It was an innocent enough remark, but for once in his life Kelly was rendered speechless. It was not the words, but just meeting the man which had had a devastating effect on Kelly. Parker-Brown did not seem to realise, but he had already shocked Kelly rigid. Still standing, Kelly found that he could not stop staring at the commanding officer of the Devonshire Fusiliers.
Parker-Brown’s soft brown eyes, which gave so little away, returned Kelly’s gaze steadily. Kelly remained standing. The colonel, looking puzzled, glanced at him enquiringly.
‘Do sit down, Mr Kelly,’ he said.
Still without speaking Kelly sat down on the second armchair, trying desperately not to stare any more.
‘So, what would you like to ask me, Mr Kelly?’ Parker-Brown smiled easily and leaned back in his chair, stretching his long legs before him. He looked totally relaxed. Well, maybe he was relaxed, thought Kelly. He was, after all, quite patently, a pretty cool customer. Kelly still said nothing.
The colonel looked even more puzzled.
‘So?’ he queried. ‘Please fire away, Mr Kelly.’
Kelly made a big effort to pull himself together.
‘The families want some answers, they are very concerned, Colonel Parker-Brown,’ he began eventually, struggling to keep his voice calm and controlled. ‘There have now been five deaths in a period of just over a year, at least three of them highly questionable—’
The colonel interrupted smartly.
‘Allegedly questionable, Mr Kelly. As I said, I do understand how upset the families that you represent are, but sadly what we are talking about are the kind of deaths that do happen in the army, even in peacetime. There is nothing sinister here, Mr Kelly, if that is what you are insinuating. In addition to the obvious danger of handling guns in potentially volatile situations, the pressures on our young recruits, some of whom do not always come from the most helpful of backgrounds, are immense. We do try to give all the help and support we can, but sometimes they simply cannot cope. Military life is not without its perils, and peril comes in many guises, not just when you are facing the enemy.’
‘We agree on that, Colonel,’ responded Kelly quickly. ‘Within the past ten years there have been around a hundred non-combat deaths through firearm incidents in the British armed forces, and, according to the latest figures I could find, a further one hundred and fifty-six suicides. Don’t you think that is rather a lot?’
Parker-Brown frowned and tapped the fingers of his right hand on the arm of his chair, in what Kelly thought was probably a gesture of impatience.
‘I couldn’t possibly comment on those figures, as I don’t even know whether or not they are correct. That kind of thing is a matter for the MoD, not a regimental CO. All I can do, Mr Kelly, is repeat what I have just told you. Army life is not without its dangers, even in what passes for peacetime.’
Unexpectedly, Parker-Brown stopped tapping his fingers, held out his hands in a conciliatory manner and flashed a big grin at Kelly, crinkling up his whole face as he did so. The man was a charmer, and quite obviously knew it. It appeared to be his first line both of defence and attack. He was, Kelly suspected, pretty used to his charm getting him whatever he wanted.
However, the charm offensive was wasted on Kelly, who leaned forward, once more locking his gaze on the other man.
‘Don’t you think that at the very least the army must be guilty of a breach of its duty to care for these young people, Colonel?’
‘The utmost care is taken, Mr Kelly, I can assure you. Every new batch of recruits is the army’s future. Beyond that, again, I cannot possibly comment. I can only discuss matters over which I have direct responsibility.’
Very deliberately Kelly settled back in his chair, stretching his own legs, trying to appear considerably more relaxed than he actually felt. To his great relief, however, his brain did appear to be working again.
‘OK, so let’s concentrate on events concerning Hangridge, shall we, and perhaps you will allow me to throw a few facts at you, Colonel,’ he said. ‘Shall we begin with the case of Jocelyn Slade? She died after suffering five gunshot wounds to the head. Now I know just a little about the SA80, and what it is capable of, the damage it can do in literally just a flash. But I put it to you, Colonel, that even with a volatile, fast-action automatic weapon like the SA80, it is highly improbable that anyone attempting to take their own life would be physically able to shoot themselves five times, would you agree?’
‘That would be a matter for a pathologist and for a ballistics expert, Mr Kelly, not for me.’
‘Precisely, Colonel. So perhaps you could explain to me why, according to the records of the inquest which I have seen, it appears that no ballistics expert was asked to examine the circumstances of Jocelyn’s death before the military police decided so arbitrarily that she had killed herself and then managed to persuade the coroner’s court to go along with their conclusion.’
The colonel grinned again, but in a rather more forced fashion. “Persuade the coroner’s court to go along with their conclusion”?’ he repeated. ‘I rather take exception to that, Mr Kelly.’
‘Well, perhaps then, you could tell me why the SIB investigation did not include any reference to a ballistics expert, particularly when the military is presumably full of them.’
‘That is a matter for the Royal Military Police, in particular the SIB itself, Mr Kelly, who, I am sure, conducted their investigation thoroughly and quite properly.’
‘All right, Colonel.’ Kelly had forgotten everything now except concentrating on the job in hand, and he was in full flow. ‘Perhaps we can switch to the case of Fusilier James Gates, who was on sentry duty the night Jocelyn died. His evidence at her inquest indicated, did it not, that her body had almost certainly been moved—’
‘Look, Mr Kelly,’ Gerrard Parker-Brown interrupted. ‘I agreed to see you out of courtesy to the families of dead soldiers from my regiment, and in addition to assure you, and therefore hopefully them too, that we have nothing to hide here at Hangridge. Indeed, I will do everything in my power to further reassure these families, and I am quite happy to meet any of them who might wish to see me. But I cannot — and will not — go into the kind of details you are asking for, Mr Kelly. Young lives have been lost, after all.’
‘I’m all too aware of that, Colonel, and indeed that is why I am here,’ said Kelly. ‘But please, the case of Fusilier James Gates is particularly curious and there are certain events, which occurred that night, which apparently Fusilier Gates knew about but which were not revealed in the coroner’s court. You are aware, of course, Colonel Parker-Brown, that Jimmy Gates is also dead?’
‘Well, yes. I am. But his death had nothing whatsoever to do with Hangridge.’
‘Really? Well, it could all have been an extraordinary coincidence, of course, but Gates was posted to Germany two weeks after the inquest, and then died in, to say the least, rather unlikely circumstances five days later.’
‘Soldiers work hard, and play hard, Mr Kelly. They are inclined to get drunk sometimes, and sometimes they get far too drunk. Then freak accidents happen. Or they simply fall under a lorry. Which I believe is what started all this, is it not?’
Kelly detected a distinctly patronising note in the colonel’s voice, but decided to ignore it.
‘Speaking of drunkenness, Colonel,’ he continued levelly. ‘Fusilier Gates said that he confronted an Irishman, who he said was drunk and had no identification papers, trying to get into the base on the night that Jocelyn Slade died, and that an officer came out of the officers’ mess to OK his entry. He also said that he saw a figure running across the playing field away from the perimeter fence, just after he heard the shots fired. Now, none of this was brought up in court. Don’t you find that at least curious?’