DEADLY DECEPTIONS

by Bill WENHAM

  Middleton called her now and told her that it was done.

  “Well done, Bristow, you sure scared the pants right off Randy Andy there,” he said.

  “Did I really, sir? I bet he’d be mortified to know that I didn’t even notice!”

  She gave him her usual infectious grin and a high five. It had been a very good morning all round so far.

  Chapter Twelve

  Prentiss opened the cottage door, hugged his sister and took her bag from where the taxi driver had placed it for her in front of the door. The taxi which had brought her over from Cambridge and had waited while she popped into the post office, now pulled away from the front of his cottage for its return trip.

  He opened the front door wide, ushered her inside and then closed it again. He placed her bag at the foot of the stairs as she preceded him into his tiny kitchen. She was dressed in a light colored summer skirt and blouse with a woolen cardigan over and sensible shoes. She had a Burberry raincoat over her left arm and held a walking stick in her right hand.

  Prentiss hung up her coat on a rack on the hallway wall and then pulled out a kitchen chair for her to sit down wearily on. Then she gave him a long hard stare.

  “Just look at you, Parker. What the hell have you done to yourself?” she demanded. When he didn’t reply, she just shook her head at him.

  “You called me and I’m here, Parker. It was a long and tiresome journey for an old lady like me so you’d better tell me that it was really necessary.

  A troubled look flitted across her older brother’s face.

  “It is to me, Pauly,” he said. “I really need you here with me.”

  “Are you ill, then, Parker?” she asked. “Because you sure as hell look it.”

  “No.”

  “Then why am I here? I sure hope it hasn’t got anything to do with that stupid World War II and Nazi nonsense of yours, has it?”

  When Prentiss didn’t answer, she said, “Oh, God, no, Parker! Please tell that I haven’t traveled all this way just for more of that! You’ve got to give it up, Parker, you really must. If you don’t, they’ll have you put away.”

  For a moment or two Prentiss sat sullenly across the table from her and then he said excitedly, “I’ve found one, Pauly! I’ve actually found one.”

  She stared at him.

  “You’ve found one what, Parker?” Pauline asked.

  He smirked at her and said triumphantly, “I’ve found a bloody Nazi, Pauly, that’s what!”

  Pauline Prentiss sat back in her chair and a flood of emotions surged through her. On one hand she had always dreaded this day and as the years had passed she had thought less about it because she truly believed it would never happen. But now, here was Parker saying he’d found one.

  To her it was like when people say they are searching for buried treasure, a gold mine or the Holy Grail, it is just a fantasy of theirs.

  But when they actually find it – then what?

  This was the situation that Pauline now found herself in. Parker said that he has found what he has been seeking for most of his adult life and now she must make a decision.

  Years ago, when they were both no more than children, they had both agreed that their father must be avenged. As a young girl, her father’s appearance had been so hideous that she’d never been allowed to even see him. She had obviously never been able to touch him in any way either from the time he had returned to England to the day he had died.

  How could she show love and affection for such a ghastly looking creature, whether he was her father or not. The primary emotion she had felt upon news of his death was one of intense relief combined with an overwhelming feeling of guilt. But revenge? No, she had never felt the need for that even though, at Parker’s insistence, she had agreed to help him when the time came but she had no idea with what.

  Over the years her sense of guilt peaked and slowly began to diminish to the point where she barely thought of it any more. It was at that point when Parker had told her that he intended search for and punish a Nazi, any bloody Nazi, he said, to avenge their father. He had not, however, said what he intended to do to the man when he caught him.

  Pauline had believed that it was all talk and bravado on Parker’s part and thought that the idea would fade away, so she had once again, and to ease her own conscience, said that she would help him.

  It had not faded away. On the contrary, it had become an insane obsession for her brother and had cost him thousands of pounds over the years. But even after all those years and the collecting of thousands of items of World War II junk, or his memorabilia, as Prentiss preferred to call it, he hadn’t been even close to finding his Nazi.

  Until today!

  “You’ve actually found one, Parker? Where? Who is it? Is it a man or a woman?” Pauline said.

  Prentiss grinned at her.

  “Whoa, Pauly! One question at a time. And yes to your first one. I have actually found our Nazi!” He deliberately said ‘our’ instead of ‘my’ because he needed her help. “It is a man and he is right here in the Parish of Carrington.”

  “So, who is he?”

  “You’ll never guess, Pauly,”

  “I don’t intend to guess, Parker. I’m tired and I don’t want to play silly games with you. Tell me who it is,” she said in an irritated voice.

  Prentiss waited for a moment and then said dramatically, “He’s the Lord of the Manor here, Pauly.”

  “He’s the what!”

  “That’s what I said, the Lord of the Manor, Sir Alfred Allenby. That’s who he says he is but I know differently.”

  “How do you know differently, Parker?” she asked.

  He gave her a superior smile.

  “Because I bought some documents that prove he isn’t who he says he is. This isn’t part of my crazy obsession, as you keep calling my search, because I’ve found him.”

  “Then I’m pleased for you, but can’t you just give it up now?”

