Found Wanting Read Online Free PDF

Amsterdam.
    He had risen from his chair with that in mind when a figure appeared at his table from inside the café: a tall, broad-shouldered, middle-aged man in a dark suit and an elegant bottle-green overcoat. He was lantern-jawed and sharp-nosed, with grey quiffed hair and pale blue eyes, sparkling behind gold-framed spectacles. He stood, decisively it seemed, in Eusden’s path.
    ‘Excuse me,’ he said in a clipped Mitteleuropa accent. ‘You are Richard Eusden?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘May I join you?’ He set the cup of coffee he was carrying down on the table and extended a hand. ‘I am Werner Straub.’ The edges of his mouth curled in the faintest of smiles. ‘A friend of Marty.’
    ‘Really?’
    They shook. Straub’s grip was hard and cold.
    ‘Yes. Shall we sit?’
    They sat. Straub’s glance fell instantly on the attaché case, propped next to Eusden’s briefcase in the chair next to him. The clamour of the PA and the gabble of passing travellers seemed suddenly distant, as if an invisible bubble had formed round the table.
    ‘Perhaps you are surprised that I know who you are,’ said Straub, his voice quiet but distinct. ‘Marty told me that his ex-wife would come.’
    ‘There was a change of plan.’
    ‘I know. She phoned him . . . after the change.’
    ‘Ah. Right.’ This was a surprise. Gemma had not said she meant to warn Marty of the substitution. Eusden would have thought her keen to avoid explaining herself.
    ‘Then Marty phoned me. I was already on my way, you understand.’
    ‘Where is Marty?’
    ‘Cologne. He travelled there yesterday from Amsterdam. To meet with me.’
    ‘And your connection with him is . . .’
    ‘We are business partners as well as friends.’ Straub sipped his coffee. ‘Not such old friends as you and he, of course.’
    Eusden’s surprise was turning to confusion. Straub looked about as unlike someone who would befriend Marty – or indeed do business with him – as it was possible to imagine. ‘Why did Marty send you rather than come himself?’
    ‘Sadly, he is unwell. A bad headache. You know about the . . . tumour?’
    ‘Yes. I do.’
    ‘So unfortunate.’ Another sip of coffee. ‘You must have been distressed to hear of it.’
    ‘I was.’
    ‘He is resting at the hotel. He will be better by tomorrow, I think. The headaches . . . come and go. It is a pity you will not see him. I know he is sorry about that.’
    ‘So am I.’
    ‘But it cannot be helped. You have brought . . . the article he wants?’
    ‘Yes.’ Eusden lifted the attaché case on to his lap, feeling strangely glad of the excuse to take hold of it. ‘Here it is.’
    Straub studied the initials for a moment. ‘CEH. His grandfather, no?’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘Good. So, I take it from here. And you are free to go home.’ Straub smiled and extended a hand, seemingly expecting Eusden to surrender the case there and then. But Eusden made no move. Straub’s smile took on an edge of puzzlement as he slowly withdrew his hand. ‘You are . . . unhappy about something, Richard? I may call you Richard, I hope. I am Werner. We are both friends of Marty. We are both . . . obliging him.’
    ‘Look, I don’t want to appear suspicious, but . . . I don’t know you.’
    ‘No. Of course not. I understand. And there is no hurry. My train is not for an hour. We can talk. We can get to know each other.’ Straub snapped off a piece of the small biscuit that accompanied his coffee and ate it, regarding Eusden with apparently amiable curiosity as he did so. Then he flicked a crumb from his fingers and continued: ‘You are Marty’s oldest friend. I am probably his newest. You can tell me about his past. I can tell you about his present.’
    ‘So tell me.’
    ‘He is one of those people who . . . adds enjoyment to other people’s lives. I first met him on a matter of business. I liked him from the start. I became his friend. I will miss him if the doctors are right and he