, in the end I retrieved my four thousand dollars from under the linoleum and went back into the big swim, wondering how long it would take to get my fees and expenses from O'Dowda's executors, and hoping that Panda was nowhere around. But Wilkins was, and no smile or warm word did I get from her until she came into the office one morning to find an electric typewriter waiting for her.

She beamed, and then almost immediately frowned.

'Why did you buy a German machine? British makes are just as good. Not that I've got anything personally against Germans but one really should support…'

I shut my office door on her. You can't win.