Inspector Biggart did not look up at the sharp double rap on the door. He continued to study the slim contents of the manila file as Sergeant McCollum entered and identified himself by rank and number. The inspector glanced up, pointed at the wooden chair facing him and his temporary acting detective the other side of the trestle table. The sergeant sat bolt upright, staring blankly at the wall behind them, his expressionless face a match for the chair.
‘I see you were in the police?’
‘Yessir. From 1910 until the outbreak of hostilities.’
The inspector studied the sergeant, tapping the yellow pencil against his teeth. ‘Just before hostilities, was it not, sergeant?’
‘Sir?’ The sergeant glared at the wall.
Biggart was now prodding the pencil at the sheet in front of him. ‘Discharged from the police. Excessive use of force. Suspect hospitalised for several months. Broken nose. Burst eardrum. Persistent headaches. And you received a jail term. I would say six months in Mt Crawford was rather lenient.’
Dan was startled, but the sergeant was livid. ‘If I could explain, sir,’ he protested.
‘No, you may not. I know all I need to know about you, McCollum. The hostilities saved your bacon, got you this cushy number guarding enemy aliens on Somes. What I need is a straight answer from you as to whether you have had any contact with foreign persons illegally on this island. Well?’
The sergeant met Biggart’s stare. He looked as if he would like nothing more than getting this copper behind the barracks on a dark night. With considerable effort he growled there had been no contact.
Biggart smirked. ‘But you do have an interest in our once and quite likely future enemy?’
‘I don’t know what you mean. I am loyal …’
‘If I may continue. We know you have attended lectures from several gentlemen keen to pass on their admiration for the new Germany.’
‘Yeah, well,’ McCollum said, indignation giving way to surliness. ‘Plenty of people went to hear Professor Maitland and that other chap.’
‘Not all of them signed up to the professor’s mailing list.’
‘I went in me own time. Thought it was a free country. That’s what we was fighting for, wasn’t it?’
‘Some of us,’ Biggart said, pausing. Dan might have thought he was rubbing it in, given McCollum was doing war service guarding German prisoners. The rumours of the unofficial disciplines inflicted by guards at Kultur Bay wiped out any sympathy.
‘So tell me,’ Biggart finally continued. ‘Are you an admirer of Herr Hitler?’
‘I wouldn’t go that far. He’s got the country back on its feet, bit of discipline.’
‘Yes, all right, McCollum, we know what you mean by discipline. I am attempting to find out who on this island is collaborating with certain foreign agents we know have had assistance in their illegal attempts to purloin top secret government property you have been expressly charged with protecting. Someone aided and abetted illegal entry into our Mr Smith’s laboratory. There is somebody on this island colluding with what we believe to be German agents. You are my first choice. Can you tell me anything that would convince me you are not involved?’
‘Don’t know what you mean. Sir.’
‘Find out who is. That would convince me.’
‘Sir?’
‘Whatever it takes, McCollum. Dismissed.’
McCollum had his mouth open, but he said nothing. Biggart was once again studying the file. The sergeant stood, the only sound the chair screeching on the floor. The next sound was the door slammed shut.
A tentative knock was ignored by the inspector. ‘Tell him to wait until sent for,’ Biggart said. ‘I want to have a word with you first.’
When he returned, Dan was motioned to the chair vacated so emphatically by McCollum. Was it his turn for the third degree?
Biggart was tapping the yellow pencil against his teeth. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘The Germans make the best cameras. The one you picked up from our intruder has been identified as a very advanced Zeiss called Tenax, we haven’t seen that on the market. Fortunately your Miss Reisz or whoever was filming crude early drafts Penny made. The good stuff Spears has taken to Fort Dorset in their pitch for more funding. No harm done there. It might even be helpful. Whoever let her into the lab didn’t know what he was doing. If it wasn’t McCollum, it was one of his soldiers. I can’t see this new caretaker in the frame, he has no knowledge of the barracks set-up. I suppose it is conceivable Miss Reisz had an associate, perhaps Haas, who we have learned is her half-brother. Whoever it was could have stayed behind and was picked up later, but we have no evidence for that. Whatever doubts I have about these soldiers doing their job, I doubt an outsider could have got past the barbed wire and the floodlights without being seen, accessed the lab in the appalling weather, went through the files and laid them out for photographing in the store room, and then lurked to tidy up and disappear without trace. It beggars belief. No, it had to be an inside job. Of course, it is possible that Penny is playing some tricky game. He ensured Spears was out of the picture when this alleged break-in occurred. What do you think?’
