The Labyrinth Makers Read Online Free PDF Page B

sucked it thoughtfully, let us see how frank we can be.
    'Let's start then from your theory that he wasn't dead. Why wasn't he dead?'
    'It was too damn convenient, for one thing. The customs men coming down on the squadron, like that, and Steerforth conveniently missing.'
    'He'd been smuggling?'
    'Christ, man–don't let's play games. You know he'd been smuggling. Half the squadron was up to some little game or other. It was an open secret. The only rule was not to overdo things, but Steerforth wasn't the man for rules.
    'What I thought afterwards was that he'd made his killing, just one step ahead of your chaps. And now he'd planned a neat way of getting out, with no one looking for him. It was nicely calculated–the squadron got its scapegoat, unofficially of course. And no one bothered to dig very deep. Officially he was just another dead hero.'
    'Who left his wife and family just like that?'
    'Maybe I've done him an injustice. It seems now that I probably did. But I know he didn't give a damn for his wife and family. You can take that for a fact, whatever the old girl says. He'd had babies and nappies right up to the neck–believe me, I know.'
    Jones frowned. 'And that business about baling out–I thought a lot about that, and it never quite made sense. He really was a good pilot, you know. I saw the plane he brought back from the Arnhem drop, and if he could fly that he could fly anything. There were any god's amount of airfields he could have put down on in eastern England when we came back from Berlin that last time. But no–as soon as we made a landfall–out we had to go.'
    'His second pilot explained all that at the inquiry.'
    'His second pilot? What was his name?
    'Tierney.'
    'Tierney?' Jones thought for a moment. 'Tierney. A ferrety-looking chap, with a little moustache? He was Steerforth's shadow. If Steerforth was up to something, he'd have been part of it.'
    'But you baled out.'
    Jones gestured impatiently. 'When the captain says bale out no one argues the toss. And I'm telling you what I thought later, not what I thought at the time. I can remember a bit now–it started to rain like hell. A thunderstorm. Tierney and the wireless operator yelled for me to jump. The Dak was lurching around as if it had been hit. I was bloody scared. I thought I was going to die.'
    'I see. He disappeared too conveniently and you needn't have baled out at all. But if you thought this later on why didn't you say so?'
    'I only started to think it when everyone began asking us questions. It wasn't just the inquiry–that was routine. It was later on.
    'First there were two chaps who said they were Poles. They wanted to know where the plane had gone, if it had been found and so forth. And then they wanted to know what it was carrying–they said that friends had got some of their stuff out of Poland and Steerforth had agreed to carry it out. At a price, of course.'
    'And what did you tell them?'
    'There wasn't anything to tell. There were some boxes in the cargo bay, but I thought they were down in the drink with the Dakota–that was common knowledge. They seemed pretty upset by it all, as though it was my fault, so I told them to shove off.
    'Afterwards it dawned on me that they must have thought I was one of his crew. Which meant I'd probably have been in on the deal. And that made me think. The way they hung around our pub, that made me think, too. So when I went down there again I took a Pole who was in the squadron with me–Jan somebody–with me—'
    '—Wojek. Jan Wojek.'
    That's right. How did you–but, of course, you'd have him in your records like me!' Jones shook his head resignedly. 'All these years, and we're all still in your files, Jan and I. And Tierney and Steerforth, and all the others … Once filed, never forgotten. Though I suppose you've got it all taped in computers now. It's frightening.'
    'You took Wojek down with you to the pub.'
    'All right. We went down to the pub, and I told Jan to tell these two to