The Bormann Testament by Jack Higgins Read Free Book Online Page B

ready and waiting. “You seem to have gone to considerable trouble, Herr…?”
    “Chavasse,” he said. “Paul Chavasse.”
    Something seemed to move in the brown eyes, but her face betrayed no emotion. To anyone watching, she was just another of the girls accepting a drink from a customer. “That’s very kind of you, Herr Chavasse. Champagne is always most acceptable.”
    As he sat down, he pulled off the ring Hardt had given him and pushed it across to her. “I hope you find this also acceptable, Fraulein Hartmann.” Then he took the bottle of champagne from the ice bucket and opened it.
    As he filled her glass, she studied the ring, her face quite calm, and then slipped it into her handbag. When she looked up, there was a slight crease between her eyes, the sure sign of stress.
    “What’s happened to Mark?” she said simply.
    Chavasse smiled. “Drink your champagne and don’t worry. We’re working together now. You’re supposed to take me back to your flat with you. He’ll meet us there as soon as he can.”
    She sipped a little of her champagne and frowned down at the glass, as if considering what he had said. After a few moments, she looked up. “I think you’d better tell me everything, Herr Chavasse.”
    He gave her a cigarette and took one himself. They leaned across the table like two lovers, heads almost touching, and he brought her up to date in a few brief sentences.
    When he was finished, she sighed. “So Muller is dead?”
    “What about his sister?” Chavasse said. “Is she here at the moment?”
    Anna Hartmann shook her head. “I’m afraid not. When she didn’t report for work this evening, I phoned her apartment. Her landlady told me that she packed a bag and left this morning without leaving any forwarding address.”
    Chavasse frowned. “That isn’t so good. We don’t have a clear lead to follow now.”
    “There’s always the sleeping-car attendant you told me about,” she said. “Through him you can at least find out something about the opposition.”
    “You’ve got a point there.” He checked his watch and saw that it was almost three-thirty. “I think we’d better make a move.”
    She smiled. “I’m afraid that isn’t as easy as it sounds. I’m supposed to work until four-thirty. If you want me to leave before that time, you’ll have to pay the management a fee.”
    Chavasse smiled. “You’re kidding.”
    “No, it’s quite true,” she said. “But first, we must have a dance together to make it look good.”
    She pulled him to his feet and onto the tiny dance floor before he could protest. She slipped one arm around his neck and danced with her head on his shoulder, her firm young body pressed so closely against him that he could feel the line from breast to thigh.
    Most of the other couples on the crowded dance floor seemed to be dancing in the same way, and Chavasse whispered in her ear, “How long are we supposed to keep this up?”
    She smiled up at him and there was a hint of laughter in her eyes. “I think five minutes should be enough. Have you any objection?”
    He shook his head. “No, but if it’s all right with you, I’d like to relax and enjoy it.”
    The smile slipped from her face and she regarded him gravely for a moment, and then she turned her head against his shoulder once more and he tightened his arm about her wasist.
    Chavasse forgot about the job, forgot about everything except the fact that he was dancing with a warm, exciting girl whose perfume filled his nostrils and caused a pleasant ache of longing in the pit of his stomach. It had been a long time since he had last slept with a woman, but that wasn’t the whole explanation. That Anna Hartmann attracted him physically was undeniable, but there was something more there, something deeper.
    They had been dancing for at least fifteen minutes when she at last pulled gently away from him. “We’d better go now,” she said gravely, and led the way back to the table.
    She picked up