Gunner Kelly

He really was getting everything now, thought Benedikt. But he must look worried, not satisfied.

Audley waved a hand. “Oh ... I could have stopped this easily dummy1

enough. Just one word to the Police would have done that. But that wouldn’t have stopped Becky and Gunner Kelly trying again —

and trying somewhere where the odds were more against them.”

He shook his head. “And it wouldn’t have answered any questions about Gunner Kelly, either.”

“Gunner Kelly?” Now a frown of concentration.

“He’d have vanished. And he knows well how to vanish, I very much suspect. England or Ireland . . . and he can pass as English.”

Audley looked at his watch. “And then we’d never know.”

Curiosity? But it was more than that.

“Let’s start slowly back ... I have an appointment soon—an outing planned, in fact. And I’d like you to come along with me.”

What? “You would like me . . . ?”

“You’ll see some fine Dorset countryside—Hardy country too . . .

you know, they never did really approve of him—it was the divorce, of course, that stuck in their respectable throats . . . and Badbury Rings, under their big Dorset sky if the clouds are right . . . and other things—you’ll enjoy it, I promise you.”

There was more to this than a jaunt in the country. And whether he would enjoy it was another matter also.

“Or, to put it another way . . . they don’t trust you, and they don’t altogether trust me either, out of their sight—maybe Becky does, but Kelly and the rest don’t. . . And if I let you go they’ll trust me even less, and I wouldn’t like that, with all the effort I’ve put in.”

Audley had never intended to let him go. He was merely sugaring the pill now.

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“And, to be strictly honest, I don’t trust you either, Benedikt, my dear fellow ... ‘A good German’, I’m sure you are ... a loyal ally and all that, but goodness isn’t the prime quality of the Bundesnachrichtendienst, in my experience—it’s smart fellows they like . . . Or, let’s say, that I do trust you nine parts out of ten

—”

“Nine parts?” He had to react somehow to this.

“Nine parts—I do believe my contact, you see . . . And, to put it another way again, when I came here it was killing they were up to, and then burying deep. Only I’ve put a stop to that—it’s capturing now, they’ve agreed on.” He looked hard at Benedikt. “Now that we’re close to the house again let’s turn around and admire the view, eh?”

Benedikt turned obediently, and Audley pointed towards the ridge.

“See there—if those trees were a few feet lower we could see the banks of the Duntisbury Rings . . . No, I don’t trust you one hundred per cent. But I trust them even less—and I don’t trust Gunner Kelly at all out of my sight, because I’ve this lingering suspicion that he’s still after blood. I want to know a lot more about him therefore.”

David Audley and Colonel Butler both.

“In fact ... I want the Old General’s killers and Gunner Kelly, you might say—” Audley pointed to the right “—that’s the way Caesar’s Camp lies, as you will know, for it was a full guided tour those two terrible children gave you, wasn’t it? Yes . . . I’m greedy. I want to save Becky, because that’s what I promised to do.

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But I want all my questions answered as well. Because that’s the only way I’m going to be able to extricate myself from this business: bearing gifts to those above me . . . Indeed, if I wasn’t afraid that my colleagues would come down here heavy-footed, to be spotted straight away as you were spotted, I’d have thrown in my hand already . . . But as it is—what Miss Becky and Kelly think I’m doing now is enlisting you as another ally in the Chase—

I’ve promised them I can do that. . . I’ve told them that, as the Germans can have no axe to grind in this—and you’re a decent chap—you may be willing to hang around and help . . . whereas if we knock you on the head, or more likely incarcerate you for a few days in the manor cellar—which would actually be a rather agreeable place in which to be detained, with what the Old General put in it—then there’d be hell to pay, with hordes of Teutonic Fighting Men descending on the Chase again, and trampling the place flat.” He gave Benedikt another sidelong glance. “Which, to be fair to me, is pretty much what you’ve already threatened me with—isn’t it?”

Except, thought Benedikt, it would be Colonel Butler’s British Fighting Men. But he could never admit that now.

He opened his mouth to reply, but the familiar snap of the postern latch cut the words off.

“Don’t turn round.” Audley spoke conversationally, pointing again at nothing in front of them. “Whereas in fact I’m doing no such thing. Although I am certainly trying to enlist you—true enough—”

Another enlistment? Colonel Butler had enlisted him once. And then the people of Duntisbury Chase, where no one seemed to trust dummy1

anyone, had wanted him. And now—

“But I want you just for myself. Because I need an ally here more than anyone— now you can turn round—” Audley followed his own instructions “—ah! Gunner Kelly! Are the boys ready?”

“Ready and waiting, sir.” Kelly looked inquiringly from Audley to Benedikt. “And the Captain?”