The Haunted Lady (26 page)

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Authors: Bill Kitson

BOOK: The Haunted Lady
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‘You might be right, Adam. It’s not the wildest theory you’ve ever come up with. Close to it, perhaps, but not the most outrageous one.’

With that in mind, I told Cooper, ‘I want the names of everyone working out of the British Embassy in West Germany from 1959 to 1962.’

‘Why do you want to know that?’

‘That’s my business, and it’s only the first half of what I want from you. I haven’t told you the tricky bit yet.’

‘Tell me what that is, and then perhaps you’ll let me know what I get in return.’

‘I want the names of all the covert operatives working out of Germany during the same period. By that I mean those stationed on either side of the Iron Curtain. I want their code names and their real identities.’

‘I couldn’t possibly. It’s highly classified.’

‘In that case you don’t get what I have. Others might be far more cooperative. I’m thinking of the national papers for example, both in this country and in America, Italy and West Germany where they aren’t bound by the Official Secrets Act. One whiff of what the dossier contains and I reckon they’d be fighting each other tooth and nail and throwing large wads of banknotes at me to get the documents.’

‘What exactly is this information? Can you at least tell me that?’

There was nothing to be lost by letting Cooper know what we had, with certain provisos. ‘Before I tell you, let me explain the precautions I’ve taken. When I said the dossier was in my possession, that doesn’t mean I have it here in the house. It is in a safe and secret location. That way I can ensure that any attempt to steal it from us would fail.’

‘Very sensible,’ Cooper replied, ‘but you surely don’t think we go in for that sort of activity.’

My silence told him that I didn’t believe a word he’d said.

‘OK,’ he said after a while, ‘what is in this dossier?’

‘I don’t know.’

Eve told me later that I was being sadistic. Perhaps so, but I wanted Cooper on the defensive, and thought the best way to gain the upper hand was to tell him as little as possible.

After a short pause I continued, ‘But I do know who wrote it.’

‘Go on.’

‘It was written by Andrew Kershaw.’

There was a long sigh. Was that satisfaction or disappointment, I wondered.

‘I thought you said you didn’t know what was in it. Does that mean it was in a foreign language?’

‘I can’t be sure, it could be I suppose. It’s in some form of code. That, together with the extreme measures Kershaw took to protect the dossier from discovery tells me that whatever it contains is top secret and highly valuable. Even though it was written more than twenty years ago, I believe the contents must still be highly sensitive.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘The fact that I suspect that one of the people named on those lists you are going to provide me with has committed three murders and attempted one more to ensure that information doesn’t see the light of day.’

‘Is there nothing you can tell me about the contents?’

I assured Cooper that there was nothing. That was a white lie. There was plenty I could have told him, but I wasn’t prepared to let him know that I had deciphered Kershaw’s reports. That might sound paranoid but, given that two people connected to Kershaw had been murdered in the past few weeks, I wasn’t going to take any chances.

Chapter Twenty-five

––––––––

W
ith Jäger now residing at Elmfield Grange, we had peace and quiet for the next few days. Whoever Cooper had consulted must have taken his time making a decision. Either that or gathering the information I needed was proving difficult. It had been four days since our initial discussion when Cooper eventually phoned back. ‘I need some reassurance before I can accede to your request,’ Cooper told us. ‘My superiors aren’t happy to release the information you asked for, without knowledge that they are getting something of value in return.’

‘That isn’t easy to provide unless I can decode the entries,’ I pointed out. ‘However the fact that you asked me to let you have anything pertinent to Kershaw, and the knowledge that this dossier is written in code, together suggest that it contains more than a few love letters and some shopping lists. Of course, I could attempt to decipher it and find out. I know someone who is quite good at cracking codes. I could ask him to look at it. He’s a reporter.’

‘No, don’t do that!’ Cooper was obviously alarmed at the thought.

We arranged for him to call the following day, at which point he would collect the dossier and deliver the information I had requested. When he rang off I told Eve what had ensued and suggested she contact Chloe. ‘I think it would be wiser to wait until Cooper has been and gone before Jäger returns. You might want to have a word with Isaac and tell him that.’

