Scandal in the Secret City (25 page)

T
he military reinforcements that Crenshaw requested marched forward to firm up the barrier with more bodies and more fire power. The time ticked by. I had nothing to do but observe and listen. Officials, it seemed, were torn between the fear that any move on their part could harm those whom they believed might be hostages and the anxiety that doing nothing might be even worse. The decision making was complicated by the presence of two commanding officers: Lieutenant Hammond of the police force and Lieutenant Colonel Crenshaw who was in charge of the unit of soldiers.

The thin light that arrived just before dawn was seeping into the sky when sudden movement erupted among the soldiers and police. They all went into shooters’ stances and drew beads on the front of the house. I followed the direction of the gun barrels and saw the spark that caused the flurry of action. The door was opening slowly. Through the crack, a hand emerged waving a towel. ‘Hold your fire’ screamed up and down the line surrounding the house.

The door opened further, then all the way. Ann Bishop stepped out on the front porch.

Instinctively, I ran towards her but was stopped before I got far. Soldiers stormed up the steps; one grabbed Ann and took her down the stairs, the others rushed inside. In a moment, another uniform walked out holding up Dr Bishop, whose pants leg appeared torn and darkened as if by blood. Medics loaded him into a waiting ambulance.

Crenshaw stepped up to me and said, ‘Thank you for your persistence, Miss Clark. We owe you a debt.’

I looked away. Too little. Too late. I wish I’d done something differently. I didn’t know what but there must have been a better way to resolve the situation.

A soldier stepped out on the top step of the house. ‘Lieutenant Colonel Crenshaw, you’re needed in here.’

‘Well, Miss Clark, they must have subdued Mildred Bishop. I’ll be back as soon as I can,’ Crenshaw promised.

A minute later, Crenshaw emerged and walked straight back to me. ‘Mildred Bishop is dead, Miss Clark.’

‘Dead?’

‘Yes, from the looks of it, she bled to death while we waited for her to surrender.’

‘I did kill her then.’ A torrent of guilt flooded me with a fresh wave of pain. I caused the death of another human being. I made the wound that caused her to die. What Mrs Bishop had done was horrible but still she was Ann’s mother. I had no right to kill her.

‘Don’t blame yourself, Libby. She would have been captured or killed, now or later. Just like Hitler. Violence leads to a violent end. You’ve done no wrong. You are a heroine.’

I heard his words and believed he was sincere. ‘Thou shalt not kill’ thundered in my head. ‘If she’d been captured sooner, she’d still be alive.’

‘And with that outcome, there would be a trial. Not only would it be a security risk but it would cause prolonged anguish for her husband and daughter.’

Yes, but Ann might forgive me then. I could never expect that now. I’d violated one of God’s commandments. It seemed in both my private life and my work, I was following the same path. Who was I to judge when to kill and when to not?

I
climbed into one jeep for a ride to the guest house, Ann got into another. I don’t know if Ann was aware that I was even there. She didn’t even spare a glance in my direction. Dr Bishop was already on the way to the hospital to be treated for the gunshot wound he’d received when he tried to rush his wife and take away her weapon. After his injury was addressed, he, too, would return to the guest house where we would all stay while police finished their investigations. Lieutenant Colonel Crenshaw promised all of us that the military would come in and clean all the biological contaminants out of both of our homes. The military sure had fancy terminology for bloody messes.

By the time I arrived at my temporary residence, my head was throbbing, just as the nurse said it would. Each beat of my heart seemed to worsen the pain. I turned down an offer of breakfast, slipped into a pair of pajamas that the police thoughtfully retrieved from my home. As I collapsed on the bed, my last thoughts were of Irene Nance – Irene, who worked right here in the very place I was falling to sleep. Irene, who didn’t deserve to die.

When I awoke, darkness had returned. I must have slept ten hours or more. My head still felt fragile as if the headache would come crashing back if I made any sudden moves. But, boy, was I hungry. I picked up the telephone receiver by the bed but couldn’t get a dial tone. I checked the closet but there was no other clothing anywhere except for a terry cloth robe draped across the foot of the bed. Someone had removed my blood-stained garments while I slept. Would they try to clean out the stains? Or had they disposed of them already?

