The Shadow of Treason Read Free

from up north, but he didn’t have an accent, did he? He’d lost touch with his parents, like you said can happen. It seems he didn’t get on with his dad. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Someone should have found them.’
    ‘Captain Brigden said Mark had been discharged from the merchant navy. Did he ever mention that?’
    ‘Yes. Sometimes we’d hear people making snide remarks about him not being in the Forces. In the pub and so on. Then he’d start talking about being chucked off the boats on medical grounds. Something to do with his heart.’
    ‘His heart? Really?’
    Jane smiled. ‘I expect you get that problem, don’t you, being in civvies? Busybodies asking why you’re not in uniform?’
    ‘Yes, of course. And you’re wondering the same thing.’
    ‘Well … Since you mention it….’
    ‘All right, I’ll tell you. More coffee?’
    ‘Are you having another one?’
    ‘Yes, I think I will. It’s not brilliant, but it’s better than the stuff at—’ Adam suddenly remembered who he was talking to. Jane laughed, for the first time in weeks. ‘At the Cavendish, right? It’s OK, Mum wouldn’t disagree. Caterers are rationed like everyone else, you know. A boarding house gets less coffee than a cafe does. Mum has to make a little go a long way.’
    ‘She’s a nice lady.’
    ‘Of course she is, she’s my mum. You don’t want to get the wrong side of her, though. She can be tough when she wants to be. Anyway, yes, I will have another coffee, please.’
    Adam looked round for the waitress. And, as he did so, he was aware of a sudden movement at the next table. A middle-aged man in a dark suit was sitting there, with a tightly-rolled umbrella hooked over a spare chair. As Adam turned, he’d hastily raised his newspaper, and was now studying it intently. It didn’t seem important at the time. The coffee ordered, Adam looked back at Jane. ‘I’ve been asking all the questions. I guess it’s time I did some answering.’
    Jane recalled the phrase she’d heard so often in police dramas on the radio and in films. ‘You don’t have to say anything that could be used in evidence against you.’
    ‘I’m afraid I’ve nothing to hide. I’m rather boring really. The reason I’m not in the army is I’m in a reserved occupation. They think I’m more useful doing my normal job than marching round a barrack square.’
    ‘Gosh. So what’s your job then?’
    ‘I’m a marine scientist. Working at the Marine Research Centre at Southend.’
    ‘Marine research! Does that help the war effort?’
    ‘They hope so. We study the effect of salt on different metals … ways of converting sea water for drinking … all sorts of things.’
    ‘You’re a boffin!’
    ‘A very junior one. I only finished college this year.’
    ‘So where’s your home?’
    ‘I haven’t got one at present. I was brought up in Bristol, but my parents sold the house and moved to Canada at the start of the war.’
    ‘Canada? They’ll be all right over there.’
    ‘That was the idea. My stepmother has trouble with her nerves, and Dad wanted to get her away from the bombing. He has a brother in Toronto.’
    ‘Well, well. You’re another loner, like Mark.’
    ‘I suppose you could say that. In a boarding house you probably get quite a lot of loners.’
    ‘Yes, we’ve had a few. Some nice, some not so nice. We’ve got a pretty poisonous one at the moment.’
    ‘You must be thinking of Maurice Cooper.’
    ‘How did you guess?’
    ‘He’s not very pleasant, is he? Always finds something to complain about. And he should change his socks more often.’
    ‘He gives me the creeps. He keeps leering at me, and trying to get his hands on my body. Just because I’m a dancer, he thinks I’m fair game.’
    ‘I believe he fancies himself as a bit of a Casanova.’
    ‘God help us! He’s revolting! And he’s old enough to be my dad. Thank heavens he isn’t!’
    ‘He’s too old for the call-up, of course.