‘It is more than possible. These mergers do not tend to improve every employee’s position and prospects. Mr Tedworthy, who gave me help over the affair at Hulliwell Hall, is a case in point.’
‘I wonder how long Honfleur has known about the merger? He’s never mentioned it, has he?’
‘Perhaps it is too sore a subject. I wonder how my guardian angel will get on with Henri and Celestine in the kitchen? I deprecate the fact that you have saddled me with an incubus.’
‘I don’t regret it,’ said Laura. ‘The sound of that thug smashing away at that dummy on your bed will haunt my dreams.’
The crucial days of the following week, so far as Basil Honfleur was concerned, were Saturday, Sunday and Monday, counting Saturday as the first day of the coach-tours week, as the company always did.
Dame Beatrice telephoned from the Stone House on the Friday afternoon at about four to ask how things were going. Honfleur, who had been about to return to his house, was lugubrious.
‘I had to talk with the strikers,’ he said, ‘and got my assistant to waylay every driver as the coaches arrived at the depot after such tours as had been on the road before all this disaffection got really serious, and I put it to them. Unless the remaining tours were carried out, and the rest of our commitments honoured, I told them, their jobs and their futures were in jeopardy. We are due to be taken over and made part of a huge combine, you know, after the end of the next season. I stressed this and promised that County Motors would do their best to protect every man’s interests when the take-over came about, but that it was going to be difficult, if not impossible, for me to speak up for men who seemed determined to chuck their jobs away.’
‘And what effect did this have?’
‘Very little, I’m afraid. There was a lot of muttering and then one chap said that they’d better lose their jobs than their lives, and I could tell that the other fellows agreed with him. This was on Friday. I am calling another meeting at eight on Sunday evening, when the nine-day tours which have been on the road get back, but, frankly, I haven’t much hope. The drivers who were supposed to be going up to Scotland tomorrow morning have stuck their feet in and absolutely refused to budge.’
‘How many tours does that affect?’
‘More than I care to think about. There won’t be the Skye tour, or the one which goes up to John o’ Groats, Royal Deeside is off and and so are the Trossachs, the Ayrshire and Arran tour and the nine-day tour of the Central Highlands. In fact, ironic though it may sound, the only fellow willing to take a coach out at all at present is the driver who takes the party to Swansea to embark on the ferry to Cork, and he is none too keen to do even that much. Even the drivers who do the foreign tours are dragging their feet because they have to take passengers to spend a night in Southamption before crossing to Le Havre. Pusillanimous twits! I only just stopped myself from calling them a bunch of cowards.’
‘It might have been injudicious, under the circumstances in which you find youself, to have called their courage in question. Did you make them the offer you outlined to Laura, that you would send them out in twos?’
‘Yes, I did. The trouble is that they no longer trust each other.’
‘That is serious. Let us hope for a miracle – in other words, that Driver Knight will turn up safe and sound.’
CHAPTER 13
The Story of a Disappearance
« ^ »
The telephone call had ended with a short, incredulous exclamation from Honfleur, after which he rang off, but on the following morning he rang up the Stone House again. Laura was out for an early morning ride, so Dame Beatrice herself took the call.
‘You’re not going to believe this,’ said the voice at the other end. Dame Beatrice cackled.
‘Like the White Queen, I can believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast,’ she said, ‘and I haven’t had breakfast yet.’
‘Knight has turned up again, safe and sound.’
‘Really? So where has he been all this time?’
‘Oh, his story is simple enough. He got a knock on the head and lost his memory.’
‘Do you mean somebody attacked him?’
‘I suppose you could call it that.’
‘Do the Scottish police know that he has reappeared?’
‘I’ve told our own chaps, so I suppose they’ll notify Inverness or whoever has to be told.’
‘I should like to hear Knight’s story.’
‘Well, it’s going to be a nice day. Why don’t you come along? Meet me in my office at…?’
‘Four?’
‘Right, I’ll have Knight with me and my secretary can make us some tea.’
‘Do the other drivers know of Knight’s return?’
‘Oh, rather! What’s more, I was able to persuade them to call off the strike, so although today’s coaches won’t go out, there shouldn’t be any difficulty about tomorrow.’
‘They seem to have changed their minds very quickly.’
‘Oh, I’m keeping my promise of sending them out in twos. They insist on that.’
‘So which tours will go out tomorrow?’
‘North Wales, North Devon, St Ives, Llandudno, Yorkshire Wolds, Tenby, Lake District and, of course, our Swiss tour from the airport. It’s all perfectly splendid. With the Saturday tours all cancelled for today, I’ve got plenty of drivers free and by the time the Sunday tours, double-manned, get back and everybody is home and dry, I’m sure our troubles will all be over.’
‘It is to be hoped so, but we still haven’t found the murderer. Four o’clock in your office, then. I shall be accompanied by Laura and the guardian angel supplied by her husband.’
‘What will happen to Knight?’ asked Laura when she returned. ‘The police will want to question him.’
‘Yes, indeed, and from our own point of view it will be very interesting to hear what Driver Knight has to say. I would like you to take his story down word for word and then transcribe it for me. It will make a fascinating study.’
‘Because he wasn’t murdered, whereas the other two were? He may just have been lucky, don’t you think? Anyway, I’m sure he murdered Vittorio.’
‘In self-defence, perhaps.’
The interview with Knight took place in Honfleur’s office, but Dame Beatrice, her escort, Laura and the driver had it to themselves. Honfleur left a note with his secretary to let Dame Beatrice know that he had been called to a meeting in Bristol with the directors of the firm who were to take over his company. He apologised for his absence, but added that his secretary was fully briefed and would be able to answer any queries which might arise. It was clear, from the young woman’s demeanour, that she fully expected to sit in on the interview, but Dame Beatrice decided otherwise and in the most kindly but determined way dispensed with her presence.
‘Now, Mr Knight,’ she said, when the secretary had left them, ‘I am retained, as I expect you know, by your directors, to look into matters which have been troubling the Company since Mr Noone set out for Derbyshire. I am to find out, if I can, why he was murdered and exactly what your own experiences have been.’
‘I’m lucky to be alive, I suppose,’ said Knight, indicating a bandage round his neck. ‘If I hadn’t had a Commando training when I was a young fellow, I might not be as tough as I am. Comes back to you, you know, when you find yourself in a tight spot. More than thirty years since I was demobbed, but I’m as fit as ever I was, and a good thing, too, I reckon.’
‘I shall be glad of a full account. You say you are as fit as ever you were, but I understand that you had been ill and away from work before you took this coach up to Scotland.’
‘First time ever, but sooner or later the job finds you out. I got a spot of gastric trouble and had to lie up for a week or two, that’s all. Didn’t ought to have come back as soon as I did, but one of my mates told me how short-handed Mr Honfleur was, with Noone and Daigh gone missing, so I reckoned I’d better help out.’