by Jack Higgins
The door opened, throwing a shaft of yellow light into the night, and Charles Graham peered out into the night. Shane pushed Steele forward and followed him in. An expression of alarm appeared in Graham’s eyes, and he quickly closed the door. ‘Shane!' he cried in amazement. ‘But what’s happened? I thought you were supposed to be on your way to London?’
Shane nodded grimly. ‘That’s what a lot of people thought, but I’d other ideas myself.’ He pushed Steele forward. ‘I want the answers to some questions, and this pig is going to give them to me.’ He turned to Graham and smiled tightly. ‘I don’t like involving you like this, Graham, but I need your help badly. Could we go upstairs?’
Graham nodded. ‘Of course, Shane. But I hope you know what you’re doing.’
He led the way upstairs to the conservatory, and Shane followed, pushing Steele in front of him. The scent of the orchids and the intense heat were almost overpowering, and as they entered the great glass room beads of sweat appeared on Shane’s brow and trickled down into his eyes.
Graham was wearing a thin nylon shirt and silk scarf. He looked relaxed and comfortable as he led the way along the path to the terrace end of the conservatory. He sat on the edge of the table and faced them. His scarred face showed no expression, but his eyes were worried. ‘Now then,’ he demanded. ‘I suppose you’re accusing Steele of having murdered that girl, but how exactly do you intend to prove it?’
Shane smiled faintly and reached for a cigarette. He lit it quickly and blew out a long column of smoke. He felt completely relaxed and assured, and his hand dipped into his pocket and came out holding the Luger.
‘But I don’t think it was Steele who murdered the girl,’ he said softly. ‘I think it was you, Graham.’
Somewhere in the distance thunder rumbled ominously, and the rain increased in a sudden rush that hammered against the glass roof of the conservatory. There was no change of expression on Charles Graham’s face. He lit a cigarette and said calmly, ‘Are you quite sure you know what you’re saying?’
Steele took a quick step forward and his voice was high-pitched and cracking with fear. ‘I warned you,’ he cried. ‘I said he was dangerous.’
Graham’s iron control snapped, and he slapped him savagely across the face. ‘Get a grip on yourself, you damned fool!’
Steele went completely to pieces. He whirled round and flung himself on Shane, eyes rolling horribly, saliva trickling from the corner of his mouth. Shane took a quick pace backwards and kicked him in the stomach.
As Steele writhed on the floor, Graham moved forward and looked down at him contemptuously. ‘I should have got rid of him a long time ago.’
Shane covered him with the Luger. ‘Sit down,’ he said deliberately. The bell which sounded from the front door was fixed to a wooden post near by, and he wrenched the connecting wires from the terminal box and grinned tightly. ‘Now we can talk without being interrupted.’
Graham sat on one of the basket-chairs, hands clasped in front of him. He looked completely calm and self-assured. ‘I’d be interested to know how you got on to me.’
Shane leaned back against one of the iron pillars which supported the roof. ‘In the beginning I suspected everybody. Crowther, Steele - even Laura Faulkner - but the pieces didn’t seem to fit. The truth only came to me an hour ago. I went back over everything, searching desperately for a clue - anything that would help me to make sense out of things. It was then that I remembered two significant points, both of which tied you in with Steele.’
Graham reached for another cigarette. ‘And what were they?’
‘It was really Steele who gave the game away,’ Shane said. ‘On that first night when I went to see him at the Garland Club he referred to the fact that I’d been in an institution. When I threatened him he told me I’d better watch my step or I might easily find myself back in the madhouse. I’d only told two people about that - you and Laura Faulkner.’
‘Very interesting,’ Graham said, ‘but hardly conclusive.’
‘Not on its own, but I remembered another curious fact. The night I broke into Steele’s office to look for the envelope which supposedly contained Laura Faulkner’s letters, he was waiting for me in the dark with a couple of his strong-arm boys. There was only one possible explanation for that. He was expecting me because someone had warned him I might be coming. You were the only person who knew.’
