No Sleep for the Dead

Chapter 15

‘As we came down in the lift from Gillivray’s office,’ Palmer reminded her, disposing of the last of his pizza, ‘three men got in on the first floor. One in shirt-sleeves, another young, smart, with black hair. The third older and thinner, with a deep suntan.’

‘His name’s Arthur Radnor,’ said Riley, and grinned at the surprised look on Palmer face. ‘Come on, Batman, you think you’re the only one with contacts?’

Palmer rolled his eyes. ‘Okay, what else do you know?’

‘Only that the young man is called Michael, possibly Russian nationality, and the third man is a part-time bookkeeper or accountant. They’re in the import-export business, bringing in works of art from eastern Europe.’ She paused, her face sombre. ‘Michael was asking about us the following day, about what you and I were doing in the building.’

Palmer’s face grew serious. ‘How do you know that?’

Riley filled him in on her return visit to the office block in Harrow and her talks with Nobby and Jimmy. He listened without comment, then sat back and stared at the ceiling, puffing out his cheeks. ‘Damn,’ he said mildly. ‘So he did recognise me.’

‘If you want a cigarette,’ said Riley, ‘go ahead, smoke. You look as if you need it.’

But Palmer surprised her with a shake of his head. ‘No, thanks. If I’m right, and Radnor remembers me, it might explain the visitor on the stairs.’ He scowled at this latest development. ‘What I said about guns and shooting people? Forget it. There are some people you should shoot, preferably more than once.’

‘What do you mean?’ When he didn’t reply, Riley leaned forward and tapped the coffee table. ‘Palmer. You’re worrying me now. Why the face?’

‘Because if your visitor was from Radnor, they’ve traced your address. Only I can’t figure out how. I didn’t put our real names in the visitors’ book.’

‘As I discovered,’ she said dryly. ‘You could have warned me. Luckily, the security man on the front desk was a former boy scout, like you.’

Palmer looked guilty. ‘Sorry. I didn’t expect it to become an issue. It was meant to be a one-time visit.’

‘The bad news is,’ said Riley, ‘he’s got your address, too.’ She told him about her talk with Javad, who had seen a man and woman arrive by car, and her own impression the following day that someone had been in Palmer’s office. ‘Tall and black with dreadlocks, according to Javad. It has to be the same man.’

‘Yeah. Was anything missing?’

‘Not that I could see. You’d know better than me. But how does the woman fit into it? Javad said she looked old.’

He frowned. ‘Beats me. The timing’s all wrong, though, to be connected with Radnor. They can’t have popped up so soon after the Harrow thing. And the last old woman I knew was my Auntie Dot. And as far as I know I haven’t upset the local Coalition of Pensioners and Cool Dudes in any way.’

‘So,’ said Riley. ‘are you going to tell me where you’ve been?’

Palmer gave a long sigh. ‘Okay. Germany, nineteen eighty-nine. I hadn’t been out there long. I was a junior RMP, and feeling my way around. I’d been assigned to a forward base. One morning there was an incident involving the border police. A man tried to cross to the west and the guards shot him. At least, that was the story.’

‘You didn’t believe it?’

‘I did — I didn’t know any different. But my sergeant was sceptical. He’d seen stuff like it before and reckoned there was probably more to it.’

Riley tried to re-think her history but couldn’t remember the date. ‘Wasn’t the border open by then?’

‘That was later, in the November. Until then, it was business as usual for both sides. If you wanted out of the GDR bad enough, you attempted a crossing. If you were a member of the Volkspolitzei, your job was to stop runners. Some got away with it — if they were young enough and lucky. Mostly they didn’t.’

‘And Radnor was involved?’

Palmer nodded. ‘He was a witness to the whole incident, so he claimed. He had someone contact the nearest RMP post, which was us, using an authority code I’d never heard before. My sergeant had, so he checked with the CO. He was told to attend and assist, but to keep it quiet. That meant minimum involvement by anyone else, no word to the local police unless they came calling and everything was to be dealt with as if nothing had happened. The US Cavalry had a strong presence nearby, but this was on our sector. Reg, my sergeant, was even more convinced that it pointed to an intelligence connection. He didn’t like it, nor did the CO, apparently, but there was no way out of it.’

‘Spies, you mean? Does the army get involved in that stuff?’

‘Not normally. Sometimes it can’t be avoided. When it does blow up, everyone keeps a tight lid on it and there are more reminders of the Official Secret Act flying around than scales on a goldfish. Anyway, I was on call, so along with Reg, went out to secure the scene. It was right up against the border, with pretty much open countryside all around. It was starting to snow and was bitterly cold. There were some old farm buildings not far off which looked abandoned, but that was it. By the time we arrived, there were three men there. One was British, I don’t know about the other two — they were younger and stayed in the background. Local gofers, probably. They’d already been out and recovered the body, which was unusual, apparently. Reg wasn’t impressed, anyway.’

Riley didn’t reveal that she knew about the existence of Reg Paris. Palmer was in full flow. ‘Why?’

‘Because the usual form when a runner got shot was they were often left out there while each side did their share of posturing and arguing about who did what. Understandably, nobody from our side wanted to walk out and collect them, because the East Germans border guards were far too twitchy. It needed open clearance from all sides before anyone dared step out onto neutral ground. The political implications of serving military personnel going anywhere near the wire — or worse — being shot by the other side, were mental.’

‘So these men jumped the gun.’

‘And some. Anyway, since the body was now clearly on our side, and there didn’t seem to be any doubt about what had happened, we offered to get it taken to the base. But the Brit wouldn’t let us. He said he’d get his men to deal with it.’

‘So why did he get you out there in the first place?’

‘I can only think it was to give it an extra security gloss in case of witnesses. The sight of British army MPs would have warned anyone off and stopped any questions. We filed a report to the CO and that was it.’ Palmer drummed his fingertips on his knee. ‘Reg said they were spooks and it was better I didn’t get involved. He wouldn’t even tell me the man’s name. Said he’d clear it with the CO and I should keep my head down. So I did.’

‘The spook being the man in Harrow. Radnor.’

‘Right. A couple of days later, he turned up at the base, looking for Reg and waving some paperwork. He said the German police had got wind of the shooting via a man on the other side. As the senior military cop on the spot, Reg was required to make a deposition to them about what had happened. After that, they’d handle it. The army wasn’t about to argue, so Reg had to fall in line.’

‘What then?’ Riley thought her voice unnaturally loud in comparison to Palmer’s soft tones.

‘They took off in a pool car. Reg was driving. Later that day, on the autobahn near Frankfurt, they were hit by a Mercedes truck.’

Riley said nothing.

‘The pool car blew apart under the impact.’ He looked at her. ‘There were no survivors.’