Eve gave me a suspicious glance but didn’t question my motives. I was glad about that, because I didn’t want to lie to her and definitely didn’t want her to know what I was thinking. The idea in my mind was scary enough to cause me anxiety. I felt sure it would make Eve far more nervous.

When Cooper arrived the handover was a strange affair, conducted in almost total silence. He placed a large envelope on my desk and then examined the exercise books one by one. It was only after he had looked at all of them that he started to talk. He began by asking me about provenance. ‘They’re in Kershaw’s handwriting for one thing,’ I replied, ‘plus if you look carefully two of them have the initials of a member of his wife’s family in the corner.’

Cooper peered at one after the other before exclaiming, ‘Ah yes, IJ. That would be her brother, Isaac Jäger, I assume.’

‘Thank you,’ I murmured, ‘you have just confirmed what we both suspected – that you knew all along about Kershaw, his marriage and what he was doing in Germany.’

Cooper looked angry at having been caught out in such an elementary way, but bit his lip and remained silent as he passed the envelope to me. Eve, in turn, looked through the list of names and said, ‘This appears to be what we need, but we’ll have to go through every entry to make sure.’

‘They’re all in there,’ Cooper assured us. ‘I trust you won’t go waving the names about. Some of them are still active. Of course, I would remind you that the information contained in there is subject to the Official Secrets Act and that you are bound by the terms and conditions of that Act’

‘I’ve no doubt they are. Don’t worry, we’ll only use them to try and identify one person.’

‘You really think there’s a serial killer in there, someone who once worked for us?’

‘That sort of thing. Although not someone who killed for psychopathic motives; someone with a much colder, more calculated, reason to take the lives of three innocent victims and to attempt one more.’ I refrained from telling him the full story. He had a long journey ahead of him, the first part of which was on narrow, winding roads. Knowing the whole truth could well have resulted in him driving into a ditch or hitting a tree.

As Cooper had left, he delivered a valedictory message. ‘I hope I never hear from either of you again.’

‘You won’t if you take that phone tap off!’

He shook his head. ‘I’ll deal with it tomorrow.’

When he’d gone, Eve asked, ‘Why didn’t you give him the keyword for the cipher?’

‘Because for one thing he will have plenty of experts on hand to work it out for him. It isn’t the most sophisticated code ever invented. That’s not the main reason, though. If he, or anyone, knew I have that keyword, they would probably figure out that I would have been curious enough about the contents to decode the notes in full – and having done so, I would know how dangerous that knowledge is. Not only did I not tell him the key, I also omitted to mention that we have a copy of the documents securely locked in a safe deposit box in the vault of our bank. That way, should we ever get threatened, we have a great insurance policy. Believe me, Eve darling, there is a very real threat to anyone who knows the secrets Kershaw unearthed.’

Having explained my actions, which I could tell left Eve somewhat perturbed, I suggested we should scan the list Cooper had left us. Not only were there the full names, together with military rank where appropriate, but there were also some who had aliases alongside them. The relevant column in the neatly tabulated sheets was headed by the title “Trade Names” from which we inferred that these were people involved in espionage activities. It wasn’t until we got somewhere near the end that I spotted a Trade Name that appeared in Kershaw’s reports There had been no hint or suspicion in Kershaw’s entry that the person only referred to by his codename was anything other than a loyal, trustworthy British subject working undercover. However, at the same time, Kershaw had reported on another agent, expressing suspicion amounting almost to certainty that the second man was a traitor, who had been passing secrets to the East Germans and the Russians for several years. Kershaw had reported his fear that this agent had compromised many of the undercover networks behind the Iron Curtain.

I pointed to the second name and told Eve what I’d read about the man. ‘Neither his real name nor his alias mean anything to me,’ Eve said.

‘Nor me,’ I replied, ‘but Kershaw said that man worked alongside this one.’ I pointed to the first name. ‘The two of them were working side by side in Germany, so what if Kershaw got it wrong? What if the first one, let’s call him Agent A, was not disloyal, but Agent B was the traitor.’

