criminal smarts telling him Neville was onto him, or soon would be.
As an MI5 agent, Neville had been trained to observe and assess data all around him. That’s what got him killed. Bone had been intelligent, that much I was sure of. I was curious as to what the police would find in the cottage. Money, identity papers? Maybe another corpse, but I doubted it. The cottage and the boat were his ticket out of here. He’d have been careful not to compromise them.
I took the turn into Hungerford, having detoured around High Street and the maneuver area. I hadn’t seen a constable or a roadblock yet. Sophia was shivering under her blanket.
“You looked like a good swimmer,” I said, making conversation.
“We swim all summer,” she said. “At least we used to, my parents and I, back on Guernsey. When do you think the war will be over? So I can go home.”
“I don’t know, Sophia. Seems like it’s been going on for a long time, doesn’t it?”
“It does.” We were silent for a while.
“How did you get that rock?” I asked.
“Oh, it was easy to slip my feet through my tied hands, especially underwater. Then I dove to the bottom. The hardest part was finding a rock big enough, but not too large.”
“You can open your eyes underwater?” I asked, remembering what a big challenge that was when I was a kid. It took me a while to be able to do it.
“Yes, I can,” Sophia said proudly.
“And you can throw pretty well too.”
“Yes. And I’m glad I did. Are you all right, Billy?”
I’d swerved a bit as I rubbed my eyes to stay awake. I’d lost a fair bit of blood and was glad to see Doc Brisbane’s office ahead, with the police station opposite. “Sure,” I said, working up a smile for her sake. I pulled to the side of the road, and thought how sad it was that a young girl like Sophia had to be glad she’d helped save my life. And ended Bone’s.
Life just isn’t fair, I thought as I set the brake and promptly passed out.
I awoke to a jab of pain in my arm, and my first thought was of Bone stabbing me. But it was only the doctor, pouring antiseptic over my wounds. The room seemed crowded, and it took me a few seconds to focus on who was who.
“Billy, did you get him?” That was Tree. “The guy who got Binghamton killed?”
“Yeah, I got him. We got him. Where’s Sophia?”
“You settle down, Captain Boyle,” Doc Brisbane said. “I need to finish bandaging that arm. You have a nasty cut. Sophia is in the back room with Miss Ross. She brought some clothes over for her.”
“Inspector Payne?” I asked. I remembered Bone had run into him with the jeep. It seemed like years ago.
“Right over there,” Brisbane said, nodding to a bed in the corner. “Just finished setting his cast when that girl came in soaked to the skin and said you were outside, unconscious. Haven’t been this busy since the last time we were bombed.”
“What happened, Boyle?” Payne said, trying to rise from his bed.
“You stay put, Inspector,” the doctor growled. “I’ll get crutches for you as soon as I finish here.”
I saw Kaz come in with a bundle of clothing in his arms, and it was only then that I realized all my clothes had been stripped away. The doc had a sheet over me, but that was all I had, and it felt damned odd in a roomful of people. The feeling didn’t last long, because I passed out again.
When I woke up the second time, I was in the bed and Inspector Payne was trying out his crutches. He had a cast on one leg, below the knee, and looked pretty banged up, but still alive. Kaz and Tree were leaning against the wall, and Sophia Edwards and Laurianne Ross sat on chairs by the bed.
“Sophia, how are you?” I asked. She was dressed in a white blouse and sweater with a grey skirt. She was cleaned up and her eyes had some life in them. Miss Ross held her hand.
“I’m fine, Captain Boyle. I want to thank you for rescuing me. It was very brave of you.” She leaned over and kissed my cheek, blushed, and sat down, folding her hands in her lap. She was a girl brought up with good manners.
“Sophia refused to leave until you were awake, Captain,” Laurianne said. “I’m so glad you found her in time.” That point was debatable, but I let it pass. Alive was good enough for now.
“Thanks, Sophia,” I said. “You should get some rest now. I’ll visit you as soon as I can. Is that okay?” She smiled and nodded, and for the first time I saw her as a nice young girl, not simply a victim. I sent up a prayer for her, to Saint Agnes, the patron saint of young girls. Agnes was only thirteen when she was killed for her faith; I was glad Sophia would outlive her.
“Some food, then rest,” Laurianne said. “Sophia, the baron is driving us back to the school. Will you go outside with him? I’ll be there in a minute.” Sophia smiled shyly at me and left.
“How is she?” I asked.
“The doctor says it could be worse,” Laurianne said. “Like the dead girl you found. But he didn’t have her for that long. Still, it’s horrible for her. We’ll do our best to keep her spirits up.”
“Without being too explicit,” Doc Brisbane said, “while she was abused, it was not with the brute force that was visited upon poor Margaret Hibberd. Perhaps with time, as he tired of her, that would have been the case. Quite bad enough though, I assure you. I’ll come out to the school tonight to check on her. She may need a mild sedative.”
“Thank you, Doctor. And thank you again, Captain.” After she left, Tree brought over my uniform. Kaz had brought my other clothes to the inn to be washed and cleaned, and brought back this new set of duds.
“Up to going over a few things, Boyle?” Inspector Payne asked. “PC Cook is searching Bone’s store now and should return soon. He needs to take a statement from both of us.”
“What about Sophia?”
“That can wait until she’s rested.”
“Don’t you need to rest?”
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” Payne said. “When you’re dressed, join me at the nick.” He hobbled out the door, cursing at the crutches with every step.
I made it across the street with Tree’s help. Kaz and Cook returned and the constable went over what he’d found at the shop. He still had other constables out trying to trace my route to the cottage.
“We found the room, just as you described,” Cook began. “Here’s your revolver. I cleaned it for you.”
“Thanks,” I said as he handed me the.38 Special. “You sure you don’t need it for evidence?”
“You sure Bone is dead?”
“Absolutely certain.”
“Then no. We did find a diary, hidden under a floorboard in his bedroom. It would be more than enough to convict him if he were alive. Glad he’s dead, from what I read.”
“Was there any money?”
“What? Other than what was left in the till? No.”
“Bone told me he’d robbed a couple of banks. Sounded like it was a while ago. It was to fund his work, he called it.”
“Well, he’s been at it for some time. This was the third town he’d set up shop in. There was a clothing store, a stationery shop, and a greengrocer’s. If we can match the diary to missing girls and shop owners, we may close a few open cases.”
“The money is likely hidden at the cottage,” Payne said, his leg propped up on a chair. “We’ll find it.”
“Anything else unusual at the shop?”
“No, other than he’d recently installed acoustic tiles in the basement,” Cook said, consulting his notes. “The kind of thing they use in music studios and radio stations, to dampen sound.”
“I wonder if that’s what Neville saw,” I said. “Maybe a crate of those, and Bone saw him taking note of it.”
“That’s precious little to kill a man over,” Cook said.
“It was a threat, and one Bone thought he could eliminate easily. From his perspective, why take a chance? Neville knew about building construction, and he’d come to the conclusion sooner or later that a sweet shop would
