Unholy Ghost Read online

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Here is my card.’ He took it. ‘On the back are the numbers of the office of M. Joubert and the sisters at the convent, if any sisters are still there. Please call my office, M. Joubert’s office, and the sisters at the convent to confirm that I am now officially handling the matter. If you can contact the superior of the Sisters of Bon Secours here in Rome to confirm that she did indeed ask for Professor McBride’s assistance I suggest you do so. Mr Costello tells me there is information relating to the matter in a green dossier in Professor McBride’s office. I need to see it and, if I think necessary, to take a copy. I am in Rome only to assess the relevance of this information and I wish to do so as speedily as possible. While I appreciate your giving me access is not without its problems, I hope you appreciate my position. I have given you sufficient information, I think, to confirm my bona fides in this matter and I hope you will be able to make the necessary calls as soon as possible.’

  Scolari looked at the card then at Jimmy.

  ‘I’m working with Ms Heppert now. That is what Professor McBride would have wished. I can confirm everything Ms Heppert says and, having seen the dossier, agree with Ms Heppert that there is information contained in it that she needs to support the work she is doing for the sisters.’

  Scolari looked back at the card.

  ‘I do not know whether I can …’

  Nadine Heppert stood up.

  ‘Then please find someone who does know. I am trying to be as reasonable as I can but my time is limited. Professor McBride is still in intensive care after her latest surgery and will not be in any way contactable for some considerable time. I can, of course, return to Paris and set in motion the necessary legal …’

  Scolari stood up, Jimmy sat and watched.

  ‘Please, you must understand, Ms Heppert. I do not doubt your bona fides but I have no legal right to give any permissions …’

  She steamrollered over him.

  ‘Then as I say, find someone who has, or I will get my own legal right.’ She looked down at Jimmy who was enjoying watching her in action although he regarded the contest as a mismatch. Scolari was nothing more than an academic, he didn’t really stand a chance. ‘Are you ready, Mr Costello?’

  Jimmy stood up slowly.

  Maybe it was something in the way she’d spoken to Jimmy that decided Scolari, the nasty edge in her voice, the arrogant confidence of a superior to a menial.

  ‘Perhaps, if it is no more than a sight of the document. I think, yes I think I could …’

  ‘No, Professor. I insist that you make those calls first. I don’t want you to agree now and have doubts later if and when anyone should ask you whether you checked you were acting correctly.’

  Scolari was finished. She had given him his orders so he would have to obey them.

  ‘I will make the calls …’

  ‘Good, start with my office then with M. Joubert’s office. You will get a response at both of those. Then try the convent and last the mother superior. Mr Costello and I will go and get a coffee and return when you call. Please make your calls as soon as I leave.’ There it was again, thought Jimmy, the superior to the menial. First knock the poor bugger down then kick him in the slats. Some did it with boots, she did it with the grand manner. ‘Where can we get coffee?’

  Scolari brightened. He could provide that information without any reservations. He gave her directions to a café. She led Jimmy out of the office, down in the elevator, and out into the street. Once outside the office block they set off to the café which was close by but which Jimmy had never known existed.

  ‘Nice work. You rolled over him nicely.’

  She didn’t respond to his compliment but looked around at the office blocks.

  ‘What the hell kind of college is theirs? This all looks more like where I work.’

  ‘It’s a college all right. McBride’s office is on the top floor. On a clear day you get a nice view of the hills at Frascati.’

  ‘What do they teach there?’

  ‘Nothing. They don’t teach. They were founded to study the relationship between religion, power, and politics. They’re good at it, they’ve been doing it a long time. Their founder was one of the Borgias.’ Jimmy gestured with his arm. ‘This was all farms. The rents went to keep the college going. Now it’s offices and the rents still go to the college. Like I said, they study, they don’t teach. They can afford to do without students.’

  Jimmy could see she was impressed. He’d meant her to be. He needed her to know that he had something solid behind him and he didn’t mean one of the Borgias. She wasn’t interested in history but money, power, and possessions impressed her, and money did it most because money was usually what gave you the power and possessions.

