When he was finished, she sighed. “So Muller is dead?”

“What about his sister?” Chavasse said. “Is she here at the moment?”

Anna Hartmann shook her head. “I’m afraid not. When she didn’t report for work this evening, I phoned her apartment. Her landlady told me that she packed a bag and left this morning without leaving any forwarding address.”

Chavasse frowned. “That isn’t so good. We don’t have a clear lead to follow now.”

“There’s always the sleeping-car attendant you told me about,” she said. “Through him you can at least find out something about the opposition.”

“You’ve got a point there.” He checked his watch and saw that it was almost three-thirty. “I think we’d better make a move.”

She smiled. “I’m afraid that isn’t as easy as it sounds. I’m supposed to work until four-thirty. If you want me to leave before that time, you’ll have to pay the management a fee.”

Chavasse smiled. “You’re kidding.”

“No, it’s quite true,” she said. “But first, we must have a dance together to make it look good.”

She pulled him to his feet and onto the tiny dance floor before he could protest. She slipped one arm around his neck and danced with her head on his shoulder, her firm young body pressed so closely against him that he could feel the line from breast to thigh.

Most of the other couples on the crowded dance floor seemed to be dancing in the same way, and Chavasse whispered in her ear, “How long are we supposed to keep this up?”

She smiled up at him and there was a hint of laughter in her eyes. “I think five minutes should be enough. Have you any objection?”

He shook his head. “No, but if it’s all right with you, I’d like to relax and enjoy it.”

The smile slipped from her face and she regarded him gravely for a moment, and then she turned her head against his shoulder once more and he tightened his arm about her wasist.

Chavasse forgot about the job, forgot about everything except the fact that he was dancing with a warm, exciting girl whose perfume filled his nostrils and caused a pleasant ache of longing in the pit of his stomach. It had been a long time since he had last slept with a woman, but that wasn’t the whole explanation. That Anna Hartmann attracted him physically was undeniable, but there was something more there, something deeper.