‘And that’s how the honour of the regiment is served, is it?’ Blackstone asked. ‘One man was killed, and another was wounded — and all for nothing!’
Carstairs frowned. ‘I’m afraid you’re quite missing the point of what I’m telling you.’
‘So what is the point?’ Blackstone wondered.
‘That when he found himself under fire, Lieutenant Soames behaved courageously. And that is not even the end of the story. Once he was back in the trenches — and despite having undergone an experience which would have, at least temporarily, shattered many men — Soames resumed his normal duties. In fact, he was the one who discovered Lieutenant Fortesque’s body.’
The last time Carstairs had discussed this matter, he had talked in terms of how we found the body.
But there hadn’t been any ‘we’ at all — it had been bloody Lieutenant Roger Soames.
‘Why didn’t you tell me before that it was Soames who discovered him?’ Blackstone demanded.
‘I didn’t see the need,’ Carstairs replied. ‘Does it actually matter who first came across him?’
‘Yes,’ Blackstone said, ‘it bloody well does!’
‘You’re completely missing the point again,’ Carstairs said. ‘By insisting on dwelling on minor details, you’re failing to see the wider picture.’
‘Then, by all means, paint the wider picture for me,’ Blackstone told him.
‘It was just before dawn when Soames discovered Fortesque’s body, and dawn — as you have recently learned — is one of the times when we are most likely to be attacked by the enemy. When Roger Soames emerged from the dugout — having just seen his best friend’s battered corpse — Fortesque’s sergeant already had the platoon at stand-to. So tell me, Inspector Blackstone, what would you have done in that situation?’
The question caught Blackstone off-guard.
‘I don’t know,’ he admitted.
‘Exactly!’ Carstairs replied, with a hint of triumph in his voice. ‘You don’t know now — and you wouldn’t have known then. But Soames knew! He understood, you see, that the last thing that the enlisted men needed to be told at that critical moment was that their officer had been murdered. So Soames didn’t tell them. Instead, he took over Fortesque’s duties, and it was only when the men had been stood down again that he reported what he had discovered. Have you finally grasped the point, Inspector Blackstone? Soames found his best friend — someone he went to school with — murdered, but he still managed to put his duty above personal considerations.’
‘That’s certainly one way of looking at it,’ Blackstone said.
‘If there is another, I would dearly like to hear it,’ Carstairs told him.
‘No, you wouldn’t,’ Blackstone said.
‘In fact, I insist on hearing it,’ Carstairs said forcefully.
‘All right,’ Blackstone agreed. ‘Soames goes to Fortesque’s dugout, and, for reasons we don’t yet understand, kills him.’
‘Were it not for the fact that you are questioning the integrity of one of my officers, I would find that suggestion almost comical,’ Carstairs said.
‘If he reports the death immediately, it will be obvious to everyone that Fortesque has just died,’ Blackstone continued, ignoring the comment. ‘On the other hand, if he can postpone it for an hour or so, it will be much more difficult to calculate the time of death.’
Carstairs stood up.
‘I could have had you brought to me by the redcaps, but instead I came to see you,’ he said.
‘That’s true,’ Blackstone agreed.
‘I did it that way so we could meet on your own territory, where you wouldn’t feel quite so threatened. I thought that here, you would see reason. But you’re not interested in seeing reason, are you?’ Carstairs asked, his voice flooded with both anger and disappointment. ‘You’re so eaten up with bitter prejudice that the only thing you care about is bringing down one of your betters — a finer man than you could ever hope to be.’
‘If Soames didn’t kill Fortesque, then he’s safe enough,’ Blackstone said. ‘If he did kill him, then I won’t rest until he’s swinging from the end of a rope.’
‘From this moment onwards, you will not talk to any of my officers without my express permission — and then only in my presence,’ Carstairs said firmly. ‘If you disobey this order, I will ask Captain Huxton to have you placed under arrest and escorted back to England by the redcaps.’
‘The War Office will overrule you,’ Blackstone pointed out.
‘It might well — in time,’ Carstairs agreed, ‘and possibly, in a week or two, you will be back here in France. But when a soldier is holding off the enemy, he does not ask himself what the long-term result of the action will be, he merely performs his duty as he sees it at that moment.’
Blackstone’s sudden laugh echoed round the room.
‘It’s all a big bluff, isn’t it?’ he asked. ‘A career soldier like you wouldn’t dare to cross General Fortesque. It would look too bad on your record.’
‘You’re right, I am a career soldier,’ Carstairs admitted. ‘I was born a career soldier. Even as a child, I dreamed of serving my country honourably — and I have, both in India and East Africa — of becoming a high-ranking officer, and of finally retiring, with my memories of my service, to live the life of a modest country gentleman.’
‘And are you seriously trying to tell me that you’d risk all that just to get me out of the way?’ Blackstone asked sceptically.
‘That is the third time you’ve completely missed the point,’ Carstairs told him. ‘Becoming a colonel — or perhaps even a general — is no longer a possibility. I’m fighting in a war which I will not survive. I am already one of the walking dead.’
‘You might survive it,’ Blackstone said. ‘Somebody has to.’
Carstairs shook his head. ‘You’re wrong,’ he said. ‘My death may come sooner, or it may come later — but it will come. But until it comes, I intend to do my duty as I see it. The men depend on their officers, and their officers depend on me — and I will not betray them.’
‘I’m sorry I laughed at you,’ Blackstone said sincerely. ‘It was very wrong of me, because though we may disagree on most things, I do respect you for the way you stand up for things that you believe in.’
‘And perhaps, under other circumstances, I might respect you,’ Carstairs replied. ‘But, under these circumstances, you are nothing but a cancer, trying to destroy all that is finest and most noble about my country — and I simply will not let that happen.’
There was no more to say — no more that could be said — and they both knew it.
Blackstone sat perfectly still, staring at the wall. It was several minutes since Captain Carstairs had left, and in that time he had scarcely moved a muscle.
Was there a chance that the captain was right and that he was wrong? he agonized.
Was it possible that he was seeing everything through eyes blinded by prejudice — that his vision of the world, though for entirely different reasons, was just as narrow as that of the officers?
If so, then perhaps Soames really was the valiant, honourable man that Carstairs thought him to be.
If so, then perhaps one officer was incapable of killing another — whatever the provocation — because of the way he had been brought up.
Perhaps it was all true, and he himself, a poor orphan boy, simply didn’t understand!
He shook his head, angry with himself.
He had always relied on his own judgement, he thought. And this judgement of his was not something that he had inherited easily from proud, privileged parents, nor had beaten into him at an expensive public school. It belonged to no one but himself, and was based solely on what he had seen and what he had experienced. And he had to believe it — because it was the only thing he had.