Dangerous Games (32 page)

Forsyth sat down in the seat that Beresford had vacated. He was holding something in his hand, and now he laid it flat on the table. It was Woodend's warrant card, and at even the sight of it, the chief inspector's hands began to itch.

‘I've just had a most interesting chat with your chief constable,' Forsyth said. ‘Apparently, he now thinks that he acted rather hastily earlier. He's completely given up the idea of convening a board of inquiry, and is hoping that you'll be willing to report for duty tomorrow morning as if the whole unpleasant scene in his office had never happened.'

‘How the hell did you manage that?' Woodend wondered.

‘Oh, it was easy enough,' Forsyth said lightly. ‘Everyone has secrets they'd rather not have made public – and we know what most of them are.'

Woodend looked down at his precious warrant card, but, as hard it was to restrain himself, he still made no move to pick it up.

‘Go ahead,' Forsyth said encouragingly. ‘It's yours. Take it!'

‘Before I do that, let's talk about just what it's goin' to cost me,' Woodend replied.

‘I'd be more than happy to, Chief Inspector,' Forsyth agreed, ‘but first I'd like to order a drink.'

He signalled to the waiter. It was a minimalist gesture, but the man noticed immediately, and came straight over to the table.

‘I'll have a double of the best malt whisky you have on offer,' Forsyth said. ‘And a pint for you, Chief Inspector?'

Woodend looked down at his glass, which was almost empty. ‘Thanks, but I'm all right for the moment,' he said.

The waiter – well aware of the chief inspector's drinking habits – did his best to hide his look of astonishment. ‘Are you sure about that, Mr Woodend?' he asked.

‘I'm sure,' Woodend told him. ‘You'd better go an' get that expensive malt whisky, before there's a run on it.'

The waiter nodded, and returned to the bar like a man in a trance.

Once he'd gone, Forsyth said, ‘It's my job to keep the lid on things, but I'm rather afraid you're the kind of chap who likes to show everybody what's still bubbling up in the pot.'

‘Go on,' Woodend said, non-committally.

‘All five men who were involved in that rather unpleasant incident in Cyprus seven years ago are now dead. And that being the case, we would rather like you to consider the matter closed.'

‘An' what about the other buggers?' Woodend asked.

‘Which “other buggers” are you referring to?'

‘You know that as well as I do. I'm talkin' about the army officers who were in charge at the time – the ones who knew what had gone on, an' decided to cover it up.'

‘I'm sure they acted from the best possible motives.'

‘Best possible motives?' Woodend repeated. ‘In law, we call what they did bein' “an accessory after the fact”.'

‘In diplomacy, we call it choosing the option likely to cause the least damage within the context of the bigger picture.'

‘So that's the price, is it?' Woodend asked. ‘I keep my job as long as I'm prepared to let the guilty parties get away with it?'

‘Essentially.'

Woodend took a swig of what was left of his pint. ‘I won't do it,' he said firmly.

‘I could make sure that any inquiry that was held went heavily against you,' Forsyth pointed out. ‘You might not only lose your job – you might lose your pension, as well.'

‘I still won't do it.'

Forsyth looked pained. ‘Oh dear, you're going to force me to be unpleasant, and I was so hoping to avoid that,' he said.

‘Be as unpleasant as you like,' Woodend invited.

‘Very well. How is Sergeant Paniatowski coming to terms with being a killer?'

‘You what?'

‘We both know that Sergeant Paniatowski did something at Haverton Camp which resulted in the death of a very prominent person.'

‘It was his own actions which killed him.'

‘True. But she was the one who made those actions possible, and – as I think I may have said at the time – we could make out a case for charging her with manslaughter if we chose to.'

‘You also said
at the time
that it would cause your masters considerable political embarrassment if she ever actually went to trial – an', as far as I can see, that's not changed.'

The waiter returned with the malt whisky. Forsyth gave him a pound note, and waved away the change.

‘You're quite right about that, of course, Chief Inspector,' he said. ‘But it would also cause my masters considerable embarrassment if this Cyprus business ever became public knowledge.'

‘An' you don't want to have to deal with two embarrassments at the same time, do you? So even if I do go public with this Cyprus business, you'll still leave Monika alone.'

‘You've certainly made a good logical case for that, but it ignores the
realpolitik
of the wider picture,' Forsyth said smoothly.

‘Does it?'

‘Indeed it does. If we let you get away with this, it gives those who find themselves in a similar position in the future the licence to believe they can do the same as you have done. You are the first crack in the dam, and if we don't staunch it now, the deluge will follow.'

‘Which, in the interest of justice an' open government, might not be a bad thing,' Woodend pointed out.

‘We simply can't allow that to happen,' Forsyth continued, ignoring him. ‘And if, in order to avoid such a situation arising, we have to deal with two embarrassing situations tomorrow morning, then we will grit our teeth and do just that. In other words, if you raise the issue of Cyprus again, we
will
prosecute Sergeant Paniatowski. And furthermore, we will win – because nobody, not even you, believes that the judicial system can remain impartial when it feels the whole weight of government pressing down on it.'

Woodend picked up his warrant card, slipped it into his pocket, and stood up.

‘I suddenly feel the need for a breath of fresh air,' he said.

‘I'm sure you do,' Forsyth agreed. ‘But please do remember, Chief Inspector, that it is because of organizations like mine that there is still fresh air for you
to
breathe.'

‘An'
you
should remember that you can sometimes pay such a price to keep the air fresh that eventually you can't hide the stink
whatever
you do,' Woodend countered, heading for the door.

Several of DCI Woodend's earlier cases are mentioned during the course of this book, and for any readers interested in following them up, I have listed below where they can be found.

The Helen Dunn kidnapping occurs in
The Red Herring
. Paco Ruiz, the Spanish detective, helps Woodend make his case in
The Butcher Beyond
. Maria Rutter is murdered in
Dying in the Dark
, and Bradley Pine is disembowelled in
Sins of the Fathers
. And finally, the Haverton Camp murder is central to
A Long Time Dead
.