Dutch Courage (19 page)

‘How's it going?'

Erroneously reading impatience in the question, Tom responded coolly. ‘Basic stuff so far. Most of it is technical gobbledegook unless you're a flier, and I don't believe there'll be any mention of personal aggro in what are purely factual operational data.'

Max nodded. ‘I suspected as much. Piercey can go through the rest. He can't get into trouble doing that.'

Tom swung round fully to face Max. ‘He's already jumped the gun. Called in to report traces of blood, sputum etcetera in the boot of the blue Audi owned by the pilot on UK leave. Could be a false lead, but my money's on it being the vehicle used to take Collier to the place where the significant part of the punishment was administered.'

‘You see significance in the flogging?'

‘Has to be,' said Tom, knowing the way Max's mind worked. ‘But I can't progress further than ships of the line with billowing sails, and a bosun with the cat o' nine tails.'

Max grinned. ‘You've seen too many Hollywood screen blockbusters. Flogging was once a recognized penalty for military offenders, too. I'm also still working on the link here. Once we get that we'll be halfway to a result.' He sat as if intending to stay for a while. ‘Do they do coffee here?'

Surprised, Tom nodded and got to his feet. ‘They told me tea and coffee makings were in an alcove at the end of the corridor.'

‘Get a skivvy to do it, Tom. I've something interesting to impart.'

Having detailed to make coffee the lance corporal he had reported for gossiping in the belief that he was a journalist, Tom returned to the bare room slightly irritated. If Max had info of relevance to the case why not cut the preamble and come out with it, instead of sending him in search of hot drinks? He grew further irritated when he saw the smile on the other man's face and remembered that Max had been with Margot Collier.

‘Coffee pronto,' he announced, and sat heavily in the chair he had just vacated.

‘Is that midway between espresso and latte?' Seeing that Tom was not amused by his flippancy, Max got to the point. ‘You checked Collier's career and discovered that he's a double hero due to events in Sierra Leone. As that hostage affair is three years old, neither of us connected it with this case.'

‘It's relevant?' Tom asked sharply.

The girl arrived with mugs of coffee, and a plate of biscuits which Tom rated an apology for her earlier crassness. At her swift exit he repeated his question.

Max avoided a direct reply. ‘Neighbours told us the Colliers spend more time upstairs than down, and we all interpreted that the way they did. Given the ravishing Margot's public claims of overwhelming mutual passion, who could blame us for our prurient conclusion?' He took up a mug and commented before sipping the coffee, ‘That woman is a consummate actress, my friend. She's had everyone fooled.'

Knowing he was not going to like what he was about to hear, Tom left the other mug on the tray. ‘She admitted it?'

Taking a biscuit, Max dipped it in his coffee. ‘They spend so much time upstairs because that's where she works. She showed me the bedroom set up as a studio. While she creates, he sits at a desk studying German and French.
Fully clothed
.'

Unsure of his own reaction to that, Tom asked, ‘What's the relevance of Sierra Leone?'

‘Darling Sam was a changed man afterwards.'

‘He would be. They all would be. Only the shrinks who debriefed them discovered full details of their ordeal. Military hostages are forbidden to speak about what really happened. They have to say with as much sincerity as they can muster that they were well fed and treated with respect. Nobody believes the lie, but public conjecture falls drastically short of the truth in many cases. Drug-crazed tribal kids with rifles and a supply of ammo are capable of any obscenity. Collier appears to have risen above the experience.'

‘With his wife's help.'

‘So I'd hope,' said Tom forcefully, thinking of the support Nora had given him during the last few difficult weeks. ‘I still don't see . . .'

‘It wasn't enough. We should have delved deeper into comments that Collier was pushing himself to the limits, that he was like a man beserk while rescuing those four in Kandahar. A man trying to
prove
something.'

Still unsure where this was leading, Tom finally picked up his coffee and drank waiting for elucidation. Was Max hinting that Collier was a potential nut case?

