The Savage Day - Jack Higgins [43]
'Every modern convenience.'
Binnie sat on the edge of the bed, the Brigadier limped to one of the stools and sat down, massaging the back of his neck.
'Are you all right, sir?' I asked politely.
'No thanks to you.'
He glared up at me and I said, 'If I hadn't done what I did, you'd be dead meat by now. Be reasonable.'
I managed to fish out my cigarettes with some difficulty as I was still handcuffed and offered him one.
'Go to the devil,' he said.
I turned to Binnie and grinned. 'No pleasing some people.'
But he simply lay down on the bare springs of the cot without a word, staring up at the ceiling, unable, I suspect, to get Norah Murphy out of his mind.
I managed to light a cigarette then sat down against the wall, suddenly rather tired. When I looked across at the Brigadier his right eyelid moved fractionally.
It must have been about an hour later that the door was unbolted and a couple of men entered, both of them armed with Sterling sub-machine-guns. One of them jerked his thumb at me without a word, a squat, powerful-looking individual whose outstanding feature was the absence of hair on his skull. I went out, the door was closed and bolted again, and we set off in echelon through the cellars, the gentleman with the bald head leading the way.
When we reached the kitchen area again we kept right on going, taking the next flight of stairs, coming out through a green baize door at the top into an enormous entrance hall, all pillars and Greek statues, a great marble staircase drifting up into the half darkness above our heads.
We mounted that, too, turned along a wide corridor at the top and climbed into two more flights of stairs, the last being narrow enough for only one man at a time.
When the final door opened I found myself on the battlements at the front of the house. Frank Barry sat at a small ironwork table at the far end. I caught the fragrance of cigar smoke as I approached and there was a glass in his hand.
I could see him clearly enough in the moonlight and he smiled. 'Well, what do you think of it, Major? The finest view in Ireland, I always say. You can see the whole of the North Antrim coast from here.'
It was certainly spectacular enough and in the silvery moonlight it was possible to see far, far out to sea, the lights of some ship or other moving through the passage between the mainland and Rathlin.
He took a bottle dripping with water from a bucket on the floor beside him. 'A glass of wine, Major? Sancerre. One of my favourites. There's still two or three dozen left in the cellar.'
I held up my wrists and he smiled with that immense charm of his. 'There I go again, completely forgetting my manners.'
He produced the keys from his pocket, I held out my hands and he unlocked the cuffs. The second of the two guards had faded away, but my friend with the bald head still stood watchfully by, the Sterling ready.
A boat came round the headland a hundred yards or so to our right, the noise of its engine no more than a murmur in the night. It started to move into an inlet in the cliffs below and disappeared from sight, presumably into some harbour or anchorage belonging to the house.
'That should be your Kathleen,' Barry said. 'I sent a couple of my boys round to Stramore to lift her from the harbour as soon as it was dark.'
'Do you usually think of everything?'
'Only way to live.' He filled a glass for me. 'By the way, old lad, let's keep it civilized. Dooley, here, served with me in Korea. He's been deaf, dumb and minus his hair since a Chinese trench mortar blew him forty feet through the air. That means he only has his eyes to think with and he's apt to be a bit quick off the mark.'
'I'll remember. What were you in?'
'Ulster Rifles. Worst National Service second lieutenant in the army.'
I tried some of the wine. It was dry, ice-cold, and I sampled a little more with mounting appreciation. 'This is really quite excellent.'
'Glad you