Dangerous Cargo

by Pauline Rowson

  Killbeck addressed Crowder. ‘I don’t know what you can charge me with – there’s no evidence.’

  ‘There is in that tin.’ Marvik handed it across to Crowder.

  ‘The British government won’t want that exposed.’

  Crowder spoke. ‘Times have changed.’

  Marvik noted the flicker of surprise on Killbeck’s face which was quickly followed by annoyance and then smugness. Even now Howard Killbeck was thinking of the favours he could call in from people in power and influence who could hush this up. Marvik addressed Crowder. ‘There are three more bodies in Kingston House, murdered either by him or by his two thugs.’ Then, turning to Killbeck, Marvik added tautly, ‘And you finally killed Cotleigh when he returned to England in January. Did Matthew tell you he’d returned? That must have been a shock, knowing that your brother had lied to you in 1990,’ sneered Marvik. ‘Matthew warned you that Cotleigh had made contact with him and was going to try and blackmail him again. But Cotleigh had also made contact with Sarah Redburn and asked to meet her and that set her off on her own research and alarmed you. Then, when you thought she might join forces with me and get too close to the truth, you killed her.’

  ‘Not me.’

  Stiffly Marvik said, ‘Which one of them then?’

  ‘None of us. It was you she went to meet Sunday night. Maybe you killed her when she wouldn’t let you have what you wanted,’ he goaded.

  Marvik stared at the lean, cocky elderly man and saw a trace of what Shale had put up with for years. The subtle bullying, the malicious mocking, the manipulation. He searched for the truth in the dangerous eyes, then with disgust he turned and headed towards the boat.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Marvik broke the silence as they made for Poole in the wake of the RIB where Howard Killbeck and his accomplices were being transported. Crowder had joined him and Strathen on board. ‘Whose idea was it to identify Oscar Redburn’s body as Joseph Cotleigh in 1979?’ he asked Crowder.

  ‘The intelligence services of the day under orders from Her Majesty’s opposition, the then Conservative party desperate to get elected with a majority. It suited their dirty tricks campaign to have Cotleigh running off with the union funds and being found dead.’

  ‘Did Cotleigh steal the money?’ asked Strathen at the helm.

  Crowder shrugged. ‘He was by no means a saint, and out for all he could get.’

  ‘And what would they have done if Cotleigh had shown up?’ asked Strathen.

  ‘They’d have thought of something.’

  Perhaps he would have mysteriously disappeared, thought Marvik. Whoever had authorized the cover-up hadn’t cared that Linda Redburn would live the rest of her life wondering where her husband was, walking the coastal path looking for him and seeking the answers as to why he’d vanished. And a daughter wouldn’t have grown up with a huge gap in her life and she might still have been alive, thought Marvik with bitterness.

  Crowder said, ‘So tell me what you’ve got.’

  ‘And you’ll fill in the gaps?’ Marvik replied sceptically.

  ‘If I can.’

  Or rather if he wanted to or if it was expedient for him to do so. Marvik didn’t have all the facts but he could make a good guess at some of the missing pieces. He began.

  ‘Cotleigh left the country in 1979 after witnessing the murder, scared that Shale and Killbeck would come after him. But he couldn’t leave by traditional ferry to France from Weymouth because for that he’d need his passport, so he hopped aboard a private boat and was put off along the shore somewhere in France until he could create a new identity, and what better one than a man he knew was already dead: Bradley Pulford. He’d heard Darrow tell Redburn about his death. In 1989 he returned as Bradley Pulford. He thought the timing might be right to extract some money from Shale because of a new dock strike. But maybe the timing had nothing to do with the dock strike. Perhaps he was on the run from someone: an angry husband whose wife he’d been shagging and sponging off, or hiding from the police in Spain, Italy or France after tricking a wealthy widow out of her money, or maybe he’d just got bored with working.’ Marvik recalled what Matthew Killbeck had said about him.

  Crowder interjected, ‘We don’t have much background but we do know that Cotleigh worked in France, Italy and the Caribbean, crewing on yachts and delivering boats.’

  Matthew had been right then. Cotleigh had been a drifter and had bummed off others for most of his life. He continued, ‘Cotleigh also came back to look for the package – his passport to a life of idleness, retracing the route that Redburn had taken to the bay, but he couldn’t find it. Matthew knew his brother wouldn’t hesitate to kill Cotleigh. He kept quiet about Cotleigh’s presence for as long as he could and that Cotleigh was in no hurry to make contact with Howard because he was still looking for the package. When it became clear that Stacey had fallen in love with Cotleigh and was pregnant and that Cotleigh intended staying on and becoming a non-working partner in the fishing business, Matthew tracked down Howard and got a message to him.’

