by John Creasey
‘V-v-very well, sir, thank you,’ he said in a bewildered voice. It was evident that he wanted to ask how Rollison came to remember his name, for they had met only twice – first when making an arrest together, next when in court to give evidence – three years ago. Before then, Hubb – like many people – had heard of Rollison and been familiar with his photograph; but Rollison had not known of the existence of P.C. Hubb.
‘That’s fine,’ said Rollison, amiably. ‘Did you manage to get that holiday in the South of France?’
Two minutes later, having learned not only that Hubb had taken his wife to the Riviera for a dream-like two weeks, but much of what both Hubb and his wife had thought of it, Rollison went on.
Hubb so marvelled that he passed three cars parked in illegal places without noticing.
Rollison reached the Gondoliers.
It looked small. It had one window, with net curtains which hid everything from sight. The door, painted bright red, was closed. The only indication that it was a restaurant was the knife and fork, painted on the window immediately beneath a gondolier on an imaginary canal.
The doorman, wearing a hat which might have come from Venice, was delighted to welcome Rollison in unmistakable Cockney.
The door opened – and the world changed. Here was a kind of luxury land, a place of warmth and soft lighting and gentle colours, waiters immaculate in black and white, a tiny, cocktail bar with subdued lighting and many bottles and one of the prettiest girls in London as barmaid. A little way ahead of Rollison were tables with people sitting at them, and soft footed men who hurried yet did not appear to move fast; and there was a gentle hum of conversation and, on each wall, a vividly painted Venice canal scene.
A short, dark-haired, sleek man came up, and greeted Rollison like an old friend.
‘It is always good to see you here, Mr. Rollison. You are well?’ They exchanged pleasantries. Then: ‘Colonel White is already here, he has a private room.’
Private ‘rooms’ – in fact, alcoves each with a heavy curtain easy to draw – were usually reserved for those in love; for couples who could not bear the contamination of the gaze of ordinary, practical mortals. Or, as Rollison knew well, for confidential discussions, often concerning large sums of money, frequently in the shape and colour of dollar bills.
The Colonel did not wish to be overheard.
The short man led Rollison up stairs which were narrow and creaky, along a passage, into a room which was over the shop next door and which had four curtained doorways. At two curtains were drawn; one was empty; in the fourth, sitting with a glass in front of him and a cigarette in a long holder, was a man whom Rollison sensed he could like.
This man was massive, broad, not fat but fleshy. He had a big, round face and round brown eyes. He looked the kindly giant. Something in his manner, even while sitting, said the same thing as his voice had said over the telephone; he had an abounding vitality.
He sprang up.
‘Rollison! Wonderful!’ He came forward and pumped hands. He had a powerful grip and approximated perpetual motion. He drew Rollison into the little alcove and pushed back his chair, offered cigarettes, lit one for Rollison. ‘Extremely good of you to come. Can’t say how grateful we—I am. Now, what will you drink? To start with, I mean—we’ll have one before eating. Gin? Whisky? Anything. Name it.’
‘A dry Martini,’ said Rollison. ‘Thanks.’
Service was beyond all words; perfect.
The drinks were mixed as by a genius.
The Colonel was something of a gourmet, and knew the Gondoliers well; choosing their courses matched the performance of ancient ceremonial rites. It was all very satisfying. It was also meant to induce in Rollison a proper and receptive mood. One did not treat a stranger with such selective generosity unless one had a substantial motive. Rollison was sadly sure that the Colonel was not behaving like this simply out of the goodness of his heart.
‘The soufflé,’ Wickford White said, ‘will be perfect.’ Boyishly, he held up two fingers, close together, and clicked his tongue. ‘Superb! After that …’
Over cigars and liqueurs he became a changed man.
‘Rollison,’ he said when the curtain was drawn, ‘you know our concern has a first-class reputation, don’t you? Value for money, everything of the best—don’t feed our guests quite like this, of course!’ — he grinned expansively — ‘but no one ever goes short of anything. When we say that we give the best holiday value in the world, that’s what we mean. It wouldn’t be your idea of a perfect holiday, but—the thing is, we depend on a good reputation. We have to maintain it. Can’t let anything go amiss. Well, something is going amiss at our Camp in North Wales. Huge place, we can accommodate nearly six thousand people there. Vast. And we’re worried about it, very worried indeed.’
