Authors: James Herbert
Kelso could only stare.
‘Come now, Kelly, you didn’t really think I believed you were a damned bird-watcher, did you?’ Slauden laughed. ‘I know you were only snooping around yesterday looking
for your partner in crime.’
Kelso did not know whether to feel relieved, or even more apprehensive: did their error put him in a better or worse situation?
‘It was perfectly clear, Kelly, that you had only a rudimentary knowledge of birdlife. Perhaps you could have been forgiven for not knowing that the storm petrel does not, in fact, breed
here, but when I tested you further, I’m afraid you failed rather dismally. Rather stupidly, actually.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Slauden.’
‘Of course not. Nor did you yesterday. I informed you that I had a goosander nesting in the reeds by the river; anyone with a good knowledge of the subject would be well aware that the
goosander nests in trees.’
‘I’d forgotten.’
Again, Slauden laughed, but this time disdainfully. ‘What we have to find out from you,
Mr
Kelly, is just how much damage you and Trewick have done to my organization with your
petty pilfering. If, indeed, it was petty.’
‘I still don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Slauden’s knuckles showed white around the stem of the glass. ‘I really do hope we won’t find it necessary to resort to extreme measures. We’ll all be very busy after
tomorrow and will have little time for foolish games.’ He drained the brandy and held out the empty glass; Henson took it from him and placed it on a small leather-topped occasional table.
Slauden sat stiffly in his chair, eyes that were almost black fixed on the detective.
‘What’s happened to Andy?’ Kelso asked, more in desperation than out of curiosity.
‘Sir Anthony told you not to ask questions,’ Bannen said, approaching menacingly.
‘Wait, I want no more of that,’ Slauden snapped. He watched Kelso thoughtfully for a few minutes, steepled fingers against his lower lip; then he seemed to come to a decision.
‘Unfortunately your friend, Trewick, came to some grief. We knew he was stealing from us, you see, but we didn’t know to what extent and just who was helping him dispose of the
merchandise. Then you came on the scene – you were seen together on separate occasions. His disappearance caused you some concern judging by your attempts to locate him. I wonder if your
anxiety was for Trewick or because your source of supply might dry up?’
Kelso swallowed more brandy and said nothing.
‘We weren’t very sure of your involvement until I invited you here to Eshley Hall. The mistakes you made left little doubt.’
‘So you tried to frighten me off last night.’
‘No, not at all. I tried to have you killed.’
‘Jesus Christ, just because you thought I was stealing drugs from you?’
‘My – shall we say “clandestine”– business earns me profits of several million a year; do you imagine I’d let anything or anyone jeopardize that?’
Slauden’s tiny, well-manicured hands gripped the sides of the chair before he controlled his rising anger and relaxed them once more. ‘Trewick paid the price of his folly. His rewards
for helping to bring the merchandise into the country apparently were not enough for him – he had to create his own market using goods that did not belong to him. His greed could have ruined
everything.’
‘He brought the drugs in?’
‘Come now, Kelly, let’s not play these stupid games. I’m sure you’re well aware of how the merchandise was smuggled into the country. What I need to know is just how big
your
particular network is. How many others are involved? Or was it just you and Trewick – and, of course, this girl you live with?’
‘Didn’t Andy tell you?’
‘I’m afraid I never had the chance to ask him: Bannen was a little too enthusiastic when his two thugs, here, delivered Trewick to him.’
The two men by the door looked uncomfortable as Bannen began to protest.
Slauden wearily held up a hand. ‘Yes, I know, Bannen: he broke his neck falling down the stairs when you brought him back. No doubt Kelly fell down those same stairs.’ He turned his
attention back to the detective. ‘Like you, Trewick was an amateur, a bungler. We would never have known about his thefts had he not made a serious error. With the vast quantities my
laboratory processes, under the guidance of our learned chemist, Dr Vernon Collingbury –’ Kelso glanced towards the man sitting at the writing desk and at whom Slauden had briefly
pointed ‘ – his pilfering would have gone on undetected for years, but he used a singularly foolhardy method to get the stolen drugs out – although perhaps the only one because of
the thorough searches everyone, without exception, undergoes on leaving the basement area.’