  Marvik didn’t know how and they probably would never know unless Howard told them. Perhaps the brothers had worked out a code years ago. Perhaps Matthew had always known where Howard was and maybe the boat was the answer to that. Maybe Matthew had kept tabs on Howard’s boat.

  ‘Matthew didn’t want another murder on his conscience but he saw no other way out. Not that he committed or was involved in Redburn’s murder but Cotleigh had told Matthew he knew his brother was the killer and that he’d be named as an accessory to murder so best to keep quiet. Howard Killbeck came to kill Cotleigh but he was too late – Cotleigh had scarpered. He’d somehow got wind of the fact that Howard was coming. Perhaps Stacey had heard her father, Leonard, talking to Matthew about him or he’d said something that Stacey didn’t understand because she had no knowledge of a third brother, but when she relayed it to her lover he knew exactly what it meant. He cleared out, leaving Joshua Nunton to be killed in his place. Perhaps he even set him up for it. Perhaps Howard Killbeck bungled this time whereas Cedric Shale did the first time with Redburn, but Joshua ended up dead and Matthew couldn’t forgive himself for that. I’m guessing he disposed of the body at sea and that it was never found, or if it was there was nothing left to make an identification. Cotleigh stayed away until January this year. Only when he returned this time he didn’t know the intelligence services were alerted to the name of Bradley Pulford. What made them flag it up now?’

  ‘In November certain documents from The Malayan Emergency were released under the Freedom of Information Act. But first they were screened and anything too damaging to the government – which had escaped incineration or being sunk deep out to sea, which were the orders back in 1959 – was extracted.’

  Marvik saw what must have happened. ‘In Shale’s panic to hide the photographs, when the officer arrived to see what was taking him so long some got pushed into another file, one which travelled back on Ralph Warnford’s navy ship.’

  ‘Yes. There were only a couple of pictures but enough to alert intelligence, who were able to identify the two men in them as Cedric Shale and Howard Killbeck. Shale was suffering from dementia so he was no longer a concern but Howard Killbeck couldn’t be traced.’

  Marvik wasn’t sure he believed that. If intelligence knew about Shale then all they had to do was put a watch on his house and wait for Killbeck to show. He had a suite there. And they could have asked the Audleys. Howard Killbeck had clearly assumed another identity but with careful questioning of the Audleys they could have found him. But perhaps time was against them. And even if they had located Howard Killbeck they still wouldn’t have found the rest of the photographs. They must have known there were more.

  Marvik brought his mind back to what Crowder was saying. ‘It was possible that Howard Killbeck was dead, although there was no record of it. The trail was traced back to Singapore and to the deaths of George Gurney and Bradley Pulford and an alert was put on both names, as a matter
of course, even though both were registered dead. Then a Bradley Pulford showed up as having entered the UK in January.’

  Strathen said, ‘He was left to run in the hope he’d lead intelligence to the rest of the photographs or to Howard Killbeck. Or that Killbeck would kill him before he could stir things up.’

  ‘Something like that.’

  Marvik said, ‘Do they know how Cotleigh died?’

  ‘No. They lost sight of him.’

  ‘Careless,’ muttered Strathen.

  ‘They probably don’t have your level of expertise,’ Crowder answered, which drew a grim smile from Strathen. Crowder continued, ‘Then the DNA tests confirmed he was the father of Jensen Killbeck, which was where you came in, or rather I was asked to handle the matter and I brought you in.’

  ‘Will Howard Killbeck be brought to trial? Will the government want this coming out?’ asked Marvik.

  ‘He’ll be charged with the murders of Greg and Jane Audley, and Cedric Shale,’ Crowder answered evasively.

  And Marvik didn’t believe those pictures would ever see the light of day or that the relatives of Shale and Killbeck’s victims in Malaya would get compensation.

  Strathen said, ‘And Donald Brampton? Is he alive?’

  ‘I doubt it.’

  So did Marvik.

  After a brief pause, Crowder said, ‘Matthew Killbeck’s fishing boat was found two hours ago. There was no one on board.’

  Marvik felt sorry for that. ‘And Bryony?’

  ‘She and Ben are safe.’

