Page 71 - double revenge 3.
P. 71
TOM’S CAFE
CHISWICK HIGH ROAD
ST
TUESDAY APRIL 21 1998
‘Hey man, you not going to hog my best table again, huh? My spare room is available again if you
just want somewhere to stay.’
‘No Tom, I only want one cup of coffee today. Have you lost a lodger then?’
‘Not exactly a lodger, two yanks wanted the room during the day but they never slept there. Hey,
that was a beautiful girl with you last week, she your wife?’
‘No, just a friend. Who were the two yanks; did they say why they wanted the room?’
‘No, and I never ask. They pay the rent and I am happy whatever they want to do up there. Here
you are, one cup of coffee.’
It would be too much of a coincidence if the two Americans were not two CIA ghosts watching the
Chiswick Business Centre so I was pleased to think Mex had called them off.
The woman arrived right on nine thirty and I made my way over to the Bureau.
‘Good morning. Do you have mail for me, Peter Collins?’
‘Do you have your post box number?’
‘I am sorry; it has been so long I can’t remember.’
‘Just one moment.’
She took a register book from under the counter and flipped through the pages.
‘Here we are, number eight one zero and by the way the rental for the post box and the deposit
box ends this week. Will you want to renew?’
Bingo! Why did I never think of that? The memo must be sitting in the box, a box rented in a name
only Warner knew. It could have sat in there for years, safe as houses.
I showed her my ID. ‘I am a government official, my name is Bryant as you can see, not Collins and I
need the mail for Peter Collins and the deposit box as part of an ongoing investigation.’
‘Well, I am sorry Mister Bryant but I cannot give them to you unless you are an officer of the law.
Those are my standard instructions.’
She was right, of course. I had no powers of seizure. ‘I understand. I am investigating a matter of
extreme urgency; I will ask a colleague, Detective Inspector Harvey, to speak with you. Would that
satisfy you?’
‘In person, that would be fine but not over the telephone.’
‘Of course.’
