Patriot games - Tom Clancy [193]
The transaction was made at once. They could hear the rasping sound of new banknotes being counted.
"I may soon have something new from a collection in Kerry," Cooley said next.
"Oh?" There was interest in the reply.
"Yes, a signed first edition of Great Expectations. I saw it on my last trip over. Might you be interested in that?"
"Signed, eh?"
"Yes, sir, 'Boz' himself. I realize that the Victorian period is rather more recent than most of your acquisitions, but the author's signature "
"Indeed. I would like to see it, of course."
"That can be arranged."
"At this point," Owens told Ashley, "Watkins leaned over, and our man in the jewelry shop lost sight of him."
"So he could have passed a message."
"Possibly." Owens switched off the tape machine. The rest of the conversation had no significance.
"The last time he was in Ireland, Cooley didn't go to County Kerry. He was in Cork the whole time. He visited three dealers in rare books, spent the night in a hotel, and had a few pints at a local pub," Ashley reported.
"A pub?"
"Yes, he drinks in Ireland, but not in London."
"Did he meet anyone there?"
"Impossible to tell. Our man wasn't close enough. His orders were to be discreet, and he did well not to be spotted." Ashley was quiet for a moment as he tried to pin down something on the tape. "It sounded to me as though he paid cash for the book."
"He did, and it is out of pattern. Like most of us he uses checks and credit cards for the majority of his transactions, but not for this. His bank records show no checks to this shop, though he does occasionally make large cash withdrawals. They may or may not match with his purchases there."
"How very odd," Ashley thought aloud. "Everyone-well, someone must know that he goes there."
"Checks have dates on them," Owens suggested.
"Perhaps." Ashley wasn't convinced, but he'd done enough investigations of this kind to know that you never got all the answers. Some details were always left hanging. "I took another look at Geoff's service record last night. Do you know that when he was in Ireland, he had four men killed in his platoon?"
"What? That makes him a fine candidate for our investigation!" Owens didn't think this was good news.
"That's what I thought," Ashley agreed. "I had one of our chaps in Germany -his former regiment's assigned to the BAOR at the moment-interview one of Watkins's mates. Had a platoon in the same company, the chap's a half-colonel now. He said that Geoff took it quite hard, that he was quite vociferous on the point that they were in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing, and losing people in the process. Rather puts a different spin on things, doesn't it?"
"Another lieutenant with the solution to the problem." Owens snorted.
"Yes-we leave and let the bloody Irish sort things out. That's not exactly a rare sentiment in the Army, you know."
It wasn't exactly a rare sentiment throughout England, Commander Owens knew. "Even so, it's not much of a basis for motive, is it?"
"Better than nothing at all."
The cop grunted agreement. "What else did the Colonel tell your chap?"
"Obviously Geoff had a rather busy tour of duty in the Belfast area. He and his men saw a lot. They were there when the Army was welcomed in by the Catholics, and they were there when the situation reversed. It was a bad time for everyone," Ashley added unnecessarily.
"It's still not very much. We have a former subaltern, now in the striped-pants brigade, who didn't like being in Northern Ireland; he happens to buy rare books from a chap who grew up there and now runs a completely legitimate business in central London. You know what any solicitor would say: pure coincidence. We don't have one single thing that can remotely be called evidence. The background of each man is pure enough to qualify him for sainthood."
"These are the people we've been looking for," Ashley insisted.
"I know that." Owens almost surprised himself when he said it for the first time. His professionalism told him that this was a mistake,