Comes the Dark Stranger

Shane frowned, and glanced at him sharply. ‘What do you mean?’

Graham shrugged. ‘An experience like yours would be enough to send a more delicately balanced person completely over the edge of sanity. After all, it must be a hell of a shock to wake up one morning and find you’re seven years older. It’s a large slice of one’s life. Can’t you remember any of it?’

Shane shook his head and leaned forward. ‘No, I can’t remember a thing except what the doctors have told me. But I remember those six hours in the temple before the bombs fell. I remember Colonel Li and the volley outside when they shot Simon.’

There was a moment of stillness, and Graham said softly, ‘So you remember that, do you? You remember our old friend Colonel Li?’

Shane shivered violently. ‘I can still hear that club foot of his in my dreams,’ he said. ‘Sliding along the corridor and halting outside the cell door.’

Graham sighed. ‘I must admit I find it difficult to forget him, but other things happened afterwards that pushed his memory well down into my subconscious.’

‘And what were those other things?’ Shane asked. ‘When I checked you through records at the War Office they told me you’d never been a prisoner. They had you listed as wounded in action and medically discharged. That’s one thing I couldn’t understand.’

Graham shrugged. ‘It’s very simple really. After the bombing I was pretty dazed but otherwise unhurt. The whole place was a shambles. There didn’t seem to be any other survivors and, to be brutally honest, I didn’t hang around to look for any. I found our uniforms in what was left of Colonel Li’s office. There wasn’t much left of the colonel, by the way. I pulled on the first battle-dress that came to hand, and got the hell out of there. They were still raking the place with cannon-fire as I went down the hill.’

‘And then what?’ Shane asked.

Graham shrugged and took a cigarette from a slim gold case. ‘I managed to get across the river.’ A faint smile touched his twisted mouth. ‘I was about two hundred yards from the Allied lines when I stepped on a land-mine.’

‘What a lousy break,’ Shane said.

Graham shrugged. ‘Anyway, they did their best for me. Not a very good best as you can see, but there wasn’t a great deal left for them to work on. I couldn’t talk for a year, but finally they brought a German surgeon over and he did some new operation on my vocal chords. Now I can speak after a fashion.’

Shane couldn’t think of anything to say. He got to his feet and moved across to the window. ‘At least you’re not short of money, judging by this place.’

Graham nodded. ‘My uncle died the week before that last patrol. Remember when I got the letter from his lawyers? I promised you all one hell of a binge in Tokyo next leave to celebrate. When I got out of hospital I sold out to a combine and bought this house. It was the conservatory that appealed to me. I’ve made quite a hobby out of orchid cultivation. It’s a tricky business, you know.’

‘Were you surprised when you heard that Wilby, Crowther, and Steele had survived?’ Shane asked.

‘That’s putting it mildly,’ Graham told him. ‘Crowther was the first to come home. Apparently he was in a different camp from the other two.’

‘Have you seen anything of any of them?’ Shane said softly.

Graham shrugged. ‘There was a bit about Crowther in the local paper when he came home. I dropped him a line, and asked him to come and see me for old time’s sake. It wasn’t a very pleasant evening for him, and frankly we didn’t seem to have much to say. He got married a couple of years ago. The last I heard, he was a lecturer at the university.’

‘What about Wilby and Reggie Steele?’ Shane said.

‘I never bothered to get in touch with them, not after that uncomfortable evening with Crowther. I saw Wilby one Saturday night about a year ago as I was driving through town. He looked drunk, which was completely in character as I remember him. Steele runs some sort of a club in the town. The Garland Club, I think it’s called. Strip shows plus luncheon for tired businessmen. It’s the latest thing. I believe it’s quite a hot-spot during the evening as well.’

Shane didn’t reply. He stayed by the window, staring out into the rain, and after a short silence Graham said, ‘Are you going to look them up while you’re in town?’

Shane nodded slowly. ‘Yes, I’m going to look them up.’

‘What is this, a sentimental journey?’ Graham said.

Shane spoke without turning round. ‘I visited Simon Faulkner’s father and sister this afternoon.’