  “Give it up? No, of course I can’t. I’m not doing this just for myself. It is for you, me and for our poor dad,” he said.

  Pauline frowned at the order in which he had placed them, with their father last, almost as an afterthought. This isn’t for our father at all, Parker, this is all about you, she thought.

  “So, now that you’ve found him, what are you going to do about it?”

  He looked a little flustered as he said, “It’s not quite what I’m going to do, Pauly, because I’ve already done some of it.”

  Pauly looked astonished.

  “You have? So, what on earth have you done?” she asked him fearfully.

  Her brother didn’t speak for a moment and when he finally did, his voice was barely audible.

  “I’ve already killed three people right here in the village,” he said.

  “You’ve what!” she said unbelievingly.

  “I’ve killed three people here,” he repeated as if he was discussing nothing more serious than the weather.

  “Never, Parker – not you, surely? Why, for God’s sake?”

  “Because they were a threat to me and to our mission” he said.

  “Please don’t call it our mission, Parker. It’s yours and all yours. You’ve murdered three people, that’s what you’ve done, you stupid, idiotic man,” she spluttered angrily. “Who were they?”

  “Well, there was Amy Warren, she was the first. Then there was Dr. Brewer and Annie Siggers.”

  “Why those people and why did you think you had to kill them?”

  “I just told you, Pauly, they were a threat to my miss… to me, and I had to dispose of them.”

  “Were they all Nazis too?”

  “No, of course not. They were just local villagers.”

  “And there was no other way, except to murder them?” Pauline asked. She was trying to come to grips with what her brother was quite nonchalantly telling her.

  “Possibly,” he answered in a matter of fact tone, “but not at the time.”

  Pauline w
as absolutely appalled at what Prentiss had just confessed to her but he was still her brother. She looked thoughtful and then said,” Have the police spoken to you about this?”

  “No.”

  “Have they spoken to the other villagers?”

  “Yes. Well, I don’t know for sure but I suppose they must have.”

  “And why not you? Why would that be I wonder?” she said.

  “That’s easy, Pauly. Because when I’m out in the village in the daytime, I am not at all as you see me right now. I disguise myself and what the police and the villagers see is just a decrepit old man who can hardly walk and can barely stand. I am well above any suspicion, Pauly.”

  “Famous last words, those are, my idiotic brother. So why do you need me here. I can’t and won’t murder anyone for you, nor help you to either, you know that, surely?”

  “I don’t want or expect you to, Pauly, but I know that I can’t complete this all on my own. At some point, I’ll probably need you to create some kind of diversion in the village for me.”

  “A diversion? What kind of diversion? Do you want me to set the village on fire or something?”

  “I don’t know yet, Pauly, but I do know you must be very tired and it’s getting late. Let me put together a meal for us and then we’ll have an early night. You have the basics now, you can sleep on it and we’ll talk about it some more in the morning. Let me show you up to your room now and we’ll eat in about half an hour.”

  Pauline Prentiss had only part of his story. He had told her that he’d found his Nazi, who he was and where he was, but he had also omitted one essential item. One that would change everything for her.

  Prentiss had not yet told her what he intended to do to his Nazi when he met up with him!

  Chapter Thirteen

  Middleton and Bristow could hear snatches of old Joe Turner sounding off with his latest piece of village gossip in the Black Bull public bar.

  “…has come here to visit his…” “Old dear, skinny as he is, and….” “Sister, so I hear…” and then a group of drinkers at the next table burst out laughing. When Middleton looked over again, Joe had moved from the bar and had his head together with one of his cronies in a booth, out of earshot.

  When Ray, the barman, called for last orders, Middleton, with Bristow following, walked over to the bar.

  “What was old Joe on about, Ray? Someone new in the village is there?” he asked.

  Ray nodded.

  “Yeah. Old Joe says that Mr. Prentiss’s sister has come up from London to visit him. Going to take care of the poor old bugger, probably. He sure needs someone to look out for him. Most times he looks like he’s going to keel over at any minute.”

  Middleton smiled and said, “Thanks, Ray. See you tomorrow.”

  “Well, any new developments, sir?” Bristow asked when she came into the office in the morning.

  “A little more clarification about Mr. Prentiss’s sister. Sgt. Barnett was on the ball and went around to see if she needed any ‘community assistance’. Prentiss was out and the old lady made him the mandatory cup of tea and then told all. She is definitely his sister and said she was devastated at how much he had deteriorated since she had seen him last. She told the sergeant that she plans to stay awhile and will try to convince him to go back to live with her in London.” Middleton said and then paused.

  “Go on, sir,” Bristow urged.

  “Well, she’s a spinster, apparently and….” he said and stopped abruptly when Bristow just about choked with laughter.

  “She’s a what?”

  “A spinster, Bristow. A single lady,” he said.

  “Oh, my God, Detective Inspector Middleton, where the hell have you been for the last half a century? So, you think that I’m a spinster too, then, do you? I’ll have you know, sir, that I’ve never spun a single bloody thing in my entire life – and, I’ll bet, neither has she!”

  “But, I meant….” Middleton tried to say but didn’t get a chance because Bristow was on a roll.

