The Grafton Girls - Annie Groves [142]
‘No, I wanted to talk about us first,’ Lee replied. ‘I did speak to him though.’
‘And?’ Diane begged him anxiously, her hopes rising.
‘He’s a colonel and the guy’s commanding officer, Di, whilst I’m merely a major.’
She sank back into her seat, trying to contain her disappointment for Ruthie.
‘However…’ Lee looked at her and squeezed her hand, ‘I guess after what you said to me I kinda put myself on the line a bit and pressured Hal more than he really liked, but in the end he agreed that the matter needed looking into and the two guys who gave evidence have been approached.’
‘Oh, Lee.’ Diane’s eyes were sparkling with delight and pride. ‘I knew you’d be able to do something,’ she told him.
‘You’ve got a hell of a lot more faith in me than I have in myself. However, like I said to Hal, we can’t afford to make the mistake of accusing and then punishing an innocent man and letting a guilty man go free, even if it does mean having to wade through some pretty messy stuff to get to the truth. Will you quit looking at me like that?’ he mock complained. ‘First you get me so turned on on the dance floor that I can’t walk without looking like I’m suffering from a war wound.’
Diane giggled.
‘And now the way you’re looking at me is making me wish I’d booked that room for tonight.’
‘The weekend’s only two more days away,’ Diane whispered shakily. Right now she was feeling that she didn’t want to wait herself. Dancing with Lee, feeling his body pressed hard against her own, snuggling up to him whilst he took advantage of the lower lights over the dance floor to slide his hands down over her back and then back up against whilst he kissed her, had reaffirmed everything she already knew about the way her body felt about him.
‘Two days,’ Lee groaned. ‘Hell, right now two hours is one hour fifty too long.’
‘Now, I know that you’re exaggerating,’ Diane told him, trying to sound stern, but laughing instead, as she instructed him, ‘Tell me about Glen.’
Lee groaned again. ‘You Brits sure are hardhearted women. Here I am, trying to make love to you, and all you want to do is talk about some other guy. OK, OK,’ he gave in when she looked at him.
‘Hal, his colonel, has personally interviewed the two guys who claimed to have witnessed his quarrel with the dead man.’ Lee paused. ‘I shouldn’t really be telling you this. Technically, it’s against regulations but he promised them that he’d make sure, if they told him the truth, it wouldn’t come out how he’d gotten hold of it, and off the back of that they opened up and admitted that they were so deep in debt to Mancini that they were forced to agree to lie for him. They’re now on immediate transfers, to protect them as much as anything else, and Mancini is going to be facing a court martial, but at the moment it’s all under wraps and Mancini has no idea what’s going on. The colonel wants to get all his ammo together before he confronts him.’
‘But he does believe Glen?’ Diane asked anxiously.
‘Yeah. There’s no doubt about who’s the guilty one.’
‘So what will happen to Glen now?’
‘Once Mancini has been charged and put under guard, Glen will be given a full discharge, and a clean bill of health, and by way of compensation for what he’s been put through his colonel is going to give his permission for him to go ahead and get married.’
‘Oh, Lee! Can I tell Ruthie? She’s here tonight. Poor girl, she’s been through such a dreadful time these last few days, what with all this business and Walter’s death and then – well, you won’t know about this – but she worked in a munitions factory workshop where there was a terrible explosion earlier this week. Everyone working there was killed in the blast. Ruthie would have died too if she hadn’t gone home from work not feeling well.’
‘Jeez…’ Lee swore under his breath. ‘Poor kid. Well, I guess you can tell her, but you’ll have to tell her as well that she’s to keep it under her hat for now, bearing in mind what I just told you about Mancini.’
Diane gave him a tender smile and said lovingly, ‘I’ve just had a better