The Sun Chemist Read Online Free

clonk, you know.’
    ‘Vava’s papers?’
    ‘Oh, yes. She hasn’t got them.’
    ‘She hasn’t got them?’
    ‘Not with her. I checked myself. It’s a bit of a mess up there. It’s this barmy way she’s moving. There’s one of the drivers at the hospital – University College – he’s doing it for her. He keeps going there and back. There’s apparently this one parcel with diplomas and so forth, birth certificates, that kind of thing. And she’s got the letters in it. It’s still at Wimbledon.’
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘That’s what I wanted to tell you. Sorry to drag you out here.’
    ‘Don’t be silly, Hopcroft. I was worried about you.’
    ‘It was a bit of a clonk,’ he said, cautiously touching his skullcap. ‘Thudding slightly. They insisted on keeping me in. We had the lot, you know – police, ambulance. The porter got them. Incredible, really. What else was there? There was something else, damn it.’
    His eyes were crossing very slightly.
    ‘I don’t think you ought to be talking, Hopcroft.’
    ‘That’s all right. My mother will be here soon. Not muchchance of getting that case back,’ he said ruefully. ‘Worth more than the six quid. My initials were on it. Rotters. Oh, yes. I know. Olga. She’s sending you the stuff. I told her you were going to Israel and that they were mustard keen, so she’s posting it. I said make it express, because of the Christmas mail and so forth, so you’ll get it there. She’s popping down the day after tomorrow; her husband won’t be there.’
    ‘The originals?’
    ‘Oh, sure, the genuine thing.’
    ‘You told her to make a copy.’
    ‘Did I? Oh, crikey, I didn’t. I don’t think so. Oh, gosh, sorry.’
    It’s all right. I’ll go and see her myself.’
    ‘Yes, well, you can’t.’ Hopcroft was looking very unhappy. She was going off after lunch to stay with this friend in Frognal. I’m terribly sorry. I don’t know who the friend is.’
    ‘She can’t be reached anywhere?’
    ‘Well, no. She’s staying with her. She can’t sort of stand being on her own. She’s a bit cut up, just at the moment.’
    ‘Could we perhaps get in touch with the husband? He might leave her a note.’
    ‘Oh, she wouldn’t like that.’
    ‘What time is she going to Wimbledon, when she goes?’
    ‘I don’t know. I mean, there was no reason to ask her. Gosh, what an idiot I am.’
    ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s a piece of luck she didn’t have the papers. They’d have taken those as well.’
    ‘Yes. They must have spotted me coming out of the bank. There’s a Barclay’s just below. I’d topped up a bit on my way in, got five quid out on my credit card. I mean, with that spiffy case and everything I might have looked a bit important. They probably hung around waiting for me to come down. There were people around when I went in, you see. I told the police that. They thought there was something in it. A bit cool, eh? Mid-day !’
    ‘Lousy luck. I am sorry, old chap. Stop talking now, though.’
    ‘It is thudding a bit,’ he said on a fainter note, and looked slowly round as a simultaneous titter came from the three other occupants of the room. They were grinning at each other. A tinybatlike shrieking and a crackle of twigs were just audible from their headphones. ‘Well, I think I will dry up,’ he said. ‘Have a good time in Israel, et cetera.’
    ‘Thanks. Rest, Hopcroft,’ I told him.

Chapter Two
    I was walking in Central Park South (this was the previous year, not long after my book on the 1930s had appeared) when from the opposite direction another figure came walking: a dapper small figure, white mane of hair, Red Indian face, hands clasped behind him. Our eyes locked some distance off, and he stopped as he came abreast and said, ‘Hey – Igor Druyanov?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Well, nice to see you, Igor.’ He was giving me a most charming smile, and also his hand, which I shook. ‘Isn’t this the damnedest thing?’ he said. ‘I am Meyer