1951 - In a Vain Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page A

unsuccessful businessman. Before long I hoped to find out that reason. He couldn’t be all that unsuccessful if he could pay me ten pounds a week. Besides, I hadn’t forgotten Emmie’s diamond and the diamonds I had seen on his desk.
    I drove down Wardour Street and parked before the entrance to his office. It was getting on for half past six, and the light was going. In another ten minutes or so it would be lighting up time.
    He came out of the building, wrapped up in his awful overcoat and took his seat beside me.
    ‘You know the way?’
    ‘Watford Bypass to King’s Langley, and then through Chipperfield and Bovingdon to Chesham.’
    ‘Is as good as the Amersham road. All right, go that way.’
    The traffic was heavy all along Piccadilly, and I had trouble with the car. Every time I stopped in a traffic block the engine stalled, and by the time I was half way down Piccadilly I was hated by all the bus and taxi drivers going my way.
    ‘What you want is a new car.’
    ‘Is all right. Is nothing wrong with it.’
    By the time I reached Marble Arch I wanted to drive the damned thing into a wall.
    ‘Will you be using it tomorrow? I’d like to give it some attention.’
    ‘Saturday, hey? Tomorrow we use it. Is not as bad as all that.’
    It wasn’t once I got clear of the traffic. It even managed to get up to thirty-three miles an hour on the Watford Bypass with the accelerator flat on the boards.
    ‘You know it might be quicker for you to travel by train.’
    ‘Is quick enough for me.’
    Driving along the broad arterial road with everything including lorries overtaking me, nearly sent me crazy.
    ‘Did you ever have her decarbonized?’
    ‘The car you have on the brain. Is all right with me; is nothing the matter with it.’
    It was while we were crawling up the steep hill out of King’s Langley to Chipperfield, he said suddenly, ‘You handled Lehmann very well. It pleased me very much. Is a pretty dangerous man to throw about.’
    ‘He’s not much. He hasn’t learned to hit straight.’
    ‘He should not have tried to hit you, but he was startled. Is your fault. You had no business to come into my office after Emmie had told you to keep out. But there was no harm done. They talk about you. It will get around. Lehmann has a bad reputation in the district.’
    ‘While we’re on the subject, let’s get this straight. I don’t take orders from women, and that goes for Miss Pearl too.’
    ‘Now, look here, Mitchell, I pay you well. You do what I say.’
    ‘I’ll do what you say, but I won’t take orders from a woman. I mean that. I’d rather quit.’
    He didn’t say anything. I kept driving. That little demonstration of speed and strength had impressed him the way nothing else could impress him. I was sure he wouldn’t let me quit that easy.
    ‘Well, all right, I speak to Emmie. Maybe you have a little trouble with my wife.’
    So he had a wife. I wondered if she were built along the same lines as Emmie. I thought it probable she was.
    ‘You say nothing about Lehmann to my wife. Fights make her nervous; you understand? And say nothing to her what I pay you.’
    ‘I certainly won’t.’
    ‘She may ask you. She do not believe these notes mean anything. She say is a practical joke. I have not told her I get a bodyguard. If she asks you, tell her I pay you two pound a week; you understand?’
    So it was like that. Either he didn’t want his wife to know he had money or else he was afraid of her. This interested me.
    We were driving along the twisty road, leading from Bovingdon Airport when he said, ‘I do not want you to gossip about my business, Mitchell. Maybe you won’t, but unintentionally you might say something or someone might ask you. Say nothing. Maybe you see things going on in the office that may surprise you, but forget them. I don’t pay you ten pounds a week to drive a car. I expect you to keep your mouth shut.’
    ‘I’ll keep it shut.’
    The headlights of the car picked out a