“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “I don’t know why I said that, I just—”
“Don’t,” he cut in, fierce enough to surprise me. “Don’t ever apologise for having faith in me. Christ knows I didn’t think you’d ever want anything to do with me again when I’ve meant nothing but pain for you. Why do you think I sent Madeleine to fetch you from your parents’ place?”
It was my turn to be speechless, to feel my mouth working but no words waiting behind it to emerge. My tongue was dry and empty.
I leaned back against a tree and listened to the quiet rustling of the forest around me. It was almost soothing.
So, where do we go from here? I had no idea. A picture had unfolded suddenly in front of me that was too big to see the end of it. I needed time to digest, for Sean’s words to sink in.
“But you were over in Germany,” I said, forgetting completely for a moment which countries we were both in.
“I didn’t have to be,” he admitted. “I’m hoping you won’t need to be for much longer. How’s Gilby taking Blakemore’s untimely demise?”
“Badly,” I said. “He’s feeling the pressure and he’s starting to suffer for it.”
“And you think that’s more likely to be guilty conscience because he’s bumping off his own men,” Sean said, back on track, “rather than the more natural anger and frustration because somebody else is doing it and he’s powerless to stop them?”
“But why is he powerless?” I shot back. “If he’s nothing to hide then why doesn’t he bring in the authorities and let them clear it up? Why is he letting people ambush his students with machine pistols and run one of his instructors off the road? Gilby’s up to his neck in this kidnapping somehow. I’m waiting for him to show now, to see if he might lead me to anything interesting on his nightly walkabout.”
Gilby hadn’t turned out for the last couple of nights. Either that or I’d missed him. It was difficult to maintain an effective watching brief single-handed. It was when you had to be up and running your guts out at five o’clock the next morning, at any rate.
“You just be damned careful, Charlie,” Sean warned.
“I will,” I promised.
“At least wait until I get out there tomorrow before you go confronting anybody else.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll take it easy.”
He paused, as if trying to find a nice way to call me a liar then changed the subject with a teasing note in his voice. “So how are you getting on with the course, or has that all gone to hell in a hand cart?”
“Sort of,” I said. “I’ve just handed in a very scrappy location survey that might just pull in a C-plus – if I’m lucky.”
“You’re not there to pass the course, Charlie,” he pointed out.
That took me aback slightly. Wasn’t I? I’d never liked failing, that was the trouble. Perhaps I hadn’t realised how much I’d hated that aspect of getting kicked out of the army. My relationship with Sean had been a failure, too.
“You remember that chalet we stayed in, that first weekend in Wales?” I asked suddenly. Christ, I really was going to have to learn to keep my mouth shut. It was running away with me tonight.
“Yes,” he said, with a quiet intensity. “I remember.”
I wished, more than ever, that I could see his face as he spoke, could gauge him. Mind you, if we’d been face to face then probably this conversation would never have happened.
“It was quite a place,” I ventured at last, mentally cursing my own cowardice.
“Yes, it was,” he agreed. “All that wildness, that untamed element.” He paused. “I thought it would suit you.”
I listened for, but couldn’t find, the ironic note in his voice. Instead I asked, “How did you know it was there?”
“Is that a tactful way of asking me how many other girls I’d taken there?” It was the way he said “taken” that made my bones melt.
“Not necessarily.”
“Well if it was, the answer’s none – before or since.”
I leaned my head back, stared up at darkened branches and past them, to the stars. My heart had started to thump painfully behind my breastbone, like I was preparing to run. I had to swallow before I could speak again.
“So how did you know it was there?”
“My mum knew about it,” he said. “I think my dear departed dad took her there in the happy days before he started to drink. She used to tell me about it and I remembered the name. What made you think about that?”
How could I not think about that weekend in Wales? We’d run purely on instinct and feeling. No thought. No doubt. No regret. I’d remember it until I died.
“Something Madeleine said, that’s all.”
“Oh yes,” he said. What was that in his voice – surely not embarrassment? “I seem to remember her prising that information out of me one night. There were times when it was good to have someone to talk to.” About you. He didn’t say the words out loud, but I knew they were there because I’d felt the same way.
It’s amazing what people will admit to over the phone. Encouraged, I said, “She showed me a photo of her boyfriend.”
“Dom?” Sean said and he sounded surprised. “Why would she do that?”
“I think,” I said carefully, “that she was trying to tell me that she wasn’t a threat.”
Sean said, “Ah,” as though a lot of things had fallen into place. There was a long pause, and when he next spoke there was something serious in his voice. “She never has been, Charlie.”
I closed my eyes, felt the pull of a smile across my lips. “Good,” I said. “That’s all right, then.”
Seventeen
Major Gilby walked out of the Manor house about twenty minutes after I’d finished talking to Sean, and strode briskly along the path towards the ranges. He wore a heavy greatcoat that flapped around his legs as he walked.
It was bitter out, just on the point of freezing. The ground was crystalline with a heavy frost that reflected the moon like a cut diamond.
As for me, for once I didn’t feel the cold.
I waited until he’d moved past my position, then slipped out into the darkness and followed. I clung to the edge of the trees, not only watching his progress, but also keeping an eye out behind me, just in case the Major’s mystery shadow had chosen tonight to make a reappearance. If he had, he was better at hiding than I was at spotting him.
It didn’t take me long to realise that I’d picked a bad night to trail Gilby. His footsteps along the path showed as flattened prints on the concrete, plainly visible through the frost. Where I’d walked along the edge of the grass I left telltales that were clearer still. Crossing the open ground that lay between us was going to be impossible without leaving tracks a blind man wouldn’t need a Labrador to be able to follow. Was it worth that risk?
I’d promised Sean I wouldn’t take risks, but I’d also promised him results just by being here. It was a wrench to know which to keep, but for the moment I settled for a watching brief, got as close as I dared and stayed in cover. It was a good job I didn’t break out of it.
Gilby checked behind him twice, coming to a standstill and revolving slowly, listening as well as watching for any sign of movement, of something out of place. I kept motionless and tried to think like a tree.
Eventually, seeming satisfied, he covered the last few metres to the indoor range, took a key out of his pocket, and let himself in. I watched the door swing shut and in the stillness of the night I heard the lock click behind him.
I felt my shoulders drop a little. I had my Swiss Army knife in my pocket, as always, but I couldn’t pick a lock to save my life. Even if I had ventured after him, I would have needed to be right on his heels to stand any chance of getting in. Not a move that was likely to pass unnoticed.