Torpedo Run (1981) Read Online Free PDF Page B

landlord was watching them as he polished a tankard. Outside an air-raid warning had droned for several minutes, but as usual it was ignored. It had become a part of daily life. If it had your number on it. . . .
    Devane had not known Richie that well. Another flotilla, and later a different sort of war with fresh faces and new problems to contend with had kept them apart. But when he thought of Richie, here in this crowded bar, he seemed more the way she had described him than he remembered him.
Hewanted to be a winner
.
    She leant forward and brushed something from Devane’s sleeve. Her hair, almost jet black, fell across one cheek, but she did not seem to care.
    ‘He told me once that you were always looking at me. That last time, at the party, after we had been married for a few months. That was when he went on about it.’
    ‘I – I didn’t know.’
    Devane tried to think rationally. Perhaps he had made some indiscreet remark which Richie had clung to.
    He added, ‘It would be a lie if I said I didn’t look at you. I doubt if anyone but a blind half-wit could pass you without his heart taking a few jumps.’
    She put her shoulders against the wall and studied him thoughtfully. ‘Tell me. Is it true that every time you go into action you have to clear your mind, wipe it clean so that you can cope? That’s what Don said. Several times.’ She put her hand over his on the bar and tightened her grip in time with her words. ‘I should like to know.’
    Devane felt vaguely cheated. He must be crazy. What did he expect?
    ‘It’s true. There’s so much happening all at once.’ He could not take his eyes from her hand on his. It was small and beautifully shaped, and seemed to be listening to what they were saying. ‘Vigilance is everything. One moment of carelessness or complacency and it can cost lives, other people’s as well as your own.’
    She nodded as if satisfied. ‘I needed to hear that. From you. Because if anyone in this damnable war knows about it, you do.’ Once more she nodded, the movement listless. ‘Thanks.’
    Devane took her other hand and held it carefully. ‘Tell me, Claudia. What is it?’
    ‘Don is dead. It’s over.’
    There was a long pause, and Devane knew that some of the others nearby were watching them, fascinated by their behaviour.
    Then she said in a tired voice, ‘We had a blazing row, a real beauty, on that last leave before he went off to. . . .’ Shetook her hand from his and wiped her cheek with the back of it. Like a child. ‘He’d been at it too long, but would never admit it. He had to do better. To be
the best!
’ She spoke the last words so loudly that several people had stopped talking to listen.
    ‘I wanted to hurt him. To get back at him. I told him I was having an affair.’
    He stared at her, seeing Richie with the pistol in his hand as if he had been there.
    ‘That was how we parted. The last time I saw him.’ She gave a shrug. ‘So you see, John, he was most likely killed because of me. That’s what I had to ask you.’
    The landlord’s battered features loomed over the bar. ‘Everythin’ okay, sir?’ He glanced anxiously at the girl. ‘She looks a bit dicky.’
    Devane’s mind was frozen. He must get her out of here, but something was holding him back. The faces and noises which ebbed and flowed around their private corner were meaningless. Somewhere a woman was shrieking with laughter, and a soldier had just dropped a glass on the floor.
    Devane pushed himself from the bar and seized her by the shoulders, seeing her despair giving way to surprise, then sudden alarm.
    There was no time to explain. To say what he knew.
    He shouted, ‘Hold me! For God’s sake, hold on!’
    For a split second longer he felt her pressed against him, and then came the explosion.
    It was more of a shock than a sound. He was falling and choking in dust and smoke, aware only that they were still clinging to each other and that the whole place was in darkness.
    Only