Peril on the Royal Train (23 page)

‘Nor me,’ added Andrews.

‘How could you?’ said Colbeck. ‘The explosion that brought us to Scotland in the first place was caused by gunpowder stolen from an army barracks. I’m informed that an appreciable amount was taken, far more than was necessary for the scheme in hand. Why did the thieves take more than they needed?’

‘They made a mistake.’

‘No, Mr Andrews, they didn’t. People who know how to handle gunpowder don’t make mistakes because they have a tendency to be fatal. They know exactly how much to use for a specific purpose.’

‘I don’t follow you, Robert,’ said Madeleine.

‘They retained enough to commit a secondary outrage.’

She was a horror-struck. ‘Do you mean what I
think
you do?’

‘I’m afraid so.’

‘I’ve just remembered that phrase you used earlier,’ said Leeming. ‘You said that the train crash wasn’t an isolated crime.’

‘In the light of what we’ve heard,’ said Colbeck, ‘that’s palpably true. It was a rehearsal for a bigger and more daring crime. The same people are behind both. What they are planning is an attack on the royal family during their journey to Balmoral.’

‘Then there’s a simple way to foil it,’ said Madeleine.

‘Yes,’ said Andrews. ‘Pass on the warning and they can cancel the trip. The royal family would be perfectly safe then.’

‘But they wouldn’t,’ Colbeck pointed out. ‘These people are determined to achieve their aim. If they’re baulked this time, they’ll plan another assassination. As long as they’re at liberty, the threat over the royal family will remain.’

‘I agree with the inspector,’ said Leeming. ‘The arrangements must stay in place. They must take the train to Balmoral on the day already decided.’

‘But that would expose the royal family to an attack,’ protested Madeleine. ‘You’d never want to do that, surely?’

‘It may be the only way to catch these villains,’ reasoned Colbeck. ‘They’re unaware that their plot has been uncovered and that gives us a huge advantage. We must find out when the royal train is due to leave and ensure that it does so without any danger to its illustrious passengers.’

Edward Tallis had his faults but nobody could question his devotion to duty. He always arrived early at Scotland Yard and departed late, sustaining himself throughout the day with frugal meals and an occasional cigar. His stamina was legendary. As younger men began to flag, he carried on with unabated gusto. It was just as well because crime was
never-ending
in the capital. A string of cases passed ceaselessly across his desk and, with so few detectives to deploy, he had to decide which of the crimes merited intervention from Scotland Yard. Once he’d initiated an investigation, he liked to keep abreast of it and his desk always had a pile of progress reports on it. One of them had come from Robert Colbeck and, when Tallis reached the end of another day, he picked it up and read it once more through jaundiced eyes.

Taken on its own terms, it was a shining example of how a report should be written. It was concise, highly literate and blessed with legible calligraphy. As a rule, Tallis enjoyed reading anything sent to him by the inspector. This time, however, there was a problem. A letter had arrived that morning from the general manager of the Caledonian Railway and its tone was markedly different. Putting the letter beside the report, Tallis picked out the discrepancies. Where Colbeck was optimistic, Craig voiced his serious disappointment. The report talked of valuable evidence yet the letter claimed there was a dearth of clues. And so it went on. Studying them side by side, it was difficult to believe that they referred to the same case.

Reaching for a cigar, Tallis bit off the end and spat it into the wastepaper basket. He lit the cigar and puffed hard, intensifying the glow until the flame got a purchase. He was soon wreathed in comforting smoke.

After reading the report one last time, he used the cigar to set light to it.

‘What are you up to, Colbeck?’ he growled.

The shock of seeing his wife appear out of nowhere had given way instantly to a sense of overwhelming pleasure. Colbeck was ecstatic. Madeleine had not only banished his feeling of being hopelessly cut off from her, she and her father had provided evidence that moved the investigation on to a different level. As so often in the past, chance had contrived what hard work and an acute analytical brain had failed to supply. Colbeck was duly chastened. He had toyed with the notion that the crash was only one part of a much bigger criminal enterprise but it had never entered his mind that what he was actually investigating was a plot to kill Her Majesty, the Queen and her family en route to Balmoral. What seemed incredible at first glance took on more and more certainty as he weighed the evidence.