‘She's a very complex woman and the complexity is centred around herself. Her husband enters the equation only inasmuch as his actions affect her. And Daddy.' Seeing Tom's expression he wagged his head. ‘No, not a dangerously unhealthy fixation like we dealt with at Christmas. General Phipps is merely a doting widowed father who desires all life's blessings to surround her. Nothing but the absolute best for his girl.'

‘So darling Sam has to meet that criterion?'

‘Exactly.'

‘Most people would reckon he has.'

‘Not Daddy. Being taken hostage was evidence of deplorable lack of leadership qualities. He betrayed three men by failing to act decisively in an unexpected crisis, subjecting them to a degrading ordeal and besmirching the reputation of the British Army.'

‘
Besmirching
! Good God, he's a Victorian relic. He'd approve of flogging as a punishment, that's for sure. Did she tell you all that in those precise words?'

‘She did.'

Absorbing the facts with reluctance, Tom then said, ‘I glanced through the official report on the affair. There was no suggestion of blame being accredited to Collier. He was with his air gunner and a pair of mechanics at dusk, out on the boundary of the rough air strip cut through the jungle. They were finalizing an inspection of repairs to a Lynx when a group of trigger-happy kids materialized from the trees and surrounded them.

‘Collier attempted to negotiate but was felled with a rifle butt, leaving the rest in no doubt of the threat to their safety. They were spirited away long before their absence was noted. There'd been no report of renegades in the area, so the attack took them totally unawares.'

‘Faulty intelligence?'

‘No. Seems they were breakaway thugs using their weapons to terrorize people subsisting in small settlements; raping girls and youths, stealing food and anything necessary to support their nomadic rampage. The plan was to demand money for their hostages but they had no idea how to go about it. Collier devised an escape plan before they solved their problem. He received a commendation for that.' Tom frowned and added, ‘I'd reckon he displayed enough leadership qualities to satisfy any critic, wouldn't you?'

‘
I
would. Daddy stuck by his assertion that Collier should have prevented it ever happening.'

Against his inclination Tom asked if Margot agreed with her father, and was relieved when Max said no.

‘But she desperately needed hubby to compensate and reverse the General's thinking. You can guess he was aware of that. You know how women manage to transfer their thoughts without saying a word.'

‘Tell me about it,' he murmured, remembering last night. ‘The old bastard must be satisfied now that son-in-law has been so extensively celebrated as a hero.' A thought struck him. ‘
He
organized that overblown media coverage?'

Max gave him a shrewd look. ‘I'd say she did. I told you she's a complex creature. Daddy's criticism of her chosen partner is criticism of
her
. She's beautiful, wealthy, artistically talented, widely admired and envied. Daddy adores her, darling Sam is besotted. She's perfect! Criticism is taboo. Collier brought it down on her head; he had to banish it.'

‘She told you
that
?' Tom cried incredulously.

‘Didn't have to, it stood out a mile. That woman is manipulative. Her looks make it easy. She manipulated
us
, chum. Smashed eggs on the doorstep, posters under the windscreen wipers? When I quizzed her about that she merely smiled.'

‘All lies?'

‘It can't be proved either way, but if she was playing some curious game it's turned frighteningly nasty. The doorstep swoon was real enough, and she's now running scared. What began with a few anonymous letters has developed into a bid to rob her of the man she chose to bestow her perfection upon.'

‘You believe the letters were fact?'

‘Yes, because they were directed at him. He's the real target, as this brutal attack proves. I have a theory and I'd like your thinking on it.' Max put his empty mug on the desk and sat back in the chair. ‘Margot told me Sam hasn't fully recovered from whatever occurred in Sierra Leone. He has nightmares, bursts of violent temper, withdraws into himself where she can't reach him. He also hides bottles of vodka about the house.'

Tom was puzzled. ‘Why secret drinking when everyone on this base does it very publicly?'

‘It's only in the weeks leading up to deployment in a war zone, and for several weeks after his return.'

‘Dutch courage?'

‘Sounds like it. He needs artificial stimulus to face the enemy, and regular quaffs to unwind once the dangerous period has passed. Was that cool rescue in Kandahar fuelled by vodka?'