Dan was taken aback at being asked, unsure if Biggart really wanted his opinion. He couldn’t imagine what game Penny might be playing. ‘What could he gain, sir?’
Biggart gave him a stony stare. ‘Answering a question with a question is not helpful, Delaney. What could Penny gain? I thought that was obvious. Considerably more money than he was originally offered. The Germans have plenty of spare Deutschmarks, now they’ve stopped paying reparations. Penny’s demands on us for a lot more money for his experiments are getting shriller. And his colleague has not got anywhere near what they are after from our government. Spears is presently back in Auckland ordering equipment, which conveniently gets him out of the way, if Penny is passing on the plans we are paying him for.’
‘If Mr Penny was colluding, sir, why would he only leave out useless blueprints?’
Biggart tapped at his teeth while Dan got the cold-fish scrutiny. He began to flush, even though he was sure it was a valid comment. True, it was a question, but not a question in response to a question.
‘They might not be entirely useless,’ Biggart said. ‘We only have his word for that. We know Germany, Soviet Russia, Japan, Great Britain, Italy, France and the United States are all trying to develop this radio beam or whatever it is that will bring down aircraft. There is a lot at stake. Whoever develops this weapon first has, I am sure you understand, a vital advantage in any of the inevitable hostilities. If Penny is playing all ends against the middle, we have to know. If it is this dim-bulb thug McCollum or one of his callow lads who has taken Herr Hitler’s coin, we have to know.’
‘I don’t understand, sir, why you told the sergeant he was under suspicion.’
Biggart sighed. ‘You think he doesn’t know. If he’s our man, he’ll make a move, contact his paymaster. He knows we are on to him, he’ll want more money, some kind of exit plan. If he is not our man, he will want to take the pressure off himself by doing our job for us. He will not be constrained by any rules of conduct, as we are.’
Dan looked away from the inspector’s challenge. ‘We shouldn’t condone that sort of thing, sir.’
Biggart snorted. ‘This is war, lad. The country’s top judge exonerated McCollum and the other guards who beat up prisoners here in the last war. We cannot get on our high horse with so much at stake. Whatever it takes, Delaney, I intend to expose this traitor. Perhaps you do not appreciate the seriousness of the situation. When it comes to trial, the charge will be treason. If he is found guilty, the culprit gets the death penalty, hanged by the neck until he is dead. You will do your sworn duty, is that clear?’
Dan murmured assent. Biggart told him to bring in Private Mutton.
Greg Mutton could have come off a recruiting poster for the army, an unassuming young man with sandy hair and a dusting of freckles across a wide, honest face, a square jaw and the solid build of somebody you’d want on your side of the scrum. Dan had liked him the first time they met, but it was Biggart he had to please. He answered directly, said he had joined the army because there was no work in the Hutt Valley and his family couldn’t support him. Biggart put it to him that if his father had not been so active in the union, he would still have his job at Woburn Railway Workshops and would have been able to feed his large family. Mutton replied he was happy to be in the army and doing something useful for his country.
When Biggart questioned why he spent so much time clambering around the rocks, allegedly looking for mussels, Greg shot Dan a hurt look. He had told Biggart that the only thing he knew about Mutton’s off-duty activity was he liked harvesting mussels and seagull eggs.
‘Cook wants all he can get,’ Mutton said. ‘I like the exercise.’
Dan was relieved now he had not eaten the cook’s scrambled eggs, he’d thought they were on the pale side. He realised he was not paying attention, Biggart was asking Mutton if he shared his father’s radical socialist views. Again, Mutton had the stiff look of somebody who felt he was being unfairly treated.
‘Answer the question,’ Biggart snapped.
‘Dunno, sir. I ain’t thought about it much. We aren’t allowed to strike or anything in the army.’
Biggart stared.
‘Um, not like them wharfies, eh?’
‘Did you at any time during your guarding of our scientist leave him alone, perhaps for a toilet visit?’
‘No, sir. I had strict instructions.’
‘Did he leave for any reason whilst you were on duty in his room?’
‘Not to my knowledge, sir.’
‘You mean he could have when you were asleep on duty?’
‘No, sir. I did not sleep. Anyway, he used, you know, a chamber pot.’
