Stuart Woods - Shoot Him If He Runs

Holly was silent.

“Do you understand? This is critical.”

“I understand.”

“All right; now let me speak to Bill Pepper.”

Holly walked back into the living room and handed the phone to Pepper. “Lance wants to speak with you.”

Pepper took the phone and walked to the window. “Yes, Lance?” His expression changed as he listened. “Congratulations,” he said, then resumed listening. “Of course; I hope it will be here soon. Tiptree is having it delivered here. No, I won’t be going back to the office; I’ve already told them that a family emergency requires me to resign and return to the States. Well, I’ll look forward to that. Of course. And again, my congratulations.” Pepper punched off and returned to the table.

“We have a new boss,” he said to Annie.

“Lance?”

“Himself.”

“What are our instructions?”

“To get the photos to him ASAP and to render Holly and Stone any assistance we can in identifying Teddy Fay.”

“So it’s true?” she asked. “Teddy is still alive?”

“It seems Lance thinks so,” Pepper said.

“Did you ever meet Teddy?” Holly asked Annie.

“Once, in passing.”

“Do you think you could recognize him?”

“I doubt it, but anyway, I hear he uses a lot of disguises.”

“I hear that, too,” Holly said. She turned to Pepper. “Bill, do you have any opinion on who might replace Croft?”

Pepper shrugged. “Who knows? He has a Haitian assistant, but I don’t know if he has the weight to succeed his boss. His name is duBois.”

“What do you know about him?”

“He came from Haiti with Croft, so my assumption is that he is of the same stripe.”

“Do you think duBois is conducting the investigation into Croft’s murder?”

“Possibly; that will be up to Sir Winston Sutherland, of course, and I expect he’s pretty heavily involved in the investigation himself.”

“If you were running the investigation, who would be your initial suspects?”

“Well, there are people in Parliament and in the government who are opposed to Sir Winston, but they keep quiet about it. Certainly, there’s no violence-prone clandestine resistance that we know of, and I would doubt that any native of the island would be likely to lay his hands on the kind of weapon that must have been used-that is, high-powered and silenced. Nobody heard a gunshot.”

“So they’ll look at foreigners?”

“I expect so; visitors before residents, I should think.”

“So Robertson, Pemberton and Weatherby would not be among the first suspects?”

“I’m only guessing, of course, but probably not. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that I want us to get to them before duBois or some cop does.”

“You want to just go and knock on their doors?”

“Not yet, but if we get some sort of ID of one of the photos from Langley, yes.”

There was a crunch of tires on gravel from the driveway, and they heard a car door slam.

“Who would that be?” Holly asked.

“Either somebody from the embassy with my laptop or the police, take your pick.” Pepper got up, went to the front door and opened it.

Holly could see a young man hand Pepper something. Pepper closed the door, walked back to the dining table and set a very small laptop computer on it. “Let’s take a look at those photos,” he said, switching it on.

Sir Winston Sutherland sat at his desk, reviewing a stack of files. His phone buzzed.

“Yes?”

“Prime Minister,” his secretary said, “Major duBois is here, as per your request.”

Sutherland closed the file he had been studying.

A uniformed police officer of tall stature entered, came to attention and saluted. “Prime Minister, Major Marcel duBois reporting as ordered.”

“Ah, Major,” Sutherland said, looking him up and down. His uniform had obviously been cut to the man’s body, and he was the picture of military efficiency. “I expect you know why I have asked you here.”

“I would imagine it might have something to do with the death of Colonel Croft,” duBois replied.

“Quite,” Sutherland said. “I have been reading your file-especially your efficiency reports, as logged by Colonel Croft, and I am very impressed.”

“Thank you, Prime Minister.”

“I am promoting you as his replacement, with the rank of lieutenant colonel,” Sutherland said.

“Thank you, sir,” duBois replied, but a flicker of disappointment showed on his face.

“Ah,” Sutherland said, “I detect ambition.”

“Of course, Prime Minister.”

“You believe you should be given Croft’s rank, as well as his responsibilities.”

“I believe that responsibility and rank should go hand in hand.”

Sutherland beamed. “All right, full colonel.”

DuBois permitted himself a small smile. “Thank you, Prime Minister.” He was pleased; after all, he had a pair of Colonel Croft’s eagles in his tunic pocket.

The prime minister stood up and extended an open hand. “Allow me the pleasure of pinning on the emblems of your rank.”

DuBois felt a little abashed, but he produced the eagles and stood at attention while the PM pinned them on. He watched as Sutherland turned to his desk and returned with a framed certificate. “Your commission,” he said.

“Thank you, Prime Minister.” He noted that the commission was for colonel; the PM had been playing with him. “I shall be constantly devoted to following your every command.”

“You’d better be,” the PM said, smiling. “My first command is, find the man who shot Colonel Croft.”

“Yes, sir,” duBois said.”

“And how do you intend to go about it?” the PM asked.

“I have already taken the liberty of canceling all leaves and ordering each man to duty for the duration of the investigation, seven days a week.”

“It had better not take seven days,” the PM said. “What will be your first steps?”

“I shall order the immediate interrogation of every visitor to the island at their respective hotels, so as not to alarm the innocent; when that has been accomplished, I will start on the alien residents.”

“Detach a complement of your men and interview the residents simultaneously with the visitors. Here on my desk is a file on every alien resident, and I wish you to immediately arrest the first six of them and interrogate them at police headquarters. Do not release any of them until you are entirely convinced of their innocence.”

“It shall be done, Prime Minister.”

Sutherland handed duBois the six files. “Are you acquainted with any of these men?”

DuBois quickly leafed through the files. “I know four of them; Colonel Croft dealt personally with Pemberton and Weatherby, the two Englishmen, so I have not met them.”

“Meet them now, and report back to me,” Sutherland said. “Henceforth, you will report only to me, as Colonel Croft did.”

DuBois saluted and left the office.

“Congratulations, Colonel,” Sutherland’s secretary said. She was a tall white woman with beautiful legs and breasts, and he knew that Croft had been fucking her. “Thank you, Hazel,” he said, giving her a little salute. “And I hope that when circumstances permit, you and I might find time to dine together.”

“It would be my pleasure,” she said, exhibiting no grief for the departed Colonel Croft.

DuBois gave her a big smile and exited the PM’s offices. Before leaving Government House he walked down a floor to the offices of the Home Secretary, and in the waiting room he spoke to the male secretary at the desk. “Please tell the home secretary that I wish to meet with him at once.”

The man’s small eyes flicked over duBois’s uniform, noting the eagles on his shoulders. He picked up a phone. “Sir: Colonel Marcel duBois requests an immediate conference. Yes, sir, he is here.” He hung up the phone. “Please go in, Colonel duBois.”