Read Online The Winston Affair by Howard Fast - Free Book Online Page B

one hand, he felt that he had not been gone at all; and again, that he had been at Bachree a very long time. A sense of newness and strangeness had worn off.
    Corporal Baxter was waiting with the jeep. When Barney Adams climbed in, Baxter asked him, did he want to eat now? Adams shook his head. “No, there’s time for that, Corporal. Take me to the Provost now. After that, I’ll go to my quarters and dean up.”
    â€œDo you want me to wait, Captain?”
    â€œI think so.”
    Adams sat in silence as they drove to the Provost. Baxter made a few attempts to engage him in conversation, and then gave it up. Barney Adams ranged in his own thoughts. The memory of Bachree became more distant, more spacious.
    The prison was an old one, an ugly building of yellow stone which the British had turned over to the American Command; but if it was damp inside, its heavy walls also gave it a certain amount of protection from the sun. There was a visiting room of sorts, where Barney Adams waited after he sent his name in. A Captain Freeman came out to take him to the prisoner.
    As they walked down a long corridor of barred doorways—which reminded Adams of a medieval dungeon—Freeman explained that most of the cells were empty. “Only the worst cases. We keep the small-time offenders in the divisional guardhouses. We had a kid here who wrote home that he was languishing in a dungeon. It raised a real stink. What the hell, we have worse jails in the States.” He was a cheerful man of about thirty. “I hope this won’t be long, Captain,” he said. “I’m to stay with you, but I got a date tonight.”
    â€œIt won’t be too long.”
    â€œYou know, I been waiting all afternoon.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” Adams said. “I’ll try not to keep you any longer than I have to. But I want to see Winston alone. Can you wait outside?”
    â€œMy instructions are to be in the cell whenever a third party enters.”
    â€œI don’t think that applies to defense counsel.”
    Freeman shrugged. They were at the cell now. A military policeman stood on guard duty at the door. “Open up,” Freeman said. “This is Captain Adams, defense counsel.”
    The military policeman took a key from his pocket and opened the cell door. Adams entered with a curious sense of expectancy. Winston was sitting at a wooden table, his head in his hands. There was another chair in the cell, a cot, a tin basin of water on a stand, and a crockery chamber pot. A small bulb burned in a ceiling socket, and there was a small barred window, about seven feet up.
    Winston looked up as Adams entered, but on his face there was neither anticipation nor curiosity. He was a skinny man, long-faced and balding. He had pale green eyes, and he wore metal-rimmed glasses. Adams’ immediate impression was of a commonplace man, an unimaginative and not overly-intelligent man, but not a man marked by any stamp of brute or criminal. Sitting there in his coverall fatigues, he did not command attention; if the room had been filled with people, he would not have been noticed at all.
    â€œGood evening, Lieutenant Winston,” Adams said. “I’m Captain Barney Adams. I’ve been appointed counsel for your defense.”
    Winston watched him without interest or awareness.
    â€œDid you hear me, sir?”
    Still there was no response from Winston.
    His voice hard and insistent, Adams said, “I am speaking to you, sir! You will reply when spoken to!”
    Winston blinked his eyes and then clenched them shut. When he opened them, he said, “Leave me alone.”
    â€œI don’t intend to take up too much of your time, Lieutenant. But I must speak to you. I am counsel for your defense. You understand what you are charged with?”
    â€œDamn it, don’t try to make a fool of me!”
    â€œI am only trying to help you as best I can.”
    â€œYou can’t help