  ‘That professor guy back there didn’t look too hot on power or politics so I guess he must be the one who does religion.’

  Jimmy smiled dutifully, she had made a joke about Scolari to show that she wasn’t too impressed by that particular member of the wealthy Collegio. She had obviously enjoyed squashing the harmless academic. The Comedian was right. She could probably be a nasty piece of work when she felt like it.

  They found the café. It was a functional sort of place with big windows through which you could see bright plastic-topped tables and shiny metal chairs. At the back was a counter which did the coffee and flanking it were the chiller cabinets of sandwiches and other take-away meals. It was more a snackery for the office workers than a place to eat, anonymous and universal and most of all functional. It was mid-morning, too late for people arriving and not late enough for the quick snack lunchers. It stayed open in case a lucky few managed a mid-morning break but at the moment it was empty. Nadine sat at a table while Jimmy got two coffees.

  ‘I’ll give him half an hour then we’ll go back.’

  ‘What if he hasn’t made the all the calls?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. He’ll get someone at my office and he might get someone at Joubert’s but the convent won’t answer and the superior left Rome last week. We’ll give him half an hour.’

  ‘A whole half hour. Why so generous with your time?’

  ‘Because we need to talk.’

  ‘We do?’

  ‘Yes, we do. What is it you’re holding out on me?’

  ‘Sorry, you just lost me.’

  ‘No I didn’t. When we ate last night I knew something had happened, what was it?’

  Jimmy almost laughed. Was it divine intervention, good luck, or was somebody stage-managing the whole thing? Half a dozen times last night when they were eating he had tried to do like the Comedian had told him, tell her about getting picked up outside Termini, and each time he’d fluffed it or let it go because he knew it wouldn’t sound right. Now here she was laying it on a plate for him and no acting required. She wanted him to tell her. She’d asked him out loud to tell her. So he told her.

  She sat and listened. When Jimmy had finished he waited while she thought the whole thing over.

  ‘Who is he?’

  ‘Intelligence of some sort, Danish Intelligence, rank of commander. That’s all I know.’

  ‘And he knew you from Denmark, from some bind you got into there?’

  ‘There and other places.’

  She was silent for a moment as she went over what Jimmy had told her.

  ‘I was wrong about you and I’m not often wrong. I don’t like that.’

  ‘It happens. No one’s right all the time.’

  ‘I thought I’d got you pretty well pegged as no more than a useful leg man but first you kill Serge and then you spring Danish Intelligence on me. To be that wrong makes me think someone worked very hard to get me that way.’

  ‘It’s possible but it wasn’t me. Until Joubert got smacked around I didn’t know you existed.’

  ‘Is there anything else I should know about you?’

  ‘You can have what there is. I got involved in something here in Rome, it doesn’t matter what, I was only a bit pla
yer. I was out of my depth and got chewed up but with Professor McBride’s help I got out alive. There were people after me and they finally caught up with me in Copenhagen. That’s where my friend in Danish Intelligence got involved. He was all for throwing me in chokey and losing the key but McBride got me out again and finally squared everything with the people on my tail. I’m clear now so long as I don’t go back to Denmark. I’m not welcome there. I owe McBride a lot so now I do odd jobs for her, like finding the heir to the Colmar estate.’

  ‘Except she had one up her sleeve all along.’

  ‘Yeah. She doesn’t always tell me everything. She doesn’t think I can act. If I’m not telling the truth it shows so she makes sure I only know enough of the truth to get her what she wants.’

  She didn’t give him an argument on McBride’s assessment of his acting.

  ‘Who is this McBride really?’

  ‘An academic. Works for the Collegio Principe.’

  ‘Like that Scolari guy? Don’t give me that.’

  ‘No, not like Scolari, not like anyone. As far as I can make out she sort of moonlights for the Catholic authorities. She sweeps things under the carpet for them, in-house stuff they want to be sure stays in house.’

  ‘And you?’

  ‘Like I said, I’m her odd-job man. My way of saying thank you for Rome and for Denmark.’

  ‘So, she’s connected and she’s no lightweight?’

