Free The Firebird Mystery by Darrell Pitt Page B

resolution of old grievances.
    â€˜Not I. My interest was in protecting my son, and with my previous military service I was able to enrol as an officer. Phillip was in my regiment. We were sent over to France to fight.’
    Mr Doyle’s voice had become so ghostly in the darkness that Jack could not resist the urge to interrupt.
    â€˜What was it like?’
    His mentor gave a bitter laugh. ‘A bloodbath. Phillip and I were stationed in the Somme, buried in mud and filth and gore. It was an impossible situation. Men were dying all around us, but we both knew we were expected to do our duty.
    â€˜One morning we were ordered to charge a German emplacement. I led the regiment across the muddy field. I thought we would both die. That would have been a tragedy, though at least we would have been together. Mortar fire started all around us as we charged across that terrible field.
    â€˜I suddenly tripped. When I tried to stand I found myself caught in barbed wire. It was all over the place. The more I struggled to free myself from it, the more I became entrapped. I could see Phillip running ahead with the other men in the early morning gloom.
    â€˜In desperation, I screamed for him to slow down. I continued to struggle with the barbed wire until I finally tore free. Racing after him, I was only about twenty feet behind when the mortar attack hit him and his companions.
    â€˜The explosion threw me back. I lay there unconscious for God knows how long. It could have been minutes. Or hours. When I woke, I crawled over to where Phillip had been.’
    The airship carved a path across the sky. Jack felt tears on his face as he watched the stars rotate out of view.
    I should have stayed silent , Jack thought, his stomach turning over. Mr Doyle has already suffered enough without me making things worse.
    â€˜There was nothing left of him,’ Mr Doyle said. ‘I found pieces of clothing and identification. His dog tags. Every man was issued with them. Nothing else. His friends had also been killed. Sometimes people ask me what the war was like and I simply tell them it reduced men to nothing. That’s what the war did for Phillip. It reduced a brave, strong young man to nothing.
    â€˜His mother was already dead, thank God; Sarah could not have borne his loss. But when I returned to England, Phillip’s wife, Amelia, blamed me for his death.’
    â€˜It wasn’t your fault,’ Jack said.
    â€˜I know,’ Mr Doyle said. ‘It was the war. I still carry Phillip’s dog tags around my neck. They remind me of that barbed wire. If only I had not been caught on it…’ ‘You probably would have been killed too, sir.’
    â€˜Perhaps.’ The silence ticked on. ‘War is a great injustice, my boy.’
    â€˜I know, Mr Doyle.’
    â€˜Injustice must be fought.’
    â€˜Yes, sir.’
    The night moved over them. Jack looked up into the sky and watched the stars. He saw them linked by barbed wire and he imagined himself snared, legs caught on blazing embers, stuck fast in the night.

CHAPTER TEN
    Jack woke to the smell of frying food. He sat up to see Mr Doyle, already dressed, making breakfast. The galley was a small area located just behind the engine. The detective had unfolded a bench to reveal a cooktop and a small icebox. A cupboard at eye level revealed a selection of utensils. Mr Doyle pushed bacon about in a pan and cracked eggs.
    â€˜Wake up, my boy,’ he said, smiling. ‘Breakfast is almost ready.’
    Jack threw his clothes on. He felt something heavy in one of his coat pockets and pulled out a wind-up duck made from tin. He sat it on the benchtop next to the hotplates.
    â€˜Mr Doyle?’
    â€˜Just testing your powers of observation.’
    Scarlet called from beyond the curtain. ‘Is everyone decently attired?’
    â€˜We are, Scarlet,’ Mr Doyle said. ‘Please enter.’
    Scarlet Bell removed the screen and appeared