‘How did he manage it?’
‘You don’t know? I’m sure he must have boasted to you.’
Kelso decided to gamble – at least this way he was gathering information and gaining time. If they discovered he was with the Drugs Squad, they would probably get rid of him immediately.
They’d have little choice. ‘Andy wouldn’t tell me how he got hold of the stuff.’
‘He’s lying,’ Henson said.
‘Why should I lie about that?’ Kelso countered. ‘It won’t help me any.’
‘No, it won’t help you at all,’ said Slauden. ‘Your friend and colleague used a simple idea. He stole very small amounts each time – LSD crystals mainly, because
they were easier to handle. A plastic bag containing the drugs was dropped into the laboratory’s drainage system. As you probably realize from the glimpse you had when you were brought up
here, our processing requires thousands of gallons of water during distillation to keep the equipment cool and the only way we can shed such amounts is by draining into the local canals or the
river. The river is too risky because of traffic – our drainage pipe might be seen.
‘We, along with everyone else in the area, were puzzled by the peculiar incident concerning the family living at the edge of town. In such a close, and perhaps, unworldly, community, such
occurrences are not common. We became quite alarmed when we realized that the Preece family lived nearby the particular canal in which we disposed of our waste and, because we have always been
extremely careful never to flush any harmful substances into the system, we suspected either an accident or that someone was deliberately using the drain for their own surreptitious purposes. The
temptation had always been there for those who worked on the processing, but each individual knows the dire consequences of such a misdemeanour. The pipe and drain were examined and a small grille,
just big enough to prevent any package of a certain size from passing through, was found across the channel outside the house. Whoever had been stealing merely dropped his package into the waste
system, then collected it from the outside at a convenient moment. Unfortunately, on one occasion, the container burst – perhaps it was chewed open by an animal or pecked by a bird –
and the contents flushed into the waterway leading towards the town. It was a chance in a million that the Preece family used water containing a tiny amount of diluted LSD crystals, but a chance
that could have exposed everything.’
Kelso finished his brandy, and thought of the vole he and Ellie had found: Trewick’s little packages might well have had their contents spilled more than once – the animal had not
been dead that long.
Slauden continued speaking and Kelso began to suspect that the drugs dealer’s frankness was merely a skilful ploy to encourage him to open up and reveal his own part in Trewick’s
treachery. His only ace was that Slauden seemed to be underestimating his intelligence, treating him like a small-time crook. Some ace. He also wondered if he were not grandstanding for his own
hirelings, a little man impressing his minions with his own cleverness. ‘We are still not certain of just who was stealing from us, but Andy Trewick was high on our suspicion list. He
associated with the Americans on the NATO base, you see – a natural outlet for soft drugs. Also, his social activities were centred around Norwich and Ipswich, where there is a big demand for
cannabis and marijuana. The last factor which made him highly suspect was that he was naïve enough to imagine he could get away with it; nobody else in my employ would be so stupid.’
‘Amen to that,’ Bannen commented, his wide grin accentuating the redness of his swollen nose.
‘Trewick was watched very carefully for some time until two events caused us even more concern. One was your arrival in Adleton. Your occasional “chats” with our wayward
fisherman seemed innocent enough – we soon learned that you were supposed to be a conservationist – but your anxiety over his disappearance, even though your enquiries seemed casual,
confirmed the connection. It was then we had to consider whether Trewick’s activities were just confined to the surrounding area, or had branched into a wider field, where the demand –
and the price – is always high. We concluded that you were helping to push our property into the London market. And that, my greedy friend, would have proved extremely harmful to us. It also
implied that we may have been wrong in estimating just how much was being taken from our laboratory. Dr Collingbury still insists the amount was minimal, but then at present-day street value, a
single LSD microdot is worth more than £5, one pound of cannabis is worth between £600 and £700, and pure cocaine can fetch well over £13,000 per pound. Mix the coke with
milk powder or lactose and your profit margin is phenomenal. So you see, quantity is relative to price. And, of course, a new source of supply in the city always creates interest, and speculation
from outsiders – be it from the police or others involved in the drugs trade – is something we do not encourage.’