  It was over, or almost. There were still questions. Marvik stared intently at the craggy, serious face. ‘Was it one of your officers following me from Brampton’s offices? It wasn’t anyone connected with Bryony because there was no need for Killbeck to have me tailed as Bryony was already primed to tell him what we were doing and where we were heading. She called Howard Killbeck from the hospital and he told her what to do. He instructed her to call me from Waterloo station. I just happened to be in London, but even if I hadn’t been she knew I would have gone there or instructed her to get on a train and agreed to meet her. Her instructions were to get into our confidence in order to find out what we knew and to tell him if we found the package, which was why Shaun called her when we did find it. We knew she’d tell Killbeck. She thought that Shaun and I were out to ruin her grandfather’s reputation and destroy her career. She didn’t want to believe ill of Howard Killbeck. He was an old man, much the age her grandfather would have been. He might even have told her he had known him and been a friend of his. And why should she trust us anyway, especially when I came asking about Sarah, who had been killed. Howard probably told her I was Sarah’s killer and that Shaun had started the fire at the house at Eel Pie Island and it was all a trick to get her and Ben out of the way.’ Bryony thought in movie terms, not reality. ‘She used her mobile phone to enable Killbeck to track us and she contacted him on the boat and at the marina before disappearing. So who followed me from Brampton’s offices?’

  ‘I think you’ll find they were members of the intelligence services.’

  ‘They weren’t very good.’

  ‘We can’t all be perfect.’

  ‘And is Melody Everley working with or for them?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  But Strathen answered. ‘Her job was to get close to Brampton because he was known to have associated with Oscar Redburn and Joseph Cotleigh. And he’d worked on some reports for Shale’s corporation. He might have led intelligence to Howard Killbeck and he almost did except we got there first. Melody gave Art some information and waited to see if he had further to give her. They didn’t know where Brampton had gone.’

  ‘I’m not sure they know that now. He’s not at his apartment.’

  Marvik said, ‘A boat on the Thames will have taken him out.’ And it wouldn’t be bringing him back. He reckoned the intelligence services would be relieved. Brampton’s disappearance would be made to look as though he’d been a man suffering from stress. When his body was found, if it was found, no matter the manner of his death, it would be put down to suicide.

  Marvik thought back to the motorbike riders who had tailed him. There had been two. One in London outside Ben’s bedsit and the other at Swanage. The Swanage one was Howard Killbeck’s thug, Creech, but the one outside Ben’s bedsit must have been someone from intelligence, which Crowder confirmed.

  ‘They were, as you know, listening in to Ben and Bryony’s conversations in the bedsit and keeping track of her because of her connection with Sarah Redburn.’

  ‘Who set fire to the house? Was it one of Howard’s men?’ But Marvik paused, puzzled. ‘Howard had no need to kill Bryony then; he still didn’t have the package and he knew that I might lead him to it.’

  Evenly, Crowder said, ‘Are you sure the arsonist wanted to kill Bryony?’

  Marvik’s eyes narrowed. He stared at Crowder’s implacable expression. ‘You mean I was the target? Because of Howard Killbeck.’

  ‘I didn’t say that.’

  Marvik dashed a glance at Strathen, who eyed him concerned and quizzically.

  ‘Then why?’ But already his head was swimming with ideas. His heart was racing. ‘I didn’t meet Sarah on Sunday night as Killbeck claims.’

  ‘She went to meet someone, though.’

  ‘You believe Killbeck?’ Marvik asked incredulously and puzzled. ‘He must have killed her,’ he insisted, his brain teeming.

  Crowder said, ‘It would have suited Howard Killbeck’s purpose if she’d got close to you and you’d confided in her. You would have been assisting her in finding the truth behind her father’s disappearance and she could have relayed what you discovered to Howard. He would have had no need then to use Bryony Darrow.’

  Marvik took a breath. He hardly dared to think what he was. ‘You believe Sarah was killed because of me.’

  ‘Or because of your parents.’

  Marvik started with surprise. He felt cold inside. ‘Why because of them?’

  ‘Only you might know that.’

  ‘They were killed in a diving accident,’ Marvik maintained, throwing a glance at Strathen at the helm, who returned it, perplexed. Crowder said nothing, forcing Marvik to add, ‘You have information on their deaths?’

  ‘No.’

  But Marvik wasn’t certain that was the truth. Crowder turned away and headed into the cockpit. Marvik stared after him then back at Strathen. His head was reeling. Could he believe Crowder? Howard Killbeck must be Sarah’s killer. Perhaps he’d confess. But as Strathen slowed the boat to the approach to the marina, Marvik knew that even if Killbeck did confess, there was still that fire and the notebook with the computer disk labelled ‘Vasa’ inside it, and because of that, and the fact it had been in Sarah’s possession, Marvik had no option but to consider what Crowder had said. With that came the realization that he could no longer push away the past as he’d always done and hope it stayed there, because just as Abigail had said when she’d spoken of poor Mary Killbeck, the past had finally become the present.