Biggart waved him out.
William Bell sat on the edge of the chair, poised for combat. He had the flattened nose and battered features of the unsuccessful boxing career he had abandoned. The way he had handled the arrest of the young fisherwoman, Dan figured he enjoyed the rough stuff when he was not on the receiving end.
‘You’re from Ponsonby, Bell. Did you join your local agitators in the Queen Street riots?’
‘Huh,’ Bell sneered. ‘Some of them got what they deserved.’
‘Your brother was arrested, charged with breaches of the peace.’
‘I ain’t my brother. He’s a drongo.’
Bell also denied letting Penny out of his sight when on guard duty.
Private Percival Price was nervous, one foot jigging as he cringed in the chair, an unsuccessful attempt to modify his considerable height. He was doing everything right, if conveying guilt was his intention.
Biggart looked up from the file. ‘Price!’
Price almost fell off his chair.
‘You shot at the fishing craft. You enjoy firing at unidentified persons?’
‘No, sir. I mean, I don’t know. I was obeying orders. I called out the warning.’
‘You always obey orders?’
‘Yessir.’
‘Did anybody tell you to assist intruders?’
‘You mean that Maori sheila? Bell was the one …’
‘Did you sleep on the job?’
Price didn’t have to answer, his face gave him away. Biggart told him he would be reported to his superiors, that was all for now. Price slunk out, not an easy thing to do when you are well over six feet. The door had not even closed when Biggart asked loudly where on earth did the army find these clowns?
The question was not one of those put to the army cook, but answers proved impenetrable. Biggart provided the only comprehensible information by reading from the file on Magnus Flett, born Whalsay, Shetland Islands, went to sea at an early age. He had jumped ship here and volunteered for the army in preference to a jail term. The army volunteered him for the cookhouse. He had clearly thrived on the job. Friar Tuck came to Dan’s mind. Flett smiled in a goopy fashion and nodded and delivered answers in what Dan now realised was not the Southland burr but one of the more obscure Scottish dialects. Biggart dismissed him abruptly. Flett offered some sort of salute and lurched out the door.
‘Christ almighty!’ Biggart exclaimed. ‘None of these jokers could find find his arse with both hands.’
‘Certainly not the cook.’
Biggart gave Dan a dirty look. Obviously he made the jokes. ‘If it wasn’t for the short staffing, I’d run the investigation here myself. So, for the time being, it’s your job to find out which of them is out to boost his army pay. Of course, Penny could well be looking for a higher bid for his services. Fellow rates himself a cut above his employers. Make him your priority. And McCollum, I like him for something. He was born in Londonderry, and we know what that place has spawned.’
Dan did not say it was the same spot Superintendent Smith hailed from. If Biggart didn’t know, he saw no reason to add what was an irrelevancy, McCollum would have come from a very different social strata.
‘Delaney!’
‘Sorry, sir.’
‘Mark my words, one of them is up to no good. Now they all know we have an eye on them, someone will make a mistake. I intend to hurry that up, stir the pot. That deckhand on the launch has a loose mouth on him, he’ll find out the scientists are going to be moved to Fort Dorset for greater security. He’ll blab to those soldiers, bet your boots. In case it doesn’t get back to our snotty scientists, you can drop a hint Penny’s way. The thing we want is them all on edge. Somebody will make a move. Make sure you spot it and contact me immediately. Understood?’
‘Yes, sir. With his colleague out of the way, perhaps Mr Penny will let me assist in the lab?’
‘So long as you don’t call him Penny. You saw what he’s like with the colonel when he does not get his way. And talking of Smith, our Pommie detective, whom we presume is indeed called Smith. He’s picked up a rumour Haas is in the Hutt Valley. Seems to be a hive of Nazi sympathisers. Sub-Inspector Scott is busy checking that out. Time for you to get cracking. Start by sounding out Penny on how he views a move to Fort Dorset. He’ll be only too aware it won’t be so easy for his blueprints to go astray there. Let me know his reaction.’
Biggart put the files back in his black briefcase, snapped its clasps shut, and left. Dan did not expect a goodbye from him, but he didn’t know why he was so abrupt, why he had to say Dan was only on the case because they were short-staffed. But, it was an opportunity, and he intended to take it. Temporary Acting Detective was not a rank he wanted to be stuck on, he wanted promotion. It would be champion to march into the Auckland office and tell those two acting detectives to make their own tea. Mum and Dad would be proud of him. He didn’t know about Sean, unless he had finally got the promotion he craved and was in the newsroom. For sure Sean would love to know what his brother was up to, but there was no way he was going to find out.
