1967 - Have This One on Me by James Hadley Chase Read Free Book Online Page A

convinced.
    ‘Okay. Let us assume he does go. He could get away with your money. He’s a very bright boy.’
    ‘What makes you think he’s so bright?’ Dorey said impatiently. ‘He’s a small time crook and he isn’t so bright. I am prepared to lose the money ... the Czechs will get it. Girland most certainly won’t. After all, it is Government money. The trouble with you, Tim, is you have an inferiority complex about Girland. I tell you ... he isn’t all that bright.’
    O’Halloran thought of the times Girland had swindled Dorey out of considerable sums of money, but he realised this wasn’t the time to remind Dorey.
    ‘Well, we’ll see what we’ll see,’ he said.
    Pleased with his planning, Dorey frowned at him, then pulled a file towards him. This was his well-known gesture of dismissal.
     
    * * *
     
    Worthington wound off the film, then opening the back of the camera, he took out the film cartridge.
    ‘You mustn’t look so worried,’ he said. ‘I will be gone in two days. Surely, we can get along together for so short a time?’
    Mala, by now, had become resigned to the fact that she was landed with him. She had got over the first initial shock, and she was prepared to help him if it meant that she would be rid of him quickly. She had taken twenty photographs of him. Looking through the reflex lens of the camera at his weak, scared face, she began to feel sorry for him.
    ‘I don’t know how we will manage,’ she said helplessly, ‘but I suppose we will.’
    He smiled at her. Regarding him, she decided he had been a lot more impressive with his moustache.
    ‘Of course we will ... two days ... I promise ... no more.’ He handed her the film cartridge and his British passport. ‘Would you take these to Karel Vlast? He has an apartment on Celetna ulice. He knows how urgent it is. He is old, but he is clever.’ Worthington stroked his upper lip experiencing a little start of surprise that there were no longer bristles to comfort him. ‘You know where it is? You take a tram.’
    ‘Yes.’ Mala hesitated, then she said ‘Would you go into the bathroom, please? I have to dress.’
    ‘Of course.’
    Worthington entered the bathroom and closed the door.
    He lowered the lid of the toilet and sat on it.
    Listening to her move around the room, he thought back to the time he had first met her. He had been alerted by Cain that there was a reliable woman agent in Prague who worked at the Alhambra night club. Cain said it would be safer for Worthington to pass his messages and information to her since Cain often went to the club and she would then pass the information to Cain. In this way. he and Cain need no longer meet.
    Worthington remembered his first visit to Mala’s apartment.
    He had with him what appeared to be a harmless shopping list, but that concealed, in invisible ink, information he wanted Cain to have. The moment he saw her, he had fallen in love with her. The comparison between her and Emilie was fantastic: one gross, stupid and disagreeable, the other, lovely, slim and gay. But he had never let Mala know his feelings. He kept reminding himself that he was so much older than she was and besides he was married.
    But during the two years they had worked together, he had become more and more infatuated by her. It hurt him that she was so indifferent to him, meeting him only as a means to make extra money.
    Since he had been in her apartment, he was finding their close association a great strain. He wanted her. His body ached for her, but he knew it would be fatal even to give her a hint of his love for her. Not once, during the time they had been together so intimately had she shown anything but a wish to see him gone.
    With a determined effort, he switched his mind to Vlast.
    He had first met him at a secret anti-communist meeting. Vlast had taken a liking to him. He said Englishmen were always reliable. They had talked After meeting several times, Vlast had confided to Worthington that at