Night Train to Murder

by Simon R. Green

  ‘I’m Brian Mitchell, official bodyguard to Sir Dennis! Military police, plain-clothes. And I am the only protection officer authorized to be here.’

  ‘You’re the official protection,’ I said patiently. ‘Penny and I are the unofficial backup. If you’re military, you must know how security works, Brian; it’s always belt and braces. And never letting the enemy know what the other hand’s doing. Now, please, put the gun down. Opening fire in a confined space is rarely a good idea.’

  ‘Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?’ said Brian, trying to sound as though he was in charge and missing by a mile.

  ‘Yes, I would like that,’ I said. ‘I’m sure everyone here would feel a lot safer if no one was waving a gun around.’

  ‘I am not waving it around!’ Brian said loudly.

  He took a step forward and aimed the gun right between my eyes, as though that would make it more threatening. When I just stared calmly back at him, he turned the gun away from me and aimed it at Penny, thinking I’d be more concerned for her than I was for my own safety. And I decided that enough was enough. I charged down the aisle toward him, and he automatically started to turn the gun back to me, but by then I was right on top of him. I snatched the gun out of his hand, turned it around and took careful aim at his heart. He looked at me with shocked eyes, started to raise his hands and then stopped, for fear I might take that as a threat. I took a step back, lowered the gun and put it away in my jacket pocket.

  ‘Calm the hell down, Brian,’ I said. ‘We’ve already got one body on this train; let’s not try for two.’

  Brian had to open and shut his mouth a few times before he felt able to answer me.

  ‘Give me back my gun! I had to sign for that.’

  ‘Maybe later,’ I said. ‘Now, sit down and behave yourself.’

  He thought about arguing, thought better of it and sat down in his seat again, scowling at me like a child who’d just had his favourite toy taken away. I turned to the three businesspeople, who were slowly sitting up in their seats again. They all looked a bit stunned. They weren’t used to guns, and they’d never seen anyone disarm a man so easily. I tried my reassuring smile again.

  ‘It’s all in the reflexes.’

  The three of them thought about that and actually relaxed a little. What I’d just given them was one of those answers that doesn’t actually mean anything but sounds as though it does. Something to reassure people into thinking they’ve received an explanation when they really haven’t. I noticed the young Indian woman was keeping a wary eye on the jacket pocket where I’d put the gun.

  ‘I still want to know why I wasn’t told about you,’ Brian said stubbornly.

  ‘Because you didn’t need to know,’ I said. ‘Penny and I were brought in at the last minute, as an extra level of protection.’

  ‘They didn’t trust me,’ Brian said bitterly. ‘I was never really Sir Dennis’s bodyguard … I was just a decoy, a distraction, someone to hold the killer’s attention while you did the real job. Well, the joke’s on you, Mr Jones, because in the end you were no more use than I was.’

  The younger businessman raised his hand again.

  ‘You don’t need to do that,’ I said patiently. ‘Just introduce yourself and ask your question.’

  ‘Oh, right. I’m Rupert Hall. Are you planning to stop the train before we get to Bath?’

  ‘I’m Sita Patel,’ the Indian woman said immediately. ‘What’s the point in stopping the train? Sir Dennis is dead; stopping won’t change anything.’

  ‘I’ve arranged to meet someone in Bath,’ said Rupert. ‘And I really don’t want to be late.’

  ‘I’m sure they’ll wait for you,’ said Sita. ‘There’s been a murder; try to concentrate on what matters.’

  Rupert looked quietly crushed and subsided back into his seat in the face of Sita’s open disdain.

  ‘I’m Howard Goldwasser,’ said the older of the businessmen. ‘Aren’t we supposed to pull the communication cord? Isn’t that the correct thing to do in this situation?’

  ‘This is a special express,’ said Brian, trying to grab back some of his authority. ‘The driver is under strict instructions not to stop for anything until we get to Bath.’

  ‘Even though a man is dead?’ said Sita.

  ‘Especially now he’s dead,’ I said.

  Sita frowned and seemed to lose some of her assurance. ‘I thought we’d be stopping at the next station.’

