by Max Hennessy
* * *
‘How did Major Finch seem at this time?’ Moyalan asked.
‘He was hitting the bottle a bit,’ Hardacre said. ‘Drinking. He didn’t ever do much work and whenever the Colonel was away he always seemed to be in the town. He had the wind up a bit and, in addition, he was always a bit occupied with this Countess Seinikina. He was always at her place.’
‘Did he still show interest in Miss Vronskina?’
‘He was a proper nuisance, sir. Especially when he’d had a few drinks. She used to say to me when he was around, “Stay close, Hardacre. He’s coming.” It didn’t always work, though, and I found her crying once.’
‘Because of him forcing his attentions on her?’ Godliman asked.
‘Yes. She was only seventeen, milord. In the end I told Major Higgins.’
‘Why Major Higgins?’
‘Well, sir, it was none of my business but it only needed half an eye to realise he’d got it badly.’
‘You mean he was also attracted to the young lady?’
‘Not half, milord. Only he was different from Major Finch. He was always the gentleman. Kind to her, and so on, and he never forgot she was only young. But he’d still got it badly. Quite a lot of us had, in fact. Me included.’
‘Did Major Higgins allow his feelings to interfere with his duties?’
‘Oh, no, milord! He was no Major Finch. He probably worked all the harder.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Well, Major Higgins was a quiet man, a bit shy, and Miss Vronskina was just the opposite – happy, cheerful, and he was always a bit put out when she talked to him. He always looked embarrassed and blushed. Because she was good looking and young, I suppose, and he wasn’t either. He seemed to go inside his shell, but it was obvious what he felt. I heard the other officers talk about it now and again.’
‘And what was their attitude to it?’ Moyalan asked. Hardacre grinned. ‘They were all for it. They said it was just what he needed. He was a popular officer, see, in spite of being quiet, and everybody liked Katerina and thought it was a good match.’
‘And Miss Vronskina?’
‘Oh, they pulled her leg about him and so did I, and she just laughed. But I saw her looking at him sideways once or twice as though we’d made her think.’
‘I see. Please go on. You said you told Major Higgins about Major Finch.’
‘Yes, sir, and he finally caught him. One night, when the old lady was out visiting. He was upstairs trying to get into her room. I was with Major Higgins and I saw ’em. Her dress was torn and she was screaming and Major Finch was trying to push the door open. Major Higgins went up the stairs like a shot out of a gun and the next thing I knew was that Major Finch had landed at my feet, rolled over and hit his face against the door, with a wallop that made all the bits of coloured glass in the top half rattle in their sockets.’
‘Major Higgins had knocked him down the stairs?’
‘Or else he’d slipped. It was hard to tell.’
‘What was said?’
‘Major Higgins told him if he tried anything else, he’d report him to the Colonel. Colonel Prideaux had always been a stickler for doing the right thing, sir.’
‘What did Major Finch say?’
‘He said, “You’ll never get away with this, Higgins. I’ll break you for it.”’
Kirkham rose swiftly. ‘My lord,’ he said blusteringly, ‘I’m beginning to lose patience a little with all this. What the personal affairs of this dreary Major Finch have to do with the libel on my client I have no idea.’
Moyalan looked up at Godliman. ‘They have a great deal to do with it, my lord,’ he said, ‘as we shall show.’
Godliman nodded. ‘I’m afraid you will have to be patient, Sir Gordon,’ he said.
As Kirkham sat down angrily, Moyalan went on.
‘Did Major Finch try again to molest Miss Vronskina?’ he asked.
‘No, sir. Not after that. Because just about that time, we began to get news of defeats everywhere. We were proper down and a bit scared, too. At least, I was. We lost Petrograd and Elizabetskaya was threatened and then Budenny was reported to have come round in a big circle and to be almost within reach of Nikolovssk. It came like a thunderclap and everything stopped.’
* * *
By the grace of God, Prideaux and Finch were in Khaskov seeing Brigadier Speed about changing the standing orders and letting them have a go at the Bolsheviks when the news arrived, in the hands of the harassed Barry who called on Higgins in a state of wild excitement.
