River of Darkness (25 page)

They weren't going anywhere. Just back to the salient.' The chief inspector looked at Madden questioningly. 'Passchendaele, sir. That's where the battle was fought. Near Ypres.' 'It was just a few square miles of mud and craters,' Tozer explained. 'You crossed over the canal and you were there. Death's Land, the Tommies called it. All there was was mud and corpses. They didn't expect to come back.' Sinclair stared at his blotter. He was silent for several seconds. 'In this case, seven did,' he said finally. 'Of the fifteen. But Captain Miller didn't interview them again, as far as I can gather.' Tozer's eyes widened. 'Only seven ... I didn't know . . . I'm sorry . . .' He glanced at Madden again and sighed. 'No, sir, the captain never asked to see them again. By that time he was on a different track.' 'That's what we thought.' Sinclair sat forward. 'That's what I want to know about.' Tozer took another sip of tea. He had gone a little pale, Billy Styles thought, watching from his place beside Sergeant Hollingsworth. 'The day after the battalion left, Captain Miller got a message from Poperinge. They were holding a deserter there. He was up for court martial. He claimed he had information about the murders at the farmhouse.' 'What was his name?' Tozer searched his memory. 'Duckman . . .? No, Duckham. William Duckham. He was from the same battalion as those fifteen lads, but a different company.' 'Did Captain Miller interview him?' 'Yes, he did. At the detention barracks at Poperinge.' 'Were you present?' 'I was.' Tozer touched the scar on his cheek. 'The lad -- Duckham -- was in a bad way. He hadn't been with the battalion long. Only gone into the line once, but that was enough and when they came out he'd made a run for it. Poor boy. He was shaking all over, couldn't stop himself. Maybe he thought it would help his case if he told us what he knew 'Which was?' 'Duckham told the captain he'd got as far as the farm and then holed up in the barn, which was a little way from the main house. Found a spot in the loft behind some hay and lay there during the day. At night he'd come down and forage for food. He couldn't get himself to move any further, he said. He just lay there--' Tozer broke off to reach for his tea-cup. The chief inspector controlled his impatience. 'The night it happened he heard the men from B Company arrive and leave, though he didn't see them. He was lying low. But after they'd gone he crawled out from behind the hay and was about to climb down the ladder when the barn door opened and someone came in. Duckham heard him moving about down below, but it wasn't till the man switched on a torch that he saw who it was.' 'Pike?' Sinclair asked, in a low voice. Tozer nodded. 'Duckham knew him by sight. He wasn't in his company, but everyone in the battalion knew Pike. There was a joke that went round, or so he told us. No one in B Company gave a damn about Jerry. It was Pike they were scared of.' 'He was sergeant major of B Company?' 'That's right. Quite a hero in his way. I'll tell you about that in a moment.' Tozer emptied his tea-cup. 'Duckham had his head over the edge of the loft, and since he didn't dare stir he saw everything. He said Pike had a rifle and knapsack with him and the first thing he did was fix a bayonet to the rifle. Then he opened the knapsack and took out--' He broke off, shaking his head. 'You won't credit this, sir, I know the captain had a hard time believing it, but according to Duckham what he did next was put on a gas mask.' Sinclair expelled his breath in a soundless sigh. His eyes met Madden's. Tozer looked from one to the other. He seemed to be expecting more of a reaction from them. 'Go on, Mr Tozer.' 'When he'd done that he stood still for a few moments. Sort of growling, Duckham said. Making these noises behind the mask. Next thing he was out of the barn door and Duckham heard a whistle. Just one long blast. He said before he'd even had time to crawl back behind the hay he heard the woman screaming. Then nothing more. He lay where he was and about ten minutes later Pike came back into the barn. Or he assumed it was him, because he didn't budge. After a minute he heard the barn door being shut, but he stayed where he was for another half-hour until he was sure there was no one about. Then he climbed down and went over to the house. When he found the bodies downstairs he just grabbed whatever food he could and ran for it. He was picked up two days later outside Poperinge.' The door behind Tozer opened suddenly and Bennett put his head inside. His quick glance took in the scene. 'I won't bother you now, Chief Inspector. Fill me in as soon as you can, please.' He shut the door. 'Well!' Sinclair sat back. 'So Miller knew it was Pike he was after. What did he do next?' Tozer's eyes crinkled. 'He didn't exactly know, sir. All this had come from a man who was up for a court martial. He might have had something against the sergeant major. He might have been spinning a yarn, hoping to save his own skin. Word had got around about the killings.' 'Miller said that?'

