her hands. I cradled her so her face wouldn't rest on the sand.
'It's okay, it's okay now. I'm really here. And I will find them. It'll be all right, everything will be okay,' I said, lying over and over again, in my gentlest voice.
Chapter Twenty-six
Diana was quiet as we got her into the jeep. Rodney knew shock when he saw it and covered her with a thick woolen blanket from the rear of the vehicle.
'There you go, miss,' he cooed to her. 'You sit tight. We're here now.'
He sat with her in the back seat, tucking the blanket in around her and urging her to sip from his canteen. She still had a faraway look in her eyes, but at least she was quiet. I stood at the side of the jeep. When I put my hand on her shoulder she didn't flinch.
'I'll be right back, Diana,' I said. 'Rodney and Harry will take good care of you. I won't be long.' I waited until she met my eyes.
'Billy?'
'I'll be right back,' I repeated. 'Okay? Rodney's right here, he'll stay with you.'
She nodded.
'We'll be all right, Lieutenant,' Rodney said with a cheerful voice that didn't match his expression. 'You go on and… take care of things.'
Harry limped up to the Jeep and leaned against it. The bandage around his leg was soaked with blood.
'Thank you, Harry.' It seemed so little to say, but I couldn't think of anything else. I put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed. He placed his hand over mine. I thought he intended to push mine away, but he kept it there.
'I guessed what she intended to do,' he said.
'How? I didn't, until too late.'
He shrugged, and looked down at the ground. 'I realized as soon as she stepped into the daylight. It was the way she held the gun, pacing back and forth, like an animal in a cage, realizing there was no way out.'
'Except…'
'Yes,' Harry said, 'except for that. The quick way out.' A flush of shame reddened his face. I realized why he'd been able to interpret the signs so easily, but this wasn't the time or place.
'I'll just be a few minutes. You all right?'
'I'll be fine. It's just a through and through, right?'
'Sure, pal.'
On my way back to the barracks I picked up Mathenet's revolver from the ground, blew the sand from it, and wiped it on my pants leg as I entered the barracks. It was a relief to have the sun off my back as I hit the shade. I stood in the corridor, catching my breath and letting the sweat drip off my face. It wasn't exactly cool inside, but it was cooler. I looked at the gun in my hand and waited. When I was calm I strolled into the room where I had left Mathenet. He was still sitting on the edge of the bed, fear and hope flickering in his eyes, as he watched me and then Duxbury.
'Corporal Duxbury,' I said, 'did the Commandos bring along a medical unit and a doctor?'
'Medics, we did, Lieutenant, but no doctor. You Yanks landed a parachute battalion on the airfield east of town this morning, and it was unopposed as well. They told us transports would be coming in to set up a field 'ospital and evacuate the wounded. Does the young lady need a doctor'
'Yes, it would be good for her to see a doctor, I think.'
I faced Mathenet and lifted the revolver just a few inches, pulled back on the hammer, and heard the cylinder click with a nice, well- oiled sound. I pulled the trigger and the sound reverberated in the small room. Mathenet jumped in surprise and then stared at his left foot. There was a round hole dead center right through his shoe, where the laces ended. Blood bubbled up as he lifted his foot to hold it by the ankle. There was a bullet hole in the floor, too.
'I think he's going to need one as well,' I said.
'A through and through, just like the captain,' said Duxbury, viewing the shot with professional interest. 'Lucky chap.'
Mathenet was moaning, mumbling in French, and trying to untie his shoe. As he managed to get it off he started screaming as the blood poured out of it.
'Help me, please, I will bleed to death. Why did you shoot me?'
I let that pass. 'Here, put your foot up on the pillow,' I said as I helped him to lie down on the bed. 'Corporal, get something to tie around his foot, please.'
Duxbury grabbed a sheet and started ripping it into long pieces. Mathenet looked at me with wide eyes, confused.
'What are you doing…?'
'Shhhh,' I said. 'Take it easy.'
Duxbury wrapped the strips around Mathenet's foot and tied it off tightly. The blood flow eased.
I stood over him. 'Just so you know, that was for nothing. Nothing at all. Do you understand?'
He shook his head no, and tried to form the word with his mouth but nothing emerged. 'That's all right. You need to understand that if you he to me, if you even hesitate to tell me the whole truth, the next one will be for something. Something permanent.'
I raised the revolver again and let the barrel rest on his kneecap. The hammer wasn't back and my finger wasn't even on the trigger, but he didn't seem comforted.
'Non, non, non…' Now he got the word out.
'Okay, tell me the truth.'
'Oui, oui, I will.' Now his head bobbed up and down, eagerly.
'Where is Villard going with the prisoners?'
'Oh, no, I do not know, really, please…'
I put my finger on the trigger.
'He did not tell me everything, he kept secrets from everyone!'
I pulled the hammer back, and that quiet metallic sound-the click of a bullet arriving at just the right spot for its date with the firing pin-seemed to echo.
'The crossroads,' he sobbed. 'That is all I know, really. The crossroads.'
'Carrefour? Isn't that a password?'
'No, no. It is a place. You found the paper? From the notebook?' There was a touch of hope in his voice. We were having a conversation, which appealed to him more than picking pieces of his kneecap out of a dirty mattress.
'Yeah, I found it. What do you mean, a place?'
'The bar, that was the first place, the first place to meet. Then, if that didn't work, the crossroads. But I swear, he never told me where it was. He said if we needed to go there, then I would know.'
I released the hammer and took my finger off the trigger. That same sound again, but reversed, like time going backward.
'Who were you going to meet there?'
'Customers, Arab traders, whoever would pay the most.'
This time I just had to move my finger only a quarter of an inch.
'The Germans, he was in touch with the Germans. They wanted all the penicillin he could deliver. They were going to pay in gold, as soon as he got the next shipment.' He spoke in a rush, hurrying to get the words out that would move my finger back. But I didn't shift it. Next shipment? No one had said a word about another shipment. I had to think it through.
'When and where will the next shipment arrive?'
'In two nights, but I do not know where. I would tell you, I owe that pig nothing!'
Yeah, now we were pals. No one liked Villard.
