Barry Maitland: Chelsea Mansions

She stared at him in astonishment. ‘ My feelings?’

Brock blinked and looked embarrassed for a moment, then said quickly, ‘Bren, we need to find out exactly where Garry left his traces at Ferncroft Close, and whether any of them were overlaid by Peebles’. I’m also wondering if Garry may have killed Peebles with that overdose. It always seemed very convenient that he died before we could get to him.’

As they began to discuss procedures, Kathy turned back to her desk and got on with her work.

John had moved to another hotel, not far from Chelsea Mansions. When Kathy called on him that evening she found him ironing a shirt.

‘Catching up with the laundry?’ she said.

‘Helps me think,’ he replied.

‘Have you been doing much of that?’ The truth was that she had half expected him to be gone, back home to Canada.

‘A bit.’

‘Not theorising though, I hope.’

He smiled. ‘Yes, that too. I’ve been making my head hurt.’

She noticed a pile of books and pamphlets on the table. She looked at a title. ‘Imperial War Museum?’

‘I spent a bit of time there today. Interesting.’

There was a certain intensity in the way he said it. ‘Anything you want to share with me?’ she asked.

He switched off the iron and hung his shirt in the closet, then turned to face her. ‘Yes. Let’s sit down.’

They sat, and for half an hour Kathy listened without speaking. Finally he said, ‘What do you think?’

She took a deep breath. ‘I think it’s brilliant. You must tell Brock.’

‘Oh no.’ He shook his head firmly. ‘I got burned the last time, Kathy. You can take this to him if you think it’s worth it, but leave me out of it. That way he may give it a fair hearing.’

‘No. If you believe this then you’ve got to tell him yourself. And I’m going to be there and I’ll make him bloody listen.’ She got out her phone. ‘Okay?’

He bowed his head and, after a long pause, agreed.

Brock was still at the office, Kathy found, and hadn’t had an evening meal. ‘How about Mexican?’ she asked.

‘I’m not very keen on Mexican.’

‘You’ll like this,’ she said, and gave him the address of the place in Brompton Road.

They watched him come, look around, then respond to her wave. He shook hands with John and sat down, taking the menu the waiter gave him.

‘I can never remember what these things are,’ he grumbled, looking down the list. Kathy made some suggestions and poured him a glass of wine.

‘Well,’ he said, sitting back. ‘Cheers. It’s been a beautiful day to be out and about, and not stuck indoors like us. What have you been up to, John?’ It sounded as if he was trying to be neutral and polite.

‘John’s been working too,’ Kathy said. ‘He’s got an interesting story to tell you, Brock. He told me, and I thought you had to hear it, all the way through, without interruption.’

Brock looked at her in surprise, then gave a quiet smile. ‘Excellent. I enjoy a good story. Fire away, John.’

So John cleared his throat and began.

Half an hour later the enchiladas lay cold on Brock’s plate, untouched.

‘So that’s about it,’ John concluded, looking at him warily.

‘Import-export,’ Brock said at last with a chuckle. ‘Well, it’s a very good story, John. Why can’t I find detectives with that sort of imagination?’

Kathy looked at him to see if he was being sarcastic, but he seemed genuinely impressed. He began attacking the enchiladas without apparently noticing them, his mind clearly still fixed on John’s account.

‘Circumstantial, of course, but we can fill in some of the gaps. Kathy, what do you think?’

‘Quite interesting.’

‘ Quite interesting? It’s bloody brilliant.’

‘You think there might be something in it?’ John asked.

‘I think it may be exactly what I’ve been looking for.’ Brock chewed for a moment. ‘This isn’t too bad.’ forty

T he interagency meeting reconvened on Monday morning at eleven a.m. The same people were there from the Home Office, Foreign Office and the police, all except Brock, who had taken Kathy’s place at Commander Sharpe’s side.

‘A wrap-up session, then,’ Sir Philip opened the proceedings. ‘Shouldn’t take too long, I hope.’ He looked pointedly at his watch. ‘Commander Sharpe, a brief summary? We have all read your report, I take it.’

Sharpe outlined the circumstances surrounding the arrest of Toby Beaumont and his team, and made some recommendations about what should be released to the press. His account was accompanied by chuckles and raised eyebrows from the Foreign Office man.

‘Excellent,’ Sir Philip said. ‘No international ramifications, almost all of Moszynski’s millions recovered, first-class result all round. Any comments?’

‘Just a small rider,’ Sean Ardagh said, ‘regarding the human remains found in Beaumont’s suitcase.’

‘Oh yes?’

‘Our lab has completed tests and they support Beaumont’s story-probably a young German soldier from the First World War.’

Sir Philip shook his head sadly. ‘Disgusting. I think we’ll keep that quiet, don’t you?’

‘What about the strip of material with the bones?’ Brock asked.

‘Collar of his uniform,’ Sean said.

‘Really?’ Brock looked puzzled.

‘Something worrying you, Chief Inspector?’ Sir Philip was gathering up his papers.

‘Well, I didn’t realise the Germans went to war in rubber uniforms, Sir Philip.’

‘Rubber?’ Sir Philip stared at him. They all stared at him.

‘Yes. Our lab also carried out extensive tests on those bones before MI5 removed them, and they came up with rather different results. They say that the skull belonged to a man aged about fifty, rather old for an infantryman on the Western Front one might think. Also that he died no earlier than 1950. And the strip of fabric was of a rubberised material, very like the collar on a 1950s Heinke diving suit. There’s one in the Imperial War Museum.’

‘Diving?’ A ripple of astonishment went round the table. Only Sean Ardagh, lips pursed, wasn’t looking at Brock. ‘What are we supposed to make of that?’ Sir Philip demanded.

‘Well,’ Brock went on, ‘it’s interesting that Toby Beaumont’s father, Miles Beaumont, was in the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War, and in Operation Harling in occupied Greece in 1942, against the German supply lines for the Afrika Korps. He was a qualified diver, and is understood to have taken part in limpet mine attacks on shipping in Piraeus harbour.’

‘You think Beaumont was carrying his father’s remains?’ Sir Philip said.

‘No. Miles Beaumont died in 1956, at about the right age certainly, but of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the temple. There’s no sign of such a wound on our skull.’

‘What then?’

‘Well, it’s only speculation at this stage, but there was another diver fatality in that year, 1956…’

‘If I may suggest, Chairman,’ Sean broke in. ‘What Chief Inspector Brock is about to raise may touch on national security, and some of our own concerns. I would request that this meeting be closed and the last comments of DCI Brock deleted from the record so that we and the police can confer.’

Sir Philip looked a little put out. ‘Just when it was becoming interesting. Very well, Sean, if you insist. Commander Sharpe?’

‘We’re always happy to talk to our colleagues in MI5.’ Sharpe looked upward at the ceiling. ‘But we won’t suspend our inquiries for vague hints of national interest. We will need to understand Sean’s reservations, in detail.’

‘No problem,’ Sean said, looking unhappy. ‘Perhaps we might have a few words, after this meeting.’