AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I didn’t kill the woman. I would have saved her if I could, but when I arrived she was already dead. The man knew too many secrets that he would tell if I let him be taken into police custody, and charged, then stand trial. I hated saving him, but the alternative would have cost many lives that I was not too late to save.’
Daniel felt hope surge inside him. He wanted that to be true, wanted it so badly it was like gasping for air when you have been under water. ‘What did you do? Lie to the police?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did anyone else get blamed?’
‘No,’ Pitt said stiffly. ‘Of course not. We managed to disguise it to look like an accident. She fell down the stairs.’
‘And what happened to him?’
‘I got him out of the country.’
‘But the assassination happened anyway?’
‘Yes.’
‘And the people whose deaths he would have caused, they are still alive?’ Daniel asked slowly.
‘Daniel, I’m not trying to change the political situation in other countries,’ Pitt said patiently. ‘I’m trying to stop the violence from coming here. Half the social extremists in Europe – that is, the revolutionaries – are in London, one time or another. Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, they feel safe here, some of them even live here. God knows what they are planning. And I like to know as much of it as I can. That’s what Special Branch is about. Safeguarding us against violence, terrorism, change by force.’ His grimace was something short of a smile.
‘I see . . .’
‘Do you?’
‘I think so. Something, anyway. This biography that Graves is writing – it’s pretty . . . nasty.’
‘I damn well intend to find out,’ Pitt answered. ‘We should have known someone was writing a biography like this. He must have had to do a great deal of research into it. And if someone at Special Branch answered his questions, I will need some good excuse if they expect to keep their job now, and an account of exactly what he asked, and exactly what he was told. They’re going to have to earn their redemption.’ He pushed his hand through his unruly hair, making it worse. ‘It must have been difficult for you to tell me.’
Daniel felt a mixture of pity for those accused in Graves’ book, guilt that he had told Pitt about it, and the fierce wish that he could do something to help. Mostly he feared that all the certainties in life that made sense, and the values of everything, even his own identity, were beginning to unravel in front of him.
‘I’m sorry . . .’
Pitt jerked his head up. ‘You’d be a damn sight sorrier if you’d said nothing, and passed this case on to someone else. Graves is your client?’
‘Yes . . . but—’
‘No buts. You can repeat nothing you know in confidence that is against his interest,’ Pitt replied. ‘You must investigate this wherever it leads, but if you find out anything that is a threat to the security of the nation, you will tell me. I don’t imagine that will happen. If it does, you may have a conflict of interest. Ask fford Croft, he’ll advise you.’
‘Would it be against the interest of the nation if you were not able to perform your job?’
Pitt’s smile was bleak. ‘That’s a matter of opinion. I hope so. But no doubt there will be those who think it would be in the best interests of the country if I were to be replaced. A few for whom it would be very much in their interest!’ His amusement was self-mocking.
Daniel did not know what to say. He would have given a great deal for this not to be happening, for it to be something else he had to tell Pitt, that his man, at least one of them, had let him down. He stumbled for something to say, but nothing came to him that was honest.
‘There isn’t anything you can do,’ Pitt repeated. ‘Once Graves told you, there was only one thing you could ever have done.’ He took a moment to think. ‘Tell me, what have you learned since then? I ask because I have to find out who could and should have known about this, and why he didn’t. Is it carelessness, or design? Did someone know, and not set it right? And if so, why?’
Daniel could think of nothing useful to say. It was not his fault, and yet he felt as if it were. At every step, he could have paid lip service to the idea of saving Graves from the rope, whether he killed Ebony or not, and he surely deserved to hang!
Except you have to have faith, before you hanged someone, that you were right, at least in fact. The morality of it was not your judgement.
‘What are you going to do?’ he asked Pitt.
‘Find out where the information came from,’ Pitt answered. ‘And you are going to help me. I want all the details you can remember of exactly what stories Graves was going to tell. He must have got some details – it’s not a story without them. Tell me. What stories did he tell of Narraway, specifically? Then of Vespasia, something that’s not just gossip that anyone knows? Although the days she was gossiped about are long past. Is it first-hand knowledge or second? And about me? I used to know the dates. I need to know the details.’
‘It’s ugly . . .’ Daniel avoided his father’s eyes.
‘The details!’ Pitt said sharply. ‘If I know the details he has, I can very probably trace it back to the source. The devil of truth is in the details, Daniel. Just what stories do they tell about Narraway?’