Tom frowned. ‘How would he get hold of the stuff? Alcohol is forbidden in a war zone, and I can't see how he'd manage to smuggle over there enough for a four-month stint. No, I'd say you're on the wrong track there. Only confirmed alcoholics hide bottles all over the house, and it would be obvious to his colleagues by now if Collier was drinking to that extent.'

‘Mmm. We'll have to investigate, although we only have her word for that along with everything else she told us. For the immediate future Collier is effectively grounded, so we'll hold off on that until we can confront him with Margot's claim and get at the truth.'

‘Or his version of it,' Tom pointed out. ‘He's claiming loss of memory.'

‘I think we need a full report of what happened in Sierra Leone. Margot says he's not been the same since that hostage drama, and I'd like to know if the others are still reacting to whatever happened during their captivity.'

‘I can't see any possible link between that affair and the recent attack on Collier.' Tom gave Max a mental nudge. ‘You wanted to air a theory?'

‘Right. Here it is. Anonymous letters start arriving at the Collier home threatening punishment unless some fact is made public. I'd guess they were more explicit than we've been told. Margot is alarmed. Sam makes light of them, but she does her utmost to persuade him to come to us. He's unresponsive, but at the vodka behind her back. The baby she's carrying isn't his, but she wants him and Daddy to believe he's the father. That'll uphold the rightness of her decision to marry a fish-and-chip guy against Daddy's advice.'

‘What?'

‘I told you she's totally self-centred. Two pregnancies have aborted. She needs to produce a child to complete the perfection of her life. She conceives in the Seychelles, deliberately or accidentally, and returns to Germany hoping her new lover's genes will ensure a full-term pregnancy. Her happiness is inexplicably dashed by threats to her darling Sam.' Noting Tom's expression, he said, ‘Oh, she adores him, in her fashion, and desperately needs him to be acknowledged by everyone as the father of the child. It's what she has planned, you see, so it
must
happen.'

Tom took a deep breath. ‘You despise her, don't you.'

‘That's too strong a word. She's not wicked, just wrapped-up in the concept of what she thinks she is.'

‘Is that your theory,' he asked flatly.

‘My theory is that she came to you with an invented tale of harassment against her, because she knew SIB would have to investigate. That would scare off whoever was threatening Sam. The move rebounded on her. He's now lying in sick bay after a beating for which she blames herself. It's my guess Collier also blames her. If he discovers the truth about the baby she's carrying, that marriage is liable to crumble. Bang goes Margot Collier's idyllic life.' Max allowed a significant pause. ‘She's not the woman you see, Tom.'

He stiffened. ‘I take it you mean she's not the woman
one
sees.'

‘Of course.'

‘Right, you've got under her facade, but where's the link with Sierra Leone?'

‘We have yet to uncover that. I said it was just a theory I wanted to run past you. So far we've found no clues to suggest Collier crossed someone in Kandahar, or here in Germany, so we have to look at an event which could have bred aggro that's been smouldering for three years. We need to trace the present whereabouts of his fellow hostages. I'd also like details of Collier's breakout plan.'

‘That last is easy. There's a full report available from Records. We already have someone tracing the three captured with him. Unless they're presently in Germany, I'd say your theory is a non-starter,' Tom said firmly, and with secret satisfaction. Max was surely allowing his powers of reasoning to set off a wild goose chase, something not unknown where he was concerned. Still, this time the goose might lay the golden egg. The sooner the better. This case was getting under his skin. He would be glad to see the back of it.

Nine

C
onnie Bush sat at her desk in contemplative mood. She had been out-manoeuvred by Sam Collier, yet she could not banish the urge to champion him despite evidence suggesting he had done something that warranted vicious reprisals. Her experience at interviewing led her to believe he was basically what his colleagues claimed; a decent, upfront team player. It also told her he was lying in denying any recollection of the assault.

Was he doing it to protect himself or another person? The likeliest one was the fickle wife he was said to adore. Could Piercey's suggestion that she had paid several squaddies to beat up her man be right? No, she had collapsed on seeing the Duty Officer with an apparent civilian on the doorstep at midnight. So Sam was protecting himself which, Connie reluctantly concluded, meant he had done something so serious he was desperate to conceal it.