Beirut - An Explosive Thriller Read Online Free Page B

corner of her mouth turned up a little. She wiped her
hands, checked her chipped nails and frowned. She leaned forwards,
her chin on her clasped hands. Her blue eyes caught the light. ‘So
who is Charles, the gallant knight who rescues fallen women and
threatens to arrest them?’
    ‘ I work for
British Customs and Excise.’ He thought the words sounded pompous,
the formality at odds with her amused interest in him. ‘I had some
business in Hamburg.’ He leaned forward. ‘Now, tell me about your
father.’
    Duggan sensed
her nervousness, her constant glances across to the reception and
the revolving door to the street. It was quiet, the night staff on
reception murmuring. She pressed her hands together and rocked as
she talked.
    ‘ My father
owns a business, he is an entrepreneur. The business makes luxury
boats for rich people. He has built this business from nothing by
working hard. He and my mother lived in a caravan at the boatyard.
That was where I was born, in a caravan. I am a gypsy, you
see?’
    He nodded. ‘I
see.’
    ‘ Five years
ago my mother walked out. My father was having an affair with a
woman he met during an inquest into an accident at the boatyard.
This woman was married but she was very attractive and much younger
than her husband. She was younger than my father, too. Her name is
Hilde. Her husband died, which was very convenient for her, because
she was free then to put her claws further into my father. He
carried on the affair with Hilde for two years before my mother
found out. When she did, my father told her to live with this
affair. He started to invite this Hilde to visit even when my
mother was still in the house. She could not stand it. After she
left, Hilde moved in. Am I boring you?’
    He shook his
head. ‘No. Go on.’
    ‘ She was
fast, this Hilde. She liked eating in fancy places and she loved to
buy horses and diamonds and she paid surgeons to make herself
perfect for her ‘little Gerty’. I hated to hear my father called
this. I hated her. She gambled. His business suffered, all the time
with her wanting this and wanting that, this expensive holiday,
that expensive car. They gambled together. He gave her everything
until Luxe Marine was rotten and there was debt. The market had
changed but my father wasn’t looking. The orders stopped coming. He
owed millions. He was desperate. He needed money and the bank would
not help him anymore. He knew where there was a store of guns and
bombs from the cold war, from when he played as a child. He decided
to try and sell this store and the bitch’s brother helped him to
find a buyer, because he is involved in such things and he has a
taste for fine things like she does.’
    He watched
her as she talked to herself, her anger or perhaps the warmth of
the lobby bringing red spots to her pale cheeks, her full lips
moistened by her flicking tongue.
    ‘ The night
Meier came to the house with the news he had found a buyer in
Beirut, I was listening at the door. I didn’t like the smell of him
and wanted to know what he was getting up to. He opened the door
and discovered me. He hit me in the face. My father did nothing to
protect me. He joined Meier in shouting at me. They locked me in my
room, but I escaped across the roof.’
    ‘ Meier is
Hilde’s brother?’
    She blinked.
‘Yes, yes he is.’
    ‘ So how do
you know your father is trying to kill you?’
    Elli sighed.
‘I stayed in a hotel that night and went to work the next day, as
usual. I didn’t think to be scared, but there were men there who
tried to make me get into their car when I left the office. I ran
away, but there were more men at the hotel waiting for me, in the
car park. One of them had a gun and this is how I finally realised
my life is in danger.’
    Duggan
shifted in his chair. ‘Why did you stay in Hamburg? Why not flee
to, oh, I don’t know, Berlin?’
    ‘ They plan to
move these bombs in one of my father’s boats, the ones he makes.
They are big yachts for the