‘Look, you’ve got this all wrong . . .’
‘Allow me to finish. I said that there were two events which increased our concern. The second was the most alarming of all.’ Slauden reached into the fireplace and picked up a short
log lying among others in the hearth. Kelso could feel his own muscles beginning to tauten as he watched him place the log in the fire. Another followed and the flames lapped hungrily at the damp
wood. Finally, satisfied that the fire was replenished, Slauden wiped his hands with a handkerchief and settled back in the armchair. ‘I learned the other day,’ he went on as though he
had not interrupted himself, ‘from inside sources, that a pilot from the NATO base had deliberately crashed his aircraft into the sea after having injected himself with LSD. I think you can
well imagine the stir such an incident caused among the military and the Ministry of Defence. What if the plane had been armed with nuclear missiles? What if the deranged pilot had chosen to attack
a strategic target? And what if the whole episode was part of some sinister plot by a foreign power to undermine confidence in the NATO Forces defence structure in Europe? Just imagine, if you can,
the furore – suppressed though it was – that broke out.’ He gave a short laugh. ‘Do you know the enemy whom many US military chiefs of staff fear most? The enemy inside. The
left-wing infiltrators who supply their susceptible troops with drugs. It’s become a major headache since Vietnam, and the generals are still unsure how to combat it. Reds are no longer under
the bed – now they’re making it. They know the moral fibre of the fighting man has been weakened by too much soft living and influenced by too much liberal thinking in the media.
Pleasure and apathy are the trends, and the soldier, sailor or airman is no different from his civilian counterpart: he wants his share.
‘You may have noticed, Kelly, that in England alone, the frequency of military aircraft crashes has increased considerably over recent years. Much of the blame has been attributed to
dangerous low-flying training exercises – the only way enemy radar can be foxed; but have you wondered if the cause of the “accidents” was not more sinister? Perhaps you
haven’t, but those in authority certainly have. And that’s why the results of the autopsy on the pilot who crashed a few days ago threw them into such panic. It made matters very
uncomfortable for us here, knowing the base would be overturned in trying to locate the drug’s source, and we knew that Trewick’s dangerous activities would have to be brought to a
swift halt.’
Kelso was angry despite his fear. ‘But you had no definite proof it was him?’
‘His running away was proof enough. He knew we were onto him.’
‘And you killed him for that?’
‘His death was premature, but yes, we would have disposed of him anyway as soon as we had learned what we needed to know.’
‘So when I talk, you’ll “dispose” of me.’
‘Not necessarily. It may be that you can be absorbed into my organization. If you can prove to me that your outlets are worthwhile, then perhaps you can be of use.’
Kelso did not believe him for one moment, but he was trapped by his own cover, a guise that had developed into something more. He shook his head and said doubtfully, ‘I don’t
know.’
‘Then let me take you into my confidence and tell you more of my organization. Perhaps I’ll manage to convince you of my sincerity by showing you how you could fit in.’
‘I don’t think he should be told anything more,’ Henson commented.
‘Me, neither,’ Bannen put in. ‘Let’s get rid of him now; you know we can make him disappear off the face of the earth without leaving so much as a fingernail.’
Slauden’s eyes blazed. ‘I don’t believe I need
your
opinion, Bannen. That goes for you, too, Julian. Allow me to handle this in my own way.’
Kelso wanted to make a break for it there and then. He knew ultimately there was no way he could win, no matter how he lied, or whoever listened. He glanced towards the door, but the two men who
had brought him up from the basement stood before it, looking bored yet nonetheless menacing. The chemist still sat at the writing desk by the window and looked frightened by the whole situation.
Bannen stood beside Slauden’s chair, ready to pounce on Kelso at the slightest provocation, while Henson sat nonchalantly on the arm of the settee.
Kelso knew it was no use: even if he had not been in such a battered state, it would have been impossible to tackle all of them. A burning log on the fire crackled and he stared hopelessly into
the flames. His attention was drawn back to the small man opposite.