Part 7 (1/2)
Maggie Hall appeared from the kitchen, face beaming. ”And how are you, Lady Monica? It's real nice to see you again. Mr. Dillon will be smiling, I know that. Can I get you some tea? I know you've been traveling.”
Ferguson loomed up behind her. ”We'll all have tea, my dear, and some of those delicious chocolate biscuits that you seem to have an inexhaustible supply of.”
”You can have anything you want, General.”
She departed, and Ferguson held Monica for a moment and kissed her cheek. ”Sorry about having to drag you away from Cambridge like this, but it's for your own good, I'm afraid. Has it been made plain to you what we're up against?”
”It's been made plain to me what's happened. The behavior of the wretch who drove his truck into me was proof enough of what we're up against.”
”You're armed, I trust?” Ferguson asked.
She opened her shoulder bag and produced a Colt .25. ”As provided by Roper when I first signed up.”
”Hollow-point cartridges at all times. We are really going to war, my dear.”
He turned to Roper. ”Any sign of Dillon and Billy?”
”Not yet. I'll call them, if you like.”
”No need,” Ferguson said. ”Here's the tea.”
Maggie put her tray on the table and poured tea for everyone and distributed biscuits, smiling and cheerful, and made Ferguson, Roper, and Miller all laugh, too. Monica thought how strange it was that these men she had come to know so well, including the brother she had never really known properly until now, these men who were so civilized and jolly, were all in the death business, had all killed people.
She felt slightly unreal for a moment, and Roper, with that ravaged face, glanced at her and stopped smiling. ”Are you all right?”
”Yes, fine. I'll have a drink, if you don't mind. Long journey, and I'm tired.”
She moved to the drinks cabinet, found a shot gla.s.s, opened a bottle of whiskey, filled the gla.s.s, and swallowed. It went straight to her head, releasing some lightness in her, and, as she turned, Dillon entered, along with Billy.
He had a paleness to him, the eyes dark, a look that she had never seen before. This man she had got to know well enough to love was suddenly a stranger, and she knew something must have happened.
He came and put a hand around her waist and kissed her lightly on the mouth. ”It's good to see you, girl. I'd like to kill that b.a.s.t.a.r.d in the truck for what he did to you.”
She ran her hand up and down his arm a couple of times. ”It could have been worse, he could have succeeded. George is knocked about a bit, but he'll get over it.” She looked at him searchingly. ”You're angry, I think?”
”You could put it that way.”
”Then tell us about it,” Ferguson said.
”Billy and I went hunting, first of all in Camden in search of Cochran. Turns out that address has been a brickfield since last year, waiting for a housing project. A helpful Indian storekeeper in the next street told me he remembered the address well because there used to be a lodging house there.”
”I already checked on the computer,” said Roper. ”It only threw up two Matthew Cochrans, one a chemist at the School of Oriental Medicine and the other a headmaster at a high school in Bayswater.”
”So another false name,” Ferguson said. ”What else is new. What about Kilburn? Did you discover anything useful?”
”I think you could say that.”
”For G.o.d's sake, Dillon,” Billy exploded. ”Get it off your chest.” He turned to the others. ”That priest you found, Roper, near Pool's address . . .”
Roper nodded. ”Monsignor James Murphy.”
”Dillon knew him. When he was nineteen and his dad was killed in Belfast, it was Murphy the police asked to break the news to him, which he did right there in Holy Name church, and and he gave him one of the prayer cards.” he gave him one of the prayer cards.”
There was a kind of stillness, and Monica took a step closer and reached for Dillon's hand. ”Sean?”
Ferguson said, ”Dillon, I don't think you've been completely straight with us on all this.”
”That's nonsense. The card first reared its ugly head hidden in Frank Barry's wallet. I found it and showed it to Harry immediately. I also explained its significance, isn't that true, Harry?”
Miller nodded gravely. ”Yes, I admit it is, but what you didn't mention was your personal experience with the card.”
”Because I'd had the wind knocked out of my sails, Harry. It was a bad memory of a terrible night in the life of a nineteen-year-old boy all those years ago in Kilburn. So I got on with the business in New York and tried to push the bad memory away for a while, and then things started to happen. I left Kilburn forever when I went to Belfast for my father's funeral. Frankly, I've always avoided it, and I'd no idea that Murphy was still at Holy Name.”
”Well, one thing's for sure, he'll remember your return,” Billy said.
”What happened?” Ferguson asked.
”I got angry and, you might say, I let rip, at least that's what Billy would tell you, because he heard. But it was all on purpose. I figured a little acting job was called for. So if you'll all take your seats and Roper turns on his recorder, we'll begin.”
It took no more than twenty minutes, and when they were finished Roper switched off and Ferguson said, ”Extraordinary. I find particularly interesting the remark Murphy made to you when he gave you the card. That it would be a comfort for all victims of a great cause. It certainly indicates where his political sympathies lay then, and no doubt still do.” than twenty minutes, and when they were finished Roper switched off and Ferguson said, ”Extraordinary. I find particularly interesting the remark Murphy made to you when he gave you the card. That it would be a comfort for all victims of a great cause. It certainly indicates where his political sympathies lay then, and no doubt still do.”
Miller put in, ”But it's hardly illegal. So it influenced an impressionable youth, which was what Dillon was then, and now he's angry about it. Most people would say so what?” He turned to his sister.
”Come on, Monica, as an archaeologist, you constantly have to a.n.a.lyze the past based on very little. What have you got to say?”
”It's seems simple to me. So far, four people are dead and various others have been put in harm's way, and the one constant has been that prayer card.”
”Which first turned up in Frank Barry's wallet at the Plaza Hotel,” Miller said.
”No, Harry,” she said. ”As far as I'm concerned, it first turned up on that evening in 1979 when Father James Murphy gave it to Sean. He's the one we have to look at next.”
”I absolutely agree.” Ferguson turned to Roper.
”I'll get right on to it.”
Monica said to Miller, ”I'd like to go to Dover Street now, Harry, and settle in. Is that all right with you? We could see Kurbsky, Svetlana, and Katya off later.”
”A good idea.”
She brushed Dillon's cheek with a kiss and went out, followed by her brother. Billy decided to pay a visit to the Dark Man, and Ferguson retired to his office. It was suddenly quiet, only a low hum from the equipment.
Roper said, ”You're too wound up, Sean. Relax, go and have a sauna.”
”It wasn't good,” Dillon said. ”I was surprised how violent I felt towards him and that b.l.o.o.d.y woman. I don't know a thing about her except what the old lady next door to Pool's house in Green Street said about her. A hard b.i.t.c.h, I know that having met her, but the old woman described her as a kind of Mother Teresa.”