Assignment to Disaster Read Online Free PDF Page B

screen, and went up the next street. Two blocks away he found a combination bar and restaurant. It was cool, air-conditioned, and dark inside. Durell found a booth in the rear and ordered a rum and Coke for the girl and Scotch over ice for himself. It was well after one o'clock.
    "Tell me about the man who killed Lew Osbourn," he said bluntly. "Don't omit anything."
    She spoke slowly. "I didn't hear him come in. I was taken by surprise. I was sitting there, knowing I couldn't leave the apartment without being followed, wondering what I could do next. Before I knew it, he was there, his hand over my mouth."
    "What did he look like?"
    She shuddered. "He was big. Ugly and big. He wore a yellow sport shirt and gray slacks. He was a man of about forty, but enormous. And very strong. He looked clumsy, but he moved like a cat, with absolutely no sound."
    "Did he speak to you?"
    "Oh, yes. He asked me where Calvin was. I didn't tell him, even though he…"
    Durell said quickly, "All right. Why did he search your apartment? What was he looking for?"
    "He had the knife in his hand. He made me sit absolutely still while he looked around. He was wild, but awfully fast. He thought I had a letter from Calvin, or something. I don't know."
    "You'd recognize him again?"
    Her mouth moved. "I'll never forget him."
    "Did he say anything at all that might be useful?"
    She hesitated.
    "Go on," he urged. "You must tell me."
    "He said something about Calvin, as if Calvin had double-crossed somebody. A man named Gustl Weederman."
    Durell frowned. "Do you know that name?"
    "I never heard of it before. The man — the killer, I mean — seemed angry when he let the name slip. I think he assumed I knew about it, and then he saw that he had made a mistake, because I obviously knew nothing about it. He kept insisting afterward that I must know about this so-called double cross Calvin pulled on Weederman. It was as if he was trying to convince himself. And because he was so angry, he was a bit careless, and that's when I tried to get away, through the door."
    "And Lew Osbourn then heard you?"
    "Yes. He came in so fast — it happened so quickly…"
    The waiter came with their drinks. The girl took hers in both hands, shivering, and the waiter looked at her curiously, then at Durell. Durell stared at him and he went away. The girl was breathing in great, shuddering gasps. Her face was white. There were tiny beads of perspiration on her upper lip. She whispered, "This time I think I'm really going to be sick."
    He helped her up and led her to the door marked "Ladies." She went through quickly. Durell looked around the bar and found a phone booth where he could watch the door through which Deirdre had gone. He went over to the phone and dropped a coin in the slot and dialed an emergency number. He got through to Burritt Swayney almost at once.
    "Burritt, this is Durell. I've got the girl. I need some dope. Have you ever heard of a man named Gustl or Gustav Weederman?"
    "What are you talking about? What about the girl?"
    "Come on," Durell said urgently. "Use the memory."
    "Weederman. Gustav Franz. Last heard from in Vienna. Naturalized American, suspected of Nazi sympathies during
that
war, worked for the military government in Vienna in '45. Age thirty-nine, graduate of Leipzig. Family of petty Austrian nobility. A count, I think. Single. Fired from the military government on suspicion of espionage for the Russians. Went through the Iron Curtain." Swayney laughed. "They executed him."
    "The hell they did."
    "What?"
    "He's over here. Hunting for Calvin Padgett. It's his action apparatus that's onto the girl. Maybe onto Padgett, too."
    "Sam, what happened, hey?"
    Durell told him. It was difficult to talk about Lew Osbourn's death. He finished: "The girl is with me now. I think she trusts me. If I bring her in, though, she won't talk. She's in a state of half shock now, I think. She wants to protect her brother at all costs, so I made a deal. She'll take me to