“I can’t do all that. I can’t.”
“It will be just as you spoke with Billy. Not a lot of people.”
“I don’t think I’m able. Will you let Captain Radecki give me the laudanum?”
“Wait,” I said. “There is a part of this that is my business.”
“What part?” Radecki said.
“The part about Eddie Miller being murdered early this morning. With your bayonet through his heart.”
“Eddie?” Tadeusz said. “Who would kill Eddie? He was so kind to me.”
“He was an informer for the Russians.”
“Oh no,” Tadeusz said, thrusting his head back, as if to get away from the thought. “Oh no.”
“We just found out,” Kaz said, trying to calm him. “We were using him to send bad information to the Soviets. There was never any danger.”
“Not from the Soviets. But what about MI5?” I said.
“You can’t be serious,” Radecki said.
“I’m not saying they killed Eddie. But Scotland Yard thinks Kaz did. That’s one reason we’re here, to warn you.”
“What’s the other?” Kaz asked.
“To find out if Captain Radecki did, and if he intends to harm Tad.” As I spoke, Big Mike edged toward the door, blocking any route out.
“How dare you!” Radecki said, rising from his chair and advancing on me. “You accuse me? Are you an idiot? We were using Miller, he was valuable to us.”
“Maybe he outlived his usefulness. To you.”
“What do you mean, Billy?” Kaz said as Tadeusz looked at me and back to Radecki, as if trying to figure out whom he could trust.
“You were the ones who told me about the British government preventing the truth about Katyn coming out. Think about it. What agency would carry out that mission? MI5. How would they do it? Get someone on the inside. Bribe them, or hire them, to get the job done. For Allied unity. Get rid of the evidence. Get rid of Tadeusz.”
“Absurd,” Radecki said.
“No, it isn’t. You thought you had time to kill him, with an accidental overdose, probably. But you hadn’t counted on his being transferred out here, so you had to act fast. You killed your accomplice to keep him quiet, and tried to pin it on Kaz, to get him out of the way. He’s the only other person Tad trusts, and who might have noticed anything. Two birds with one stone, pretty smart.”
“My accomplice? That pathetic waiter?”
“Sure. He knew all about the drugs. He made the pickup for you at your doctor’s office on Horseferry Road. That way no one would notice how often you went there.”
“You fool!” Radecki said, his fist raised in anger. “Miller never went to get the laudanum. Sheila Carlson did. I couldn’t take the time, and the walk only made my leg ache like the devil, so I paid her to go. I called the damn doctor to let him know, he’ll confirm it.”
“Sheila?” I felt a horrible sensation in my stomach, the dropping away of everything I had thought was true. What did it mean? “Sheila?”
“She was very nice to me,” Tadeusz said. “She always stopped by to chat. A very pretty girl. Did she do something wrong?”
“She lied,” I said. “About something she had no reason to lie about, unless she was covering something up.”
“Or laying the blame on a dead man,” Big Mike said from his post at the door.
“Why did you and Kaz have lunch together yesterday?” I said to Radecki, trying to keep the threads of my theory from unraveling. “And how did you get him to handle your bayonet? His fingerprints are probably all over it.”
“I invited him in order to find out if and when he would visit Tadeusz, so I could get here first. But my train was delayed at Radlett, and as you can see, I was late. As for the bayonet, it was Lieutenant Kazimierz who asked about it.”
“It’s true, Billy,” Kaz said. “I sensed he was interested in when I would visit, but I didn’t know why. To change the subject, I asked him about the bayonet he kept on his shelf. I picked it up out of mere curiosity.”
“No one was blackmailing you?” I asked Radecki.
“Of course not. Over what?”
“Drugging Tad, I had thought. Did Sheila know you’d been giving him your laudanum?”
“Not that I know of, no. Although I do remember her knocking on Tadeusz’s door one day, just as I was bringing him some. It’s possible she overheard.”
“Did she ask about Tadeusz recently?”
“Why, yes, she did,” Radecki said. “Yesterday. I told her I planned to visit him today, if I could get away.”
“Please,” Tadeusz said. “Why can’t I have the laudanum now?” No one answered his pleas.
“Sheila,” I said, thinking out loud, and not taking in the desperate measure in Tad’s voice. “If she lied about getting the drugs, the only reason could be to divert suspicion from her, onto Eddie.”
“And Eddie’s dead,” Big Mike said to Radecki, “by your bayonet. She made it look like there’s a connection between you two and the drugs.”
“Oh no,” Tad moaned, but we were too busy trying to add things up to comfort him.
“Maybe we were right about Eddie outliving his usefulness,” I said. “But wrong about whom he’d been useful to.”
“No, I don’t believe it,” Tadeusz said, shaking his head vigorously. “She was so nice. So was Eddie. He was funny, I liked it when he visited.”
“What did you talk about with them?”
“Nothing special. That is what was so pleasant. They’d ask me about Poland, where I went to school, but I didn’t want to talk about the past. They wanted to know where I wished to live after the war, what my plans were. Sheila told me they’d take me to the shore at Shoeburyness, where Eddie’s family lived, for a visit as soon as I was well.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “She wanted to know when that might be. When you’d be strong enough to travel, to go out and meet people.”
“Yes, she did. She told me she’d write to Eddie’s mother, to let her know when I’d be well enough. When Major Horak would be done with me.” Understanding flashed across his face, the last words coming out slowly, as the terrible truth revealed itself. “She wanted to know how long before she had to kill me. I wish she had.” Tad’s voice trailed off, what was left of his spirit broken by this last betrayal.
“Dear God,” Radecki said. “I nearly helped her do it.”
“What?” I watched Radecki reach for the round tin of Ashbourne biscuits. He opened it, and instead of biscuits, it contained an apple cake, the top liberally sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. It was about the right size for the large cake pan that was in the sink at Sheila’s place.
“She gave me this, early this morning. After I’d told her the day before about visiting, she said she’d bake a cake to cheer Tadeusz up, and could she come by and give it to me. Perhaps it’s been tampered with.”
“Early this morning?”
“Yes, about seven o’clock.”
“An hour before Eddie was knifed,” Big Mike said. “And Sheila told us she hadn’t seen anyone else at the hotel.”
“Are you suggesting Sheila killed Miller with my bayonet?” Radecki demanded. “How could a slightly built girl take a man by surprise, and drive a large knife into his heart?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Whoever did it got it right. There was very little blood; he died instantly.”
“Is the cake poisoned?” Tadeusz said. He got up, pushing himself off the chair with both arms and shuffling slowly across the floor in his slippers. I took the tin from Radecki and sniffed.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Can’t smell anything. Must be sweet, though, this is a lot of sugar, and the stuff ’s hard to come by.” I broke a piece of cake off and sniffed, but got nothing. I resisted the temptation to lick my fingers and wiped the crumbs off on my sleeve.
“Around every corner, there is death,” Tadeusz said. “Everywhere I go, death follows. Eddie is nice to me, and he is dead. Sheila is nice, and wants to kill me. Valerian, Piotr, you both try to help me, and what happens? You are framed for murder. I am a vessel for death.” He paced the length of the room, passing Big Mike, then heading back, muttering to himself.