Mary wasn’t the only one who’d gone around the bend in the last few weeks. Or had Larry always been this way, determinedly unconscious of the deadly results of his ‘harmless’ schemes? Maybe they were all like that, the presidents and chairmen and commanding generals who sat in their offices and gave orders to ‘engage targets’ or ‘cut the work force.’ They never saw the suffering, bleeding bodies those orders affected.

I didn’t have a little rest or eat any of the food on the tray. It wasn’t very appetizing – dry sandwiches and a wilted salad that probably contained a whole colony of healthy typhoid germs. That suggested there were few or no servants in the house. Larry might not have his full crew with him. Some of them would have to stay with the boat. Mary and Hans were here, and that probably meant Max and Rudi were also with Larry. How many others?

And what the hell difference did it make? I couldn’t get out and there was no way John could get to me without being caught.

I went onto the balcony. Down below – far down – I saw a stone-paved terrace without so much as a shrub to break one’s fall. Rudi was down there too. At least the shape in the shadows, slim as a weasel, looked like his. To complete the picture of total disaster, the railing of the balcony swayed under the pressure of my hands. No point in trying the old bedsheet routine even if Rudi hadn’t been lurking. Those rails wouldn’t support the weight of a healthy six-foot female.

I was inspecting the bathroom, hoping to find a used razor blade or a nail file, when I heard the bedroom door open.

‘He’s on his way. He telephoned a few minutes ago.’

Her eyes glowed. Little flecks floated in them like the dead insects in amber. My heart couldn’t sink any farther; it was already trying to shove through the sole of my shoe.

‘So,’ Mary went on briskly, ‘we must get ready to receive him, mustn’t we. Sit down in that chair. Not the big carved armchair. That one.’

It was a straight chair, the seat and back covered with faded gold brocade.

‘No, thanks,’ I said, backing away. ‘I’d rather stand.’

‘If you prefer it this way.’ She turned to the door. ‘Hans. Come in.’

Hans’s face wasn’t capable of displaying subtle emotion, but I got the impression that even he was beginning to wonder about little Mary. ‘Aber, gnädige Frau, Herr Max hat mir gesagt – ’

‘From whom do you take your orders? I’m not going to hurt her,’ she added unconvincingly. At least it didn’t convince me. Poor bewildered Hans shrugged, setting off a miniature avalanche of muscles, and advanced on me.