Graham shook his head and something like a smile touched his twisted mouth. ‘Highly interesting,’ he said, ‘But also highly circumstantial. None of it would stand up in court. After all, Laura Faulkner knew you were hoping to get hold of that envelope.’ He shook his head. ‘You’ll have to do better than that.’
‘But I can,’ Shane said softly. ‘I’ve still got my ace-in-the-hole. I had a private word with the receptionist at my hotel earlier this evening. She suddenly started spending money on clothes - a lot of money. I wondered if there was any connexion between that and the fact that someone had been able to obtain a key which let them into my room. Whoever it was, stole my Luger. I found it in Steele’s office.’
‘Then why blame me?’ Graham said.
‘Because after I slapped her around a bit, the girl described you perfectly,‘ Shane told him. ‘And let’s face it. That wouldn’t be a difficult thing to do.’
‘So I killed Jenny Green?’ Graham said.
‘You were the only person I’d told that I was staying at her flat.’ Shane said. ‘Steele’s strong-arm boys knew because you must have told Steele, but they were out of action. In the state in which I left Steele, he couldn’t possibly have reached town in time. I even considered Adam Crowther, but he knew nothing about my relationship with Jenny Green. It had to be you, Graham. Simple arithmetic. You were the only one left.’ Shane frowned as a tiny pain started to move behind his right eye. ‘The only thing I can’t understand is why?’
Graham sighed and started to rise from his chair and Steele rolled over feebly and clutched at Shane’s legs. Shane stumbled on to one knee and Graham jumped forward and neatly wrenched the Luger from his hand. Shane vainly grabbed at his arm. His fingers clawed at the sleeve and as Graham stepped back, the thin nylon material shredded and the entire sleeve came away in Shane’s hand.
In the silence that followed, Shane’s breath hissed sharply between his teeth and the moist air of the conservatory seemed to move in on him with a terrible weightless pressure.
Graham held the Luger at waist height, his bare right arm white against the blue of his shirt. There was only one thing wrong. Around his forearm was tattooed a red and green snake and underneath it the legend: Simon and Martin - friends for life.
Out of the silence Steele cried feebly, ‘Let him have it, Faulkner. It’s either him or us.’
Shane got to his feet and leaned back against the iron pillar. The pain in his head was much worse and when he ran a hand over his face it was damp with sweat. When he finally spoke his voice sounded as if it came from a great distance. ‘What happened, Simon?’ he said. ‘What really happened?’
‘In Korea you mean?’ Simon Faulkner shrugged. ‘I was the one Colonel Li picked out of the hat for his shooting gallery. I wanted to live - it was that simple. He had the firing party sound off outside to fool the rest of you and returned me to my cell. Later on he told me they had a further use for me. To act as a spy in the prison camps in the North.’
‘And didn’t that worry you?’ Shane said.
Faulkner shrugged. ‘I didn’t have much time to think about it because the Americans started bombing the place almost immediately after that.’
‘And how did you manage to get away?’ Shane said.
Faulkner shrugged. ‘Exactly as I told you when you first came to see me.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘Everything seemed to be working out perfectly for me and then I stepped on that land mine.’
‘But how did you manage the identity switch with Charles Graham?’
Faulkner grinned and put another cigarette between his twisted lips. �
�I didn’t have to do a thing about it,’ he said. ‘It just happened. When I came round in hospital, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t even see. It was then that somebody called me Charles Graham. At first I was too weak to contradict. I knew Graham was dead because I’d seen what was left of him after the bombing. After a while I realized what had happened. The uniform I’d snatched up in Colonel Li’s office was Graham’s and that’s how they’d identified me.’
He laughed harshly. ‘A little later they brought in the colonel of the regiment. When he didn’t recognize me and started rambling on about the wonders they could do with plastic surgery these days, I suddenly realized how simple everything was. There was the money and the business Graham had been left by his uncle and he had no other relatives. The plastic surgery would account for the change and the rest of you were all dead on the hill in the ruins of that blasted temple.’