  ‘Professional killers don’t shoot nobodies where I come from.’

  ‘And where do you come from when you’re not being chewed up or doing odd jobs for moonlighting academics?’

  ‘London. Detective sergeant in the Met. about a thousand years ago, but I still know how to put two and two together when I have to.’

  She fell silent.

  The Comedian had been spot on, no lies needed, no acting needed, just tell her the truth, let her add two and two and wait for her to come up with five.

  ‘Why are you telling me all this?’

  ‘You asked.’

  ‘I asked, but you don’t owe me anything, so again, why are you telling me?’

  ‘No, I don’t owe you anything but I think we need to work together so I’ve told you.’

  ‘Don’t count on it to get you anything. Nothing you’ve told me gets me anywhere with what I’m working on.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘The Colmar estate. That’s all you need to know.’

  ‘What’s the secret ingredient in the Colmar estate that’s got everyone jumping?’

  ‘Does there have to be a something?’

  ‘An old guy dead in Munich, Joubert in hospital, McBride gunned down outside her office, a journalist pushed under a train …’

  ‘What journalist? You mentioned a journalist before.’

  ‘Serge didn’t tell you? Naughty Serge. He got me a journalist to visit the old guy’s daughter in Munich to see what he could get out of her. They pushed him under a train at a local station and got a witness to say it was suicide.’

  ‘Did he get anything?’

  ‘No idea, he never reported in before he went under the train.’

  ‘So you have no idea what this is all about?’

  ‘Only that the score so far is two murders, one attempted murder, a criminal assault, and Danish Intelligence lifting me here in Rome which to a nasty mind could be classed as kidnapping. I’d say there had to be something pretty exceptional in the Colmar estate for all that to have happened, wouldn’t you?’

  ‘I wouldn’t say, and it’s three murders. You left out the dead police officer in Gagny sous Bois. Don’t forget Serge.’

  Jimmy wasn’t forgetting Serge, he would have a hard time with that, but it would have to come later. Right now he was busy with other things.

  ‘My point is, I think we’d stand a better chance if I know what you know.’

  ‘Your boss McBride never told you what this was all about?’

  ‘No. Just find an heir.’

  ‘Then I’m not about to tell you either. You were a detective, if you want to know then you’ll have to find out for yourself. What about our Danish friend?’

  ‘What about him?’

  ‘You said he wants you to get close to me, to report back to him. What are you going to do about that?’

  ‘Nothing, there’s nothing I can do. Now you know what he wants you dump me or keep me with you. It’s your choice not mine.’

  ‘I should dump you.’

  ‘Yes, that’s the safe way.’

  ‘But you think maybe not the right way?’

  ‘It’s the safe way.’

  ‘But?’

  ‘But you wouldn’t have taken me on board unless you needed me.’

  ‘I took you on board? That’s not how I remember it. As I remember it you slapped me about and did all the threatening.’

  ‘OK, you’re cleverer than me. You can act and I can’t. You got yourself Serge because you needed somebody to handle a bit of rough stuff and I don’t mean the sex.’ That got a smile. Jimmy was pleased. ‘Once you knew I’d killed him you decided I should fill his boots. You still needed someone to look after the rough stuff.’

  The smile had lasted.

  ‘The sex?’

  ‘No. For that you’ll have to get somebody else. I know what goes where and why but that’s as far as it goes with me. With me it would be sex within the meaning of the act, but as for magnificent and wonderful? No.’

  She managed to go up as far as a small laugh.

  ‘So, no sex?’

  ‘No, but there’ll still be other kinds of rough stuff and it’ll need handling so maybe like I said, the safe way isn’t the right way. Not if you want to get where you’re going.’

  ‘And where is it you think I’m going?’

  But Jimmy was finished with the game. He delivered the message like the Comedian had told him. Now he wanted to get on.

  ‘Back to McBride’s office to get the address where we can find our candidate, then we go and see her, find out if she’s any good. That’ll be for you to decide.’

  ‘And if she is any good?’

