Алистер Маклин - Dead Halt

“You knew he’d be arrested?” Sabrina said.

“I knew we were going to be investigated. That was obvious. So I had to make sure John took the fall.”

“Let’s turn now to McGuire,” Whitlock said. “How did he find out about the plot to assassinate Senator Scoby?”

“He overheard Fiona talking to me on the phone. But he obviously thought she was talking to someone in the IRA because she also mentioned that Farrell was returning to the UK after meeting with a cell in Germany. He then tipped you off that Farrell was due back in the UK and you, in turn, told Palmer. But that suited us perfectly: if Farrell hadn’t been put behind bars when he was, we’d have had to kill him. It was absolutely essential for our plan to have any chance of succeeding, that Fiona be put in temporary charge of the cell so that Mullen and Kerrigan would think that she was taking her orders directly from the Army Council.”

“Did the IRA sanction McGuire’s murder?” Whitlock asked.

“Yes. When Fiona realized that McGuire had overheard her and was planning to meet with Swain she told the Army Council that McGuire was a tout. They gave her instructions to kill him. And by doing that she could then introduce the second part of the plan: to assassinate Scoby, without raising any suspicion amongst either the members of her cell, who would automatically have assumed that it was another IRA directive, or amongst the Army Council, who would still think she was tidying up the McGuire affair.”

“And you had Grogan silenced because he could have led us to McGuire?” Sabrina deduced.

“At the time we didn’t know how much Grogan knew for the simple reason we didn’t know where he was. That’s why I had Mike get the information from Roche. The car was bugged so when he told me the address, Fiona was able to get there before us. I removed the bug before I brought the car back here.”

“And presumably it was you who also made the hoax bomb call to the airport?” Whitlock said.

Eastman nodded. “I had to give her time to get to McGuire first and take him out. It was touch and go for a while because of the weather. But Mullen did an unbelievable job to get them to the chalet just ahead of us. It was certainly a close call.”

“Why did she kill Lynch?” Whitlock asked.

“Two reasons. Lynch and Kerrigan had hatched a plan to tell the Army Council that she wasn’t capable of running the cell in Farrell’s absence. If she’d been relieved of her command, that would have ruined everything. Secondly, Lynch was one of the senior Provos in Europe. Kill him and you damage the network. Which it’s done by all accounts.”

“Why did she kill Kerrigan and Mullen?” Whitlock asked.

“Kerrigan was becoming increasingly rebellious. It came to a head at the chalet where they were hiding out after the hit on McGuire. He pulled a gun on her and she shot him. She killed Mullen for the simple reason that she didn’t need him after the botched attempt on the Merry Dancer . She needed to operate alone at the church. And with both of them dead, there would be no witnesses to contradict her in court.”

Whitlock nodded to himself. “I get it now. You intended to arrest her after she’d killed Mike, then when she appeared in court she’d have claimed that she shot Scoby on the orders of the IRA. That would have caused an international outcry and the IRA would have been discredited publicly. That alone would have seriously damaged their image abroad.”

“It’s already damaged their image abroad,” Eastman corrected him. “They’re sure to regroup and rebuild again from within but you can still bet that heads are going to roll. And the first head to roll will be Brady’s. And that will be a major coup in itself.”

“How can you be so sure?” Sabrina asked.

“Because Brady was Fiona’s superior. And the IRA are going to need a scapegoat if they’re going to win back their supporters. He knew that when he came up with that idea to edit the tape for public release. It was the one ace he still had up his sleeve. But Whitlock outwitted him. Probably the only person who ever has.

“You must understand that when we originally devised this plan, we had Brady very much in mind. He’s been responsible for the deaths, either directly or indirectly, of more British soldiers in Ireland than any other Chief-of-Staff in the history of the organization. And this was one way of getting him. Discredit him in the eyes of his superiors. Let them deal with him.”

“She’d have got life if she’d ever stood trial,” Sabrina said. “Didn’t that bother her?”

“She’d have got several life sentences,” Eastman corrected her. “But that doesn’t mean she’d have spent long in jail. There was a contingency plan to spring her after a few weeks. She’d have left the country and started a new life somewhere out of the reach of the IRA.”

“And I suppose it doesn’t bother you that three of our colleagues and an innocent American senator were murdered as a result of your vigilante operation?” Graham snapped.

“Scoby’s death was an essential part of the operation. I make no excuses for that. But your colleagues–” Eastman trailed off and shook his head. “That wasn’t part of the operation. Fiona specifically gave orders to hit only McGuire but Kerrigan overstepped the mark. There was nothing she could do about it. I know she was just as gutted about their deaths as I was. As we were when Mullen shot that chopper down over the Thames.”

“You sound just like the IRA now,” Graham shot back. “When they kill someone by mistake they always make some lame apology to the family. It doesn’t wash, Eastman. It just doesn’t wash.”

“I don’t expect you to believe me,” Eastman replied softly. “But it’s true.”

“Who put up the money for the operation?” Sabrina asked.

“The IRA. Unwittingly, of course. As a senior officer, Farrell had access to the funds. It wasn’t difficult for Fiona to skim money off over the last year and attribute it to Farrell. Always small amounts. But it all added up in the end. She bought the weapons and equipment herself and used a couple of ex-pats to help her put it in place. She paid them well and swore them to silence. Who were they to argue, especially as they thought they were in on an IRA operation?”

Whitlock stared at the microphone in front of him, his brow creased in thought. He finally looked up at Eastman. “So had we been questioning Fiona Gallagher now instead of you, none of this would have come out, would it? She’d have stuck to the story about it being an IRA operation. So why have you changed the script?”

“Fiona was a Provo. There’s no question of that. Her background would have added credibility in a courtroom. And she’d have made a very convincing witness. After all, she pulled the trigger in Dugaill. She killed Scoby. What have I done? I planned the hit with her and Pat. It doesn’t have the same punch, does it?”

“That still doesn’t answer the question,” Sabrina said.

“I think it does,” Graham replied. “By coming clean he’s putting the authorities in a major dilemma. Do they keep to the story that’s been splashed across the front page of every newspaper this morning that the IRA were responsible for Scoby’s death, or do they put him on trial and admit that the whole thing was really planned by a couple of maverick Scotland Yard detectives out to discredit the IRA? Imagine the public outcry. They’ll be screaming about unlawful vigilantes within the British police. It would do irreparable harm to Scotland Yard’s image. But more importantly, it would completely exonerate the IRA of any blame. And their support would be sure to increase. How am I doing, Eastman?”

“I couldn’t have put it better myself,” Eastman replied.