There was a short, evocative silence, and suddenly the air was charged with electricity. ‘My God!’ Charles Graham said. ‘So that’s what’s brought you back.’

Shane turned slowly and nodded. ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘I want to know who spilled his guts to Colonel Li. It wasn’t me, and it couldn’t have been you. That leaves Wilby, Crowther, or Steele. Take your pick.’

Graham shook his head. ‘You must be crazy. How on earth can you possibly find out? Do you expect the guilty man to break down and confess? And anyway – does it really matter now?’

Shane moved slowly towards him, a frown on his face. ‘Does it really matter? Jesus Christ!’ he exploded. ‘Have you forgotten what happened out there? Have you forgotten what we went through and what they did to Simon?’

Graham looked up at him, a strange expression in his eyes. ‘I haven’t forgotten,’ he said, ‘but have you?’

Despite the humid heat, Shane was aware of a strange coldness. He frowned, and said slowly, ‘I remember everything that happened on that day.’

Graham shook his head. ‘Can you be sure of that? You couldn’t remember anything for seven years. How can you be so sure of what happened in the temple? How can you be sure it wasn’t you who told Colonel Li what he wanted to know? Maybe it’s the one thing your mind doesn’t want you to recall.’

For a moment Shane felt as though a giant hand was squeezing his chest so that could not breathe. He struggled for air, throat dry, head turning from side to side, as he tried to speak. He staggered across to the other table, and feverishly poured water from the decanter into a glass. For a moment he choked as the water trickled down his throat, and then suddenly he could breathe again.

He turned back to Graham, his face bone white. ‘That’s impossible. We were in the same cell together. You know it wasn’t me, just as I know it couldn’t have been you.’

Graham shook his head gently. ‘But I was unconscious when they brought me back from that last interrogation. I was unconscious for almost an hour.’

For a moment Shane looked down into the ravaged face, and then he turned and walked back along the path towards the door. Graham moved surprisingly fast, and by the time Shane was pulling on his coat he was at his side.

‘I didn’t intend to upset you,’ he said hoarsely. ‘I was simply trying to show you how impossible the whole thing is.’

Shane tightened his belt and opened the door. ‘You haven’t upset me,’ he said. ‘Simply suggested another possibility I should have thought of myself.’

He went down the stairs quickly, Graham at his heels, and when they reached the hall Graham opened the front door and moved on to the front porch with him.

They stood there for a moment, and Shane said, ‘You’ve helped me a lot. I’m grateful for that.’

Graham shook his head, and said sadly, ‘What good will it do? Who can it possibly help?’

Shane shrugged, and pulled up the collar of his trenchcoat. His face was savage and bitter. ‘I don’t know. They say nobody can help the dead, but then I’m a walking dead man, so perhaps I’m an exception. All I do know is that this thing is eating into my guts so that I can’t think of anything else. I’ve got to know which one it was.’

‘Even if it should turn out to be yourself?’ Graham said.

Shane nodded, the skin stretched tightly across his cheek bones. ‘Even if it should turn out to be myself.’

‘And when you know, what then?’ Charles Graham said softly.

For a moment they stood looking into each other’s eyes, and then Shane turned without replying and, descending the steps, walked along the drive towards the gates.

5 (#ulink_4ff6586c-bf6f-5acc-a45b-b473cc28099a)

When he alighted from a bus in front of the university the rain had almost stopped, but fog crouched at the ends of the streets and the outlines of the houses seemed to blur and become indistinct.

He crossed the road to the porter’s lodge at the main entrance and inquired for Adam Crowther. A small, red-faced man in a blue uniform with gold facings, directed him to the Archaeology Department in a side street across the road.

The area behind the university had obviously been a high-class residential quarter some forty or fifty years before. Many of the houses had circular carriage drives and stood in spacious gardens. Most of them seemed to be occupied by one university department or another.

Shane found the Archaeology Department with no trouble and mounted the steps to the entrance. It was dark and gloomy inside with walls painted green and beige. There was no carpet in the hall and as he moved forward, the polished floorboards creaked ominously.