  Brian smiled. ‘Think again.’

  ‘I wasn’t told anything about this being a special express,’ said Howard.

  ‘Then you should have paid more attention,’ said Brian.

  ‘The authorities will be waiting to meet us at Bath,’ I said, keeping my voice carefully calm and reasonable. ‘Brian, you and I need to talk. Penny, why don’t you have a nice little chat with the rest of the passengers? Bring them up to speed on what’s happened, and answer any questions they may have.’

  Penny gestured for me to lean in close. ‘How much should I tell them?’ she asked quietly.

  ‘As little as possible,’ I said, just as quietly. ‘Calm them down and keep them quiet, while I question the bodyguard.’

  ‘Thanks a bunch,’ said Penny.

  ‘Would you rather talk to the bodyguard?’

  ‘I’ll talk to the passengers.’

  Penny got up out of her seat, all smiles and charm, and quickly persuaded the three businesspeople that they should all move further down the carriage and sit together. Penny’s always been good at persuading people to do what she wants. I’ve never really had the knack. I sat down opposite the bodyguard, and he scowled sullenly at me.

  ‘When am I going to get my gun back?’

  ‘When I think you can be trusted with it,’ I said. We locked eyes for a moment, and although he didn’t look away, he did lose some of his belligerence. He sat back in his seat and studied me suspiciously.

  ‘All right, what is it you want to talk about, Mr Jones? Is that really your name – Ishmael Jones?’

  ‘You know how it is,’ I said. ‘You take what you’re given. Now, we need to figure out how Sir Dennis was killed.’

  ‘I can’t tell you anything,’ said Brian. ‘Sir Dennis was fine all the time he was with me. A complete pain in the arse, but fine. Then he decided he had to go to the toilet; the next thing I know, you’re telling me the man is dead.’

  ‘Someone must have broken into the toilet cubicle, killed Sir Dennis and somehow locked the door again when they left,’ I said. ‘All without anyone noticing. I couldn’t find a single clue to indicate who did it, but I do have good reason to believe the killer is someone in this carriage.’

  Brian sat up sharply and peered down the compartment at the other passengers. ‘Oh, come on! Those three? There’s not one of them looks like a killer.’

  ‘Killers rarely do,’ I said.

  ‘But … I was sitting right here, looking down the aisle and waiting for Sir Dennis to come back,’ said Brian. He frowned, concentrating. ‘No one left the compartment after he did; I couldn’t have missed seeing them. The killer must have come from somewhere further down the train.’

  ‘That’s not possible,’ I said. ‘The next carriage along had to be evacuated soon after we left Paddington, when all the lights failed. The door at the far end of that carriage has been locked and guarded ever since. No one could have come through from that end.’

  ‘But … that’s just not possible!’ said Brian. ‘Even if I had taken my eyes off the aisle for a moment, you and the girl were sitting right next to the door. You couldn’t have avoided seeing anyone go past you.’

  ‘Intriguing, isn’t it?’ I said. ‘Not to mention patently impossible. But someone must have managed it.’

  ‘All right,’ said Brian. ‘I give up. What’s the answer?’

  ‘Damned if I know,’ I said. ‘You stay here and think about it, while I go and have a word with the other passengers.’

  ‘You don’t want me to come wi
th you?’

  ‘One set of questions at a time, I think,’ I said diplomatically.

  ‘Don’t take any nonsense from them,’ Brian said flatly. ‘In my experience, the best way to get answers out of people is to just keep hammering away at them until they crack.’

  ‘I’ll bear that in mind,’ I said. I got to my feet.

  ‘Hey!’ said Brian. ‘What about my gun?’

  I looked back at him as I stepped out into the aisle. ‘What about it?’

  I left him still trying to come up with an answer to that one and went to join Penny and the businesspeople. She saw me coming and got up to join me halfway. We stood close together and lowered our voices.

  ‘Are you going to give that man his gun back?’ said Penny.

  ‘Not if I can help it,’ I said. ‘The last thing we need right now is a gun in the hand of someone with serious impulse control problems. How are the others taking things?’