His brown eyes were earnest.
His big hands were bunched on the table.
‘We’ve told the police,’ he went on, ‘but they say there’s nothing much they can do about it. I suppose they’re right, but—well, let me make myself quite clear. A lot of people wouldn’t worry a tinker’s cuss about this, but we’re different. Everything has to be just right. Our staff—camp staff, I mean—have to know everything that’s going on. They pretend not to notice a lot, but believe me there isn’t much they miss. We take every precaution to make sure that things go smoothly. And without making a lot of fuss, too. One year we had trouble with some sneak-thieves, but settled it with our own Security people. We’re on excellent terms with local people at all the Camps, and—’
He broke off.
Rollison did nothing to encourage him to continue the build-up. He had probably established what he wanted to establish – the importance of what he was about to say about Butlin’s and was obviously giving Rollison time to digest all this.
Rollison drew at his cigar, sipped his liqueur, and hoped that he looked sufficiently wise.
His mind was empty of prejudice, but full of admiration for the Colonel’s stage management.
‘Three members of the staff at Pwllheli have disappeared,’ the Colonel announced, and paused again, to make sure that the statement sank in.
He succeeded in stirring the Toff to mild excitement, then leaned across the table and went on in a conspiratorial voice: ‘Three. They’ve vanished, without any reason at all. They were working happily, as far as we know, and then—well, poof, they disappeared! No one saw them go, no one knew they were going. It was a vanishing trick which staggers us. By us,’ he added, as if there could be any doubt, ‘I mean Mr. Butlin and all the headquarters staff at Pwllheli.’
‘Male or female vanishers?’ asked Rollison.
‘Male. All Redcoats, they—’
‘Redcoats?’
‘Of course, you don’t know. “Redcoats” is the name we give a section of the staff at the Camps. You might say they’re the members of the staff who keep the Campers happy. They wear red coats,’ added the Colonel, as if that explained everything clearly.
‘I see.’
‘We’ve some all-the-year-round Redcoats, doing various jobs in winter, but most work only for the season. Some come year after year. Some are university students, glad to earn a bit of ready in the long vac. They have to be able to get along with others, good at organizing games, running sports, keeping the party going. You’ll see what I mean when you get there,’ the Colonel added, masterfully.
‘When and where?’ asked Rollison, who was in a remarkably subdued mood.
‘I’m running ahead of myself, aren’t I?’ said the Colonel, and grinned. ‘Another liqueur? … Well, if you’re sure, all right … Now what we want you to do is trace those three missing Redcoats. You’d have to come to the Pwllheli Camp for a week or two. Don’t see how else you could do it,’ added the Colonel. ‘Do you?’
‘Tell me more,’ invited Rollison.
‘There isn’t much more we can tell,’ said the Colonel. Suddenly, he looked worried. ‘The first chap disappeared early in April. At E
aster. We were puzzled, but didn’t do much about it. The Camp was pretty full, everyone was busy, one Redcoat more or less didn’t make much difference, although Jim Campion was very popular. He’s been with us all the winter, too—helping to get the Camps ready, arranging programmes—it’s a huge undertaking, you know. Six Camps, half a million Campers a year. Think of the catering! Well, Campion just walked out, without saying a word to anyone.’
The Colonel paused, to light his cigar. The flame flickered on his huge brown eyes.
‘Then in the first week in June, the same thing happened with Tommy Tucker—real name Ernest, but everyone called him Tommy. That really started us thinking, because Tommy had been with us for seven seasons, on the regular staff, likely to go a long way in the organization. Exactly the same thing happened. We reported it to the local police. They made some inquiries, and referred to Scotland Yard. When he lived at the Camp, though, Tommy had no other address. There was nowhere he was likely to go. His relatives couldn’t explain what had happened. His affairs were in order—no money troubles or anything like that. Same thing applied to Jim Campion.’
