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.He went over the wall behind the Munster.He was probably pushed.That sheer drop must be a hundred and fifty feet.'`God, I've just had a very large dinner.You do have a way of putting things.'`A large dinner.Lucky you.I've got by on a couple of bread rolls.'`Room Service.!'They both said it at the same time.Newman couldn't help recalling how Blanche had asked whether he had eaten.He undid his tie and loosened his collar, made no attempt to phone down for a meal.He was beyond it.She didn't press him.`Who was killed tonight then?' she asked.`The little man you said you didn't see passing the window of the Pavillon in Geneva when we were having breakfast.'`Oh, I remember.' She was losing interest.'Flotsam, you called him.One of life's losers.'`Sympathetically I said it.You know, you should hail from New York.They divide the world there into winners and losers.He was a refugee who fled from Hungary in fifty-six.He made his living any way he could.He deserved a better epitaph.'`I had company at dinner,' she told him, changing the subject.'Another Englishman.Beautiful manners I think he had been in the Army.We got on very well together.'`Some crusty old colonel of about eighty?' he asked with deliberate indifference.`No! He's very good-looking.About thirty.Very neat and with a moustache.Talks with a plum in his mouth.I found him very amusing.What time do we meet Dr Novak on Thursday?'`We don't.I go alone.He won't open up in the same way if you're present.And Thun is getting a dangerous place to visit.Or have you forgotten what nearly happened to us on the motorway?'`No, I haven't!' she burst out.'Which is why I think you might have made more of an effort to get back earlier — to have dinner with me.I needed company.Well,' she ended savagely; 'I got company.'The phone started ringing.Newman glanced at Nancy who shrugged her shoulders.He suddenly realized she was wearing a dress he hadn't seen before.Another black mark, he supposed.No comment.The bell went on ringing and ringing.He picked up the receiver.`A M.Manfred Seidler to speak to you,' the operator informed him.`Newman, we must meet tomorrow night.I will phone details for the rendezvous late tomorrow afternoon.'Truculent.Hectoring.Was there also a hint of desperation in Seidler's tone? Newman cradled the phone on his shoulder while he lit a cigarette.`Newman? Are you still there?'`Yes.I'm still here,' Newman replied quietly.'Tomorrow is out of the question.'`Then we do not meet at all! You hear me? Other people will pay a fortune for the information I have.`Sell it to the other people then.'`Newman, people are dying! I told you that before.Don't you even care?'`Now you listen to me, Seidler.I can probably meet you three days from now.That's my best offer.And I need to know in advance the rendezvous.'`You have a car?'`I could get hold of one.' Never give out even the smallest item of information to someone who is a completely unknown quantity.'And if you don't come to the point I'm going to put down the phone.`Don't do that.Please! For God's sake! Newman, I will call you again tomorrow at five o'clock.No, not tomorrow.Five o'clock on the day we meet.You must have a car.And, believe me, it is.too dangerous over an open line to give you details of the rendezvous.Dangerous to you — as well as to me.`Five o'clock the day we meet.Good night.'Newman replaced the phone before his caller could say one word more.He lit a cigarette and sat down on the edge of the bed, smiling at Nancy who sat watching him intently.`You were pretty tough with him,' she said.`In a two-way pull situation like that one participant comes out on top — dominates the other.When we do meet I'll get a lot more out of him if he's at the end of his tether.I think he's pretty near that point now.For some reason I'm his last hope.I want to keep it that way.'`And the day after tomorrow you see Dr Novak in Thun?'`Yes.I'm banking a lot on that meeting.I suspect we may have a similar case with Novak to the Seidler situation.Both men living on their nerves, scared witless about something.I just wonder if it's the same thing.'`Bob, there's something I didn't tell you.But first you've got to eat.An omelette? Very digestible.Followed by fruit?'He nodded and sat smoking while she called Room Service.The atmosphere between them had changed, had turned some kind of corner.They'd needed that phone interruption to quench their irritation with each other
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