Colin Forbes - The Greek Key

'One final question. Could you please – in a few words

– give me your estimate of the characters of Captain Robson and CSM Kearns?'

It was the last question Barrymore had expected. Paula saw the puzzlement in his saturnine face. The colonel steepled his hands, a concentrated look in his dark eyes. Like a man reliving some experience of long ago.

'Robson was seconded from the Medical Corps. Steady as a rock in a tight corner. Cautious. Always looked where he was placing the next footstep. Never panicked. Dour.'

'And Kearns?'

'Courage came to him second nature. Fast on his feet, in his thinking. Could be impulsive. Didn't matter. Had a sixth sense for danger. In an emergency very audacious. Time you went.'

Tweed stood up, showed no sign of resenting the abrupt dismissal. Like the ending of a military inspection. Paula slipped her notebook inside her shoulder bag, walked after Tweed to the door without a glance at Barrymore.

Opening the door, Tweed stood aside and let her walk into the bleak hall. He glanced back. Barrymore sat behind his desk like a statue, hands still steepled, a glazed expression on his long-jawed face. Suddenly he seemed aware they were leaving. He stood up, remained behind the desk, bowed formally, said not another word as Tweed closed the door.

'You'll be leavin' now.'

Mrs Atyeo was waiting in the hall. She unclasped the hands which had rested on her thin waist, went to the front door, drew back bolts, peered through the diamond-shaped window, unleashed the heavy chain, opened it and waited as they filed past her into the night.

They paused under the lantern on the porch as the door was shut behind them. They could hear the bolts sliding back into position, the chain being fixed, a lock turned. The lantern went out, plunging them into darkness. Night had fallen.

Tweed looped Paula's arm through his and they made their way slowly down the drive. He waited until they were inside the car before he sighed and asked the question.

'What was your impression of Barrymore?'

'Nasty piece of work. Like a satyr. Did you notice how he was looking at me? Undressing me with his lecherous eyes. I felt I was naked. Thinks a lot of himself. I can imagine him riding a horse inspecting his troops, riding very slowly along the line with an expression of cynical contempt. And he moves oddly – like a cat. Took those gloves off with a feline grace…' She paused and shivered. 'I'm glad you're back with me in the car.'

'You didn't think I'd leave you on your own in a lonely place like this, did you?'

Tweed was watching his wing mirror. Paula froze suddenly and then jerked her head round. A slim hatless man was walking alongside the car from behind them. He leant on the window ledge. She let out her breath, lowered the window. Pete Nield grinned, pulled at his small dark moustache with his index finger.

'How goes the battle?' he enquired.

'Where on earth did you spring from?' she asked.

'Pete has followed us in my Cortina all the way from London. I told you he was coming. He's been parked a short distance behind you ever since I left you.'

'In this road?'

'No,' Nield told her. 'I parked the car beyond a gate leading to a field. Then I sat in a hedge close behind you. I was ready to intervene when that character in the Daimler pulled up by you if he'd tried anything on.'

'But what about in Dunster?'

'Parked the car at the other end of the village. I still have to register at The Luttrell Arms – but I warned them over the phone I'd be late. They won't realize we're together. At the hotel, I mean.'

'You haven't told me what you spotted about the colonel,' Tweed remarked. 'Only that you dislike him. Irrelevant. Pete, get in the back of the car and listen. Now I want both of you to grasp this. Ready, Pete?'

'Jolly comfortable back here. Nice to see how the other half lives.'

'Masterson came down to Exmoor with the Greek girl,

Christina. All three men involved in a raid over forty years ago on Siros, a German-occupied Greek island, are living on Exmoor. Harry Masterson, I'm sure, knew that. From Christina…'

'Assumption,' interjected Paula.

'Listen! Our main task is to interrogate all three men. And every word said by these men is important. One of them may let something slip. There was something very peculiar about that raid on Siros. Now, Paula, you were there when Barrymore gave his version.'

'Well, he was very suntanned,' she said slowly. 'So he could have just come back from Greece…'

'Now we're getting warmer. You see, Pete, this Colonel Barrymore has a terse way of speaking. Typical Army officer. But when Paula remarked on his suntan he became positively loquacious – explaining at some length how he'd been to the Caribbean. No specific mention of locales. It was the only time he really opened up.'

'You mean he was lying?' Pete asked.

'Paula, when we get back to London, will type out the transcript of each of the three men's statements – including their description of what happened on Siros. You can read them, decide for yourself.'

'You also asked his opinion of the other two men,' Paula recalled. 'I couldn't see the point.'

'In the end the whole thing may hang on the psychology of these three men. Would one of them be capable of murder? And did you notice,' he asked Paula, 'that when I mentioned a murder, Barrymore said, 'Which murder?' It sounded to me as though he was thinking of more than one murder. Who else could he be thinking of besides Andreas Gavalas who accompanied them on the Siros raid?'

'Harry Masterson?' suggested Nield.

'Or possibly a third murder over forty years ago – mentioned briefly to me at the Ministry of Defence. Back to your car, Pete. We must tackle our next member of the trio.'

'Who is that?' asked Paula as Pete left the Mercedes.

'Captain Oliver Robson. He lives the other side of Oare. I was given directions at that pub at Culbone. Robson calls there for a pint occasionally…'

After the gloomy Quarme Manor the modern L-shaped bungalow perched on the hillside in the dark looked to be out of another world. Which, Tweed reflected as he stopped the car, in fact it was. A wild leap from the fifteenth century into the twentieth.

The residence was a blaze of lights, standing at the top of a tarred drive above the lane. A wide stone-paved terrace ran the full width of the frontage. Ornamental lanterns were placed at intervals along a stone wall below the terrace, shedding light over the long slope of rough-cut grass to the hedge by the lane. The white-painted gate was open.

Tweed studied the large bungalow carefully. Curtains were drawn back but it was impossible to see inside the picture windows from below. Searchlight beams flooded the night from each corner, illuminating all approaches. He drove in through the entrance slowly, glancing to left and right.

'They'll know we're coming,' he commented.

'They'll hear the car, you mean?' Paula asked.

'No. In each of the gateposts there are photo-electric cells. As we drove through that invitingly open gateway we broke a beam. It will have set off an alarm inside the bungalow.'

'I suppose it's wise to take precautions – living in such an isolated position on the edge of the moor.'

'Including spy cameras projecting from under the eaves? Every possible kind of security measure has been installed. I begin to see something Colonel Barrymore and Captain Robson have in common. When I trudged round Quarme Manor before going up to the front entrance I noticed the high walls were topped with barbed wire. And a straight wire ran beneath it. Electrified, I'm sure. Remember all the security precautions on the front door? Both places are like fortresses.'

'That's what the owners have in common?'