Dutch Courage

 

Recent Titles by Elizabeth Darrell from Severn House

BEYOND ALL FRONTIERS

SCARLET SHADOWS

FORGET THE GLORY

THE RICE DRAGON

SHADOWS OVER THE SUN

UNSUNG HEROES

FLIGHT TO ANYWHERE

The Max Rydal Mysteries

RUSSIAN ROULETTE

CHINESE PUZZLE

CZECH MATE

DUTCH COURAGE

A Max Rydal Mystery

First world edition published 2008

in Great Britain and the USA by

SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD of

9–15 High Street, Sutton, Surrey, England, SM1 1DF.

Copyright © 2008 by E. D. Books.

All rights reserved.

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Darrell, Elizabeth

Dutch courage. - (A Max Rydal mystery)

1. Rydal, Max (Fictitious character) - Fiction 2. Veterans

- Fiction 3. Afghan War, 2001- - Fiction 4. Detective and

mystery stories

I. Title

823.9'14[F]

ISBN-13: 978-1-78010-243-6 (ePub)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7278-6665-3 (cased)

Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to living persons is purely coincidental.

This ebook produced by

Palimpsest Book Production Limited,

Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland.

Acknowledgements

My thanks are due to the following gentlemen who were so generous with their time and knowledge whenever I asked for information for this novel. Colonel Stephen Boyd and Lt Col (Retd) John Nelson, Royal Military Police. Dr Mark Adams, Royal Army Medical Corps. Lt Col (Retd) David Patterson and, most importantly, Captain Gus Aylward, Army Air Corps.

One

T
here was a light knock on his open office door, but Sergeant Major Tom Black continued checking the report he had just written.

‘Unless it's bloody urgent, come back in ten,' he grunted.

Phil Piercey's West Country burr announced, ‘Mrs Collier to see you, sir.'

A cultured female voice added, ‘And it
is
bloody urgent.'

Tom glanced up, then struggled to his feet, colour rushing to his cheeks. This tough, experienced detective, this devoted husband and father felt his heartbeat accelerate with excitement in a manner he had long forgotten. The young woman with Piercey was absolutely stunning. Blushing like a schoolboy, Tom skirted his desk to pull out a chair for his visitor and shot a venomous look at Piercey.

‘Coffee, Sergeant!'

He would have the man's balls for this. All his staff knew better than to usher visitors to his office without first informing him of their identity and their business with Special Investigation Branch. Phil Piercey's ga-ga expression suggested a lapse of rational thought, hence the breach of protocol. Rational thought appeared also to have deserted Tom as he wondered why this gorgeous woman wanted to see him.

‘I don't make a habit of riding roughshod over people, Mr Black, but the situation has become potentially criminal,' she said, sitting and crossing eye-catching legs. ‘It needs to be sorted before one of us is hurt.'

‘One of whom, ma'am?' Tom queried, overwhelmingly conscious of her perfume and the swell of her breasts in the straw-coloured silk shirt that contrasted so sharply with her blue-black hair and golden tan. She must have spent the winter months well away from Germany. Unbidden desire was overriding his concentration and, for the first time since he was bludgeoned by a crazed woman just before Christmas, Tom was uncomfortably conscious of the scar running down his left cheek. His daughters said he looked villainous; their mother maintained it added to his rugged attraction. Right now, he felt those deep, dark eyes were fastened on it assessingly.

‘Myself, or my husband.'

Sanity, professionalism, recollection of where and who he was providentially returned to mentally highlight the name
Collier
. It should have rung an immediate bell. There had been comprehensive media coverage nine weeks ago; pictures in newspapers and on TV.
Click
,
click
,
click
. Tom's brain sifted through what he knew of the young pilot celebrated as a national hero. He now recognized his visitor. Margot Collier was far more striking in the flesh than in photographs.

‘Your husband is Lieutenant Samuel Collier?' At her slight nod, Tom added, ‘You believe you could both be in danger? Why?'

She eyed him frankly. ‘Sam's received some threatening letters. He laughed them off, refused to take any action. For several weeks since then I've been regularly harassed. I haven't told Sam, but just now someone tried to run me off the road. That's enough. I want him caught and punished.'

Tom frowned. Wives living in the shadow of successful men often courted attention by exaggerating incidents to turn them into dramas. He did not believe it of this wife. She had no need to draw attention to herself. To enter a room was enough.

He retreated behind his desk, still too aware of her aura to remain beside her. He sat and adopted a more official tone to ask where the attempt to run her off the road took place.

‘Just outside town, where the road bifurcates.'