'Yes, sir, he talked to me about it. He liked to do that. Think aloud. He wanted to question Pike first. So he made inquiries and he found out the battalion had crossed the canal the night before. That meant they'd be in the line for anything up to a week. If it had been a matter of a day or two he might have waited until they came out. But he felt it was too long, the case was too serious. So we went after them.' 'You crossed into the salient?' The chief inspector showed surprise. 'Oh, no, sir! Thank God!' Tozer shut his eyes as if in prayer. 'The battalion command post was this side of the canal, but that was bad enough. No end of shells falling all around. I thought we were going to cop it for sure. But the captain was a real terrier. Once he'd got his teeth into something he wouldn't let go. There was an officer called Crane in command there, a major.' Tozer nodded, as though in recollection. 'Copped it himself a week later, we heard. Anyway, when Captain Miller said he wanted Pike sent back, Crane flat refused. Said the battalion was heavily engaged and the sergeant major was one of his best men. Now he couldn't do that, you know, refuse. Not in that situation. Not if he was a general. Captain Miller had the authority. But he took the major aside and explained how things stood. He said he didn't want Pike's name associated with the crime if the charge wasn't true. Which it would be if he had to issue an arrest order. He wanted Pike to have a chance to clear himself. Well, after he'd put it like that, Crane had to agree and he sent a runner up the line straight away with orders for Pike to be sent back.' 'I take it he never appeared.' The chief inspector eased some stiffness from his shoulder. His gaze remained fixed on Tozer's face. 'No, he didn't, sir. We waited there in the command post all night. The runner came back next morning. He'd reached B Company and found that all the officers were dead or wounded. Pike was alive, so he passed on the major's order directly to him.' 'Do you know how that was phrased?' Madden broke his long silence. 'Was there any mention of the Military Police wanting to talk to him?' 'No, there wasn't. I know that for a fact. Captain Miller was with the major when he spoke to the runner.' 'But he'd seen you, hadn't he? The runner, I mean. A pair of redcaps.' 'I reckon so. Mr Miller thought the same thing. He said he must have told Pike. It was the only explanation.' 'For what?' This time it was Sinclair who spoke. 'After the runner had delivered his message he left to return. There wasn't any trench line as such. The troops were dug in in craters. Pike was sharing one with two other men - neither was from the lot we'd questioned, by the way. They both said the same thing later. Right after the runner left, Pike vanished.' "Vanished?' 'He crawled out of the crater and they never saw him again.' 'You mean he headed back to his own lines?' Madden asked. 'No, that was it.' Tozer shook his head hard. 'He went forward, in the direction of the enemy. They both said the same thing. It was the last anyone ever saw of him. Till they found his body.'

'His body?' The chief inspector sat bolt upright. Madden was frowning. Tozer looked from one to the other. 'Didn't you know he was dead? I thought . . .' He broke off and stared at them. 'Cor! You didn't think he was still alive, did you?' And then, as the truth suddenly dawned on him, 'Christ! It's Melling Lodge!' In the hush that followed his exclamation the squeak of Sergeant Hollingsworth's pen was clearly audible. The two detectives looked at each other. It was Sinclair who spoke: 'What makes you say that, Mr Tozer?' 'Because . . . because that's what I thought when I read about it first. I mean it reminded me of St Martens. A lot of people murdered in a house. I saw somewhere the lady had her throat cut. But I didn't think ... I never thought it was PikeY The chief inspector made a small adjustment in his position. He rested his forearms on the desk. 'You say his body was found. What do you mean, exactly? Did you see it yourself?' 'Oh, no, sir. It didn't happen like that. Did it, sir?' He appealed to Madden. 'Sometimes there was a lull in the fighting,' Madden explained. 'Both sides would hold off firing and allow the wounded to be collected. Bodies would be picked up at the same time. Otherwise they would lie there.' 'Take Passchendaele now,' Tozer amplified. 'More than forty thousand bodies were never found. I read it in a newspaper. Forty thousand! That was the mud, you see.' 'But Pike's was, you say,' the chief inspector reminded him. 'Why? What makes you so sure?' 'It was reported found. About a week later, when Captain Miller was writing up the case. It was listed among the bodies brought back.' Madden spoke again: 'If we're right about this, sir, what it means is they found a body with Pike's identity disc tucked into the puttees or fixed to the braces. Also his pay book, I imagine. And, if he wanted to be thorough, his tunic with his rank and his regimental badges on it. That would certainly have been enough to establish his identity. Do you agree, Mr Tozer?' The other man nodded. 