Free The Hunt for Sonya Dufrette by R.T. Raichev

into the management of his Suffolk farm and the indoor cricket school he had established, which, he had told her, attracted teams from all over England to its six-a-side tournaments and other events. Besides, there were the social dos - dinner parties, polo tournaments - she imagined he’d be in great demand - amazing he hadn’t been snapped up yet - what had his late wife been like?
    He was talking. ‘. . . and, really, your sentences are a joy to read.’
    ‘Don’t be idiotic.’
    ‘Do you know who said, “I like sentences that don’t budge though armies cross them”?’
    Antonia was aware that he was looking down at her hands and she put them on her lap. ‘Monty?’ she suggested flippantly.
    ‘Virginia Woolf actually . . . So what’s your puzzle about?’ Major Payne twisted his head slightly to one side and screwed up his eyes at one of the sheets on the desk. ‘Lawrence Dufrette has the reputation of a maverick and is considered something of a loose cannon. I can read upside down, you see,’ he explained. ‘They taught us how to do it in the Secret Service. That was a longish while ago, but I haven’t yet lost the knack. Wait a minute.’ He tapped the sheet with a forefinger. ‘I used to know a Lawrence Dufrette. Must be the same chap. Name like that. Tall and stately - beak of a nose - wild glare. Like Wellington on amphetamines - or Heseltine, sans le nez, on speed?’
    ‘Yes.’ Antonia laughed.
    ‘Fancy. It’s a small world. Well, he’s written a book that’s totally bizarre. Under a pen name. I read the review in Fortean Times first - I do read an awful lot of tosh, mind. The reviewer gave away Dufrette’s real name, so I went and got hold of the book. I was curious. Needless to say it wasn’t reviewed anywhere else.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Because it is too bizarre.’
    ‘In what way bizarre? What is it about?’
    Major Payne stroked his jaw with a forefinger. ‘Well, his theory is that the same interconnected bloodlines - the so-called Babylonian brotherhood - have controlled and dominated our planet for thousands of years. The President of the United States and members of the British royal family are part of it - many other world leaders as well. Mind-controlled human robots are used to pass messages between people outside the normal channels. The communications are dictated under a form of hypnosis brought about by means of a high voltage gun, which lowers blood sugar levels and makes the person more open to suggestion. It isn’t science fiction, but the history of the world according to Lawrence Dufrette. He claims in the introduction that he has researched the subject extensively.’
    ‘I wonder if he became completely deranged after Sonya’s death,’ Antonia said thoughtfully The next moment she cried, ‘Oh - he does list the Babylonian brotherhood in Who’s Who as one of his interests!’
    ‘That was his daughter, wasn’t it? Sonya. There was something wrong with her, correct?’
    ‘Yes. They thought she was autistic.’
    ‘She drowned, didn’t she?’
    ‘That was the verdict.’
    He looked at her. ‘How well do you know Dufrette?’
    ‘We stayed at the same house twenty years ago. I thought I saw him yesterday - twice. Once outside White’s, then here, in the library. Sounds incredible, doesn’t it, but he seems to haunt me. I hope I am not going mad.‘
    ‘There is a definite link between madness and creativity,’ Payne said in grave tones. ‘It’s been scientifically proven. Writers are at a particular risk.’
    ‘Oh, thank you for warning me ... Where did you meet Lawrence Dufrette?’
    ‘We were in the Secret Service together. Different departments. I had just joined. He.wasn’t at all popular. Had no friends, apart from old Mortlock, who was already on his way out. Mortlock had been to school with Dufrette père ... Lawrence Dufrette was abrasive, contemptuous and critical of everything and everybody. And that wasn’t a front concealing any cavernous