Higgins gasped. ‘Good grief, Alex! We were only talking about the chap, this morning.’
Swan shook his head. ‘Yes, I know we were. I’m afraid that I’m going to have to forego our swim tomorrow, and head back to London tonight.’
‘I fully understand, my boy,’ replied Higgins.
They had their dessert and coffee, then rose from their chairs to leave. As they passed Martin’s table, the MI5 man acknowledged them. ‘Everything alright, Alex?’ Martin attempted to catch Swan off his guard. ‘Fine Dennis, I‘ve just had some news about the Ruger case, and have to cut my stay here short.’
Martin sighed. ‘Oh, what a shame. Well, it was nice to see you again. Good luck with the investigation.’
Swan acknowledged him, and walked with Higgins out of the restaurant, Higgins deciding to head for the lounge, while Swan walked upstairs to his room to pack.
Half an hour later, Swan placed his things down at the reception desk. He walked into the lounge to see Higgins, whisky in hand, reading The Times. ‘One for the road, Alex?’
Swan put up his hand. ‘Better not, I’m going straight to Battersea Police Station, so need to keep a clear head. I’ll be in touch. Goodbye for now old boy.’
Higgins stood and the two men shook hands. ‘All the best, Alex. I’ll get on to my tailor in Saville Row on Monday, and look into having some morning suits made for your big day, what? My treat, of course.’
Swan smiled, leaving the Air Commodore to sit back down with his paper.
On opening the door, Swan almost bumped into Dennis Martin.
‘You off then, Alex?’
‘Yes Dennis, there’s been another body, that could be linked to Ruger.’
Martin gasped. ‘Has there indeed? Well take care, Alex, I’m sure, I’ll get the brief about it all, on Monday. Cheerio.’ Martin disappeared through the doors into the lounge, as Swan walked up to the reception desk, signed out, and followed the porter laden with his luggage, out to the car park.
At just after seven o’clock, it was just starting to get dark in the mid-April evening sky. Swan loaded the luggage into the small boot of his car, thanked the porter, and climbed into the driver’s seat. After going through the barrier, he drove up to the exit, turned left onto the A25, and headed for London.
Chapter 13
Swan arrived at Battersea Bridge Road Police Station, just after dark. All the lights were on and he could see people moving about inside, indicating a busy night lay ahead. Any murder investigation, would involve many people working on leads, making enquiries and interviewing witnesses. This case was in its infancy. Swan walked into the station to be greeted by the Duty Sergeant on the front desk.
The Sergeant flipped up the desk, gesturing to the SID man, ‘this way sir. Inspector Lovett is waiting for you. Would you like some coffee?’
‘Yes please, Sergeant. That would be nice. Black, no sugar.’
‘Right you are, sir.’
Swan walked into the incident room, spotting Lovett over on the far side, leaning over a map.
The short Welshman, put his head up and acknowledged him. ‘Ah, Alex, welcome to Battersea. This is the lead Inspector here, DC Fred Whitaker.’ Swan shook hands. ‘So, what do we have so far?’
Whitaker raised his head. ‘First things first, I’ll show you a photo of the deceased. He doesn’t seem to have any relatives, or next of kin that we could contact. I must warn you, that the poor chap is not a pretty sight. What with having been in that mound for a few days.’
Lovett held up the photograph, and Swan nodded in recognition. ‘Yes, that’s Kappelman, alright. So, it looks like we may have a link here with Ruger after all? I think they knew each other from the war. Kappelman was a Luftwaffe test pilot, and Ruger worked on the ME163 Komet rocket propelled fighter. They possibly worked together at Peenemunde, as according to an RAF friend of mine, the Komet was first tested there, before being moved to the Luftwaffe’s testing base at Bad Zweischenahn.’
The Desk Sergeant approached, handing Swan a mug of black coffee. Swan thanked him, then addressed the others. ‘So, we are now looking at a double murder. Possibly from the same source?’
‘Looks that way,’ agreed Whitaker.
Swan took some sips of coffee. ‘As we know, Ruger had my address on him. This, he obviously acquired from Kappelman. He was one of my clients a few years ago, and he must have advised Ruger to contact me, which means that Ruger was concerned with something, and went to Kappelman for advice. Ruger’s last words to Stevenson, the boatman who found him, was the eagle will fall. So, what we need to do, is find out what the ‘eagle’ is. We already know that we are looking for two armed and dangerous men, who Stevenson saw on the riverbank. They shot Ruger and I lay odds on, that they also killed Kappelman.’
The phone suddenly rang on the desk in front of them, and Lovett picked it up, listening for a while. ‘What? Say that again, Robert.’
Lovett paused for a few moments, then gave a sigh. ‘Okay, thanks Robert for letting me know. If anything, else comes up, just get back to me. Goodbye for now.’
Lovett put down the phone and looked despondently at Swan. ‘That was the Yard. Earlier today, at the rocket site at Highdown, the Deputy Chief Engineer Kevin Powell was found dead. He was literally boiled inside his protective suit under the rocket, when it was test fired.’
Swan gulped. ‘An accident?’
Lovett shook his head. ‘Well it was assumed so, but a check of his body at the mortuary, has revealed that Powell had a gaping head wound, that could be the result of being struck with a heavy object. The pathologist stated that this is likely what killed him.’
Whittaker cut in. ‘So, what we’re saying here is, that he was already dead before the test?’
Lovett nodded. ‘Seems so. A full post mortem will be carried out on Monday. We’ll know more about it then.’
Swan shook his head. Putting out his arms, he leant across the desk. ‘This is unbelievable. Three men now dead, two definitely, and one possibly murdered, and they all link in some way or another to our space programme.’
Lovett picked up his coffee cup. ‘So, if it does turn out, this rocket engineer was murdered, then where do we go with this?’
Swan cut in. ‘Let’s start with what we have already, gentlemen.’
He studied the map on the table, pointing to a section. ‘Last Thursday, at around 5.30 am, German rocket engineer, Karl Ruger was at the river here, with two assailants, and was then shot in the back. According to our key witness, Eddie Stevenson, these men were roughing him up, while he was on the ground dying. Interrogating him, maybe? If so, then for what reason? Then, Stevenson arrives in his tugboat, and disturbs them. They then run away from the scene. Stevenson goes to Ruger’s aid, and the German’s dying words are, tell him, meaning me, that the eagle will fall.’
Lovett turned to a blackboard on the wall next to the desk, picked up some chalk, and on the board, wrote the words Eagle will fall. ‘Okay, so at the moment gentlemen, we have no idea what this actually means do we?’
He tapped the board with the chalk. ‘But what we do know, is that Ruger had your address in his hand, didn’t he, Alex?’
Swan nodded and reached over the map. ‘Yes, he did, which he probably obtained from Kappelman, who lived here.’ Swan pointed to a street on the map, with his pencil.
Whittaker sighed. ‘So, it does look as though these two thugs, went to see Kappelman, after they were with Ruger. Which means, he had something they wanted, and when you look at the way they treated the fatally wounded Ruger, they took their methods a bit too far to get it and killed him.’ He picked up a document from the desk. ‘According to the pathology report, here, Kappelman was murdered sometime late on Thursday, or in the early hours, on Friday, and the cause of death was beating around the head. Then, they took his body to the Surrey Lane building site, and dumped it. I guess, they did this last night, not on Thursday night, otherwise it would have been discovered by the workmen. And, they most certainly did not dump it during the day, as there are too many houses overlooking the site, so it’s more likely, they would have been seen by someone.’