The Deadly Embrace (7 page)

“She told me,” said Liza.

“Uhmm,” he muttered, breathing ever more heavily as they climbed the last set of stairs to the entrance vestibule.

“And her locket is missing,” said Liza. “She had a small gold locket that meant a great deal to her. There is an abrasion on the back of her neck from when it was ripped free.”

As Taggart paused to rest at the top of the staircase, Inspector Drummond caught up with them. He moved fast for a drinker, thought Taggart, lighting another cigarette.

“What are you going to do now?” asked the old man.

“Did Colonel Gaines send you up here to ask me that?”

“No,” he said.

“We’re going to try to find that girl’s murderer,” said Taggart.

“I’ll try to help you in any way I can,” said Drummond, his knowing brown eyes apparently sincere. “Here is my card, with my work and home numbers.”

“Thanks,” said Taggart, taking the card and handing it to Liza. “We’ll be in touch.”

The strident sound of air-raid sirens began an ugly whine outside as they went through the front door.

“You had better find yourself a safe haven,” Drummond called after them.

CHAPTER 5

“H
ow do you know she was murdered, Sam?” demanded General Manigault, removing a twelve-inch Romeo y Julieta Cuban cigar from his mouth.

“Fourteen years of looking at crime scenes,” said Taggart.

“I just got a call from some Limey colonel named Gaines who sounded like he had the King’s fork up his ass,” said Manigault. “He says the Dunbar girl took her own life.”

Taggart nodded and grinned. They were in the walnut-paneled anteroom of the large conference hall where General Eisenhower had just convened a meeting of the top British and American commanders of Overlord. Liza waited at the door about ten feet away, but she could hear every word.

“They don’t want the murderer to turn out to be someone with a silver key to the Royal Natatorium.”

“What’s that?”

“The royal swimming hole,” said Taggart.

Manigault shook his head and growled, “So you looked at the crime scene. That’s all you’re going on?”

“That’s all I went on when I got you off the murder charge five years ago.”

Manigault’s eyes found Liza’s for a moment before they returned to Sam.

“Get rid of her,” he whispered.

Taggart motioned to her to leave. Liza went out the door, closing it behind her.

“That was different,” said Manigault.

“How was it different?” asked Taggart.

“I was innocent,” said the general.

“As I recall, you were the only one who thought so,” said Taggart, “aside from me…. Look, General, this one would have been obvious if it was my first homicide case. I don’t care what the royal ass-kisser has to say about it. He would try to conceal the truth if Jack the Ripper was back in business and it involved the royal family.”

“All right,” said Manigault. “If Lieutenant Dunbar was in a position to compromise Overlord, we need to know it. Otherwise, I don’t care what she was doing or who she was sleeping with.”

“Or who murdered her?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“I’ll need to interview Admiral Jellico,” said Sam.

Manigault took another puff of his cigar and exhaled a cloud of bluish aromatic smoke.

“Listen to me, Sam,” he said. “There are eagles and sparrows in this war. The eagles soar, the sparrows fall. In other words, this requires delicacy.”

“You want me to be delicate? I’m as delicate as a fist,” said Sam.

“Jellico’s a goddamn Limey admiral,” Manigault growled again. “Just try to be discreet.”

“Has he been told yet?”

“They are trying to locate him now. To my knowledge, he hasn’t been informed.”

“You want my opinion, General?”

“Of course,” he said.

“It will be a miracle if the Nazis don’t find out about our Overlord plan. When it comes to spying, they may be dense, but they could still be handed the golden goose. There are Nazi sympathizers all over England, and half of them are in the so-called aristocracy. If General Eisenhower knew how many...”

“Cross yourself when you say that name.”

Taggart shook his head and said, “I don’t have to tell you that the Dunbar girl is only one of the many young women around here who are in a position to learn our most important secrets from across the pillow.”

For a second, Manigault’s eyes reflected the enormity of the danger, as well as its impact on his own job as the head of the Security Command.

“Just try to look at these girls as slumming angels, Sam,” he said with resignation. “They’re basically good kids, doing what they do best in the war effort. When the war is over, most of them will go back and get married and live happily ever after.”

“Yeah,” said Taggart with sarcasm.