  ‘Confused, mostly,’ said Penny. ‘Along with shocked, upset and very worried about what’s going to happen to them. The general consensus seems to be that they don’t know anything about what happened to Sir Dennis, and they don’t want to know. It’s nothing to do with them, so would we please just leave them alone.’

  ‘Sita Patel knew who Sir Dennis was,’ I said. ‘She tried to ask him questions on the way to the toilet. He had to barge past her, pretty unpleasantly. I would really like to know what it was she wanted to ask him. And I saw Howard Goldwasser look at Sir Dennis more than once. He knew who the man was – and not in a good way. Were you able to get anything out of Rupert Hall?’

  ‘Not really. He just keeps insisting he has to meet someone in Bath and doesn’t want to be late.’

  ‘Business or personal?’

  ‘He wouldn’t say.’

  ‘I’d better talk to them,’ I said. ‘They must know something about what happened, even if they don’t realize it.’

  ‘What are you going to ask them?’ Penny said cautiously.

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Anything that comes to mind. Right now, we don’t know a damned thing about them or the murder. Any information has to be better than none.’

  We went back to the three businesspeople. They seemed happy enough to see Penny again, less so when it came to me. I was used to that. Instead of sitting down, I stood towering over them, for the extra authority it gave me.

  ‘I know this has been a shock and a strain for all of you,’ I said. ‘Please try to stay calm and let us do our job.’

  ‘What is your job, exactly?’ Sita said immediately.

  ‘Finding out who killed Sir Dennis,’ I said.

  ‘Shouldn’t you be showing us some ID?’ said Sita. ‘Something to prove you really are who you say you are. You could be anybody!’

  ‘People like us don’t carry ID,’ said Penny.

  Strangely, that seemed to reassure them. It made us seem more like the real thing than any form of ID could have managed. If you ask me, people watch far too many spy shows on television.

  ‘There’s no point asking us questions,’ said Rupert. His voice was surprisingly diffident for such a well-built man, and he had trouble making eye contact with me. ‘We don’t know anything about this politician or how he was killed.’

  ‘People often say that,’ I said. ‘But you’d be surprised how much you do notice without realizing.’

  ‘Are you going to interrogate us?’ said Sita.

  ‘Just ask a few questions,’ I said.

  ‘I didn’t see or hear anything,’ Howard said flatly, and the other two nodded quickly in agreement.

  ‘Then the questioning shouldn’t take too long, should it?’ I said pleasantly. ‘For now, just sit tight and think about what you’re going to say, while I nip back and have another quick chat with the bodyguard.’

  I gestured to Penny, and we moved back down the aisle again.

  ‘Let them stew for a few minutes, and then I’ll try again,’ I said.

  ‘What if they really don’t know anything?’ said Penny.

  ‘One of them must,’ I said. ‘You keep them entertained, while I try to dig some more information out of the bodyguard.’

  ‘Keep them entertained?’ said Penny, just a bit dangerously. ‘What am I, your social secretary?’

  ‘You are my valued partner,’ I said. ‘Which is why I feel perfectly safe leaving three potential murder suspects in your care. It’s always possible that they’ll feel relaxed enough in your company to tell you things, rather than face my interrogation. Because you’re the nice one.’

  ‘Well,’ said Penny, ‘that goes without saying.’

  I went back to Brian and sat down opposite him again. He folded his arms and sniffed loudly.

  ‘What do you want now, security man?’

  ‘How did you get the job as Sir Dennis’s bodyguard?’ I said. ‘You said you were military police …’

  ‘Shouldn’t you already know that?’

  ‘Penny and I were only brought on to this case at the last moment,’ I said patiently. ‘There wasn’t time for a proper briefing.’

  Brian allowed himself a small smile. ‘Isn’t that always the way? All right … I’m a military police officer, attached to the strength at Woolwich Arsenal. Half a dozen of us were summoned before our commanding officer earlier this evening and told we were being considered for an important assignment. Extra money was mentioned, along with improved career prospects, which, of course, made all of us very suspicious. Never volunteer for anything in the army. But it was also made clear to us that declining this marvellous opportunity wasn’t going to be an option. So we drew straws, and I got the job.

