Soldier of Fortune (14 page)

Charles
Catto had made all the necessary preparations. Having taken the trouble to
inspect the camp thoroughly, he knew exactly where he could smuggle Frédéric
Seurel in past the sentries and how to conduct him to Daniel Rawson's tent
without being seen. When the murder had been committed, Seurel followed his
orders and slit open the back of the tent, darting through the gap with a
severed head in the small sack he had brought with him. Catto was waiting to
lead him out of the camp. The hue and cry was raised faster than he had
expected but Catto had allowed for that contingency. Having taken Seurel to a
secure hiding place within the perimeter of the camp, he joined in the search,
making sure that nobody went anywhere near his accomplice.

It
was over an hour before the commotion finally died down. Catto was at last able
to slip away, liberate Seurel from his refuge and escape from the camp with
him. Their horses had been hidden over a mile away. When they had reclaimed
them, they rode off until they were a long way clear of the army encampment. It
was only then that they were able to congratulate each on the way that their
plan had worked. They stopped near an abandoned cottage and dismounted. Seurel
was grinning at his triumph.

'It
was so easy,' he boasted, holding up the blood-soaked sack. 'I took him from
behind. I put an arm round his neck and stabbed him through the heart.' He
mimed the action. 'His head was soon off.'

'You
did well, Frédéric,' said Catto.

'Does
that mean I get more money?'

'You
get what we agreed.'

'I
should have equal payment,' argued Seurel, tapping his chest. 'I killed him,
after all.'

'Yes,'
countered Catto, 'but who got inside the camp to make it possible? You could
never have done that. Besides, it wasn't you that General Salignac chose for
this assignment. He picked me and told me to choose my own accomplice and pay
him what I thought fit. That's how you come to be here, Frédéric. You agreed to
my terms.'

'That
was before I knew what I had to do.'

'There's
no going back on our arrangement now.'

'I
think I deserve some reward,' said Seurel.

'I'll
mention that to the General,' said Catto. 'You'll certainly get no more from me
than we decided at the outset. But let's not haggle over money at a time like
this,' he went on, adopting a more amiable tone. 'Our work is done. All we have
to do is to present this little gift to General Salignac then we can go off to
spend our money.' He nudged his friend. 'Take him out - I want to see Captain
Rawson.'

Their
eyes had become accustomed to the dark by now so they were both able to get a
reasonable idea of what the face looked like as the head was hauled out of the
sack by Seurel.

'Well,'
he said, expecting lavish praise, 'what do you think?'

Catto
peered at the face. 'I think you must be even more stupid than I feared,' he
said harshly. 'That's not Daniel Rawson.'

'Yes,
it is!'

'I've
seen the man and he looks very different.'

'But
he was in his tent. You took me there.'

'I
expected him to be alone at that time of night.'

'And
so he was - that's why I killed Captain Rawson.'

'No,
you buffoon,' yelled Catto, 'you killed someone else. We went to all that
trouble and we end up empty-handed. You're an idiot, Frédéric, a brainless,
blundering imbecile.'

'I
obeyed your orders, Charles, that's all.'

'My
orders were for you to kill Daniel Rawson, not some nameless individual who's
no use to us at all. This man probably held a different rank altogether. Didn't
you look at his uniform to make sure that he was a captain?'

'He
wasn't wearing a jacket,' recalled Seurel. 'He'd taken it
off
to play backgammon. The board was set out on the table.'

Catto snarled.
'Who cares about that?'

Seurel was hurt.
Having been brave enough to enter an enemy camp, he had committed a murder
under the very noses of the British troops and felt entitled to admiration.
Instead, he was being reviled by his partner. There was no hope of an immediate
return to the camp. Now that Catto had deserted, he would be shot on sight by
any soldier who recognised him. After staring at the head once more, he dropped
it back into its sack. Seurel's brow was corrugated by thought. A few moments
later, he snapped his fingers.

'I have it,
Charles!' he exclaimed.

'Don't you dare
tell me that you intend to stroll back into the camp, ask for Captain Rawson
then cut off his head,' said Catto with scorn. 'That's just the kind of lunatic
idea you'd think of.'

'We don't need
Captain Rawson. We already have him.'

'We have someone
else, I tell you.'

'We
know that,' said Seurel slyly, 'but the General doesn't. All we have to do is to
give him the head and tell him that I cut it from the shoulders of Daniel
Rawson.' He grinned inanely. 'Don't you think it's a clever ruse?' Catto turned
away in disgust. 'It is, Charles. It solves our problem. General Salignac has
never seen Rawson so he'll be none the wiser.'

'If I thought
that,' said Catto, rounding on him, 'I'd chop off
your
useless head
and swear that it belonged to Captain Rawson. The ruse would never work.'

Seurel was
dejected. 'Why ever not?'

'Don't you
realise what he'll do?'

'Give us a
reward, I hope.'

'No, Frédéric.
He'll want to taunt his wife. When he gets back to Paris, he'll wave the head
of her lover in front of her. Madame Salignac will see at a glance that this is
not Rawson.'

'Oh,' said
Seurel, scratching his cheek. 'I never thought of that.'

'Evidently.'

'What are we
going to do, Charles?'