‘Wife?’ asked Rollison.
‘Oh, no, single. Most of the Redcoats are—but not all. Then, only last week, Billy Peverill vanished.’ The Colonel leaned back and threw his arms up and outwards in a gesture of astonishment and despair which would have gone down well in any presentation of Gilbert and Sullivan. ‘Billy Peverill was the star man at Pwllheli. Been there donkey’s years! He was the second-in-command, officially, of all the Redcoats at the Camp, popular with everyone—especially the Campers. When he vanished, and the Camp Controller told me about it, I knew we’d have to start some new line of inquiry. We’re convinced that there’s something mysterious, beyond our understanding, going on up there. Of course, the police can’t do much—people do disappear. I know that Jim Campion, Tommy Tucker, and Billy Peverill are listed as missing, that’s all. None went home. None had any known troubles. Vanished without trace. Packed their bags and went. I don’t mind telling you,’ the Colonel went on earnestly, ‘that we’re very badly worried. Especially Mr. Butlin. He thought of calling you in. You will come and help, won’t you?’
Rollison said mildly: ‘What else do you know?’
‘Absolutely nothing.’
‘No suspicions?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Three vanished Redcoats—’ began Rollison.
‘Rollison, I want you to understand this,’ said Colonel Wickford White, very solemnly, ‘we are concerned about the men, as men; we want to know what’s happened to them. We do not believe that any one of them would have gone away willingly, without telling us beforehand. So that’s one side of the problem. The other is—where have they gone and why? What’s happening at the Camp? It’s a mystery which we must solve. But we’re not at all sure that it’s a matter the police can handle—three men have gone off, that’s all. No crime has been committed as far as we know. The police will do what they can, but can hardly spare men to investigate. It’s obviously a task for a private investigator, and we want the best. That’s you. You can name your own fee—that may seem a reckless offer, but we trust you to be reasonable—we shall meet all expenses and give you all the assistance we can.’ The Colonel gave a magnificent gesture. ‘Will you come?’
‘What about my Cover Girl?’ asked Rollison, with praiseworthy gravity.
‘She’s at the Camp at the moment,’ said the Colonel, a grin breaking out on his face, which, until that moment, had been almost too solemn. ‘She won our Beauty Princess Competition three years ago, could have gone on the films, anywhere—but preferred a job with us. Nothing swollen-headed about our Liz! You’ll like her.’
‘I rather think I will,’ agreed Rollison, straightfaced. ‘Yes, I’ll come, but you must be told the risks. I shall need my man Jolly. You may think that a Camp wouldn’t be exactly my cup of tea, but Jolly will probably ruin the holiday of everyone he meets. He regards Holiday Camps as the absolute zero among places of amusement. He’ll hate you, and everything concerned with it, and—’
‘A lot of people talk like that before they get there,’ said the Colonel breezily. ‘A kind of snobbery, you might say. Why, even I didn’t like the idea of working for Butlin’s, but now I’m absolutely sold on the whole business! Well fix your man.’
‘Be it on your own head,’ said Rollison soberly. ‘He’ll arrange terms, by the way, as my Business Manager. If he’s too expensive, let me know, and I’ll try to persuade him to come down a bit. When do you want me to start?’
‘If I had my way, you’d start today,’ said the Colonel. ‘We’ll brief you about the Camp, then I’ll come up and introduce you to the Camp Controller and—’
‘Easy,’ counselled Rollison. ‘Might be better if I start as an unknown quantity. A Camper—or why not a Redcoat?’ He felt inspired. ‘And supposing I spent a couple of days at one of the other Camps, to get the hang of things. Man Jolly could come too. Then I’d be sent to Pwllheli as a relief man, and could be revealed as a kind of Camp efficiency expert, if necessary. How does it sound for a start?’
‘Wonderful,’ breathed the Colonel. But he looked not so much solemn as grave; troubled. Rollison could almost imagine that he was really touched by fear. ‘It’s extremely important, old boy. Three missing Redcoats—sometimes I feel scared myself. What’s happened to them? Are they’ — he gulped — ‘alive or dead?’