‘Look, old boy,’ he said. ‘I know nobody’s got reliable troops these days, but at least you’ve got a few Englishmen and I’d rather trust them than anybody else in this blasted town. How about sending a few of them up the main road towards Elizabetskaya? Budenny’s up there somewhere and they might be able to find out something. If Budenny’s this side of Alexandropol we ought all to be clearing out. But I don’t fancy risking an engine up there. I might lose it. Your people don’t have to stop if the track’s cut, and a troop under a good sergeant could do the job all right.’
‘I’ll do better than that,’ Higgins said. ‘I’ll send a car. It can do the job in a couple of days without trouble.’
Within the hour, complete with rations for two days, Colmore and a crew of three men were heading down the bleak and dusty windblown Elizabetskaya road, pumping the bulb of the horn to clear the way as they disappeared into the shrivelled yellow grass and misty autumn sun, and MacAdoo and the other cars were standing by to follow them up with spare petrol in case of trouble.
* * *
The courtroom had become deathly silent and even the judge was leaning forward eagerly to hear. The story was becoming exciting now and all the flowered hats in the gallery that might normally have been at tea parties were tilted forward as their owners strained their ears.
‘What happened then?’ Moyalan asked.
Hardacre shrugged, as though, even after twenty years, he was still a little upset by the memory. ‘Colonel Prideaux returned, sir,’ he said. ‘And mucked up the whole thing.’
‘Go on, Mr. Hardacre. Tell us about his arrival.’
‘Well, as soon as he arrived,’ Hardacre went on, ‘he found out that Lieutenant Colmore had disappeared with one of the Hispanos. I think he saw Captain MacAdoo and Mr. Potter preparing to go off in support with the other Hispano and the Rolls. He was very angry, as though he’d got no change from the Brigadier about going into action. I’d never seen him like it. He was shouting. I never heard him shout before. He told Major Higgins he had no right to send the cars. “This is a mounted regiment,” he said. “What’s the use of training the men to work with horses if they’re never allowed to do so? A Squadron will go.”’
‘What did Major Higgins do?’
‘He tried to argue. He said that no horsemen could ever get to where Mr. Colmore was in time. But Colonel Prideaux insisted and even said he was going to lead A Squadron himself. Then Major Higgins said that they couldn’t send A Squadron because they were the only reliable troops in Nikolovssk and that if the situation deteriorated any further they’d need them in the town to protect the station and the sidings.’
‘What did Colonel Prideaux say to that?’
‘In the end, after a lot of arguing, he agreed and he dropped the idea of going himself. But he was still angry and he still refused to let the cars go. He said B squadron must go. He called Captain Kuprin and told him what he wanted. Captain Kuprin passed the order on to the commander of the squadron, Captain Nazhintzev, and then objected most strongly.’
‘On what grounds?’
‘He said Captain Nazhintzev claimed that his men weren’t fit for the job. He said they were completely unreliable and he expected desertion.’
‘What happened?’
‘B Squadron went just the same. The Colonel insisted Captain Kuprin went with it – on Colonel Prideaux’s instructions – to make sure they did the job properly, he said.’
Moyalan nodded. ‘Very well, Mr. Hardacre. Tell us in your own words what happened next.’
* * *
Hardacre drew a deep breath. ‘Well, sir,’ he began, ‘the next day the Vronskins’ canteen was closed. I heard Colonel Prideaux tell Major Finch that he thought a lot of information about us was being passed on to the Reds by the people who worked there – the cook, the washer-up and so on.’
‘Was this so?’
Hardacre shrugged. ‘It might have been. Everything was so confused. In those days, you didn’t know who to trust, and he might have been right. I thought it was Major Finch who’d done all the talking – to this Countess Seinikina, and I knew she had boyfriends all over the place. And I thought closing the canteen was a rotten thing to do. We couldn’t get into town because it was getting dangerous and the Colonel had put it out of bounds except on duty.’
‘Go on.’
‘Well, he was a bit late unfortunately. The stable door was being closed after the horse was gone. Quite a few of the lads had got mates in the town by this time. Sometimes they’d got girls who’d introduced their brothers, and the brothers had pocketfuls of pamphlets, and quite a few of the lads had got around to thinking that Communism wasn’t so bad.’