  ‘Then to Munich to find out who the witness woman is and see if, through her, we can get a line on the opposition. Locating the opposition, that’s where I think you’re going and that’s when things will start to turn nasty if they’re going to. But it’s just my opinion. You might be going straight back to Paris and tell them that I confessed to murdering Serge Carpentier and try to wash your hands of this whole mess. That would be the safe thing to do.’

  The smile came back, but not the same one. This was a predatory sort of smile, like a sexy young lioness might give a tired old antelope who wasn’t so quick any more. It said she wanted him, but not for any good reason.

  ‘You’re cute, you know that? Innocent cute. Oh, you’re a tough guy all right and that’s what makes it interesting. A tough innocent. That’s a big turn on, you know that?’

  Jimmy looked at his watch. Two suits had arrived and were ordering coffee to take out.

  ‘It’s not something I think about at ten fifty in the morning. Are we going back to Scolari or are you going to seduce me in here, take my body by force on the table?’

  She laughed out loud and the suits at the counter turned and looked at them.

  ‘Damn you, Costello, I hate men who can make me laugh.’ She got up. ‘Come on, let’s go and get what we came here for.’

  Jimmy got up.

  ‘Are we still together on this?’

  ‘For now, until I decide otherwise.’

  ‘And do I report to the Dane like he asked?’

  ‘Sure, only you check your report with me first, OK?’

  ‘Any way you like it.’

  She stopped and gave him the look again.

  ‘Oh you’d be surprised at the way I like it.’

  ‘No I wouldn’t, I’d be shocked and embarrassed.’

  And she laughed out loud again as they left.

  ‘Damn you, Costell
o, damn and blast you. You make that plastic table-top back there look almost tempting.’

  Was she flirting with him, laughing at him, or getting ready to squelch him like she’d done to Scolari? Jimmy decided it didn’t matter because she had made another mistake about him. He wasn’t a tough guy, not any more, if he’d ever been. When he’d put that gun to Serge’s head his hand was shaking so much he’d have missed if the barrel hadn’t been touching. And when he stood up and looked at the two blokes in the alley he’d been about ready to throw up and piss his pants at the same time he was so scared. She thought he’d kill again, easily, kill her if it was necessary. She admired that in him, that ruthlessness. The problem was, it wasn’t there, she was wide of the mark again. He couldn’t do to her what he’d done to Serge even though, with her, he was damned sure it wouldn’t be any mistake.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Nadine paid for the tickets so they travelled business class and at Genoa airport she hired an Alfa Romeo sports model. She gave Jimmy the map, he would navigate, she would drive. At first he was worried that she’d try to kill them both by seeing what the car could do once they’d cleared the clutter of city traffic, but she drove steadily and well as they travelled down into Liguria. The place they were looking for was on the coast, well away from anywhere. The nearest town was La Spezia, which was also a big naval base, so the road from Genoa was fine. Once past La Spezia they left the main highway and travelled along winding country roads through fields and woodland and began to get views of the blue Mediterranean beyond the fields and trees. Jimmy checked the map and told Nadine to take the next left turn and then take it easy. She turned and drove slowly along the road until Jimmy told her to stop beside a five-barred gate. On the gate was a big sign in Italian. Jimmy didn’t need to have it interpreted – ‘Keep Out. Strictly Private’.

  Nadine punched the horn a couple of times and an old man came out from a small cottage that stood near the gate behind the flimsy wire fence that had run the length of the road. He spoke no English but Nadine soon made him understand that they were expected and they were coming in. He opened the gate and watched them drive through. Jimmy looked back as the man slowly closed the gate. An old woman came out of the cottage wiping her hands on her apron and looked at the car as it travelled away up the concrete road. The road cut through a big field that had something small and green growing in it. It might be Keep Out and Strictly Private but if the old couple and the wire fence were an example of the security then it would keep out rabbits perhaps, but not anything more aggressive or determined. They drove along the concrete road towards a wood. Once among the trees they came to a gate. This time it was a real gate and it was set in a steel fence which was three meters high. Here, nicely out of sight among the trees, was where the serious security began. At the gate Jimmy got out and went to a box set at about head level. He pressed the button. A voice answered in Italian.