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to be my dresser. He really wanted to be an actor and I think he has
now taken the butler's role quite well. He enjoys the snobbery of it
all." He strode out down the corridor, shouting for Lester at the top of
his voice an eccentric English country squire: or was that also a piece
of role-playing? Over the years, Bond had known many actors, and had
never met one who was averse to playing parts of his own choice in
private.
Many of them could not really face normal everyday lives without putting
on that second skin of a character, and he had quickly made the
assessment that David Dragonpol was one of these. After all, Fredericka
had pointed out that he sometimes travelled in disguise.
Lester appeared from some servants' quarters with his two flunkies
looking like bodyguards.
`Two for the East Turret, Lester. You lads take the luggage up.
Lester gave a majestic bow and indicated, in a somewhat superior manner,
that Bond and Fredericka should follow him. He was a tall, dignified
man who seemed to think that smiling had become a mortal sin.
`It's good to have you here, James. And you, Fraulein von Grusse ...
er.
`Oh, call me Fredericka, everyone does. It isn't every day that I get
to meet a famous actor. It's a real thrill to be here, and to see you
in the flesh." She almost simpered.
`An ex-actor, my dear. A former thespian.
Dragonpol even talked like some Edwardian actor-manager. `We'll see you
both for dinner, then. Seven-thirty for eight o'clock. Please don't
bother to dress, we're very informal here." He began to move away, then
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stopped, turning back.
`I'll send Lester, or one of the boys, to bring you down. You need an
Indian guide to get around this place.The East Turret turned out to be
anything but Edwardian. As they had judged when looking down on the
castle from a distance, the turrets were exceptionally roomy, and the
East Turret was particularly sumptuous, with its own private lift and
two sets of rooms, one above the other, connected by a cleverly designed
staircase which was totally enclosed. The treads were huge oblongs. As
Fredericka said, `We could dance on these individually." The elevator
took them directly into the circular sitting-room. The decor looked
very expensive blue and white, with large easy chairs, a long settee and
marble tables. The wall above the bar was decorated with theatrical
drawings which looked like original charcoal sketches for stage sets.
The unusually wide flight of steps took Bond into the bedroom.
Here the design changed.
Instead of following the circular line of the walls, the bedroom had
been squared off, the windows set very deeply into the walls. The bed
itself was the centre piece a vast four-poster, like an island in the
midst of a green and gold sea.
Bond prowled around, opening doors, and taking in the views from the
windows. The bathroom, he realized, was slightly above the bedroom and
at the very top of the turret. From its main window he could see right
across the shallow-sloping roof to the great tower, with clear arched
windows set in it at intervals. He returned to the circular
sitting-room.
`It's a real thrill to be here, and to see you in the flesh." He
imitated Fredericka's awed voice.
`Well,' she said. `What about you and the Irish flirt "I'd have talked
for longer if I'd known how good looking you were" Jesus, this place is
creepy, James." `All huge castles are creepy. What's so different about
this one?" Fredericka stood close to the elevator doors.
`You do realize that we're virtually prisoners in this place." She
demonstrated by pressing the buttons. The small indicator did not light
up, neither could they hear the usual whirr of machinery. `What do you
make of that, James?" `What do I make of the whole business?" he asked
himself. `I'm beginning to wonder if some of those stories about
Dragonpol's retirement are true." `Which ones in particular?" `That he
had a complete breakdown. Was unable to perform: unhinged by his own
talent. I mean that whole extraordinary business of the painting all
that dressing up, the make-up and the lights shone directly in our eyes.
That was for our benefit: an act for us. He knew we were on our way.
Did you get a look at Hort's easel?" `No, she moved me right away from
it." `Right. You want to know why? It was a daub, a squiggle of lines,
paint splashed on to the canvas, no painting of the great man as Richard
III. They were both playing with us. I think his first intention was
to put the fear of God into us. Maybe he changed his mind at the last
minute, but I think we should be prepared for some further bits of
fantasy." `He's living in another world, that's for sure "Please don't
bother to dress, we're very informal here." When did you last hear a
line like that?" Bond walked back into the great circular room, his
restless eyes looking for possible hiding places for security cameras,
or listening devices. There were many and there was no way he could
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possibly sweep the suite without the proper equipment.
`And what about Lester and "the boys"?" he asked. `They look like
ordinary servants to you particularly in this day and age when servants
are a thing of the past?"
"`The boys" give off a certain something that I recognize. Fredericka
was pacing around the room, brow creased and hands moving nervously.
`They're more like bodyguards than flunkies." `Quite. Bodyguards or
male nurses. A pair of very tough bantam weights, and I'd put money on
them knowing a lot of tricks designed to damage your health. Lester
could well have been his dresser, but his own clothes leave much to be
desired." `How?" `You didn't notice the bulge? The man's carrying.
Shoulder holster, and something pretty lethal in it. The other strange
thing is that I've seen Dragonpol on stage and screen, admittedly
cloaked in the great acting roles, but I don't really recognize him."
`You don't? I'd recognize him anywhere." `I'm not talking about
physical recognition.
There's something not quite right with the man.
That spark isn't there." `Oh, come on, James. You know actors, they're
like watchers when they're off stage, nude, as it were. Mostly they
appear to be terribly ordinary people when they're off. With watchers,
it's the other way around. They go invisible when they're working and
seem larger than life when they're off.
Surely it's normal enough?" Bond frowned. `Maybe. Maybe you're right,
but David Dragonpol was not your run-of-the-mill actor, and this man
just doesn't feel right. If I didn't know it was him, I'd swear he was
a ringer." `Or, perhaps you're right about the mental collapse.
You've seen people after a breakdown: they look the same, but something
vital has gone." `Could be." He did not sound convinced, nor, in fact,
was he. While Fredericka went off to take a bath and, to use her words,
`Pretty myself up,' he wandered around the rooms of the East Turret,
poking and prying into every drawer and closet, his mind quietly
wrestling with the enigma that was David Dragonpol. The truth, he
considered, lay in the man's relationship with Laura March who had been,
according to those who knew and worked with her, a person of high
intellect and nobody's fool. If the facts were correct, she had loved
this man unless the break-up was really of her making and because he had
become so strange.
He thought again of Carmel Chantry's description of that very break-up.
How she had been called here, to Schloss Drache .... she came into my
office looking ill-white, unsteady. It was a Friday afternoon and she
said D. D. had called her. There was some drama and he was sending
his private aircraft for her. On the Monday she came in and told me it
was all over." That was what Carmel had told him, so it was unlikely
that Laura had taken the initiative. Private aircraft?
He wondered. Now where would he keep that?
Carmel had intimated that there was some kind of landing strip nearby.
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