The House of the Bears by John Creasey

Author:John Creasey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The House of the Bears
ISBN: 9780755125531
Publisher: House of Stratus
Published: 2013-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

Book Two

THE SHADOW

10: EVERYTHING ON THE TABLE

Brett had gone back to London; the Palfreys were still at the Corbin hotel.

Hardy and Cartwright had been told, that morning, that Palfrey was now working for Intelligence. They had not been told why. Instructions from Brett and a higher authority had been firm; absolute secrecy was vital.

Those prisoners who were at Corbin were being taken over by the Special Branch for questioning. Agents whom Palfrey knew were on their way to Corbin. A furnished house had been rented for their headquarters, although officially Palfrey was still staying at the hotel.

‘Well, our particular job is the Morne angle,’ Palfrey said. ‘And also McDonald. What time is he coming?’

‘He said he’d be here in time for lunch,’ said Drusilla.

McDonald, who had been to see Loretta the previous day, had gone from the sanatorium to Morne House. In view of his frequent declarations that he disliked the house and the people in it, his jaunt was surprising, but Palfrey wanted to keep an open mind about McDonald. Had the suspicion risen up only on account of his following Rose to the caves, Palfrey would have discounted it, but if he had been in Cheddar before .

Above all things, Palfrey wanted to see Kyle.

The telephone-bell rang. Drusilla lifted the receiver. Palfrey saw her change of expression and jumped up.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Yes, Mac. At once.’ She replaced the receiver and said: ‘Morne’s been attacked and hurt.’

‘Morne!’ exclaimed Palfrey. ‘Badly enough for the hospital?’

‘No, he’s at home. He’s asking for you.’

‘A Morne habit,’ said Palfrey. ‘Give Hardy a ring and tell him we’re going out there at once. At least, I am.’ He went to the dressing-table and took an automatic from the bottom drawer. Drusilla was saying ‘Yes, we’re going at once’ into the telephone. Palfrey smiled at the ‘we’. Yet he wished this had come a little later, when Brett’s men could have followed him across the moors. Hardy’s men would be faithful, but were they up to the standard required for this business?

There was a chance that McDonald had lied, of course; he might have planned to get them out on the moor. But it wasn’t easy to check up on that. Drusilla put a call in to Morne House while Palfrey fetched the car from the garage, and first a servant, then Mrs. Bardie, told her that Sir Rufus was in bed after an accident.

The police car picked them up in the High Street, and Palfrey drove at speed through the narrow streets, with the dark clouds still massed above his head and the rain teeming down. The police car, a powerful one, was driven at equal speed. Out in the open, before they reached the moor, the rain hit the windscreen and bounced off with hissing fury, slowing down the windscreen wipers. Presently they came within sight of the moor. At this spot they were nearer the sea than on any other part of the road. In the far distance, the sky was bright, and suddenly the sun came out and shone upon Wenlock Cliff.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.