“You just don’t get it, Sam,” came back Manigault. “These men are responsible for planning and executing the greatest military invasion in history. The whole goddamn war might be at stake. Roosevelt and Churchill are riding them like bulls—Marshall and Ernie King are, too. In the meantime, the testosterone level around here is … Most of them need companionship. They need to swing from the tree now and then. Can’t you understand that?”

“Yeah … they need companionship. They have the world on their shoulders. So what do you want me to do?”

“I want you to find out the circumstances of this girl’s death. In addition to Overlord, Admiral Jellico is cleared for the ULTRA intercepts. We need to know if he leaked anything through her.”

“He probably wasn’t her only lover,” said Taggart. “She was young and beautiful, even if she looked like an altar boy.”

“Follow it wherever it leads, as long as it has to do with security of Overlord. Just try to keep your big mouth in check. If you screw up, Sam, I won’t be able to protect you.”

There was a knock on the connecting door to the conference hall, and an overweight WAC sergeant came in wearing an Eisenhower jacket identical to General Manigault’s. Unlike his regulation trousers, her khaki skirt wasn’t regulation. Form-fitted across her broad hips, the hem revealed two inches of thigh, as well as a pair of silk stockings that weren’t painted on her tapered calves.

“They need you in the conference right away, General,” she said. “I told them you would be right along.”

Her wide hips rolled under the tight skirt as she moved back to the door and closed it behind her. Manigault avoided Sam’s gaze.

“Does she have Overlord clearance, too?” said Taggart, deadpan.

The general’s face mottled with anger.

“You’re a real ball-breaker, Sam. You don’t give a shit about anything. I don’t know what happened to you after I left Fort Hamilton, but you’re not the same man I knew then. I didn’t even know that you left the police force until Baird found out. After what you did for me, I never even bothered to check when I asked for you to come over. But it isn’t working out for either of us. I’m sending you home when this is done.”

Taggart felt his words like a blow in the pit of his stomach. He watched Manigault’s retreating back as the general stalked to the door, swung it wide, and disappeared into the conference hall.

CHAPTER 6

V
ice-Admiral Sir Thomas Vivyan Jellico, M.C., D.S.O., O.B.E, was sixty years old and clean-shaven, with a long ascetic nose and pallid, somber face. His pomaded silver hair peaked in the middle of his broad forehead like the prow of a ship.

Taggart and Liza had waited an hour in a corridor filled with British and American staff officers before they were finally ushered into his office on the top floor of the Admiralty Building in Whitehall.

Admiral Jellico was standing in full dress uniform in front of a twenty-foot-high painting of Sir Francis Drake. To his left was a shiny mahogany conference table with elephant-tusk legs. A slim, attractive woman in a pale-yellow dress was seated at the nearest end of the table. Sam and Liza came to attention and saluted. The admiral returned their salutes with a casual flip of his fingers to his oak-leaved hat.

“Good afternoon,” he said, the mordant face momentarily creased by a curt smile. He removed his hat and pointed to two chairs opposite the woman at the table.

The far end of the table had been set for lunch. There were two place settings. Sterling silver and cut-glass wine goblets flanked fine old china. A ripe wedge of cheese sat next to a plate of freshly cut tomatoes and fresh basil. Taggart was tempted to ask him where the admiral got fresh tomatoes in January, but he was trying to be on his best behavior.

“Thank you for taking time to see us,” he said after they had sat down. “May I smoke?”

“Of course,” replied the admiral, sitting down next to the woman. His uniform was impeccably tailored, with six inches of heavy gold braid on each elbow.

“I regret that I only have a few minutes for you,” said the admiral, removing his rimless steel glasses and rubbing his eyes. “I have an exceedingly busy afternoon.”

Although she had seemed more youthful from a distance, the woman beside him was in her late thirties, with delicate, angular features. Her large amber eyes were flecked with gold. Liza noticed the narrow bands of red puffiness underneath them, and wondered if she had been crying. She sat in the carved chair with a trim, graceful bearing.

“I gathered from General Manigault’s telephone call that this was important,” said Admiral Jellico.

“Yes, sir,” said Taggart, glancing momentarily at the woman. “It is also highly confidential.”