Dan rapped on the laboratory door. Penny opened it, his frown giving way to a welcoming smile.
‘Come in,’ he said, holding the door open. ‘Thought you were one of those ruddy sentries checking up on me. I told Price -- I think that’s his name, the tall one -- I didn’t need guarding in the lab and I couldn’t concentrate with his prowling about. I’m sorry you’ve been in the wars yet again on my behalf. Come on, let’s have a chat over a cuppa. My wife says I don’t take enough breaks. There’s something I want to show you.’
Penny locked the door and led the way over to the canteen, carrying a ring-binder file.
‘Tea for two, Magnus,’ he said when the cook appeared at the hatch, wiping his hands on his once white apron. ‘Are those your famous cheese scones I can smell? Looks like I got the timing pretty much spot on.’
The cook grunted something unintelligible to Dan, but it was positive judging by his gap-toothed grin.
The scones were magnificent, the equal of his mother’s, and again Dan thought this was definitely the upside of army life. They silently pulled the scones apart, steam rising, slathered butter on the halves and devoured them. They tucked in to two apiece.
‘Tip-top, Magnus,’ Penny called. The cook appeared at the hatch, waved acknowledgement.
Sipping his tea, Penny seemed to Dan in an extraordinarily good mood for someone who had suffered a break-in. He looked like the proverbial cat that had got the cream. It couldn’t just be the scones, good as they were. Dan felt silly calling him Smith, so he settled for sir, asking if he was relieved nothing important had been filmed.
Penny said it was about time he called him Vic and it was not relief but pleasure that he had put his recent blueprints in this folder. He held up the spine, which was identified in large black lettering ‘Infectious Animal Diseases’.
‘I keep it on the bookcase above my work bench,’ he said. ‘Hiding in plain sight, as the great Sherlock Holmes put it.’
Dan didn’t tell him the phrase actually came from an Edgar Allan Poe story ‘The Purloined Letter’ his brother had urged him to read given, Sean couldn’t resist saying, he was trying to be a detective. Dan had thought the story made more sense than the one where the monkey did it, but it wasn’t any more relevant to what actual detective work was all about. Dan settled for asking if he didn’t think it a bit risky, when they had a security problem on the island.
Penny tapped a finger against his head. ‘Most of it is in here,’ he said. ‘They can’t steal that, now can they? I wanted to show you that we are making progress.’ He opened the folder and turned it to face Dan. The letter was an itemised list addressed to the Minister of Defence. Penny’s finger rested next to the signature at the bottom of the page, after the word ‘Approved’.
‘We have the thousand pounds requested. Now we can really get on with our work.’
‘Well done.’ Dan managed to avoid adding ‘sir’.
‘You know,’ Penny said, ‘I think my little charade at the wharf might have helped. At first I feared I had overegged it, made a fool of Puttick. Give him his due, he took it well enough once he got me to one side, away from his troops. He is positive now and that does help. He is actually well up with the play, knows all about the international advances. You interested, or is this above and beyond your brief?’
‘Not at all. Vic. I think it helps if I know what we are involved in.’
‘Knowledge is power, eh, Dan. You don’t mind me calling you Dan?’
Dan shook his head.
‘You really are the only one I can trust on this island.’ He swept his hand above his head. ‘Except for the Weirs. Nice people. They have offered to accommodate my wife when she arrives. Very decent of them. And I would like to think we can put this security problem to bed before she arrives.’
‘Of course, Vic,’ Dan said stoutly.
Penny patted his arm. ‘Yes, Puttick. He knows about the UK advances last decade in radio techniques, probing the ionosphere, detection of lightning at long distances. Watson-Watt led the development of radio direction finding as part of his lightning experiments. His assistant Wilkins may have made the breakthrough, locating a receiver suitable for shortwave transmissions. This is where they detected fading when planes flew overhead. That got everybody going, the Soviets, our American friends, the big European powers, all very hush-hush, of course. You with me?’
‘I think so.’
‘Last year the French leapt ahead with magnetrons, developed an obstacle-locating radio receiver. They’ve put it on their new liner, the Normandie.’
‘No more Titanic collisions with icebergs.’
