Fatal Enquiry Read Online Free PDF Page B

a good deal of reluctance, I sat. Normally I prefer bars or glass between myself and a viper. On the other hand, there was a kind of exhilaration at being this close to a man Barker considered his nemesis.
    “Well? You want to talk? Let’s talk.”
    “I’m making a fresh start,” he said. “I’m tired of my old ways and trying to rehabilitate myself. I’ve got several friends willing to overlook my past and to help me put my best foot forward. I could convince a lot of people to give me a second chance, but not your employer. Never him. There’s been too much water over that bridge.”
    “Why the change of heart?”
    “I’m not getting any younger, and I don’t intend to lead a hand-to-mouth existence for the rest of my life. I’ve got plans.”
    “Plans involving diplomatic status.”
    “As usual, I see Cyrus is well informed. Yes, plans that would go a good deal more smoothly if he were not trailing me about trying to stop them. He gets excitable, you see. Once he gets an idea in his head, there’s no letting up on his part.”
    “You mean ideas such as you’re a professional criminal?”
    Nightwine was not angered by my words, but he waved a finger in my face.
    “Now, now, Mr. Llewelyn. Be careful. You’re awfully close to slander and I have an excellent solicitor. All you have is hearsay and much of it based upon the word of a man who is permanently prejudiced against me.”
    “And why shouldn’t he be?” I demanded.
    “I know you highly regard your employer, but the truth is he has carried the insane notion in his head for twenty years that I killed his brother.”
    My jaw must have dropped. Certainly I had no rejoinder at hand for that remark. Barker had not even intimated in the two years I had known him that he had a brother.
    “I can see he hasn’t told you,” Nightwine went on. “He’s always been tight-lipped. I suppose he hasn’t mentioned we were in the army together, either, or that we were the closest of friends. Oh, dear, he has been holding out on you, hasn’t he? He really doesn’t trust anyone, your boss.”
    “You’re lying,” I told him, but even as I said it, I realized I was on shaky ground.
    After all, I’d just caught the Guv hiding something from me. What kind of a working relationship can one have with a man who carries so many secrets?
    “Am I? Ask him how we met, then. The one thing I can say in Cyrus’s favor is that he never lies.”
    At this point a waiter interrupted us. Nightwine drank only water and I nothing so far, and they needed the table for paying customers. I ordered coffee. If Nightwine poisoned it, perhaps I wouldn’t have to go back and confront my employer.
    “No bread?” Nightwine asked, raising an eyebrow.
    “Not at present, thank you. Do you have a message you want me to give him when I return, or is the fact that I’ve been waylaid here these few minutes talking with you enough of a threat?”
    “Bravo. You really are coming along. I must admit I wasn’t impressed at our first meeting.”
    “I’d known Mr. Barker all of about forty-eight hours then. The message?”
    “Tell him we should meet. Let bygones be bygones, shake hands, and settle our differences and all that. He can name the place. I’m staying at the Army Navy Club. You see? I’m all aboveboard. Unlike him, I have no secrets.”
    “I’m not the one you have to convince.”
    The coffee arrived. I pulled it away from his reach and drained it in one pull, though it scalded my tongue. Bravado, I believe the Italians call it. I threw some coins onto the table.
    “I must get back,” I said, standing.
    “He’s got you working on the Sabbath? You know, you really need to put your foot down or he’ll take all your time.”
    “When I want advice, I’ll ask my father.”
    “Fair enough, then. I’ll be waiting for his decision. What’s it to be, do you think? Olive branches or arrows?”
    “I’d say, keep the quiver handy.”
    I walked away then, leaving him alone