“Helen Bellayne is my personal aide and secretary,” he replied. “Anything you have to tell me can be said in front of her. She has a top-secret clearance, just as I do.”

The woman smiled politely at Taggart.

“This matter is highly personal,” persisted Taggart. “I wanted to give you a private opportunity to...”

“I said I only have a few minutes, Major Taggart. Get on with it.” Taggart nodded and said, “I assume that you have been notified about the death of Lieutenant Jocelyn Dunbar.”

“Yes, I was. It’s most unfortunate. She was a very efficient girl,” he said, as if the loss had only been a typewriter.

“We have every reason to believe she was murdered, Admiral.”

“I understand that Joss took her own life,” said Helen Bellayne in a voice steeped with upper-class cadence. Her amber eyes filled with tears as she added, “Colonel Gaines called an hour ago to tell me.”

“He is entitled to his opinion,” said Taggart, “but he is not in charge of the investigation. I am.”

“I gather you are some kind of policeman,” said the admiral, looking at Taggart as if the job was as disreputable as his uniform.

“Not any longer,” replied Taggart. “Now I work for General Manigault in military security.”

“And why did you leave police work?”

“I was fired,” said Taggart.

“I see. And now you’re over here.”

“That’s right.”

“Well, I have no idea how she died,” he said. “Is there anything else?”

“Admiral Jellico, I will be very blunt. It would appear that your relationship with Lieutenant Dunbar went well beyond the military chain of command,” said Taggart.

The admiral glanced momentarily at Helen Bellayne before training his eyes again on Taggart.

“What are you implying, Major?”

“That you were involved with Lieutenant Dunbar in a sexual relationship,” he said evenly.

“That is absurd,” pronounced Admiral Jellico very calmly. “Jocelyn was younger than my own daughter. On what basis do you make such an accusation?”

Taggart debated for a moment whether to be frank about the private communications he had read over the past several months. This was worse than matrimonial work, he thought silently.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss that right now,” said Taggart. “However, I was hoping to enlist your cooperation so that you’re immediately removed as a potential suspect. Can you please tell me where you were last night from nine o’clock until dawn?”

“This interview is at an end,” the admiral said, standing up from the table. “I plan to call General Manigault immediately and tell him that you have made a totally unsupported allegation against me.”

“A young woman is dead … murdered,” said Taggart. “We know that you and Lieutenant Dunbar were close enough to have spent...”

“I am ordering you to leave,” Admiral Jellico said, his voice becoming shrill. “If you do not do so voluntarily, I will have one of my marines escort you out of the building.”

“Fine,” said Taggart, before heading toward the door. “But this won’t end it. There is too much at stake … as you should know, Admiral.”

They came out of the side entrance of the Admiralty Building into bright sunlight.

“And the Lord parted the heavens,” said Liza, looking up at blue sky for the first time since she had arrived in London.

“I’d forgotten the sun actually rises over here,” said Taggart. “The Germans will have a bomber’s moon tonight.”

He paused on the crowded sidewalk.

“Well, that went about as good as I expected,” he said. “He is not about to admit to an affair with her unless presented with the evidence of her letters. Even then he would probably deny it as some kind of delusion on her part.”

“I think her death hit him hard,” said Liza.

“Maybe … Listen, I want you to arrange for Joss Dunbar’s autopsy to be done at the SHAEF hospital,” he said. “Start putting to work all those forensic talents you learned.”

“I’ll do my best,” said Liza.

“Find out all her secrets,” said Taggart, grinning.

“All her secrets,” repeated Liza. “Done.”

“What did you think of Helen Bellayne?” asked Taggart as he hailed a taxi.

“I think she may be related to Joss in some way,” said Liza. “Also—you probably noticed it, too—she may have the early onset of a minor thyroid disease…. You can see it in the lagging of her eyelids.”

“Where I come from we call those bedroom eyes,” said Taggart, holding the door of the cab open for her. “I think she’s gorgeous.”

When Liza arrived back at her office, Charlie was standing in the corridor outside talking to two other men. She recognized one of them as his friend Lord Ainsley. The other man was a member of the security detail permanently stationed at the end of their corridor.