The New Eastgate Swing Read Online Free PDF Page B

yet, but the skies were as heavy as slate. Should he wait, or simply call it a day and beat the traffic out on Harrogate Road?
    He was just emerging on to the street when he heard a shout and saw Baker turning the corner from Lands Lane.
    ‘Let’s go and get a cuppa,’ he said as he lumbered close, hands deep in his raincoat pockets, eyes serious.
    Upstairs at the Kardomah, Markham ordered coffee from Joyce, the waitress he’d known for years. Tea and a slice of Dundee cake for Baker. He waited until the man had poured sugar into his drink.
    ‘You don’t look too happy.’
    ‘Well …’ he began, taking his pipe from a bulging suit pocket and lighting it. ‘I am and I’m not. That Miss Harding was about as helpful as she was yesterday. But I finally got her to let me look at the post that had arrived for our friend in the last few days. She had it locked away in a bureau.’
    ‘And?’
    He pulled out an onionskin aerogramme and let it fall on the table.
    ‘Just some “Dear Occupant” bumf and this. She didn’t notice me take it. I had a look inside.’
    He opened it slowly and carefully. Dutch stamps and a Rotterdam postmark. Markham began to read then glanced up quickly.
    ‘See what I mean?’ Baker asked. ‘That’s Kraut, isn’t it?’
    ‘It is,’ Markham answered.
    ‘Why would a Dutchman be writing in German?’
    Markham let the question hang as he scanned the words. Either his German was rustier than he thought, or half of this didn’t make sense. He looked again, taking his time, trying to put a meaning to it all. He could follow a few sentences here and there. The rest was gibberish. ‘Did you speak it?’ he asked.
    ‘Never learnt. Why? What does it say?’
    ‘That’s the problem. It doesn’t.’
    Baker look confused.
    ‘It’s got to say summat.’
    ‘A few sentences do. “Took the train to Magdeburg.” Then there’s “Across by Salzwedel.” They’re both in East Germany. A couple more like that, place names in the DDR. The rest is just nonsense.’
    ‘Are you sure it’s not just you?’
    ‘Positive.’ He folded the letter. ‘I tell you what, Stephen, we’re in over our heads with this one.’

CHAPTER FOUR
    ‘You’re the one who’s done all this spy malarkey,’ Baker said glumly.
    ‘A long time ago.’ Markham rubbed his chin. ‘It’s funny, though …’
    ‘What is?’
    ‘The meal I had with Fox’s wife.’
    ‘What about it? I’ve seen her once. She has that look about her.’
    ‘A vamp?’ He shrugged. Whatever charm she had was wasted on him. ‘Seems her husband spends a lot of time in West Germany. Sometimes he brings people over from the East.’
    ‘What sort of people?’ Baker asked sharply.
    ‘She didn’t say exactly,’ Markham replied. ‘But professionals, probably. People companies here need. Scientists. Engineers.’ He let the word hang.
    ‘What did she want?’
    ‘They want us to follow up on whichever of them settles locally. Check up on them and make sure they’re behaving themselves.’ He tapped a nail against the aerogramme. ‘Odd timing, isn’t it? Right as one of them vanishes.’
    ‘Sounds a little dubious to me,’ Baker said.
    ‘Official Secrets Act stuff.’
    ‘I don’t know that I like it.’
    ‘We follow up, write a report. That’s the limit of our involvement. No skin off our nose if they disappear. The money’s good.’
    Baker was silent, thoughtful.
    ‘So do you think this de Vries or whoever he really is might be one of them?’
    Markham finished the last of his coffee.
    ‘Bit of a coincidence, don’t you think?’
    ‘There’s no such beast. You ought to know that by know.’ He paused, wiping cake crumbs from his mouth with a serviette. ‘That changes the whole complexion, doesn’t it?’
    ‘Maybe. Maybe not. Like I said, we check up on them and write our report. That’s all. I told her I wanted to talk to my partner first.’
    ‘If you want my vote, I say we accept and keep looking into all this,’ Baker