For the time being, however, even so monstrous a crime as assassination could be held in abeyance until he was in a position to take active steps to prevent it. The reunion with Madeleine took precedence. As they lay together in bed, entwined in each other’s arms, they were in Elysium. It was Colbeck who eventually broke the silence.

‘You came a day too late.’

‘We only found out about the burglary yesterday evening.’

‘I know that, Madeleine,’ he said, squeezing her gently, ‘and it’s not a criticism. Twenty-four hours ago, Victor and I were staying at The Angel Hotel which is the nearest thing to a palace in which
I’ll
ever sleep. Had you been there, you’d have had a bed fit for a queen.’

‘This bed is comfortable enough for me,’ she said, snuggling up to him.

‘When we’re together,
any
bed is perfect.’

She kissed him. ‘What a sweet thing to say!’

‘It happens to be true.’

‘Why did you leave the other hotel?’

‘It made Victor feel that he had to walk on eggshells.’

Madeleine smiled. ‘He’s always uneasy in the presence of wealth.’

‘It’s not envy with him. It’s a deference I’ve tried to talk him out of many times. Victor is much happier here. Well,’ he added, ‘as happy as he could be when he’s away from his wife and family.’

‘Has he been moping?’

‘He has, Madeleine.’

‘And I hope that you’ve been moping as well,’ she said.

Colbeck was tactful. ‘I did brood from time to time.’

‘I did nothing else from the moment you left home. Father kept saying that I should have gone with you.’

‘That would have been wonderful had it not been so impractical.’

‘Don’t you want me here?’ she asked, poking him in the ribs.

‘I thought that I’d already answered that question.’

They shared a marital laugh and pulled each other even closer.

‘I’m so glad that our journey was not in vain. On the way here, I must confess, I began to lose confidence. I thought you might regard the evidence we brought as far-fetched and irrelevant.’

‘It’s neither of those things, Madeleine. It’s a revelation.’

‘That made the rigours of the long ride somehow more bearable.’

‘You’ll have to endure that long ride again, I fear.’

‘Yes – but this time my dear husband will be with me.’

‘Is it going to become a habit?’ he asked. ‘Following me whenever I leave London, that is. When we were in Exeter last year, you made a surprise appearance and you’ve done it again in Glasgow. If this pattern is repeated, Superintendent Tallis will be very angry. You know his opinion of the institution of marriage. He’d never countenance the idea of a female detective.’

‘We
had
to tell you what we found out at that dinner.’

‘You were right to do so. I can’t thank you enough.’

‘Don’t let that stop you doing it,’ she said with a smile. ‘What happens next? You’ll have to alert the royal family, obviously, but what then?’

He kissed her tenderly. ‘Ask me in the morning.’  

It was getting more difficult. Alarmed at the spread of vandalism, the Caledonian Railway increased the number of its policemen on night duty and there was a corresponding increase in nightwatchmen. With so many more eyes and ears to contend with, the sabbatarians had to exercise greater care. When Ian Dalton set out with his paintbrush on another nocturnal excursion into crime, he came very close to being caught. His new-found boldness worked against him. Trying to paint some letters across the stationmaster’s office, he made too much noise and aroused a passing railway policeman. Had it not been for Tam Howie’s quick thinking, they might both have been arrested. Dalton had to abandon his paint pot and run. Howie grabbed him by the arm and rushed him to a hiding place behind the ticket office. They stayed in their place of refuge for half an hour before it was safe to leave.

On the cab ride back home, they were able to compare notes.

‘I failed,’ said Dalton, dejectedly.

‘We’re bound to have a setback now and then, Ian.’

‘I shouldn’t have been so cavalier.’

‘It was moving that bench out of the way that caused the trouble,’ said Howie. ‘It scraped along the floor and gave the game away.’

‘I lost the paint pot.’

‘That’s easily replaced.’

‘I blame myself, Tam. I’m very sorry.’

‘We escaped. That’s what matters.’

Dalton was grateful to him. Expecting a rebuke, he was only getting support.

‘Thank you for being so tolerant with me,’ he said.