‘That’s what we’re going to find out,’ said Rollison firmly.
An hour later found him at New Scotland Yard, in the office of that tall, sallow, brown-eyed, and patient man – Superintendent Grice. Grice had learned to be long suffering, even with the Toff.
He listened.
‘I’ve heard a little about this,’ he admitted. ‘There’s nothing yet to suggest there’s any crime involved—which doesn’t mean that I can be sure there isn’t. They were all single chaps, with few belongings, no obligations except to Butlin’s.’ He paused. ‘Are you going?’
‘I think so.’
‘I must warn you the Pwllheli police,’ Grice said dryly. ‘They’ll need a couple of extra men to keep an eye on you.’
The Toff beamed …
When he left, he was reasonably sure that the police did not take the disappearances seriously. Certainly they did not share Colonel Wickford White’s fear that the missing men might be dead.
Chapter Three
The Camp
Rollison drove an old Austin Sixteen, bought for the occasion and with a surprising turn of speed, along the winding Welsh road. Criccieth was behind him, before long he would be at the Pwllheli Camp. Behind him was everything he had learned during three days at the Camp at Filey, in Yorkshire; about the way Camps were run, and what was likely to happen. It had been a period of intensive training, and he regarded himself as now fully qualified as a Redcoat – save for one thing.
Experience.
Jolly had been with him, and had gone ahead to the Pwllheli Camp.
Nothing in this world would have made Jolly enthuse over the prospect of working at Butlin’s; but the large fee had made him willing.
Rollison watched the green hedges, thick with summer’s leaf; the bright green of the fields, the grey stone walls which divided fields. Here and there was a stone cottage, with a tiny garden. He could see the sea between gaps in the hedges; it was warm and beautiful, and the countryside was at its best.
He felt relaxed.
The Camp Controller and one or two other senior members of the staff knew why Rollison was going to the Camp, and knew his real name.
He would be known as Richard Ryall.
As soon as he reached the Camp, he would report to the Entertainment Manager, in charge of Redcoats, and be given his duties. He had no idea how long he would need to remain anonymous.
Rollison passed beneath a bridge, made an S turn because the road became even more twisting just past the bridge, then came upon the Camp.
Rollison could see it for some
distance. A row of flags, fluttering in the breeze, stood high above the road bordering the Camp itself. Beyond the road was a shrubbery; beyond that two swimming-pools, each with a diving-platform; beyond those, several buildings, brightly painted. These buildings, the dining-halls, shops, theatre, and ballroom, hid the rows of chalets where the Campers slept.
Rollison grinned to himself.
He wondered what Jolly had thought when he had arrived here; for at the Yorkshire Camp Jolly had become more and more dejected.
A mass of people were in or round the sides of the swimming-pools. The water seethed. At one end children, from toddlers upwards, ran, jumped, splashed, and shouted. Fond parents watched. Divers dived from high boards and low, and from the sides. The deep laughter of merriment floated across the warm July air.
Rollison found himself smiling.
He drove to the gates, and was stopped by two uniformed gate-keepers, given directions, and drove on.
The large buildings on this road, which ran parallel with the swimming-baths and the lawns and shrubberies at either end, were all clearly named. There were kent house, princes, empress, gloucester, the mirror bar; and farther along, reception and offices. Each building had a mass of windows. Roads led off the one along which Rollison drove and led to the chalets, which he could now see behind thick shrubberies. His impression was of bright colours; both paint and Nature’s. There were flowers everywhere; and chairs, tables, shops – everything – seemed to be red, blue, green, and yellow.
The sun burned down out of a clear sky.
Rollison pulled up outside offices, and parked the car. The shrieking delight of the children sounded in a new crescendo when the car engine fell silent. He watched a girl standing on the high platform, nearly opposite, against a background of mountains.
She did a double somersault, and cleft the water smoothly.
‘Nice work,’ murmured Rollison. ‘Nice figure!’