Shane was beginning to feel tired - very tired and the pain in his head was worse. It was an effort to speak and he shook his head slightly and said, ‘You were still taking a hell of a chance.’
Simon Faulkner nodded. ‘But then it was worth it. You see, I had at least five years facing me when I got back home. I’d rather unwisely gambled on the stock exchange with large sums of money from the firm. I knew it was bound to come out in a matter of weeks. That’s why I volunteered for Korea.’
‘I know,’ Shane told him. ‘Your sister told me all about that.’ A thought suddenly occurred to him and he said with a slight frown, ‘Tell me something - did Laura know about this?’
Faulkner nodded. ‘Yes, I made rather a bad slip. When they’d got through with me at that Plastic Surgery Unit, I was confident that even my own mother couldn’t have connected me with the man who walked out of there. I decided to put it to the test. I wrote to Laura, explaining that I’d been in Korea with her brother and she invited me to visit the house.’
‘And she recognized you?’ Shane demanded incredulously.
‘Believe it or not it was my handwriting she recognized,’ Faulkner laughed. ‘Fate added a nice touch of irony there.’
‘And you admitted everything to her?’
Faulkner nodded. ‘There didn’t seem to be any point in denying it and I was perfectly safe. She didn’t want another scandal. It would have killed my father.’
‘When did things really begin to go wrong?’ Shane said.
Faulkner shrugged. ‘When the end of the war came and the Chinese started to release prisoners. I took the bull by the horns and went to see Crowther when he came home. He didn’t suspect anything for an instant. Reggie Steele came to see me before I could visit him. He let me put on quite a performance for five or ten minutes and then announced that he knew damn well who I really was. He’d been lying in the rubble, pinned by his legs. He’d seen me leave the temple in one piece.’
‘And you had to pay for his silence?’
Faulkner nodded. ‘At first I looked for a way to get rid of him, but then he opened his club and I began to see the possibilities in our association. I provided the brains and he was the figure-head. We’ve made a lot of cash during the last few years.’
‘Did you know he was blackmailing your sister?’ Shane said.
Faulkner shook his head. ‘I’m afraid Laura acted very foolishly there. Steele threatened to expose me to my father if she didn’t play ball with him. She’s suffered needlessly for years. All she had to do was tell me and I could have stopped it by lifting the phone, but then - she didn’t know of my association with Steele.’
Shane was finding it difficult to concentrate. He frowned and passed a hand over his brow. ‘What about Wilby? Where did he fit in?’
Faulkner sighed. ‘That was Steele’s mistake, I’m afraid. It made him feel big to give Wilby a job for old time’s sake when he came whining, cap in hand.’
‘Presumably he discovered your secret?’
Faulkner nodded. ‘He overheard us talking in Steele’s office one evening. It was easy enough to keep his mouth shut. In the first place, he was frightened to death of me and in the second, he was perfectly happy as long as he had enough money to get drunk on. Unfortunately the picture changed for the worse when you appeared on the scene.’
‘You put him in that gas oven?’ Shane said.
Faulkner nodded tranquilly. ‘All of a sudden he was more afraid of you than he was of me. He wrote me a letter in which he said he couldn’t stand it any more. He was going to tell you everything. I went to his house prepared to offer him a bribe large enough to keep his mouth shut until I’d managed to get rid of you one way or another.’
‘And what went wrong?’ Shane said.
Faulkner shrugged. ‘I found him drunk in the kitchen. It was too good an opportunity to miss. I dragged him across to the gas oven and put his head inside.’
‘But how did you manage the suicide note?’ Shane asked.
Faulkner smiled. ‘The final touch of artistry, I left the second page of the letter he had written to me. It looked like a brief note and in it, he referred to you quite damningly.’
‘And all the other things,’ Shane said. ‘The footsteps and the incident in the fog when I saw Laura going into that hotel? You were behind them all?’
‘The club foot seemed a nice touch,’ Faulkner said. ‘After all you appeared to have Colonel Li on the brain and there was no need to kill you. You were going to die anyway. I thought that if I could make you think your reason was going you might leave.’