Unusual word. Most women would say the fork in the road. ‘Please tell me exactly what happened, Mrs Collier.'

Piercey then entered with coffee in the bone china cups and saucers reserved for VIPs, and a plate of fancy biscuits. He must have raided Heather Johnson's desk. He still wore a ga-ga expression.

Accepting the coffee with an abstracted smile, the visitor took several sips, then said, ‘I'd entered that straight stretch where men like to indulge their craze for speed. It was surprisingly empty today, and I confess my mind was wandering. Before I was aware of it a light-blue Audi came up beside me and stayed there. At first, I thought it was a new arrival from the UK who had forgotten which side of the road he should be on. I signalled him to overtake. When he didn't, I speeded up. He did the same.'

Tom leaned forward, forearms along his desk. ‘Did he make any signs to you, shout across to tell you to pull over?'

Margot shook her head. ‘He was grinning as he eased closer and closer. Beneath the baseball cap pulled low over his face I saw two rows of exposed teeth. That made me mad, so I called his bluff.'

Fascinated, Tom invited her to explain.

‘I knew we were coming up to that track that leads off to the pumping station, so I trod on the accelerator to force him to do the same. The Audi was mere inches away when I made a skidding turn on to that track. He raced on before he realized he'd lost me. I then reversed intending to follow and get his reg. number, but he was way ahead and the road had grown busy with traffic.'

‘So we have no way of tracing this maniac.'

‘You won't have to look far. It'll be someone from the Squadron,' she said with conviction. ‘Whoever owns a blue Audi.'

Studying her as she sipped her coffee – she even did that enticingly, Tom thought – he began to feel there was a great deal more to this affair than at first seemed likely.

‘You said you wanted him caught and punished. To do that we have to know the full story. These threatening letters your husband received, for instance. Why did he treat them as a joke? You've been harassed for several weeks. Give me specific instances. Why are you certain you're being targeted by someone from your husband's squadron? Will you also tell me why you've come to SIB without first consulting him? Surely that would be the natural thing to do.'

She set her cup and saucer on his desk and gave a faint smile. ‘Are you married, Mr Black?'

‘Yes.'

‘Then you must know there are times when a wife, especially an army wife, has to take matters in her own hands.'

Tom thought of how frequently Nora dealt with problems he only heard about when they had been fixed. Yet he knew she would share anything that posed a threat to all or any one of them. Of course she would! So what kind of marriage had the Colliers?

‘You want us to investigate, but unless we have full details we can't do that, Mrs Collier. Any action we take must involve your husband.'

She sighed. ‘Foolish of me to believe otherwise.'

Tom waited as she visually wrestled with her decision, wondering why she was so protective of a man of proven courage. Her next comment was a surprise.

‘I'm only going ahead with this now because I'm pregnant. I've had two miscarriages and couldn't bear to lose another.'

Tom put her age at no more than twenty-one. Sam Collier was clearly a man of action in the bedroom as well as on the battlefield. So why must his beautiful wife fight this battle for him?

‘We'll do our best to get to the bottom of this, but you must tell us everything,' he insisted.

There was no longer any hesitation. Tom heard that there had been resentment from one or two of Sam Collier's colleagues all along, but this had intensified following the action that had hit the headlines. Sam had attributed the anonymous notes he had found on the doormat to this not unusual reaction to public acclaim.

‘Envy, resentment, I'd go along with, Mr Black, but the writer of the letters mentioned “letting the truth be known” and “removing the blinkers from everyone's eyes”. To me, that constitutes a threat of some kind, although what he means I've no idea. What truth? When I asked Sam he shrugged it off as some squaddie talking off the top of his head.'

‘Do you still have the letters?' Tom asked.

‘Sam shredded them with some old bills and bank statements.'

‘How many did you receive?'

‘Four or five.'

‘Handwritten?'

‘Block capitals, red felt-tip, text phonetics.'

‘Did they come through the base mail system?'

‘No, they turned up overnight.'

‘We'll keep a watch on your quarter.'

‘No need. They stopped coming two weeks ago. That's when the harassment began.'

‘Go on.'

For the first time her poise faltered. ‘On medical advice I take a long walk each day. I drive to the playing fields and go round the perimeter. At this time of year there are shrubs in bloom and the trees have their spring leaves. There's invariably some kind of sporting activity going on, and I enjoy the open aspect. The day after getting the last of the letters, I returned to my car to find it had been moved two hundred yards from where I'd parked it.'

‘Had you left it unlocked?'

‘
No
, Mr Black,' she responded sharply. ‘I
never
do.'

So the beauty had claws. Even more intriguing, thought Tom.