  ‘When they explained what was involved, it all sounded simple enough … but now I just know I’m going to get the blame for letting Sir Dennis go off on his own and get killed. All I had to do was watch the man, and I blew it. He was only out of my sight for a few minutes!’

  ‘Sometimes that’s all it takes,’ I said. ‘But you’re in the clear, Brian; I heard him order you to stay put.’

  ‘Well,’ said Brian, ‘that’s something. If he’d only paid proper attention to my advice, he’d still be alive. But he wouldn’t listen … The arrogant little creep.’ He stopped and looked at me steadily. ‘Give it to me straight. Why did the powers that be think they needed you here, as well as me?’

  ‘My people received advance information that someone was planning a professional hit,’ I said.

  ‘I was bait, wasn’t I?’ Brian said quietly. ‘Just a warm body for the hitman to deal with on his way to Sir Dennis, so you could take them down.’ He smiled a smile with no humour in it. ‘That’s the army for you. Use you up and throw you away, because there’s always more waiting to be used.’

  ‘You don’t seem too surprised, or even upset, about that,’ I said.

  He shrugged. ‘Any soldier worth his salt works that one out quickly enough. It’s all part of the deal, from the moment you sign up. You give your life to the army so you can protect your country, and they get to decide what to do with it.’ He nodded suddenly, as though he’d just come to a decision. ‘You know what? You and what’s-her-name can run this investigation without me. I know when I’m out of my depth. But I expect to be kept in the loop, if you find out anything.’

  ‘I’ll tell you what I can,’ I said.

  I might or I might not, but I was pretty sure Brian already understood that. We were both just going through the courtesies, for our pride’s sake. I can do people skills, when I have to.

  ‘Whatever questions you have left for me, let’s get them out of the way now,’ said Brian. ‘So you can concentrate on the real suspects. No, wait a minute! I thought of something while you were off talking to the others … Could the killer still be hiding somewhere in the space between the carriages? Tucked away in some hidden compartment? I saw this movie once where a midget curled himself up in a space so small you wouldn’t believe it …’

  ‘I really don’t think so,’ I said.
/>   ‘Aren’t you at least going to take a look?’

  ‘There’s nowhere in the vestibule that anyone could be hiding,’ I said firmly.

  I could be sure of that because I would have heard their heartbeat or picked up on their scent but, of course, I couldn’t tell Brian that. He looked disappointed but nodded reluctantly.

  ‘Talk to me about Sir Dennis,’ I said. ‘You spent more time talking with him than anyone else.’

  ‘It’s not like we were close,’ he said. He seemed to find the idea amusing. ‘As far as he was concerned, I was just a bulletproof vest on legs. Something he could hide behind if the bullets started flying.’

  ‘Did he mention his new job?’ I said. ‘Or anyone he might have upset recently, who he had reason to be concerned about? There’s always the chance the motive for his murder could turn out to be personal, rather than political.’

  ‘You can rule me out either way,’ said Brian. ‘I was chosen by lot just to ensure I wouldn’t have any connection to the man. Once I’d got the job, they just gave me a suit and gun and drove me straight to the station.’

  ‘All right,’ I said. ‘What did the two of you find to talk about?’

  Brian scowled. ‘Sir Dennis wasn’t interested in anything I had to say; he just wanted to boast about his new position and how important that made him. He was so full of himself he had to tell someone, and I was all he had.’ His frown deepened. ‘I got the impression this new appointment came as something of a surprise. He hadn’t gone after it, never thought he stood a chance. So when it just fell into his lap, he was convinced it meant the beginning of a whole new career for him. And he was going to ride it as far as it would take him.’

  ‘Sir Dennis had a big file with him,’ I said. ‘Did he discuss its contents at all?’

  ‘Not a word,’ Brian said immediately. ‘Wouldn’t even let me look at it. Said my security clearance wasn’t high enough. Really, I think it was just something else he could use to lord it over me.’