Perseverance Street (29 page)

‘What? Leaving the kid outside the shop?’

Charlie nodded. ‘Every morning, outside on his own. Sometimes for as much as ten minutes as she chatted to the shopkeeper. It’s lucky
I
took him and not someone more sinister.’

‘Yeah,
he’s such a lucky boy,’ said Dee, drawing on her cigarette, shaking her head but beginning to see the method in Charlie’s madness. ‘You know, Charlie, I thought I was a lunatic, but compared to you … God! I’m the sanest person alive.’ Dee looked up at Charlie and began to laugh. ‘Jesus, Charlie you’re a real, genuine, twenty-four carat madman.’

Charlie shrugged at this dubious compliment. ‘Look, I’m going. I want to be at home when Bannister comes calling on me. I have an alibi for ten o’clock this morning when Christopher was taken.’

‘Who’s that?’

‘My mum. She’s been helping me look after Christopher all day.’

‘Your mum! I don’t believe this. Does your dad know?’

‘No, Dad’s a bit of a worrier. Mum’s been great – always had faith in me. She and my dad divorced when I was a boy. I live with Mum but she can be a bit unpredictable. Dad couldn’t do with it. She drove him mad at times and I can understand why. Now they’re divorced they get on a lot better.

‘Look, give Lily a happy hour before you tell her what’s happening.’

Dee nodded. ‘I’ll definitely do that. If anyone deserves a happy hour it’s Lily. Then I’ll tell her what the deal is and see if she goes for it but, to be honest, I don’t think you’ve thought this through clearly.’

It was the
following evening. Bannister had been and gone. Charlie’s mother had provided her son with an excellent alibi, to the extent that Bannister totally believed her. Not only that but he seemed quite taken by her, to Charlie’s irritation. She’d asked Bannister if he was married and his answer was a most reluctant yes.

‘Mum, you’re a blatant flirt,’ Charlie said, after Bannister had left. ‘He’s a copper. You don’t go round flirting with coppers.’

‘Bit of fun, Charlie, boy. Anyway he’s my age, why shouldn’t I flirt with him?’

Charlie shook his head. The phone rang. It was Dee, who was understandably cautious.

‘Can you talk?’

‘Yes. Bannister’s been and gone. We’re all in the clear – for now.’

‘For now’s right, Charlie. She won’t part with him. I’ve been trying to make her see sense since last night.’

‘She’s got to give him back, Dee.’

‘Try telling Lily. Ever since I told her we’d have to give him back she won’t even let me hold him. She even takes him into the bathroom with her. It’s weird, Charlie.’

‘I’ll
come over.’

He put the phone down and looked at his mother who had already figured out the problem. ‘She doesn’t want to send him back?’

‘No,’ said Charlie.

‘I could have told you that.’

‘Why didn’t you?’

‘Because you’ve never taken too much notice of anything I ever said. There’s a lot of your father in you in that respect.’

‘It’ll blow the whole deal if she tries to keep him.’

‘That depends on how quickly you get Michael back. He’s the key to all this. You get Michael back and all the people giving Lily problems will crawl back under their stones.’

‘He could be in Italy. Or he could be still in this country, or anywhere in the world for that matter.’

‘You need to track down this mysterious Italian who bought him.’

‘Short of grabbing Randle again and asking him, I’m not sure how to do it.’

‘Ask your pals at Eden camp. Maybe they know something.’

Lily was sitting at the dining-room table with Christopher on her knee when Charlie arrived. He sat down opposite her.

‘Sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused’, he said. ‘I should have kept my big nose out of it. I should have known you wouldn’t let Christopher go. The trouble is, keeping him is just about the worst thing you could do, under the circumstances. You’d never get proper custody if the court found out what you’d done. In fact he’d probably end up in some children’s home or other.’

Lily smiled
at him. ‘I know what you’re doing, Charlie. I doubt if you can be any more persuasive than Auntie Dee’s been, but I can’t let him go. It’d be like you wanting me to have a leg chopped off – worse even. Maybe if you had a son of your own you’d understand.’

Dee was standing in the doorway. ‘Charlie, can I have a word?’

Charlie got to his feet and followed Dee into the front room. ‘I actually know how she feels,’ she said. ‘If I’d known what you had planned I’d have told you that she wouldn’t be able to part with him. You’ll have to think of an alternative plan.’

‘I see.’

‘Not sure you do.’ Dee sat down and lit a cigarette, composing a story as Charlie waited for her to speak. ‘My full title,’ she said at length, ‘is
Mrs
Delilah Maguire.’

