Free The Contract by Gerald Seymour Page A

Why a girl, for the love of God? The corporal whimpering like a badger with a leg in a gin trap. The tongueless journey in the Land- Rover to Keady police station. The telephone message from Brigade headquarters; say nothing, sign nothing, name and rank and nothing more. The arrival of the Army Legal Service officer, and the men from Special Investigation Branch and the 38
    faces of contempt and disapproval and Johnny not shaved for three days and needing a hot meal and a clean bed.
    Smithson shook his shoulders in laughter as he talked. '. . . for a pound of sausages you could find a biddy who would actually chuck her old man out of bed and send him to sit downstairs to wait till you'd finished.
    And when you came down the stairs then he'd thank you for coming and say that he hoped you'd call again. Bloody marvellous time we had . ..'
    The girl's cousin had found the cache. A combat jacket, a black beret, a Luger pistol, a packet of industrial detonators. Found it when out with the farm dog that had sniffed at the hole. Reported it, and a Catholic too.
    Done his duty as a citizen. And the family had talked of it inside their home and Maeve O'Connor had heard the chat when she'd gone to her Auntie for supper, and she was a child and she was curious and no one had thought it necessary to warn the family to stay clear. Maeve O'Connor with a pale and pretty face and freckles and a smear of terror, shot and killed because Johnny Donoghue hadn't challenged, had believed he was fighting a war, had thought a teenage shadow was his enemy. On trial for murder, facing the full majesty of the law, with a life sentence to serve if the case went against him. j
    They don't care, these people. Charles Mawby and Henry Carter and Adrian Pierce and Harry Smithson, they don't give a shit. There's a job to be done in Germany, and Johnny's the one they want for it.
    'You're very quiet, Johnny,' boomed Mawby.
    'Don't expect him to compete with Harry,' said Carter.
    'You'll have one for the stairs?' Mawby surged forward with the bottle.
    'Just one more, a small one. Then it'll be my bedtime.'
    'Quite right.' Mawby was filling Johnny's glass. 'A dose o Pierce and Smithson does more damage than a litre of this poison.'
    They all laughed and Johnny with them. He had the righ to join them, hadn't he? He was on the team, integral to it And in the morning the work would start.
    In his darkened bedroom Willi heard the feet on the stair case, and the voices that drifted through his door. He curle< under his sheet and blankets to find warmth.
    The changes in the household had not been explained t( him. Carter had merely said that new men would meet hin in the morning, bringing new questions, that he must answe them as best he could. Perhaps in the morning he would ask again when Lizzie and he would be reunited. But he asked that each day and the answer was always vague and no one would give him a definite date. Why did they want to know of his father?
    Why was his father the only subject that Carter had discussed for two days? What was their interest in an old man? The noise had died in the house, but the climb to bed by the company from below had wakened Willi, left his mind clear and alert. Sleep would come hard for him now.
    He dressed fast, fingers fumbling with the buttons of his tunic. Frantic and quick and hurrying because he had looked at his watch and dived from the bed. And she had been faster, drawing on her pants and fastening her skirt, thrust- ing a sweater over her head, ignoring her tumbled hair.
    'They'll kill me if I miss the train,' he muttered as if from her he might find relief from the punishment.

    'Keep your feet still,' Jutte snapped, knotting his boot laces, catching the contagion of his fear.
    Ulf Becker turned towards the bed, dishevelled and disturbed, creased and used. 'Will they come back?'
    'Not till tomorrow, I told you. I'd do it later.'
    'I'll get extra duties for a month.'
    The girl grabbed at her small handbag. Together