swallowed Carruthers.
“So no, I don’t think I know the deceased.”
“Really? I think perhaps you do, in the circles you keep,” again the slight sneer.
Nick dropped his cigarette and ground it under his heel. He looked up at Carruthers and shrugged.
“Julia Ramon Cortez, you might know her better as Ramona?” In spite of himself, Nick started. He thought for a second, a second that Carruthers felt obliged to fill, “ I believe she’s in the same circle as your ‘acquaintance’ Clara De Vere?” Nick narrowed his eyes.
“Yes, I knew Ramona,” he said quietly, “She was part of Clara’s circle, but that’s a big circle, I knew her by sight, saw her out, but probably only ever said a few words to her.”
“You see my problem here? I’ve got you at the murder scene, with a victim that you knew.” Carruthers let that statement hang while Nick lit another cigarette.
“I can see it, but I still don’t understand why that means you’re talking to me rather than the police.” Carruthers looked irritated, perhaps it was the smoke, Nick hoped so.
“The reason I’m talking to you is that Cortez was a person of interest to us, we were watching her, now she’s dead and you’re the one that finds the body. Who knows where your loyalties lie with a background like yours. Like I said, I don’t like coincidences.”
“You weren’t watching her very well.” Nick said quietly. The other man flushed and banged the table. Nick noted the unprofessional display of emotion, this man was raw.
“Stop trying to misdirect me dammit!” Carruthers blustered, he paused and took a deep breath. “Look, we need to find out who killed Ramona.”
“Sure. What about Ramona though, why her?”
“Ramona’s not important. Who killed her is!” snapped Carruthers irritably.
“I’m sure she was important to someone.” Nick said quietly.
Carruthers flushed, “Yes, I, I meant…”
“I know just what you meant.”
“There’s more to this than a murder.” Carruthers finally spluttered.
“Really?” The question hung in the air, after a time Nick gave a wry smile shook his head and ground his cigarette out.
“If you’ve no more questions I think I’ll be going,” he made to stand but Carruthers leapt to his feet.
“You’ll be going nowhere until you tell me all you know about this.”
“I already have. What I think you want is my help, you just don’t know how to ask for it. How about you tell me why you were watching Ramona and maybe I can help you fill in some of the gaps?” The younger man paced the room, shooting glances at Nick, before finally settling behind the chair.
“What I’m about to tell you is confidential. Cortez was Spanish, on the surface of it, a Republican sympathiser from Madrid, working over here as a dancer.” Nick nodded, “We have reason to believe though, that, that was a cover and her real loyalty lay slightly farther to the right. She came to London from Italy and had plenty of opportunity to mix with the fascists there in her role as a nightclub entertainer. We’re not sure if she may have been turned to the cause there, or indeed sent there by elements in Madrid. As you are only too aware, the Soho demimonde gives people the opportunity to mix with all kinds of foreign elements and it’s devilishly hard to keep an eye on it all.” He sat down in exasperation.
“We’ve got Italians, Spanish, French, Swiss, Jews, God forbid, even Germans multiplying in the streets of Soho, drinking together in bars, all bringing in strange ideas of nationalism, religious fervour, bolshevism, any other kind of ‘ism’ you can mention and all kinds of strange customs. It will not have escaped your notice that Europe seems to be heading towards a tense period once more. My job is to try and monitor all these types, it’s near impossible.”
“I shouldn’t think everyone that’s come here is looking to overthrow our government, or their own, some people actually like the freedom they get here.” Nick observed.
“And that’s the kind of thinking that’s dangerous. We’ve already had the war to end all wars, we can’t afford another.”
“Economically or idealistically?” Nick asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Both. The point is, we’re trying to observe a multitude of elements, most of whom seem to cooperate and fall out faster than we can keep up. Its bad enough that these people are fermenting trouble in their homelands but some of them may be even plotting outrages here as part of some wider game, we just don’t know.”
“And Ramona was a lead?”
“She was moving in circles that brought her to our attention, specifically with some of the German company she was keeping. We’re increasingly worried about the situation in Germany and in particular the aims of some factions with respect to Britain.”
