Assassins by Jim Eldridge

Author:Jim Eldridge [Eldridge Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2016-05-10T04:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SIX

In the taxi that took them home, Stark patted his stomach. He still felt bloated. ‘I don’t think I’m going to need to eat again for a week,’ he said. ‘Four courses!’

‘Uncle Edwin entertains so rarely; that’s why he splashed out tonight,’ said Danvers. ‘But it was good food, wasn’t it?’

‘Excellent!’ agreed Stark. ‘I think we’ll have to find ways to ask your Uncle Edwin’s advice more often.’

‘What did you make of what he told us?’

Stark hesitated. Then he leant forward to make sure the glass partition between them and the taxi driver was securely shut, before saying, ‘I think the Irish business is a dead end, as far as these murders are concerned.’

Danvers looked at him, puzzled. ‘But you said there was a connection. The business of them both being against home rule.’

‘Yes, but it doesn’t make sense about them being killed over it. Think about it from the point of view of a possible assassin. Amersham and Smith and their Union group are out of the loop as far as the government is concerned. They have no power and no influence. So what’s the point in killing them? The pro-treaty crowd, the Irish delegation in London, have no interest in killing them. It wouldn’t benefit them; it could only make their bargaining position worse.

‘The anti-treaty Irish, the de Valera faction, they also have no real interest in killing them. They know that this group are outside the seat of power; they have no impact on the talks. Amersham and Smith and their like shout and rant about keeping Ireland British, but that’s all they can do. They are not a threat. Lloyd George and Churchill have set their minds on getting a deal. So why kill Amersham and Smith? It doesn’t make sense.’

‘The man who attacked you had an Irish accent.’

‘So the witness said, but I’m not a hundred per cent sure of that.’ Stark shook his head. ‘There is something going on here involving the Irish talks, but I don’t think the murders are connected to it. I think that Special Branch used the murder of Lord Amersham to try to undermine the talks. There is a faction inside Britain that wants these talks to fail, and they are more powerful than mavericks like Lord Amersham and Tobias Smith. And I’d bet my pension that some of the people in Special Branch are connected with them.’

‘The two you saw?’

‘Chief Inspector Burns and Inspector Rogers,’ nodded Stark grimly. ‘They had those files all ready for me. They wanted me to come to the conclusion that there was a split between the pro-treaty delegates, and de Valera and the anti-treaty brigade, and put suspicion on de Valera.’

‘Why?’

‘To undermine the talks. Churchill was right. He said to me, “There are powerful people in Whitehall who want these Irish talks to fail. They will do anything to stop the talks succeeding.” We need to look elsewhere for our murderer.’

Stark’s mother was still up when he arrived home, sitting in the kitchen by the range, darning a hole in one of Stephen’s socks.

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