Hardacre paused. ‘I was thinking a bit their way at the time, too,’ he went on, ‘and when the canteen was closed, I thought it was just an officers’ trick. Grinding the faces of the poor.’ Hardacre looked up at Godliman. ‘I’m sorry for the phrase, my lord. That’s just the way we felt then. Especially as the Colonel was a different man these days. He seemed to be letting off steam because he couldn’t work it out any other way, and he was always saying that the only good Communist was a dead one. It made me a bit anti, that, because where I’d come from politics had always been pretty close to Communism.’
Godliman nodded and Hardacre went on. ‘I found out that with B Squadron away there was talk in C Squadron, which was the worst affected of the two, of locking up their officers and doing a bunk to Budenny’s army near Elizabetskaya. There was a lot of arguing going on and I’d learned enough Russian by then to understand most of it. Perhaps I ought to have told someone but at that time I suppose I sympathised with ’em a bit and the Colonel kept narking me with all his talk about wanting to hit the Bolshies for six and that sort of thing; and in addition, sir, just then it seemed only talk. I supposed I thought it might blow over.’
Moyalan held up his hand. ‘Let’s leave this talk of revolution for a minute, Mr. Hardacre, and go back to the incident of the cars. The Hispano under Lieutenant Colmore had been gone some time by now, hadn’t it?’
‘That’s right, sir. Mr. Higgins was getting worried.’
* * *
Three days had passed since Colmore had left and the autumn wind was blowing down the road from the north, scattering russet maple leaves and tousling the reeds near the lake. The first sign of approaching winter had come with a slight frost that had sprinkled a silvery grizzle over the stream, and the weeds along the cart tracks were beginning to wither. Barry had twice appeared at the barracks to find out if any information had been brought in but he had been received coldly by Prideaux who told him that the information would be passed on when it arrived.
‘I hope so, sir,’ Barry said uneasily. ‘I’m getting worried. It’s amazing the stories that seem to filter down to us on the telegraph.’
It was after dark that night when B Squadron returned. Kuprin rode in just ahead of them, exhausted and with his mount almost dead of fatigue. Almost in tears, he threw the reins to the Russian who appeared from the guardroom and ran up the stairs to Higgins’ room. Hardacre happened to be there.
‘Is bloody fiasco,’ Kuprin burst out furiously in his strange English. ‘We lose thirty-five men. Desert. Go to Budenny. If we don’t come back, we lose all. Thirty-five men and forty-seven horses. Collapse. Dead. Worn out. Nazhintzev say B Squadron finish, Higgins. Finish.’
Higgins glanced at Hardacre. ‘Right, Hardacre,’ he said. ‘You can go.’
Hardacre slipped down the stairs. There was no need to listen at keyholes to learn what had happened. The first of B Squadron began to arrive half an hour later, a straggling muttering group of men oh lame horses, their uniforms stained under the straps of their equipment. They had not found Colmore and most of the time their officers had been occupied with making sure the rest of them didn’t desert in the direction of Elizabetskaya.
After a while, Higgins appeared in the yard with MacAdoo, wearing the goggles and leather coat he always used in the cars.
‘I promised Colmore we’d support him,’ he was saying. ‘He’ll need the petrol and he’ll wonder what happened.’
‘Let’s hope to God Budenny didn’t get on the wrong side of him,’ Potter said.
MacAdoo looked serious. ‘Let’s hope he don’t get on the wrong side of us, either,’ he added.
* * *
Things seemed suddenly very tense. That night a big fire broke out in the railway yards, that was said to have been caused by Communist infiltrators and, in addition, it began to grow colder and snow began to fall. The mutterings in the Slavska Barracks increased and it surprised Hardacre that Prideaux didn’t seem to hear them.
Then the Hispano and the Rolls arrived back together, swinging into the gate at speed so that the crews had to hang on to the high, rolling bodies to avoid being thrown out. They slid to a halt on the snow with locked wheels so that Prideaux and Finch who were just on the point of leaving for the town in the Stutz had to stop abruptly and were flung forward in their seats. Hardacre watched the scene from the guardroom, as Prideaux jumped out of the Stutz and stamped towards where Higgins stood in the middle of a group of British and Russian officers.
