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Chapter 44
There was still no real information in Gerda's report that would help me win Jennifer's heart or give me a lever to extricate her from Bruno's clutches.
Also, the thought of Gerda in Bruno's bed was so sickening that I wasn't really looking forward to reading the next of Gerda's emailed reports.
The last missive from Gerda had been to some extent light hearted and flippant but the next one had a completely different tone.
Barry
I've just come back from another meeting with Bruno and I can't tell you how scared I am. Now I know you were right and I should never have got involved with this man.
I was studying in my room this morning, thinking that I may never see him again. He'd seemed so cold that night after we made love that I wondered if he'd been disappointed and had lost interest in me. Frankly, it wouldn't bother me either way.
So I was quite surprised when I heard a tap on the door of my room above Smokey's and in walked Bruno.
"I was wondering if you could take some time off your studying to carry out a small freelance commission for me," he said coolly and dropped some money on my bed. "It will only take a few hours."
Needless to say a fully qualified psychologist would have been pleased with the amount that he was offering. It easily covered the amount I still owed Ron for the room. Bruno obviously wasn't expecting me to say 'no' because he had the door held open ready for me to follow him out and within minutes we were steaming along the London streets in his smart Mercedes car and anchored to the bumper of any driver that was foolish enough to be in front of us.
To say that Bruno was an aggressive driver would be a massive understatement. His car is huge and built like a tank and he drives it as if it was an instrument of war not peaceful transport. As he fought the London traffic, he explained what he wanted of me.
"I have some investment properties in which I let rooms. There have been many problems in the past so I now keep a housekeeper at each of these properties. They are responsible for ensuring that the rent is collected on time and that no harm comes to the property. In return, they get a much reduced rent and occasional cash bonuses if they come up with some particularly useful information or suggestions. They are important people to me and they have a position of trust."
A taxi driver flashed his lights and honked his horn when Bruno swerved across his path. The collision was missed by inches but Bruno showed no emotion.
"Many of these house keepers are from abroad and wouldn't be able to get a work permit so it's a rare opportunity for them to make low profile earnings. The danger is that they could choose their moment and run off with quite substantial amounts of cash."
I asked why he didn't arrange for the lodgers to pay by bank transfer. It seemed sensible to me but Bruno gave me a glance that implied I should return to the kindergarten.
"The woman you are going to see in a moment was in charge of one of the largest of these properties. Now there's a large amount of money missing. She says that my regular collecting agent took it as usual but he is nowhere to be found and she hasn't got a receipt. I should add that we only just caught up with her at the airport on her way out of the country but of course that is not necessarily any proof of guilt."
I told Bruno that I didn't see how I could help him.
"You psychologists have done studies of this sort of thing - body language and such. I want you to tell me if you think she is lying."
I tried to tell him that physiological changes needed to be measured under scientific conditions as well as verbal replies and even then the results couldn't be guaranteed.
He just wasn't interested and then, within minutes, we were pulling up outside an old warehouse.
He strode through the empty offices and up the stairs onto the first floor with me in his wake because I could think of anything else to do and was too scared to run.
In the office at the end, there was a very large man standing over a rather plump woman with dark hair and rather Italian features wearing a red T-shirt and green trousers that were designed for somebody much slimmer.
There was a desk and two chairs in the room. She was sitting at one of the chairs in front of the desk sniffing into the tissue and Bruno immediately sat in the other chair behind the desk.
The big man who looked as if he ate ordinary people for a hobby parked his massive frame by the door where he cracked the joints of his fingers until Bruno's glare silenced him.
The doorbell rang so I closed Gerda's email report and went to find out if it was Jennifer.
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