‘But how about that business at the hotel when Laura vanished?’
‘I didn’t want her visiting my house in case you happened to drop by unexpectedly,’ Faulkner said. ‘I arranged to meet her at that hotel. I was watching from the window and saw you following her. I phoned down to the desk and told the hall porter exactly what to do. I said we were having an affair and you were a nosy private detective employed by the husband.’
‘That still doesn’t explain the phone call I made to her house.’
Faulkner chuckled. ‘But you didn’t make the phone call - the hall porter dialled the number for you. In actual fact he connected you to the room upstairs where we were meeting.’
Everything had dropped neatly into place, but the picture was still incomplete. Shane said slowly, ‘And what about Jenny? Why did you have to kill her?’
Faulkner shrugged. ‘But surely that’s obvious? I wanted rid of you once and for all. After you left Steele at Hampton he managed to call me from a public phone box on the main road. He told me you were going to the club to get that envelope from the safe and he told me what was in it. Not letters from Laura to him as she had told you, but the truth about me. A few minutes later Laura phoned to tell me the same thing. She said that she’d managed to delay you at the house. She wanted me to get to that envelope before you could open it.’
There was no hurt in the knowledge, only a certain sadness and something suspiciously like regret. Shane swallowed hard and said slowly, ‘I see.’
Faulkner shook his head. ‘No, you don’t see at all, Martin. I knew Laura had fallen for you pretty heavily, but stronger than that was her desperate resolve to see that the truth about me was never revealed. She knew it would kill my father.’
‘But none of this explains why you killed Jenny,’ Shane said.
‘After I’d clubbed you down in the alley, I realized that you’d make for the girl’s flat and then I suddenly thought of a way in which I could get rid of you once and for all. You’d been in an institution for years and several people knew of your obsession that one of your comrades had been a traitor in Korea. You’d even been publicly rebuked by the coroner at Wilby’s inquest. All I had to do was to get to the flat before you, murder the girl and club you down when you came in.’
‘But you didn’t just murder her, you bastard,’ Shane said. ‘You butchered her.’
‘But I had to do it that way,’ Faulkner said patiently. ‘You were suspected of being insane. It had to be that sort of murder.’
Steele had manag
ed to struggle to his feet and he slumped into one of the chairs, his face bone white and drawn with pain. ‘What are we going to do with him?’ he said.
Faulkner shrugged. ‘I’m going to shoot him,’ he said calmly. ‘It’s very simple. He forced you to bring him here from the club. He had a gun. There was a struggle and I managed to shoot him.’
Shane took a deep breath and tried to straighten his tired body and then there was a sudden movement in the shrubbery behind him and Lomax moved forward and stood at his shoulder.
Shane felt a tremendous relief flooding through him and he sagged back against the pillar. ‘What kept you?’ he said. ’I was beginning to get worried.’
Lomax grinned. ‘I’ve been here for quite a while,’ he said. ‘There was no reply when I rang the bell at the front door so I had to force a window. You were so busy talking you didn’t hear me come in.’
‘Did you get it all?’ Shane said.
Lomax nodded. ‘Enough - I’ll apologize to you later.’ He turned to Faulkner and said grimly. ‘You’d better hand that thing over - the house is surrounded anyway. You wouldn’t get very far.’
Steele gave a cry of dismay and tried to get to his feet. Faulkner turned quickly and slashed him across the head with the barrel of the Luger and then he moved back until he was leaning against the door which led out on to the terrace.
‘The first man to move gets a bullet between the eyes,’ he said, ‘and I mean it. I’ve nothing to lose and I don’t intend to hang.’
He opened the door to the terrace and as he stepped backwards, his eyes never leaving them, Shane said gently, ‘But you are going to hang, Simon. You see I promised a friend of mine earlier in the evening that I wouldn’t kill you. As I didn’t trust myself not to pull the trigger when I had the gun trained on you, I thought I’d better take safety precautions.’ His hand came out of his pocket and he held up the magazine from the Luger.