I shrugged into the robe and stepped to the door. Grabbing the knob, I twisted but it didn’t move. I pounded on the door with a fist.

The door opened a crack and a soldier said, ‘Yes, ma’am, what can I do for you?’

‘Why am I locked in my room?’

‘For your protection, ma’am.’

‘Right. Well, I don’t need protection any longer. And my phone is dead. I need to go downstairs to speak to someone at the front desk.’

‘No, ma’am. You can’t do that.’

‘Are you telling me I’m a prisoner?’

‘No, ma’am. You just can’t leave the room until Lieutenant Colonel Crenshaw gets here to talk to you.’

‘So I am a prisoner.’

‘No ma’am, you are not. In fact, I’ve been instructed to get you whatever you want from the kitchen. It’s dinner time so you can have dinner – there’s a menu on the table by the window. But since you just woke up, I’ll be glad to bring you a breakfast tray if you prefer.’

‘I understand. You don’t like the word prisoner. Would it be easier for you to say I am under arrest?’

‘No, ma’am, because that is not the truth. You are not under arrest and you are not a prisoner.’

‘Then, please, let me leave the room.’

‘That is not possible, ma’am. I can’t let you speak to anyone but me until the lieutenant colonel gets here. So what do you want to eat?’

I was getting nowhere arguing with him. Maybe I could slip out while he was gone. ‘All right, soldier. Two eggs over easy, home-fried potatoes, grits and bacon.’

‘You want any toast with that?’

‘Sure.’

‘Juice?’

‘Just coffee, please.’

He nodded and pulled the door shut.

I waited until his footsteps faded away before trying the door. Unfortunately, he had remembered to lock it. I rummaged around the room looking for something I could use to pick the lock. The closest possible thing to a tool I could find was the toothbrush in the bathroom. One escape route cut off. I peered out the windows. I wasn’t on the ground floor and saw nothing below it to break my fall if I jumped except for a few puny bushes that looked like they’d collapse if I dropped a pillow on them. That’s an idea. No, actually, that’s a pathetic, ridiculous excuse for an idea. I sat down to wait for breakfast.

I’d finished eating and was sipping on the last cup of coffee when a knock at the door signaled the arrival of Lieutenant Colonel Crenshaw. ‘Good evening, sir. I’d offer you some coffee but I’m drinking the last cup now. Should I ask for another pot?’

‘Not unless you want it, Miss Clark. If I drink anymore coffee now, I’ll never get to sleep and today has been far too long already.’

‘Now why don’t you explain to me why I’ve been held here against my will?’

‘Miss Clark, you said you’d be happy to stay in the guest house while we sanitized your home.’

‘Yes, but I didn’t expect to be locked in my room like a prisoner.’

‘Prisoner is a harsh word.’

‘Yes, it is. Why am I under arrest?’

‘I wish you wouldn’t look at it that way,’ Crenshaw pleaded.

‘Just tell me what you want to tell me. I’ll listen carefully and hope my reward is my returned freedom. This isn’t Germany, you know.’

‘I see that you are still a bit overwrought. We simply did not want you to speak to anyone until we reached an understanding.’

Interesting choice of words.

‘Here is our situation,’ he continued. ‘The killer is dead, the population is safe. Justice has been satisfied. There is no need for further action. Do you agree?’

‘In principle,’ I said.

‘There is also no need for anyone not directly involved to know anything about this incident.’

‘What about Irene’s parents? Don’t they deserve answers?’

‘Yes, they’ve been told the killer of their daughter is dead. Their sense of justice has been satisfied.’

Did ‘satisfied’ adequately describe how Ruth was feeling right now? I hoped she was coping well with the news and made a wish that one day I would be able to see her again. Crenshaw cleared his throat, bringing my focus back to him. I asked, ‘What about the Bishops’ neighbors? There’s no way they could have missed all the excitement. They’ll need to be told something about what happened.’