“Do you know the names of anyone she met?”
“Yes, we observed her talking to men affiliated with the Italian government and with the German national socialists on two occasions at clubs.” To Carruther’s obvious astonishment, Nick let out a laugh.
“Talking to men? She was a nightclub hostess.”
“Quite, but these men were not savoury types.”
“Most men in nightclubs aren’t.” observed Nick dryly.
“Something you would know all about.”
“You know what I think? I think you’re clutching at straws because you’re frightened of what you don’t know. Maybe Ramona was a lead, maybe she wasn’t, but when you heard I’d reported the murder you leapt it because it slotted into place because of my past. You hoped if you leaned on me you might learn something new. Or, should I say, something, because you seem to have an awful lot of nothing at the moment.”
Carruthers shuffled his feet. “It’s complicated. We don’t want to compromise what we’ve got.”
“You don’t appear to have an awful lot.” Nick sniffed.
“We have you.”
“I already told you…” Carruthers waved his hand impatiently.
“Irrelevant. You can help us, you’re trained in this, you know these streets, these people, the clubs and bars they go to.”
“I was cashiered.”
“Think of your duty man!”
“I did my duty from 1916 onwards, more than my fair share,” Nick said quietly, “so don’t talk to me about duty. Besides duty doesn’t pay the bar tabs.”
“Ah, now we get to the crux of it. I forgot, you spend your time swilling around the West end in a haze of liquor, those must be some awfully large tabs.”
“Exactly.”
“Why does a man like you walk away from the King’s commission? For what? To spend your time skulking around the West End with gangsters and immigrants,” he shook his head, “an officer,” he sneered, “slumming it. I don’t get it.”
“You don’t have to get it.”
“It helps me if I do get it, why aren’t you sticking with your own kind?”
“I had enough of what you’d call my own kind in the war. Have you been to war?” Nick let the question hang enjoying the fleeting look of discomfort on Carruthers’ face before he brusquely changed the subject.
“I’ll have to get authorisation, but I’ll offer you a weekly wage of half pay from what you were on. Cash.”
“Half?” Nick shook his head.
“Look, this might be a chance for you to get back in the game, look at you, early thirties already washed up and washed out, living off a pension and scratching around for work from petty gangsters and their molls. This could give you something worthwhile.”
“You presume to know an awful lot about what I consider worthwhile Mr Carruthers. Someone is already dead, I have no intention of joining them.”
“Really. I’m told you don’t remember getting home last night. No one saw you after you left the Black Horse pub dead drunk just before midnight. You can’t even tell me where you were apart from at home, on your own. You could have killed her.“
“Could of, we both know that, but didn’t.”
&nbs
p; “Funny, our man’s at your apartment, he just found the gun there that was used to shoot Julia Cortez…”
Nick thrust his hands into his trouser pockets and felt the comforting smooth warmth of his brass knuckleduster. He had to fight the urge to smash it into Carruthers’ face. He calmed himself. “You wouldn’t.”
“And I wonder if your companion Miss De Vere would be quite so keen if she knew what happened in Vienna, and why you had to leave the FO quite so soon. Not to mention some of the very patriotic, but thoroughly nasty things you did before that. “You know how this works Mr Valentine. Hell, are you even sure you didn’t do it? I’m not.”
Nick felt his jaw twitch and he was suddenly aware of the pressure on clenched teeth. He exhaled with a hiss of air. Carruthers had voiced something that Nick had been wrestling with since he stumbled onto the body in the alley way. He didn’t think he’d done it, but he had to admit, the possibility existed, only that would have made no sense, but then experience told him death rarely did. What price his own piece of mind?
“Well, in that case, I suppose I’ve got myself a job.” Nick replied after what felt an age.
“Good. Find out what you can. I can give you some names; Jurgen Platt, German, closest known associate of Cortez is someone we’re interested in at this point. His known associates, Bruno Manzelli, political consul at the Italian embassy, Gunther Braun, German also. Gunther and Jurgen share a flat and run an import export business from an office in Soho, with a warehouse in Wapping. However, you’re most likely to find them at the Blue Rose club. You know it?” Nick’s face gave