James Benn - Evil for evil

"Yes, sir?"

"Hayes, please return Mr. Boyle's weapon to him. He is on loan to us from the Boston police."

"The lot, sir?"

"Yes. We may have need of all his charms."

Cosgrove had left for Stormont to coordinate the tracking of the Luftwaffe flight. Radar stations in Cornwall, Wales, and the Isle of Man as well as on ships in the Irish Sea were being alerted to report on the course of the Focke-Wulf Condor. Carrick was at his desk making phone calls, organizing roadblocks at all major intersections. A pot of tea and a tray of sandwiches had been brought in, which Slaine, Uncle Dan, and I dug into. I waited to be sure Carrick was deeply involved in his phone call before I edged closer to Uncle Dan and spoke in a low voice.

"Was it you who warned me about Constable Simms?"

"The note in the jeep? Yes. Did you know he'd been following you? And the day you stopped at his house in Clough, he was at home. I'd followed him there myself. Now why would he have his wife say he wasn't at home?"

"How do you know he followed me? Were you behind me every second?"

"Don't get hot under the collar, Billy. I figured I'd keep an eye on you and let you lead me to Taggart. Meanwhile, I noticed Simms shadowing you."

"He must have seen me in Armagh then."

"What's this about?" Slaine asked, glancing at Carrick.

"Not sure yet," I said. "I think Simms was involved with the killing of Pete Brennan, the GI whose body turned up in the trunk of that Austin the day I met you on the road. But I need to be certain before I say anything to the district inspector. Hey, you never told me how you came to be there so early in the morning, did you?"

"No, I didn't," she said.

"Was it Jenkins or Taggart who informed you?"

"Jenkins didn't. How could Taggart have?"

"Right," I said, watching her eyes. They blinked twice.

"Roadblocks will be in place within thirty minutes," Carrick said as he poured himself some tea. "Any suggestions for our next move?"

"Nothing," I said. "Is there, Subaltern O'Brien?"

"No, sorry. I was famished, I'm afraid I lost focus for a moment. Mr. Boyle, is there anything else you saw or heard that might be of use?"

"Did you know Taggart moved his family up here under an assumed name?"

"No, we didn't," Slaine said. "Do you know where they are?"

"Dead," Uncle Dan said. "Killed in the German bombings in 1941, right after he brought them up here. His wife, Breeda, and their twins, Polly and Adrian. Sweet-looking children too. Named after his mother and half brother."

"How do you know their given names?" Carrick asked. I could barely pay attention. A little voice in my head was trying to tell me something.

"Taggart's aunt told me. Showed me pictures of the three of them. The poor thing obviously hadn't heard yet. It'll break her heart."

"Were there pictures of any other relatives? The half brother?"

"Yeah. As a young fellow."

"Is this him?" I asked, pulling a picture from my pocket, the one from the newspaper, showing Sam Burnham and Constable Simms directing traffic in Clough during maneuvers. Uncle Dan squinted, holding the paper at arm's length. Then he closed his eyes to draw out the memory, like I'd seen him do in years past. Cleared out the cobwebs, he said.

"Yes, that's him," he said, his finger tapping on the picture of Adrian Simms.

"What do you mean?" Carrick asked.

"What I mean is that this Simms fellow is the half brother of Red Jack Taggart, at least according to Taggart's aunt."

"Impossible!" Carrick said.

"Why?"

"It just isn't… possible."

"This morning I reviewed Taggart's and Simms's files at Stormont," I said. "I think it is."

"Why does MI-5 have a file on Simms? Did you suspect him of anything? Why wasn't I told?" Carrick was fuming, directing his anger at Slaine. Uncle Dan looked amused.

"We have files on many people, just for reference. He wasn't suspected of anything, and his file was little more than biographical," she said.

"That's right," I said. "I didn't think the family details were important but Taggart's mother, Polly, was Protestant. She married a Catholic and raised their son in the father's faith. That was Jack. He left home in 1916 to join the Volunteers. His father died from the Spanish flu, and Polly later remarried, this time to a Protestant named Simms."

"That must be why Simms was not admitted to the Royal Knights," Carrick said, half to himself.

"Who the hell are they?" Uncle Dan asked.

"Long story," I said. "Right after young Adrian was born, Polly and her second husband were caught in a cross fire between the RIC and the IRA. Both were killed, and Adrian ended up being brought up by his aunt. I'd guess that she knew Polly and her husband would have wanted him brought up Protestant, so she obliged."

"What would Red Jack have thought about that?" Uncle Dan asked.

"We know he's an atheist-that's part of his Marxist beliefs," Slaine said. "It's not about religion with him; he'd abolish all churches if he could."

I stared at the picture of Sam with Adrian Simms. What had Sam said to me just before Taggart opened fire? That Adrian had told him about the funeral, and to dress in his Class A uniform. I remembered Adrian leaving the room, just before the shots.

"Taggart and Simms are working together," I said.

"I can't accept that Simms would work with the IRA simply because he shares a parent with Taggart," Carrick said.

"He isn't. They're both working for themselves."

"Explain yourself," Carrick said as his back went rigid and his eyes narrowed in righteous disbelief.

"I think Adrian Simms brought Sam Burnham to the wake to be killed. It always seemed to me that Taggart targeted Sam deliberately, then shot up the house without hitting anyone else."

"Why, in God's name? Why would Simms do such a thing?" Carrick said.

"Because he was crooked. He worked with Jenkins and was involved in the black market and any other rackets he had going on. He had a lot of secrets."

"Even if that were true," Carrick said, the disbelief fading from his voice as his policeman's mind started turning over the details, "why would Simms have a hand in killing Lieutenant Burnham?"

"Sam Burnham spent a day wandering around Armagh and was identified by a grocer near the Northern Bank. That's Jenkins's bank but it's also where Simms has his accounts. I had a conversation with a fellow there-the janitor, a Catholic-who told me that recently the bank manager gave him and a new teller the afternoon off. I described Taggart, and he said a man like that had been to see McBurney but his name was Lawson. He wasn't sure if it was Taggart. He was afraid to say more. When I described him to McBurney, he wasn't eager to answer questions. Said the Black Knights were everywhere."

"Where does the afternoon off come in?" Slaine said.

"That was Lawson's second appointment with McBurney. It could well have been the same day Sam was in Armagh. My guess is that Simms brought his half brother into the bank as Mr. Lawson, telling McBurney some story about him, and that only trusted employees should be allowed to see him. I'd guess that visit was a surprise. And an even bigger surprise was when Simms and Taggart, posing as Lawson, ran into Sam on the street. It was his death sentence."

"Because Simms knew that sooner or later, Lieutenant Burnham would see a picture of Taggart," Slaine said.

"Exactly," I said. "And he couldn't afford for his link to Taggart to be known. He also had a hand in kidnapping Pete Brennan as he was about to be paid off by Jenkins. Another loose end cleaned up, since Brennan had both seen Taggart in Clough with Eddie Mahoney and had evidence against Jenkins."

"And you say Simms was working with Jenkins?" Carrick said.