‘You’re married?’

‘Was married for a whole year, to Ernie Maguire. He died in 1919 of flu.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t know. The big epidemic, eh? I was only a toddler when that broke out.

‘My son died as well.’ She was lost in thought for a few seconds. ‘James – he was eight months old. He died three weeks after my husband. I’d handled Ernie’s death OK, but losing my boy was like having my heart ripped out. What’s happened to Lily’s sons since would have destroyed many women. She’s been immensely strong to cope as she has.’

Charlie
nodded and left a respectful pause before asking, ‘How did you cope?’

‘Well, I was left with no money, no child, no job, no qualifications and no skills so I used what assets I had to make money. I’m not proud of how I lived after that but I got by.’

Charlie thought it wise to change the subject. ‘Do you think Lily’s getting over losing Larry?’

Dee drew on her cigarette and smiled at him, allowing the smoke to drift from her mouth. ‘Now, why would you ask such a question?’

‘Just wondered, that’s all.’

‘Her marriage to Larry was much like my marriage to Ernie Maguire – a marriage of necessity – better than having a child out of wedlock. Don’t get me wrong, I was very fond of Ernie and Lily was very fond of Larry, but neither of these were great love stories.’ She held him in her gaze. ‘It might be too late for me to find that sort of love, Charlie, but not for Lily.’

‘I don’t know how Lily will go on if she doesn’t get Michael back,’ he said.

‘But you understand about Christopher?’

‘About her not giving him up?’ said Charlie. ‘I suppose I do, but I don’t know how we’re going to manage. He can’t stay inside this house indefinitely. Kids have a tendency to grow up.’

‘That’s why we need to find Michael before Christopher gets much older.’

‘Right, best tell her, then.’

They both went back into the kitchen. Charlie held up his hands in mock surrender. ‘OK, Lily, we give up. You keep him, but we all have to tread very carefully. Act as you would if Christopher had really been stolen.’

‘Like
Michael, you mean?’

‘Yeah, no one knows better than you how to do that, but I suggest you ring Bannister every other day and ask if there’s been any news of Christopher. If he’s out leave messages for him to ring you if there’s any news. You’ll get on his nerves to the extent that he’ll want to keep his distance from you, which suits us down to the ground. Trouble is, there’s about thirty coppers out there looking for him. How do you feel about that?’

‘You mean do I feel guilty? Not really. It’s about thirty more coppers than bothered looking for Michael so I’m struggling to have any sympathy for the police. Do you have a plan to get him back?’

Charlie looked at Dee. ‘Dee and I, we’re working on one.’

‘So,’ said Dee, ‘you can leave him with me from time to time. No need to take him to the bathroom with you.’

Lily looked from one to the other as if assessing the truth of the situation.

‘Lily, don’t look at us like that. You can trust us,’ said Dee. ‘Here, let me take him.’

Lily breathed a sigh of relief, then got to her feet and handed Christopher over. She then looked at Charlie. ‘What’s the plan?’

Charlie winced slightly. ‘First I need to find out who this Italian is who bought Michael.’

‘Are you sure he was telling the truth?’

‘Lily,
if you’d been there you’d know he was telling the truth. The information’s solid, believe me.’

She now wondered what excruciating torture he’d put Randle through to get this solid information. Bannister hadn’t been very forthcoming about the nature of the assault.

‘What did you do to him?’ she asked. Her eyes forced a truthful answer from him.

‘I kind of tricked him into believing that he was definitely going to drown if he didn’t come up with truthful answers. When the choice is death or the truth, truth wins out. It’s a tried and tested tactic.’

‘And was he in any danger of drowning?’

‘Well, there’s always that danger if you don’t know what you’re doing, which makes it such an effective method of interrogation. Acting comes into it a lot. You need to convince the subject that you’re slightly mad and well capable of carrying out your threat – but I haven’t lost one yet.’

‘So, you’re an expert on this, are you?’

Charlie didn’t answer this. ‘I thought I might ask Jimmy if he knows anything,’ he said.

‘Or Brenda?’ suggested Lily.

Charlie shook his head. ‘Brenda got demoted for spreading that rumour. Not sure how helpful she’ll be.’

‘Oh dear, that’d be my fault.’

‘Probably, but it was in a good cause, so I shouldn’t worry too much. Major Bykers is a fair man. Brenda should get her stripes back when we nail Randle.’

