your car and you could be mugged in a minute, or worse. I would advise members of the public against it, for their own safety.’
Alison Morrissey stared at the Chief Superintendent, and Cooper saw her redden slightly. The extra colour made her look even more attractive, hut Jcpson didn’t seem to have noticed. He had gone into public-meeting mode, as if he were addressing members of the Chamber of Commerce or a police liaison committee.
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‘That man was never positively identified as my grandfather/ repeated Morrissey.
‘Yes, I see that/ said Jepson, looking at his report.
‘And how did he get to the A6? Let’s consider that for a moment. I’ve studied the maps of the area, and the place this man was picked up was over ten miles from the scene of the crash. Is my grandfather supposed to have walked all that way? And why didn’t anvhodv else sec him earlier?’
v y v
‘It was dark/ pointed out Cooper.
The Canadian woman caught his eye. He had the feeling that, in different circumstances, she might have smiled.
Jepson nodded at Cooper gratefully. ‘Of course it was. It was seven o’clock in the morning when the lorry driver picked him up. It’s still dark at that time in January round these parts. Ren knows, you see. He’s a local lad. There s nothing like a bit of local knowledge. It’s better than any number of bits of paper you can produce, Miss Morrissev.’
The Chief Superintendent pushed the report aside, as if he didn’t need it any more, and beamed at Morrissev. Cooper recognized it as his politician’s smile, the one he normally only used for visiting members of the Police Authority when he was
o ^
hoping they would go away and leave him in peace.
‘The lorry driver couldn’t even say that it was an airman’s uniform this person was wearing/ said Morrissey, starting to sound a little desperate.
Jepson pulled the report back towards him. He glanced at the first page, then at Cooper, who mouthed three words at him silently.
‘It was dark/ said Jepson hesitantly. ‘Yes, of course it was it was dark, as we’ve already established. Miss Morrissey, we can’t expect a lorry driver to have noticed details of a serviceman’s uniform in the dark. There were no street lights at that time, you know. There was —’
a war on/ said Morrissey. ‘Yes, I know.
Jepson steepled his fingers and looked round the meeting with some satisfaction, as if the point were proved. ‘Did you have any more information you wished to produce, Miss Morrissey? Any nw information?’
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‘My grandfather didn’t desert,’ said Morrissey quietly.
‘With respect,’ said Jepson, getting into his stride as he saw the home stretch appear, “I don’t think there’s anything vou’ve told us that could be considered new. There is no reason to hc-licve that anything happened to your grandfather other than that he left the scene of the crash before the rescue teams arrived, he hitched a lilt from a lorrv driver on the A6 and …’
‘And what?’ said Morrissev.
Jepson flicked the report over uncertainly. ‘Well, presumably he somehow managed to pet out of the country and back to his
c* t home in Canada.’
‘And how easy would that be for a deserter?’ said Morrissey. ‘Especially as there was a war on?’
The Chief Superintendent looked to be about to shrug his shoulders, then changed his mind at the last minute. He had been told in senior management training sessions that it was a gesture that gave out the wrong message.
‘Please. My problem is that, without being able to trace the two boys who saw my grandfather, my only possible sources of information in the area are Zvgmunt Lukasx, and a man called Walter Rowland, who was a member of the RAF mountain rescue team called out to the crash. Frank has contacted them, but both are refusing to speak to me.’
‘Miss Morrissey, I’m sorry, but 1 really can’t do anything for you,’ he said.
‘It’s not that you can’t you won’t,’ said Morrissey.
‘If you wish. But the tact is, 1 don’t have resources to spare even to advise you on your mission.’
Ben Cooper could see that Alison Morrissey didn’t like the word ‘mission’. Her jaw tensed, and her expression became obstinate. But she began to fiddle with the catch of her briefcase, as if she were about to put her papers away.
Cooper took the opportunity to ask a question. ‘Miss Morrissey, what exactly dojou think happened to your grandfather?’
Morrissey met his eye, surprised for a moment, and pushed her hair behind her ear with a quick flick of the hand. ‘I think he was injured,’ she said. ‘Probably da/ed or concussed, so that
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he didn’t know what he was doing or where he was. Possibly he couldn’t even remember the crash. I think he took off his Hying gear and left it by the side of the road because it was too heavy for him to carry. I think he reached a house somewhere nearby, perhaps a farmhouse, and the people took him in/ ‘Took him in?’
‘Looked after him and gave him somewhere to stay.’ ‘Knowing who he was? They must have heard later that there had been an air crash. Why would they keep him? Why not hand him over to the authorities? If he was injured, they would at least pet medical treatment for him.’
c*