‘I suppose that’s possible, but where does that leave us?’

My finger had been concealing the entry that gave Agent B’s real name. I lifted it clear and heard Eve gasp.

We drove to Elmfield Grange, collected Jäger, and as we returned home, Eve told him about our recent visitor. Glancing in my rear view mirror I saw Jäger smile fleetingly before his gaze met mine. The unspoken message was clear. Jäger was satisfied with what he had just heard.

The conversation moved on to discuss his short stay at the Grange. It was clear that he had enjoyed his visit and that he had been made very welcome by Chloe and the Kershaw branch of the family. ‘We talked about the paintings,’ he told Eve, ‘and Chloe agrees that they should be sold and the proceeds split between charities. She and her fiancé are to decide which ones would be the most suitable causes to benefit.’

‘Have you made any plans for the future?’ Eve asked.

The question surprised him and he gave it several moments’ thought before replying. ‘No, not really, because until now there seemed little point. However, as things seem to be coming to a head, I suppose I should think about it.’

That evening we opted to take Jäger to the Admiral Nelson for a meal. As Eve was upstairs getting ready I sat in my study reading through the plot notes I had made for my current manuscript. I had been away from it for some time and it was interesting to see the flaws in what I’d originally dreamed up. I was in the process of correcting a couple of basic errors when I felt the presence of someone else in the room. I glanced round to find Jäger standing in the doorway, obviously uncertain as to whether he was interrupting something important. Without thinking of the language problem I smiled and asked him to come in. ‘I was only reading through some notes I’d made,’ I explained.

I thought I knew the reason for Jäger’s visit and guessed the reason for his hesitation, so I tried to set his mind at rest. What took place over the next few minutes in that room remained my secret for a long time. When I
did
reveal it, the only person I trusted with the truth was Eve. Although the events that transpired following that meeting would no doubt have shocked many people, I had no doubt that the solution it offered was the only viable one.

One thing we had all but overlooked in our anxiety to solve the murders was the diptych. The day following Cooper’s visit, Michael Phillips rang us with good news. ‘Our workman has recovered from his injury and has put new hinges and a stronger wooden post in position on the wall of the Lady chapel and now the diptych has been found I’m keen to have it restored to its rightful place.’

We arranged to transport the paintings to St Mary’s, following which Michael said, ‘Chloe wants to talk to you about the masterpieces you discovered.’

I handed the phone to Eve. We had already talked about the artwork and Eve had a suggestion to put to Chloe. ‘I don’t know what you feel about this, but I thought the best thing to do would be to hand them over to the museum for the time being. Their curator has been really helpful and he could arrange for the Vermeers to be put in appropriate frames. Then they could be displayed in the new art gallery. The publicity and the upsurge in visitor numbers would be really good for the museum. Perhaps it might even be worth thinking of holding the auction there when the time comes to dispose of them.’

Jäger helped me replace the back plates on the frames of the diptych and load them, together with the other paintings, into the car. Without the packing case, or should I say table, they fit far more easily into the boot. Having put the images of Mary Magdalene face down I laid a rug carefully over them and we placed the Vermeer paintings on top, folding the rug protectively across them before putting the Bellini miniatures into position. Having ensured that they would not get damaged in transit we set off for Dinsdale. Our first port of call was the museum, where Chloe had arranged with Eve for us to meet up and deliver the masterpieces to Evans, who had expressed his delight at taking possession of what would no doubt be a major attraction for the gallery. When we arrived, Chloe was already waiting, along with Michael and his mother. Evans was also in attendance, and had already made a useful contribution to our plans for the artwork.

‘I think before we go ahead with publicity we should get an expert to confirm that these are genuine. There have been a lot of forgeries discovered in recent years and I would hate to find out the hard way. It would be particularly embarrassing if we’d started the publicity machine rolling before we realised these were fakes.’

As they had previously been handled by a master forger this seemed a particularly sensible precaution. Luckily we had Jäger’s confirmation that these paintings had been in Kershaw’s possession long before Casper Harfleur got near them, but erring on the safe side was, without doubt, the correct way to proceed.

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