‘What the blazes do you mean by coming in through the gate like that, Higgins?’ he snapped.
Higgins seemed deliberately to ignore him at first, then he turned slowly and jerked a hand at the Rolls. In the back there were four bundles covered with overcoats.
‘Colmore’s dead, Colonel,’ he said quietly. ‘And so are the crew. The Reds got them.’
For a moment no one said anything, then MacAdoo stepped up behind Higgins. ‘The bastards had stripped them down to their underwear,’ he said, ‘and stood ’em up against a barn to be shot. Then they carved ’em up with bayonets and set fire to the car. Do you want to see ’em, Colonel? They’re in there, if you do.’
Prideaux slapped uneasily at his boot with the riding crop he was carrying and ran his tongue over his lips nervously. He looked unexpectedly uncertain and uneasy before the anger of the others.
‘I’m sorry, of course,’ he said gruffly.
‘They’d still have been alive if we’d sent the cars to meet them, Colonel,’ Higgins said in a low strained voice that still managed to be respectful through his anger, and Prideaux’s head jerked up as he tried to control the interview.
‘That will do, Higgins,’ he snapped.
MacAdoo’s voice rose as he joined in again. ‘But, instead,’ he said, ‘we had to do it the cavalry way, Colonel, the way they did it at Balaclava. With horses – so it took twice as long.’
Prideaux turned and for a moment he was disconcerted by the Canadian’s attack.
‘I said that will do,’ he insisted.
MacAdoo’s eyes narrowed. ‘I’m only sorry you won’t inspect the bodies, Colonel,’ he said. ‘I’m only sorry you won’t examine what those guys did to them. If you would, I guess you might be glad to eat your words. Maybe eat the goddam horses, too!’
Finch stepped in front of them. ‘Cut it out,’ he said importantly. ‘The Colonel said that would do!’
Higgins and MacAdoo stared at him and for a moment Hardacre thought they were going to go on, in defiance of them both, but Higgins abruptly swung on his heel and marched indoors, followed by MacAdoo and Potter. Prideaux stared after them for a while, fingering his moustache, his shoulders hunched, his brows down, then he turned back to the Stutz and climbed slowly aboard.
> * * *
Kirkham stood up, staring at his brief. For the first time, he seemed a little uncertain.
‘All this took place a long time ago,’ he began cautiously. ‘Twenty years, to be exact. Don’t you think perhaps after all this time that you are not very certain about what happened?’
‘I’m certain,’ Hardacre insisted doggedly.
The judge looked up. ‘What is being suggested to you, Mr. Hardacre,’ he explained, ‘is that with the passing of the years and all the things that have happened to you since, you have become confused.’
‘I know what happened!’ Hardacre’s doggedness became more marked.
Moyalan rose to his feet. ‘Before I began my defence, my lord,’ he said, ‘I informed the jury that I didn’t want to impose on them any more evidence than was necessary. This witness has given evidence only on what he saw or heard.’
‘I don’t withdraw what I said,’ Kirkham snapped.
‘Then do I gather, Sir Gordon,’ Godliman asked slowly, ‘that you are not suggesting that this witness has invented this story or part of this story, but that you are going to say that your witnesses are reliable witnesses and this one is not?’
‘Precisely, my lord.’ Kirkham’s face was puffed and red. ‘I may, in fact, find I shall have to recall General Prideaux for questioning on this period.’
‘Very well.’ The judge moved his shoulders in what seemed very much like a shrug, and glanced at the dock. ‘Doubtless, when the time comes,’ he said placatingly, ‘both you and Mr. Moyalan will address the jury on this point. For the time being, this seems a good time to adjourn for the day.’
6
The search – 3
Brighton’s Georgian façade was golden with a snatch of late afternoon sunshine as Willie Potter and Meg Danielsson leaned on the railings overlooking the beach and stared out to sea. On their left, the cliffs towards Rottingdean stood out brilliantly against grey clouds that were building up in the east like a threat.