‘You’ve been a godsend to us, Ian, but I think we learnt a lesson tonight. We have to hunt outside the city where the patrols are not so regular. And we must preach our gospel in a more deafening way. In fact,’ Howie went on, ‘that’s something I meant to broach with you.’

Dalton was eager. ‘Go on. I know you and Flora have bigger ambitions.’

‘You may not agree with what we propose.’

‘I’ve followed in your footsteps so far.’

‘Yes, but we’re about to take giant strides. Let me say at the outset that if you disagree with our project – or if you feel unable to take part – we’ll quite understand. It’s a lot to ask of anybody. All that we’ve done so far,’ said Howie, ‘is to gain attention. It’s made no difference to the Caledonian. Trains continue to be run on the Sabbath. We need to do something that will change their minds.’

‘And what’s that, Tam?’

‘It’s a plan that involves a lot of reconnaissance.’

Leaning closer to his companion, Howie outlined the scheme that he and his wife had dreamt up. It had already been touched on at the meeting they held with members of their congregation but nobody – Dalton included – believed that they would carry out such an audacious plan. Yet that was precisely what Tam and Flora Howie intended to do and Dalton had the opportunity to join them. He slapped a thigh in celebration.

‘That’s brilliant, Tam!’

‘We can count on your help, then?’

Dalton grinned. ‘You won’t be able to keep me away.’

The first thing that Colbeck did after an early breakfast was to visit Nairn Craig to acquaint him with the latest development. The latter was shaken to the core by the notion that his railway would be the setting for an attempted assassination. Colbeck impressed upon him the need to maintain secrecy. If news of the plot leaked out, it would spread quickly and, ultimately, reach the ears of those planning the crime. They would be frightened away and Craig might never discover who had caused the train crash. When he’d controlled his feelings of panic, Craig accepted the wisdom of the advice and promised to say nothing. As a patriotic man, however, he was outraged.

‘How could anyone wish to murder our dear Queen?’

‘A number of people have already tried, sir,’ said Colbeck, ‘and they’ve not all been deranged. I can’t believe that anyone would hate Her Majesty enough as a person to want her dead. It’s what she represents that attracts enemies.’

‘Do you think that this is a foreign conspiracy?’

‘It could be.’

‘Then it has to be the Russians,’ decided Craig. ‘They’ll never forgive us for winning the Crimean War. This is their revenge.’

‘It could equally be the revenge of someone much nearer home,’ said Colbeck. ‘The Act of Union provoked great opposition at the time and it still rankles with some people a hundred and fifty years later. Deplorable as it is, there are fanatics who’d take their Scottish nationalism to extremes. Then there’s something else you must consider,’ he went on. ‘The Queen may be only an incidental casualty. Her husband will be travelling with her and he has his own detractors. Supposing one of those enemies has designs on Prince Albert’s life? Supposing that
he
is the target?’

‘The threat is too horrible to contemplate.’

‘Forewarned is forearmed.’

‘But wait a moment,’ said Craig, spying a possible source of relief. ‘There’s no certainty that the Caledonian has been chosen by these people, is there? The royal train will go all the way from London to Aberdeen. It could be attacked anywhere along the line. Why single out us?’

‘Because that’s where they held their trial,’ replied Colbeck. ‘All the elements required were present. They had rural seclusion, a rock face that could be blasted apart and a gradient that slowed the train down. On the journey between Carlisle and Glasgow, those factors are repeated time and again. The logical supposition is that they’ll select your railway again, Mr Craig. Why put themselves to the trouble of searching for an ideal location two or three hundred miles south when they already have what they need on a stretch of the Caledonian?’

The general manager’s hands went to his head and he emitted a low moan.

‘We’re doomed,’ he said.

‘You shouldn’t view it in those terms, sir. Instead of seeing this as a plot against the royal family,’ said Colbeck, ‘regard it as the one chance we have of apprehending the villains behind it – and behind the earlier crash, of course.’

‘Must you bait the hook with the royal family to do so?’

‘That will be up to them, sir. No compulsion will be involved. They’ll be made fully aware of the situation before they agree to take their holiday in Scotland at the appointed time.’