'There's no reason why anyone from his own battalion should have seen it. In any case, they would have been out of the line by the time it was brought back.' Sinclair chewed his lip. 'Let's be clear in our minds about this. Granted, he could have switched identities with some body he found on the battlefield. But how could he have got back himself?' 'He might have faked a wound,' Madden suggested. 'Not the easiest thing, I imagine.' Tozer put up his hand. 'I've just remembered, sir. I saw Pike's service record -- the captain had it. Just before all this happened he'd been in hospital at Boulogne. Concussion, it was. Now that could have been useful.' 'Useful?' 'It's not an easy thing for the doctors to be sure about. There were those that tried to fake it. Men who had it were sent back for observation. Pike would have known that.' 'Sent back to Boulogne?' 'Or Eetaps. Once he was there he could have slipped out of the hospital. It was a dodge deserters tried.' Sinclair directed a questioning glance at Madden. The inspector shrugged. 'It's quite possible, sir. Of course, he would still have had the problem of getting back to England. But it could be done, provided he had the nerve.' 'Oh, he had nerve all right!' Tozer interjected. 'Yes, I want to hear about that.' Sinclair turned back to him. 'Go on with your story.' Tozer was silent, collecting his thoughts. Then he resumed: 'We waited there at the command post all day and in the evening a report came back that Pike was missing. One of the officers from another company was among the walking wounded and he told the major what the two men had said, that Pike had left the crater without a word and gone forward. Captain Miller put two and two together. He reckoned Pike was his man and that he'd decided to end it on the battlefield rather than face a charge of murder. So we left and went back to Poperinge, and the captain sat down to write his report. While he was doing that we heard about the body being recovered. Captain Miller put it all in his report. He wrote a memorandum to go with the file, saying he believed Pike was the killer and giving his reasons and recommending the case should be marked closed. He was just finishing it when he got a message from the assistant provost marshal -- Colonel Strachan - to send the file up to staff headquarters. The brass hats wanted to see it.' 'The General Staff?' 'Someone there had asked for it - we never found out who.' Tozer shrugged. 'Captain Miller sent the file off, and then a week later he was called in by Colonel Strachan. He came back hopping mad. He said they were going to bury the whole thing.' 'His investigation?' 'No, just his findings about Pike. The case was to be closed as far as the Army was concerned and the file sent to the provost marshal. But the captain's memorandum was removed. The Belgian police weren't to be informed of his findings.' Sinclair sat back in astonishment. 'Could they do that?' 'In the Army} In wartime!' Tozer scoffed. 'You were just told to get on with it.' He touched the scar on his cheek again, running his fingers lightly over the ridged flesh. 'Captain Miller was given the full story later. Someone at headquarters thought he ought to know the truth. I mentioned about Pike being a hero. Fact was, he'd won the Military Medal in 1916 and then he won it again the following year. Destroyed a German machine-gun post single-handed. So he was due the bar and since Field Marshal Haig was making a tour of the front around that time, handing out medals, they included Pike in one of the ceremonies. That was just before he got concussed, so it would only have been a month or two before the murders. There was a nice snap of the two of them taken by an Army photographer.' Tozer's grin took on a cynical twist. 'It appeared in some of the London papers. "Field Marshal Decorates Hero."' 'And two months later it's "Field Marshal Hobnobs With Mass Murderer."' Sinclair scratched his nose. 'Yes, I can see how that might have concentrated a few minds.' 'There'd already been reports about the killings in the French newspapers. If they got hold of Pike's name from the Belgian police it wouldn't be long before the facts were out. So they made up a story about a gang of deserters being suspected and there being a big hunt under way for them.' Tozer looked scornful. 'Whoever it was talked to the captain said that since Pike was dead justice had been served and the whole business was best forgotten.' 'And how did Miller feel about that?' 'Hopping mad!' Tozer's eyes flashed. 'He said it was a disgrace.' 'Was that the end of it?' Sinclair asked. 'Pretty well. The captain swore an affidavit for the court martial at Poperinge saying Duckham had been of great assistance to him, but it didn't do any good. They shot him just the same. He didn't forget about