‘Exactly. And the Soviets, they have always been at the forefront. At least their scientists have. They have just produced an experimental apparatus capable of detecting aircraft within a two-mile radius of the receiver. The Americans are testing a pulsed system using coastal battery searchlights at night. There is all this talk of a radio-based death ray, the Germans were feared to have cracked it, but turns out it is still in the realms of Messers Wells and Verne.’
‘What about your death ray?’
‘Ah, yes, well I flagged that some years ago, after my wife got burned by one of my backyard experiments. Too unstable. Works for a box of matches, but that is not exactly much use, is it? Ah, Magnus, yes, I’ll have a refill. Dan?’
They watched the cook fill their mugs from an enormous metal teapot. He didn’t use the handle above the spout. Dan’s gaze was drawn to the faded female tattoo on his pouring arm. It undulated as it took the strain, but not a drop was lost. Dan watched the cook waddle off, wondering if his literacy was more coherent than his speech, whether he should mention this possible security breach, having the folder open at the letter to the Minister of Defence.
Leaning forward, Penny confided he wanted the cook to see the folder. Not that he thought he was their spy, but there was a good chance he would be questioned about what he saw during this morning tea meet. Dan was sure he had winked. Was this a game for him, part of his odd sense of humour, or just a tick?
‘I could leave the folder in the lab foyer, on the floor. If Magnus gossips, that should attract our sneak-thief. He won’t be able to believe his luck. Don’t worry, I will not leave anything of value in it. What do you think?’
Dan didn’t think much of the idea. Whoever picked it up would quickly realise it was worthless if they were looking for blueprints. They would probably hand it right back and neither Penny nor himself would be any the wiser. He didn’t want to offend the rather prickly scientist. ‘I could I suppose set up surveillance from the barracks opposite.’
Vic nodded. ‘Obviously it can’t be me on the lookout. I will be under guard, so to speak. I’ll leave you to sort that out, you’re the detective. As I was saying, most developed nations are chasing this radio breakthrough. Bit like the invention of radio. Marconi beat several other scientists by a matter of months, including an Indian, I am told. Marconi got me interested in the subject. There are enormous possibilities with radio, not just warning ships and planes of obstacles, but gathering weather information, providing accurate altitude readings, mapping terrain. Of course, the military are at the forefront. Think of the huge advantage you have if you can precisely target air, ground and sea threats? The problem we all have is finding a stable conductivity for reflecting radio signals back to the receiver. This extra funding might be just what we need to achieve that. I have to develop something better than the oscilloscope for amplifying and stabilising the signal bounce. Spears is ordering the latest ultra-shortwave manuals in Auckland as well as giving the North Shore Transport Company the specs for making a special lathe. With the threat of another war growing greater by the day, with the Germans and the Japanese prowling about the Pacific, you can see why Puttick is interested. And indeed the entire Cabinet. Not forgetting all those countries chasing this breakthrough in radio range-finding. So, the sooner we apprehend these snoops the better, eh, Dan? And put me in the clear with your suspicious boss.’
Dan started to apologise, but Penny told him not to bother, detectives were suspicious of everybody until proven otherwise. Find who takes the folder and we may flush out our spy.
‘I’m not sure this will work.’
Penny frowned, then shrugged. ‘Up to you. Now, I must get back to finding my range, eh? Bit like golf, really, get your range right, everything falls into place. So, do I carelessly lose the folder, or are you happier if I do nothing?’
For want of a better idea, or indeed of any idea, Dan agreed. He watched from the canteen as the scientist strode away, folder tucked under his arm. He thought the scientist was careless about more than his folder. Penny liked hitting a golf ball around the island, said it was his only relaxation. It made him a target, if somebody decided to get him in their sights, somebody like Haas. The island was impossible to patrol effectively, never mind wasting time waiting to see who collected the folder, not when you were the only person on the job and his fellow patrollers as likely to be his target as Rebecca or Haas or any other intruder.
Was Penny playing him for a fool, as Biggart was ready to believe? He realised he had forgotten Biggart’s instruction to drop a hint about the possible move to Fort Dorset. Biggart was sure Penny was working on a death ray, yet Penny said that was nonsense. Who to believe?
The Commissioner’s circular directed sacrifice of comfort and pleasure to the demands of duty in following every channel which may possibly lead to the discovery of the truth. He had to get on with it. He decided to try and find out more about the movements and possible motivations of the suspects.