Read Online The Blood Upon the Rose by Tim Vicary - Free Book Online Page B

there's another lead, you say.’
    ‘Yes. The girl. Catherine O'Connell-Gort.’ Kee pronounced the surname with exaggerated precision, as though it offended him in some way. He got out his notebook, and went carefully through the details of his interview with her. ‘She's one possible lead to the boy, Brennan. If she is involved with him in some way, she may lead us to him. I think we should put a watch on her.’
    Radford paced up and down, considering the idea. ‘It’s promising, but there are difficulties. First, the boy, Brennan. We can't prove he was at Ashtown, or even that he's a Shinner. All we know is that he shared lodgings with Martin Savage, who definitely was there, and that he had a clip of German cartridges in his sock drawer. Well, that might not convince a jury, but it should be enough to intern him for a while, if that's what we want to do. Then there's the girl. If anyone ever had the perfect alibi, for God's sake, she has. She was sitting there, squashed up between her father and Johnny French, when the bullets started flying through the window! You're not saying she planned it?’
    ‘No, sir, of course not. I just think she's fond of Brennan.’
    ‘And you base this theory upon a blush?’
    ‘Well, not entirely, sir. Her whole demeanour, more like.’
    Radford stopped pacing and sat on his desk. ‘I don't know about your experience of the female mind, Tom, but I would have thought the young lady's ardour - if it ever existed - might have received a rather rapid douche of cold water if she really saw her young Lochinvar chucking a Mills bomb at her head, as you say.’
    Davis laughed. Kee said: ‘She may not have seen him. She may just have believed it was possible he was involved. In which case she might run off in desperation to ask him if it was true.’
    Radford considered this. ‘Possibly. In which case Sod's Law tells us she's with him now, while we're discussing it. But then there's another thing. Her daddy, as you know, is a fairly important man in Dublin Castle, and in the country generally. Have you thought what I'm going to say to him about this, if she complains she's being followed everywhere by big men in raincoats?’
    Kee sighed. ‘We stick to the grocer, then.’
    ‘That's about it, unless you've got any more ideas.’ Neither of them had. ‘Right, then, I'm going to get a bite to eat. Dick, can you type this up, as usual?’
    ‘Sir.’ Davis gathered his notes together, and took them into his office. Kee took his coat off the stand by the door. As he was leaving, Radford touched his arm. He pushed the door softly to.
    ‘Sorry about that, Tom,’ he said quietly. ‘It wasn't such a daft idea as I said. But there are other things we can do. Come on back to the hotel. I'll buy you a drink.’
     
     
    In his office down the corridor, Davis had also closed his door. He sat down at his desk, in front of the big Imperial typewriter. He was a good typist for a policeman, and a meticulous keeper of records. He arranged his notes carefully on the left of the machine, and took paper, carbons and flimsies from the drawers on the right. He arranged these neatly. A top copy for the Assistant Commissioner, Radford; then a carbon; a second copy for the main files kept in this room; then a second carbon; a third copy for Military Intelligence in Dublin Castle.
    Then he added a third sheet of carbon paper, as he always did; and a fourth sheet of flimsy paper.
    He looked at his notes, and began to type. If he wasn't interrupted, he would be finished in about half an hour.
     
     
    Tom Kee was a man of few loyalties, deeply held. His wife, Margaret, was the one he held most dear. Since their marriage he had seldom been away from home for more than a few days, and his transfer to Dublin had caused him much inner distress, because of the separation from her. But they had three sons and a daughter, all at good Protestant schools in Belfast. He wasn't going to risk their education for