The Savage Day - Jack Higgins [74]
'They're in there,' Keenan whispered.
Binnie put a knee into his crutch, turned as Keenan slipped to the floor with a groan, and burst into the room, the Sten at the ready.
Barry was seated at the piano and stopped playing instantly. Norah Murphy was in the chair by the fire. She jumped to her feet and turned to us, the dressing on her right cheek making her face seem misshapen and ugly.
'Norah?' Binnie cried. 'Are you all right?'
She stood staring at us, a strange dazed expression on her face, and then she ran forward suddenly and flung her arms around him. 'Oh, Binnie, Binnie I've never been so glad to see anyone in my whole life.'
In the same moment, she yanked the Browning from his waistband and moved back to a point where she could cover all of us comfortably.
'I would advise complete stillness, gentlemen, if you want to live, that is,' she said crisply in the harsh, pungent tones of the Norah Murphy I knew and loved.
Frank Barry stayed where he was, but drew a revolver from a shoulder holster. The Brigadier and I, being sensible men, raised our hands although I didn't get very far with my left.
'You know, I wondered about you from the beginning, sweetheart,' I said. 'The fact that Barry and his boys were waiting for us on the way in and the speed with which they ran poor old Meyer to earth. That really was rather hard to swallow.'
'But you took it.'
'Not really. It was the branding that finally persuaded me I must have been wrong. Now that was quite a show. What did you do, Barry, fill her up with pain-killer beforehand?'
'Just like going to the dentist,' he said. 'But it needed something as drastic as that to persuade Binnie she was in real danger. To send him running to the Small Man.'
'But she never was?' I said.
'We wanted to know where the bullion was, old lad, and Cork wouldn't even tell Norah that. Had a thing about holding it in reserve as a last resort if the talking failed and he needed more arms.'
'Talk,' Norah Murphy said. 'That's all he ever wanted to do and what good was it? He'd had his day, he and his kind. Now we'll try our way.'
'Force and even more force,' the Brigadier said. 'Terror on terror, and what have you left after that little lot?'
'It's the only way,' she said. 'The only way we can make them see we mean business. Frank understands.'
'Which is why you've been working together?' I asked her.
During all this, Binnie had stood as if turned to stone, the Sten-gun hanging from one hand by its sling, but this final remark seemed to bring him back to life.
'You mean you're one of them?' he whispered. 'You've been working for Frank Barry all along? A man who would murder - has murdered - women, kids, anyone who happens to stand in his road at the wrong moment for them?'
'Sometimes it's the only way, Binnie.' There was a pleading note in her voice as if she would make him understand. 'We can't afford weakness now. We must be strong.'
'You bloody murdering bitch,' he cried and took a step towards her, the Sten coming up.
She shot him twice at close quarters, he staggered back, spun round and fell on his face.
She stood there, the Browning ready in her hand for anyone else who made a move, very pale, but quite composed, showing no evidence of even the slightest remorse for what she had done.
But it was Frank Barry who took over now. 'Answers, Vaughan, and quickly or you get the same here and now. Dooley, McGuire - the men I sent down to the jetty to meet the boat?'
'All gone,' I said. 'Very sad.'
'And the gold?'
'On board the Kathleen.'
'All of it?'
'All that I could find.'
He stood there, thinking for a moment, then said to Norah, 'All right, we're leaving now in the boat. You get the Land-Rover from the garage and meet me out front.'
She went out quickly, stepping over Keenan, who still lay in the corridor moaning softly to himself and clutching his privates.
I said, 'What about us?'
'Behave