  “The term, in this modern age, which you should really try to be a part of, sir, is – bachelor lady or bachelorette, if you prefer.”

  She grinned at him.

  “I’m afraid that at times some of your antiquated Victorian terminology tends to slip into your otherwise reasonably acceptable vocabulary” she said.

  Middleton gave her one of his customary mock glares and said, “Are you done, Bristow? My term and that of the law of the land in describing a single woman, unless it’s been changed without my knowledge would be, as in this case, ‘a spinster woman currently residing in the parish of Carrington’.”

  Bristow just sniffed.

  “If that’s what it still says then it’s well past time it was changed. You don’t want to have to deal with an angry bunch of modern day suffragettes now, do you, sir? – especially with me leading them down the street carrying a bloody great banner!”

  “Do I have to remind you again that I am your superior officer, Bristow?”

  “Ah, right. That ‘superior’ thing is something else we need to discuss at another time, when people aren’t getting themselves murdered.”

  Middleton rolled his eyes.

  “Like I said earlier, are you done now, Bristow? Because, bachelorette, suffragette or whatever else she might be, I think we should pay the old lady a visit.”

  Bristow laughed.

  “Come on, sir. You’re not going to think of her as a suspect, surely. She can’t be. She only just got here, the poor old dear.”

  “Don’t bother with the car, Bristow,” he said tartly. “We’ll just walk over there.”

  Middleton was unaware that, on the night his sister had arrived, Prentiss had coached her as to what to say and who to say it to.

  On the day of her arrival, when she had knocked on his door after asking directions at the post office, Prentiss had greeted her warmly. Pauline Prentiss had thought that the post office would be the most obvious place to find out where anyone lived in the community.

  She could have just as easily asked the old man standing next to her. Old Joe Turner knew as much, and probably more, about everybody in the community – and he was listening to her every word!

  Chapter Fourteen

  Pauline stood in Prentiss’s tiny kitchen. Her bag was packed and was standing by the cottage’s front door.

  “You won’t change your mind then, Pauly? I really need you and I can’t do this properly all on my own. You always said that you would help me when the time came and that time is here, Pauly,” he said in a wheedling tone.

  “That was before you changed the bloody rules of the game on me, Parker. I told that I would help you to catch one Nazi, but, Good God, man; I was just a child when I said that. It was almost a lifetime ago now.”

  “But, Pauly….” Prentiss began but his sister cut him off sharply.

  “Don’t ‘But, Pauly’, me, Parker. Things have changed and you damned well know it. According to you, three people have been murdered here and by you, I might add – and worse still, for no reason at all that I can see. Just wanton bloody murder, Parker,” she said angrily.

  “I told you, Pauly, it was really necessary. They were a threat to me. It had to be done.”

  Pauline gave a snorting laugh.

  “Nonsense, Parker. Don’t be so bloody ridiculous. Nothing like that has to be done. You did it just because you wanted to do it!”

  She glared angrily at him.

  “This Nazi thing of yours has been an obsession with you all your life, Parker. It has ruled it and you’ve never thought of anything else.”

  “It wasn’t for me, Pauly. It was for our Dad. Someone had to do something for him,” he said plaintively.

  “Nonsense, Parker. Our father was a good man and he would never have wanted you to murder innocent people or to mutilate someone on his behalf. I doubt if he would have wanted you to even track a bloody Nazi for him either.”

  “He did!” Parker shouted at her. “He told
me that was what he wanted.”

  Pauline shook her head impatiently at him.

  “Lies, Parker. All bloody lies. All of it, because he couldn’t have told you that. How could he? The poor man couldn’t even speak any more and you only ever saw him once. That Nazi thing was something you’ve dreamed up all by yourself,” she said.

  “But, Pauly…”

  She interrupted him sharply.

  “In all these years, while you’ve been collecting all this wartime junk of yours, I’ve supported you, Parker. I did that because I thought it was just a harmless hobby and that nothing would ever come of it. When you called me the other day and asked me to come here, I thought that you were ill and needed me to look after you. But I would have never imagined, in a million years, that you were running around up here killing people.”

  “I wasn’t running. I was ….” he began.

  “I know what you doing, Parker, because you’ve gone to great lengths to tell me – and now I’m telling you. I can’t report you to the police, because you’re my brother. A raving bloody lunatic, maybe, but still my brother.”

  She paused a moment to get her breath as Prentiss stood glowering in front of her.

  “I won’t betray you, you know that, but I refuse to help you do what you are planning either. When they catch you, and believe me, they will, they will string you up. They will hang you, Parker, and you will deserve it. Think about that, for God’s sake, before you go any farther.”

  She paused again for a moment.

  “What you have done here and planning to do is completely unconscionable and has nothing at all to do with retribution against the bloody Gestapo! It is an act of total madness, Parker, and I refuse to be a part of it. Do you understand me?”

  Prentiss nodded.

  “I thought I could depend on you, Pauly,” he said sullenly.

  “Well, you thought wrong, my lad, and if you had any sense at all in that thick, sick head of yours, you’d turn yourself in right now before things get anyway worse.”