Upon A Bloodstained Land: A Mason Collins Crime Thriller 6 by John A. Connell

Author:John A. Connell [Connell, John A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nailhead Publishing
Published: 2022-04-07T23:00:00+00:00

26

I was within a block of Laura’s hospital when the incident in Jaffa finally caught up with me. The police must have staked out the area to wait for me, because as soon as I was in sight, five cops came trotting in my direction.

No use in running. I stopped and raised my hands. I looked around to see if anyone was observing this from a distance. They searched me and removed my weapons. I was expecting handcuffs, but I was simply escorted to a waiting car and told to get in back.

DCI Gilman occupied the space behind the front passenger’s seat. He waited until the constable had closed the door and the driver stepped out of the vehicle. “You created quite a stir in Jaffa today.”

“I heard a rumor that the Black Hand was there. I went to check it out. A local Arab tried to rob me, and I fought back. The people in the neighborhood didn’t appreciate me beating up a member of their community.”

“Did you learn anything?”

“No.”

“All that way on a rumor?” Gilman asked with a tone of sarcasm. “Who passed on that information to you?”

“I was sniffing around in the Arab quarter of the Old City and overheard it on the street.”

Gilman raised an eyebrow and glared at me. “Mr. Collins, our threat still stands. You provide information, and we refrain from sending you prison for offenses against the United Kingdom. So far, you haven’t been very useful.”

“I made contact with Irgun and Haganah, but their security is so tight that they don’t just avoid suspicious characters, they eliminate them. I have to go slow or wind up dead.”

“No other names in those organizations, then?”

I shook my head.

“Anything on the Black Hand or your assassin?” Gilman asked.

I had to give him something, if only to stay out of prison. “Nothing on the group, but I found out the assassin goes by the name Nadia Yassin al-Katib. But her real surname seems to be Chamberlin.”

I watched for Gilman’s reaction. He showed genuine surprise at hearing an Anglo name.

“She’s British?” he asked.

“Syrian mother and British father, and she was raised in Iraq.”

He nodded. “It shouldn’t be too hard to track down from her father’s records.”

“If you find out anything, pass it on to me. It could help.”

Gilman seemed bemused by my request. “You are the giver of information, not the recipient. You are certainly not in any position to demand I do anything.”

I said nothing. I had expected for him to tell me that they knew about my contact with Nicholas, or Atkinson’s and my adventure in the village of Alal. Such titillating details would be too tempting to ignore. But either he was stringing me along, or he wasn’t aware of them. Meaning there were limits to police intel.

“I’m not going to ask where you learned of her name,” Gilman said. “You won’t be truthful. Just so we understand each other. And I want you to remember that the care of your fiancée is at our discretion.

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