Charlie sat down to examine his thoughts, thinking back to what Randle had said about the Italian. ‘You know, Randle said this Italian was
a real fascist bastard, when you got to know him
– those were his exact words, and he paid two thousand pounds for the boy.’

‘So,
he must also have been a fascist bastard with access to cash money,’ said Dee. ‘Which begs the next question. Where would an Italian POW get that much cash from?’

‘It would have to be someone on the outside,’ said Charlie. ‘British fascists who weren’t locked up as security risks – some of Mosley’s lot, maybe.’

‘How would he have made contact with them? Lily asked.

‘A few months after Italy surrendered in September 1943,’ Charlie told her, ‘the Italian prisoners were given the option of becoming cooperators. Most took up the option and were put to work outside the camps. A man could have had money passed to him on the outside.’

‘Money to buy a child?’ said Dee. ‘Why would a fascist sympathiser do that?’

‘It could have been his own money being passed on to him,’ said Charlie. ‘Money being sent from Italy, possibly via a Swiss bank.’

‘Can they do that?’ Dee asked him.

‘Actually, I dunno,’ admitted Charlie. ‘This is all kind of educated guesswork.’

‘So,’ said Lily, ‘your educated guesswork tells us we’re looking for a wealthy Italian soldier who’s got friends among the British fascists.’

‘Or we could be barking up the wrong tree altogether,’ said Dee.

‘True, but until we find out otherwise, it’s the only tree we’ve got,’ said Charlie, looking at Lily, who was smiling at him.

‘I
like this tree,’ she said. ‘Thanks, Charlie.’

The look she gave him made him glad he’d stolen Christopher back for her. It was a look that held a lot of promise – but only if she got Michael back.

‘One of our main problems,’ he said, ‘is that we can’t involve the police. I’ve been operating on the wrong side of the law and if we let them too near us they’re going to sniff me out.’

‘I think they might sniff Christopher out before they get to you,’ said Lily, wrinkling her nose. ‘I think he needs changing. It’s OK, I’ll do it upstairs.’

As Lily left the room, Charlie ran his fingers through his hair then scratched his head. ‘My mother’s volunteered to help us,’ he said. ‘In fact she practically insisted. What do you think?’

‘I don’t know your mother. Is it a good thing or a bad thing?’

‘Could be either. She’s got her own car. ‘And she speaks five languages.’

‘She sounds just what we need. A mobile linguist.’

‘She’s also very charming when she puts her mind to it. She had Bannister eating out of her hand.’

‘Charming could be handy.’

‘Well, I can’t see Lily wanting to hang around here while you and I are off tracking Michael down. Mum could look after Christopher at her house.’

‘Well, I suppose another recruit will do no harm.’

‘It was
you who tried to drown Randle, wasn’t it?’

Charlie and Jimmy Dunkersley were in the Green Man in Malton. Charlie had asked to meet him, only not on camp.

‘Jimmy, if I’d tried to drown Randle he’d be dead now.’

‘You know what I mean.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘Motive, method and the fact that you asked me what time Randle would be off duty that night.’

‘All circumstantial, Jimmy.’

‘What did he tell you?’

Charlie leaned forward. The pub was quite full and noisy enough to drown confidential conversation.

‘He told me he’d sold Michael to an Italian soldier.’

‘But there weren’t any Eyeties on camp when the boy was taken. They’d been sent all over the country last year when we took in the Germans.’

‘I know that,’ said Charlie, ‘but this could have been provisionally arranged before the Italians left, and the boy to be delivered as soon as the war was over.’

‘What? You mean an order placed for one small boy to be delivered as soon as Hitler topped himself? Come on, this is ridiculous!’

‘Ridiculous,
but true. Obviously I don’t know any details but Randle definitely took the boy.’

Jimmy looked at him. ‘I was questioned by a copper called Bannister. He asked me if I knew you, and had you been asking me about Randle’s movements. I told him, no.’

‘Thanks.’

‘Jesus Christ, Charlie! If Randle took the boy, this is very serious stuff!’

‘Oh, he took him all right. The trouble is that me and Lily are the only ones who know that for certain. I got Randle thinking I was some mad Irish friend of Lily’s husband. I got him into such a state that he wouldn’t have dared lie to me, but I can hardly tell the police that. I told them about a new rumour that Randle had sold Michael to an Italian but I didn’t know where the rumour came from. He can’t prove it, but Bannister knows I’m the one who half drowned Randle so he knows full well where I got it from. I also think he’s coming round to thinking Lily’s been telling the truth all along.’