Hatfield!
‘Of course we can. He’s nothing — a piece of working-class scum, who thinks that just because he’s employed by Scotland Yard, he has the right to ride roughshod over his betters — and if it comes to it, I’ll crush him in much the same way I might crush a cockroach.’
Soames!
‘When you talk about the honour of the regiment, Benjamin, it’s just words, isn’t it? I suppose we shouldn’t expect any more of you. I, on the other hand, am prepared to do whatever it takes to avoid tarnishing its proud reputation.’
Maude!
They were all there — the three musketeers.
But exactly where was there?
Even though his head had cleared, the three men’s words still had a slightly hollow sound, which would suggest that they were in a small, enclosed space.
A dugout — probably in a trench which had long since been abandoned, and thus was the perfect place to commit a murder!
His hopes of survival were slim, Blackstone told himself, but if he could find a way to turn the musketeers against each other, there was still a small chance that he might come out of all this alive.
He opened his eyes. Just as he had suspected, he was in a dugout, and was tied to a chair.
And there they all were, revealed in the flickering light of an oil lamp — Maude sitting across the table from him; Soames standing behind Maude; and Hatfield uncertainly hovering near the entrance to the dugout, as if he would rather not be there at all.
‘Welcome back, Inspector Blackstone,’ Maude said sardonically. ‘It was rather inconsiderate of you to keep us waiting for quite so long.’
‘If you didn’t want me to keep you waiting, then you shouldn’t have hit me quite so bloody hard, should you?’ Blackstone replied.
Maude laughed. ‘That was Lieutenant Soames’ doing, I’m afraid. He’s a fine chap, our Roger — but he can be a little heavy-handed sometimes.’ He paused. ‘Would you like a drink of water?’
‘If it’s no trouble,’ Blackstone said.
‘It’s absolutely no trouble at all,’ Maude said graciously. ‘Give him a drink, Hatfield.’
Hatfield crossed the dugout, picked up the jug which was easily within Maude’s reach, poured some water into a tin cup, and held the cup up to Blackstone’s lips.
‘Is that better?’ Maude asked.
‘Yes.’
Maude nodded. ‘Good — because, before we’ve finished, you have a lot of talking to do.’
‘Is that right?’
‘Indeed it is. Before we’ve finished, you’re going to tell us exactly what it is that you know.’
‘I know a great deal,’ Blackstone told Maude.
‘A great deal, you say. Would you care to give me an example of that knowledge?’
‘I know, for one thing, that I’ve been on the wrong track for most of this investigation, and that the three of you didn’t kill Lieutenant Fortesque.’
‘Are you. . are you prepared to swear to that?’ Hatfield gasped.
‘Yes,’ Blackstone said.
‘Oh, for God’s sake, does it matter whether he’s willing to swear to it or not?’ Soames asked exasperatedly. ‘He’s not a gentleman — his word is not worth the breath it takes to give it.’
‘He doesn’t have to be a gentleman if he’s willing to swear to it with his hand on the Bible,’ Hatfield said desperately. ‘And if he really doesn’t believe we killed Charlie, we can let him go.’
‘And give him the opportunity to file charges against us for assault?’ Soames asked. ‘Have a worthless creature like him appearing as a witness against us at our court martial? I’d rather die.’
‘But if he was also willing to promise that he’ll say nothing about what happened here today. .’
‘He’ll promise anything that you want him to promise,’ Soames said, with obvious disgust. ‘Don’t you see that? He’ll tell any amount of lies in order to save his own miserable life.’
‘They’re fools, aren’t they, Blackstone?’ Maude asked mildly. ‘Complete bloody idiots.’ He turned to his two friends — if they were his friends, if his huge ego had ever been capable of encompassing friendship — and continued, ‘The reason that Blackstone has reached the conclusion that we didn’t kill Charlie is because he knows what we really did.’
‘Do you, Blackstone!’ Hatfield screamed. ‘Do you?’
‘As I told you earlier, I know a great deal,’ Blackstone replied. ‘I know why you put those two privates — Clay and Jones — on a charge, Lieutenant Hatfield, even though you knew that by doing so you were making yourself look weak and incompetent.’ He grinned. ‘It was always going to be you who was going to put them on the charge, wasn’t it? There was never really any question of it being Soames or Maude?’
‘There. . there were good reasons why I was the one chosen to do it,’ Hatfield said.
‘I’m sure they sounded good, when Maude explained them to you,’ Blackstone replied. ‘We both know how persuasive he can be. But whatever he said to you, it simply wasn’t true. The real reason you were chosen was that you were the one with the least amount of honour to lose — and deep down inside yourself, you know that.’
‘You’re wrong,’ Hatfield protested. ‘We discussed it, and we decided that I should. .’
‘All right, all right, have it your own way,’ Blackstone said dismissively. ‘What else do I know? I know why Maude went to see Fortesque shortly before he died. I know why Soames smashed in Fortesque’s skull half an hour before stand-to, and I know why you felt it was vital to steal the coffin from the warehouse in Calais.’ He paused for a second. ‘I also know, Lieutenant Hatfield, why Maude ordered you to attack me with the tent peg mallet.’
‘He didn’t order me to attack you,’ Hatfield said angrily. ‘It was something we all decided on.’
‘Of course it was,’ Blackstone agreed. ‘And what exactly were your instructions?’
‘Shut up, you bastard!’ Hatfield said. He turned to Maude. ‘Make him shut up, William.’
‘Since the whole purpose of this interrogation is to find out what he knows, making him shut up would be rather pointless, don’t you think?’ Maude asked coldly. ‘Besides, I find the whole way he’s chosen to handle this situation absolutely fascinating.’
‘Fascinating!’ Hatfield repeated. ‘For the love of God, what’s fascinating about it?’
‘Most men in Blackstone’s position would either be begging for mercy by now, or doing all they could to ingratiate themselves with us. He’s chosen quite a different approach, and I’d be most interested to see where that leads.’ Maude turned his attention back to Blackstone. ‘You may continue, Inspector.’
‘At the time, I thought you’d been sent to kill me, Lieutenant Hatfield, and had simply made a mess of it,’ Blackstone said. ‘I see now that that wasn’t the case at all. If you’d wanted me dead, you’d have been going for my skull, and you wouldn’t have switched your flashlight on until you’d reached the head of the bed — but since you’d only been told to hurt me, you switched the light on when you were no more than halfway there, level with my trunk. And what I’m wondering at this moment, Lieutenant Hatfield, is if you even know why you were told to attack me.’
‘Of course I know why I attacked you!’ Hatfield said angrily. ‘Maude thought — I mean, we all thought — that you were getting too close to the truth. We knew we couldn’t kill you, because though you’re only a lowly policeman, you are still a policeman, and Scotland Yard would feel duty-bound to send more officers over to investigate your death.’
‘So the plan — as you saw it — was to take me out of action for at least a week or so?’
‘Exactly.’
Blackstone laughed. ‘You’re not even close to the truth,’ he said. ‘Maude didn’t particularly want me out of action, because he was rather enjoying playing games with me.’