'To begin with,'
said Catto, grabbing the sack, 'we'll get rid of this fellow.' He hurled the
sack and its grisly contents into the ruins of the cottage. 'Then we follow the
army again and bide our time. If and when we
do
get a second
chance, try not to make a mess of it again.'

'It wasn't my
fault,' bleated Seurel.

'Of course, it
was.'

'How was I to
know what Rawson looked like?'

'I described him
to you, Frédéric.'

'It was dark in
that tent. There were only two candles and I blew those out as I left. I did
what I was told to do, Charles.'

'Nobody told you
to kill the wrong man.'

'That was an
accident.'

'It was a
ruinous mistake,' said Catto nastily. 'Let's make sure it's the last one you
ever make. And this might be the time to warn you that General Salignac does
not tolerate failure. If we don't give him what he wants, he'll have us skinned
alive.'

A report of the
incident reached the Duke of Marlborough immediately upon waking. He summoned
Daniel Rawson in order to hear the full details. Amid the bustle of a camp
preparing to move on, they stood outside the Duke's tent as it was being taken
down. The first gesture of light was appearing in the sky.

'This is
extremely distressing,' said Marlborough, stroking his chin. 'Lieutenant
Hopwood was a promising young officer.'

'He was also
very unlucky, Your Grace.'

'That goes
without saying.'

'I didn't mean
it in the obvious sense,' explained Daniel. 'The fact of the matter is that
Richard Hopwood died as a result of mistaken identity.'

'What do you
mean, Daniel?'

'The intended
victim was
me,
Your Grace.'

Marlborough was
shocked. 'Is there any evidence of that?'

'On reflection,
I think there is. When the killer went into my tent, he expected me to be
there. How would anyone know that I had a visitor inside with me? If someone
had wanted to kill Richard Hopwood, they would have gone to
his
tent and not
mine. It was sheer misfortune that the lieutenant was alone when the man
struck.'

'This is far
more worrying than I thought,' said Marlborough. 'The death of any officer is a
sad loss. The murder of Daniel Rawson would have been a disaster. No disrespect
to Hopwood - he had all the makings of a fine soldier - but he could never have
matched your achievements. You're an outstanding asset to us, Daniel,' he went
on, 'and that was why you were singled out.'

'I'm not sure
about that, Your Grace,' said Daniel. 'In an army of such magnitude, the deeds
of one man will hardly stand out unless his name is the Duke of Marlborough. I
don't flatter myself that the enemy consider me that important. If they wanted
to disable our cause, why did the assassin not strike at
you?'

Marlborough
nodded. 'I accept the logic of that argument.'

'There was
personal animus behind this outrage.'

'Whom do you
suspect?' 'I don't know who his paymaster is, Your Grace, but I've found out
the name of his creature. He's called Will Curtis, though I have no doubt that
that was a false name. Private Curtis joined the regiment recently, claiming
that his father had once served it.'

'Why do you
suspect him of the murder?'

'He's deserted
in the night.'

'Are search
parties out looking for him?'

'Yes,' said
Daniel, 'but they've had no success. He's a cunning man and he planned the
crime with meticulous care.'

'But he would
need to have known which is your tent,' said Marlborough. 'How could he find it
among so many?'

'Sergeant
Welbeck has the answer to that. Private Curtis asked him to point me out and I
was standing outside my quarters at the time. It would not be difficult to
memorise the exact spot.'

'Was this
villain operating alone, Daniel?'

'Who can say?'
asked Daniel. 'If he had assistance, I fancy that there would only have been
one accomplice, someone who did the foul deed while Curtis - or whatever his
real name is - kept watch. It would have been difficult to sneak more than one
man into the camp.'

'The accomplice
might already have been here.'

'Then he, too,
would have deserted by now, Your Grace.'

'I take your
point,' said Marlborough pensively. 'In the wake of the murder, inquiries would
be very searching. It would be tempting fate for anyone to remain within our
ranks and court discovery.'

'My belief is
that the killer probably came from outside the camp,' said Daniel, 'or he would
not have confused me with Richard Hopwood. Private Curtis wouldn't have
murdered the wrong man, which is why I feel that his hand was not on the
dagger.'

'But he's an
accessory.'

'Oh, he's more
than that, Your Grace. He organised the whole thing. It could only be done by
someone inside the camp who knew our routine and our picket arrangements.'

'He
must
be called to
account,' said Marlborough sternly.

'He will be. At
least I know what to expect next time.'

'Next time?'

'Yes, Your
Grace,' said Daniel philosophically. 'A man who's gone to such lengths to kill
me will not give up after one failure. And, by now, he'll have realised that
there was a terrible mistake.'

'Keep men around
you at all time,' Marlborough urged. 'We can't afford to lose you, Daniel,
especially now that we're getting closer to a confrontation with the French.'

'I'll take
sensible precautions from now on but I won't surround myself with an armed
guard. I want this man - or these men - to come in search of me again. It's the
only way to be sure of catching them, Your Grace.'

'What - by
acting as bait on the hook?'

'By giving the
appearance
of doing so,'
said Daniel with a grim smile. 'Richard Hopwood was a friend of mine and a keen
soldier. His family deserves some consolation. They need to be told that we've
caught and punished the villains responsible for his death.'