Running Blind / The Freedom Trap Read Online Free Page B

Not that I intended to start anything; the camera case was gone and the odds were too great anyway. As though someone had given a signal they all turned and walked away, each in a different direction, and left me standing there. There was quite a few people around but not one of the good people of Akureyri had any idea that anything untoward had just happened in their line of sight.
    I felt ruffled so I straightened my jacket and then took a taxi to the Hotel Vardborg. There wasn’t anything else to do.
IV
    Elin had been right; I was in time to lunch at the Vardborg. I had just stuck my fork into the mutton when Herr Buchner walked in, looked around and spotted me, andheaded in my direction. He stood on the other side of the table, twitched his moustache, and said, ‘Mr Stewart?’
    I leaned back. ‘Well, if it isn’t Herr Buchner! What can I do for you?’
    ‘My name is Graham,’ he said coldly. ‘And I’d like to talk to you.’
    ‘You were Buchner this morning,’ I said. ‘But if I had a name like that I’d want to change it, too.’ I waved him towards a chair. ‘Be my guest—I can recommend the soup.’
    He sat down stiffly. ‘I’m not in the mood for acting straight man to your comedian,’ he said, extracting his wallet from his pocket. ‘My credentials.’ He pushed a scrap of paper across the table.
    I unfolded it to find the left half of a 100-kronur banknote. When I matched it against the other half from my own wallet the two halves fitted perfectly. I looked up at him. ‘Well, Mr Graham; that seems to be in order. What can I do for you?’
    ‘You can give me the package,’ he said. ‘That’s all I want.’
    I shook my head regretfully. ‘You know better than that.’
    He frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘I mean that I can’t give you the package because I haven’t got it.’
    His moustache twitched again and his eyes turned cold. ‘Let’s have no games, Stewart. The package.’ He held out his hand.
    ‘Damn it!’ I said. ‘You were there—you know what happened.’
    ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was where?’
    ‘Outside Akureyri Airport. You were taking a taxi.’
    His eyes flickered. ‘Was I?’ he said colourlessly. ‘Go on!’
    ‘They grabbed me before I knew what was happening, and they got clean away with the package. It was in my camera case.’
    His voice cracked. ‘You mean you haven’t got it!’
    I said sardonically, ‘If you were supposed to be my bodyguard you did a bloody awful job. Slade isn’t going to like it.’
    ‘By God, he’s not!’ said Graham with feeling. A tic pulsed under his right eye. ‘So it was in the camera case.’
    ‘Where else would it be? It was the only luggage I carried. You ought to know that—you were standing right behind me with your big ears flapping when I checked in at Reykjavik airport.’
    He gave me a look of dislike. ‘You think you’re clever, don’t you?’ He leaned forward. ‘There’s going to be a Godawful row about this. You’d better stay available, Stewart; you’d better be easy to find when I come back.’
    I shrugged. ‘Where would I go? Besides, I have the Scottish sense of thrift, and my room here is paid for.’
    ‘You take this damned coolly.’
    ‘What do you expect me to do? Burst into tears?’ I laughed in his face. ‘Grow up, Graham.’
    His face tightened but he said nothing; instead he stood up and walked away. I put in fifteen minutes of deep thought while polishing off the mutton and at the end of that time I came to a decision, and the decision was that I could do with a drink, so I went to find one.
    As I walked through the hotel foyer I saw Buchner-Graham hard at work in a telephone-box. Although it wasn’t particularly warm he was sweating.
V
    I came out of a dreamless sleep because someone was shaking me and hissing, ‘Stewart, wake up!’ I Opened my eyes and found Graham leaning over me.
    I blinked at him. ‘Funny! I was under the impression I locked my