Free Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman Page A

and came back, cutting the ignition and the lights. “Here we are,” he said. “What do you plan to do?”
    “I’d not expected a party,” she said. “I shall have to ask to speak privately to Dr. Belleaux. I think I shall tell them at the door I’m from the American embassy—is there one?”
    “They’re all consulates here.”
    “All right, then I’m from the American consulate. That will do until I can get Dr. Belleaux aside and explain myself and
try
to explain Henry.”
    “Would you rather I pull into the drive?” he asked. “A bit awkward unloading in the front.”
    “Later—I want to be able to find you again,” Mrs. Pollifax confessed. “This may take a little time. Would you care to come too?” She was growing rather attached to Colin, she realized.
    “I don’t feel I should leave Henry, do you? If anyone walked past and happened to glance in—”
    His voice trailed off as a car rattled up the avenue, sputtering and backfiring, to turn into Dr. Belleaux’s driveway a few feet away from them. At the crest of the drive the car shuddered to a halt, a man jumped from the rear seat and gave it a push—it was a jeep—and then leaped in as the car coasted down the driveway to the rear.
    Mrs. Pollifax drew in her breath sharply. “Colin,” she said incredulously. “Colin—”
    “I saw it,” he said in a stunned voice.
    “I’m not losing my mind?”
    “No,” he said, and then, quickly and incoherently, “Damn it, no. Even the petrol—I told you the tank was almostempty and you saw him pushing it. Damn it, that was my jeep!”
    “But here?” whispered Mrs. Pollifax.
“Here?”
    “It was Otto—I swear it—who jumped out and gave it a push,” he said. “And that must have been your friend slumped in the back. Are you coming?” he demanded. He opened the door and jumped to the pavement.
    “I certainly am,” she said fervently. She could not imagine what kind of mix-up she had stumbled into. There had to be some reasonable explanation, but it would have to be delivered to her at a more appropriate moment. Stefan and Otto simply
couldn’t
be working for Carstairs, too; not when Magda had virtually identified the two of them as her abductors. And they had killed Henry. But why were they
here
?
    “Just a minute,” said Colin, and reached into the compartment of the van to extract two lethal-looking guns. “Don’t expect them to fire, they’re made of wood,” he whispered. “They’re props Uncle Hu made for a short subject on Ataturk.”
    “But I’m delighted he did,” she told him.
    Props in hand they hurried down the driveway, moving from shadow to shadow until they came to the corner of the house. But already it was too late. Mrs. Pollifax had hoped they might arrive in the rear to find the jeep’s motor still running, Stefan and Otto off guard and Magda still accessible but the jeep had been abandoned. The back door to the house stood wide open, the screen door still swinging gently, but although a great deal of light and noise came from the building there were no humans to be seen.
    “Damn,” said Colin. He looked intently at Mrs. Pollifax. “You’re not going to knock and ask for Dr. Belleaux.” He might have intended it as a question but it came out as a flat statement.
    “No.”
    “Are you going to call the police?”
    She said gently, “From what you’ve told me of Dr. Belleaux a number of the police are probably inside at his party. And I don’t have a passport. No—I’m going to risk a look inside.”
    He looked shaken. “I say, that’s rather dangerous.”
    She said steadily, “Perhaps it will be but I really don’tknow what else to do. As you may have guessed, I came to Istanbul only to meet and help Magda—and she’s in there, and I’m responsible.”
    He nodded. “Then I’m going in with you.”
    She looked at him. “Colin, I can’t let you become any more involved, I really can’t. I have to remind you that all I did was deliver a