Doctor Who_ Illegal Alien - Mike Tucker [67]
The Doctor pulled his seat closer to the policeman, fanning cigarette smoke away with his hands. 'What is going on at the factory right now?'
Mullen shrugged. 'It's locked up tight as a drum. For the moment they're still allowing me access to the murder site, but that won't last for ever. Lazonby keeps quoting obscure wartime Official Secrets Acts.'
'I don't suppose you had any success in getting the Peddler file...' the Doctor asked hopefully. ‘No, of course not.
Pity. Inspector, you wouldn’t happen to know whether or not Dr Peddler and any connection with France, would you?’
Mullen shrugged his shoulders.
McBride leaned forward.
'Doc, on the wall in his office, there was that picture.'
'Picture?' 'Sure, like a map, only painted. One of those little islands off the coast of France. The Channel Islands. Jersey, I think.' The Doctor clapped his hands with delight. 'Brilliant, Mr McBride. Very well spotted.' McBride looked directly at Mullen, smiling slyly. 'I'm surprised you didn't notice that, Mullen' The chief inspector shuffled, gazed at his feet, and said nothing. 'And now,' said the Doctor, whipping out the crumpled list of factories from his pocket, 'you are going to tell me that Lemur Engineering is based on Jersey, aren't you, Inspector.' 'Let's see... perhaps I should have copied down the addresses. Yes, I believe Lemur was on Jersey.'
Mullen replied. 'But you'll not have much joy there. Jersey's occupied by the Jerries.'
'Precisely, Inspector. It all begins to fall into place.'
Mullen was becoming irritated. 'Excuse me, Doctor, but what does?' 'That's where they've come from. Wall and his tall friends. The German
invasion must have taken them completely by surprise.
They're on the run!'
Mullen and McBride looked dubiously at one another. It was Mullen who spoke. 'Sounds a bit speculative to me, if you'll forgive my saying so, Doctor.'
'Inspector, do you know what a lemur is?'
'It's... an animal. Isn't it? Sort of cross between a monkey and a rat.'
'Strange sort of thing for an English company to name itself after, wouldn't you say?'
'I suppose...'
'Well suppose I told you that you've misread the name, Inspector? That it isn't called Lemur Engineering at all. That it's called Le Mur Engineering'
'Le... Moo...'
Mullen looked confused. McBride looked no less so. The Doctor cast an exasperated glance at the two of them.
'Le Mur, Inspector. They speak a great deal of French on Jersey. And Le Mur is French for Wall!' The Time Lord slapped the palms of his hands against the door. 'Oh, if only we could get out of here. I'm dreadfully worried about Ace, and about George Limb.'
'Limb ah, yes,' Mullen suddenly piped up. 'I thought that was the name you said. It sounded familiar so I did a bit of checking up. We've got quite a file on George Limb, Doctor.'
The Doctor turned to him in surprise. 'Oh, yes. Quite a file. It seems he was a permanent secretary, first at the Admiralty, then at the Foreign Office. That was on paper, at least. He never seemed to stay put. He seemed to roam from department to department in government, acting as some kind of troubleshooter.'
'Troubleshooter, eh?'
'Or troublemaker, depending on who you ask. It seems he had a reputation as a doubledealer. Stirred up a lot of trouble wherever he went. There's a question mark over his resignation, but it's possible he just tried to be a bit too clever.
Stuck his neck out too far; nearly lost his head. Very nearly arrested. He's got friends in high places, though. Very high, if you get my drift. "We will fight them on the beaches..." and all that.'
The Doctor raised an eyebrow, impressed.
'You name it, Doctor. Whenever there was a big international conference, he was there. Versailles in 1919, Munich in 1936. He was even in Russia just before Hitler and Stalin pulled off their deal. God knows why. And that's just the start of the story. When he retires the file really starts to bulge. Everyone in the criminal community in London goes