Comes the Dark Stranger - Jack Higgins [55]
‘And how did you manage to get away?’ Shane said.
Faulkner shrugged. ‘Exactly as I told you when you first came to see me.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘Everything seemed to be working out perfectly for me and then I stepped on that land mine.’
‘But how did you manage the identity switch with Charles Graham?’
Faulkner grinned and put another cigarette between his twisted lips. ‘I didn’t have to do a thing about it,’ he said. ‘It just happened. When I came round in hospital, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t even see. It was then that somebody called me Charles Graham. At first I was too weak to contradict. I knew Graham was dead because I’d seen what was left of him after the bombing. After a while I realized what had happened. The uniform I’d snatched up in Colonel Li’s office was Graham’s and that’s how they’d identified me.’
He laughed harshly. ‘A little later they brought in the colonel of the regiment. When he didn’t recognize me and started rambling on about the wonders they could do with plastic surgery these days, I suddenly realized how simple everything was. There was the money and the business Graham had been left by his uncle and he had no other relatives. The plastic surgery would account for the change and the rest of you were all dead on the hill in the ruins of that blasted temple.’
Shane was beginning to feel tired - very tired and the pain in his head was worse. It was an effort to speak and he shook his head slightly and said, ‘You were still taking a hell of a chance.’
Simon Faulkner nodded. ‘But then it was worth it. You see, I had at least five years facing me when I got back home. I’d rather unwisely gambled on the stock exchange with large sums of money from the firm. I knew it was bound to come out in a matter of weeks. That’s why I volunteered for Korea.’
‘I know,’ Shane told him. ‘Your sister told me all about that.’ A thought suddenly occurred to him and he said with a slight frown, ‘Tell me something - did Laura know about this?’
Faulkner nodded. ‘Yes, I made rather a bad slip. When they’d got through with me at that Plastic Surgery Unit, I was confident that even my own mother couldn’t have connected me with the man who walked out of there. I decided to put it to the test. I wrote to Laura, explaining that I’d been in Korea with her brother and she invited me to visit the house.’
‘And she recognized you?’ Shane demanded incredulously.
‘Believe it or not it was my handwriting she recognized,’ Faulkner laughed. ‘Fate added a nice touch of irony there.’
‘And you admitted everything to her?’
Faulkner nodded. ‘There didn’t seem to be any point in denying it and I was perfectly safe. She didn’t want another scandal. It would have killed my father.’
‘When did things really begin to go wrong?’ Shane said.
Faulkner shrugged. ‘When the end of the war came and the Chinese started to release prisoners. I took the bull by the horns and went to see Crowther when he came home. He didn’t suspect anything for an instant. Reggie Steele came to see me before I could visit him. He let me put on quite a performance for five or ten minutes and then announced that he knew damn well who I really was. He’d been lying in the rubble, pinned by his legs. He’d seen me leave the temple in one piece.’
‘And you had to pay for his silence?’
Faulkner nodded. ‘At first I looked for a way to get rid of him, but then he opened his club and I began to see the possibilities in our association. I provided the brains and he was the figure-head. We’ve made a lot of cash during the last few years.’
‘Did you know he was blackmailing your sister?’ Shane said.
Faulkner shook his head. ‘I’m afraid Laura acted very foolishly there. Steele threatened to expose me to my father if she didn’t play ball with him. She’s suffered needlessly for years. All she had to do was tell me and I could have stopped it by lifting the phone, but then - she didn’t know of my association with Steele.’
Shane was finding it difficult to concentrate. He frowned and passed a hand over his brow. ‘What about Wilby? Where did