‘We’ve talked to everyone of them. They have an understanding of the events that transpired.’

‘And just what do they understand, sir?’

‘They understand that Mrs Bishop had a nervous breakdown, administered a serious self-inflicted injury and died in her home.’

Amazing how well he could lie without the slightest crack in his façade. ‘You sure know how to spin a yarn, sir. It’s a shame it doesn’t resemble the truth.’

‘If it’s repeated enough, it will become the truth.’

‘Oh, so we
are
learning valuable lessons from Nazi Germany.’

‘Don’t be trite or petty, Miss Clark. In this war, the fate of our nation, the future of the world is at stake. We are hoping you will do the right thing and cooperate with us in this matter,’ Crenshaw said.

‘And if I don’t?’

‘No threats, Miss Clark. Nothing will happen to you personally. But I do think you should keep the possible consequences in mind.’

‘Consequences? That sounds very close to a threat.’

‘It’s not personal. I think you need to understand that the loss of one brilliant scientist like Dr Bishop will cost us time …’

‘Why does Dr Bishop have to leave?’

‘It is what he wants, Miss Clark. He can’t bear to live in that house or to stay here knowing that what he’s done precipitated his wife’s action. The loss of a scientist with his expertise puts us further behind in our mission. If the workers here knew all the details, they would be anxious, fearful – they’d lose their sense of safety and community. I’m confident they’d get it back sooner or later. But that disruption in the
esprit de corps
would slow everything down, once again costing us time and keeping us from reaching our goal. And we must reach it before the Germans do. I’m afraid, right now, that they just might be in the lead.’

‘I suppose I can’t ask what that goal is.’

‘You can ask, Miss Clark, but I can’t answer. We have great respect for your intellect. We admire your persistence, your loyalty, your commitment to a cause. We need scientists like you.’

‘There is one question that you might be able to answer. Who moved Irene’s body from the bleachers to outside of the gate?’

‘We did – the army did – Miss Clark. But we will deny that if you repeat it.’

‘And would you have done anything to secure justice for Irene Nance and her family if I hadn’t pushed it to the point where you had to take action?’

‘Do you think we would allow a killer to roam free among our civilian population?’

‘You haven’t really answered my question, though, have you, sir?’

Crenshaw stared out the window, his face unreadable. When he turned back, he asked, ‘Is there anything else you’d like to ask, Miss Clark?’

‘What about Teddy Mullins? Has he been told what happened?’

‘Only that you are safe and that Irene’s killer is dead. We thought you’d want to explain the rest to him since the two of you were working together. We request that you impress upon him the need for secrecy.’

The thought of seeing Teddy again made me smile. With a man like him, maybe it would be possible to have a relationship and a career at the same time.

‘Miss Clark, it’s a bit troubling to see you sitting there with an enigmatic smile on your face after I asked you for your pledge of secrecy.’

‘You really did think it was just the two of us, didn’t you?’

‘It wasn’t?’ Surprise disturbed his features briefly bringing a broader smile to my face.

I looked down at the floor and shook my head. ‘Not hardly, sir.’

‘Who else was involved?’

‘With all due respect, sir, that is something I will never tell you.’

Crenshaw sighed and said, ‘I can understand that. But how many of you?’

‘Oh no, you won’t get me to give up that bit of information away either. Let’s just say that our group of volunteer detectives easily exceeded the size of the average family.’

‘Fine, Miss Clark, just make sure you impress on them the need for secrecy.’

‘All of us chemists understand that, sir. After all, we have a lot of experience working with Tube Alloy, as we are required to call it.’ The bigger question raced back through my thoughts. Were we all contributing to the development of the world’s most deadly bomb – one that could kill thousands? Did the ends justify the means? When the war was over would I – would the others – regret their role in its making?

‘Tube Alloy. Yes. Quite. We can count on you then?’

‘I wouldn’t put it that way sir.’

‘No?’ Alarm flashed across his face with the speed of a bolt of lightning, disrupting his normal impenetrable expression once again.

‘Let’s just say that my country can count on me. That’s what really matters, isn’t it, sir?’