In Their Footsteps. Tess Gerritsen
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attempt?” Richard queried.
Hugh nodded. “So it would seem.”
IT WAS LONG PAST MIDNIGHT when Jordan and Uncle Hugh finally found Beryl. She was in her mother’s old room, huddled beside Madeline’s steamer trunk. The lid had been thrown open, and Madeline’s belongings were spilled out across the bed and the floor: silky summer dresses, flowery hats, a beaded evening purse. And there were silly things, too: a branch of sea coral, a pebble, a china frog—items of significance known only to Madeline. Beryl had removed all of these things from the trunk, and now she sat surrounded by them, trying to absorb, through these inanimate objects, the warmth and spirit that had once been Madeline Tavistock.
Uncle Hugh came into the bedroom and sat down in a chair beside her. “Beryl,” he said gently, “it’s time…it’s time I told you the truth.”
“The time for the truth was years ago,” she said, staring down at the china frog in her hand.
“But you were both so very young. You were only eight, and Jordan was ten. You wouldn’t have understood—”
“We could’ve dealt with the facts! Instead you hid them from us!”
“The facts were painful. The French police concluded—”
“Dad would never have hurt her,” said Beryl. She looked up at him with a ferocity that made Hugh draw back in surprise. “Don’t you remember how they were together, Uncle Hugh? How much in love they were? I remember!”
“So do I,” said Jordan.
Uncle Hugh took off his spectacles and wearily rubbed his eyes. “The truth,” he said, “is even worse than that.”
Beryl stared at him incredulously. “How could it be any worse than murder and suicide?”
“Perhaps…perhaps you should see the file.” He rose to his feet. “It’s upstairs. In my office.”
They followed their uncle to the third floor, to a room they seldom visited, a room he always kept locked. He opened the cabinet and pulled a folder from the drawer. It was a classified MI6 file labeled Tavistock, Bernard and Madeline.
“I suppose I…I’d hoped to protect you from this,” said Hugh. “The truth is, I myself don’t believe it. Bernard didn’t have a traitorous bone in his body. But the evidence was there. And I don’t know any other way to explain it.” He handed the file to Beryl.
In silence she opened the folder. Together she and Jordan paged through the contents. Inside were copies of the Paris police report, including witness statements and photographs of the murder scene. The conclusions were as Nina Sutherland had told them. Bernard had shot his wife three times at close range and had then put the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger. The crime photos were too horrible to dwell on; Beryl flipped quickly past those and found herself staring at another report, this one filed by French Intelligence. In disbelief, she read and reread the conclusions.
“This isn’t possible,” she said.
“It’s what they found. A briefcase with classified NATO files. Allied weapons data. It was in the garret, where their bodies were discovered. Bernard had those files with him when he died—files that shouldn’t have been out of the embassy building.”
“How do you know he took them?”
“He had access, Beryl. He was our Intelligence liaison to NATO. For months, Allied documents were showing up in East German hands, delivered to them by someone they code-named Delphi. We knew we had a mole, but we couldn’t identify him—until those papers were found with Bernard’s body.”
“And you think Dad was Delphi,” said Jordan.
“No, that’s what French Intelligence concluded. I couldn’t believe it, but I also couldn’t dispute the facts.”
For a moment, Beryl and Jordan sat in silence, dismayed by the weight of the evidence.
“You don’t really believe it, Uncle Hugh?” said Beryl softly. “That Dad was the one?”
“I couldn’t argue with the findings. And it would explain their deaths. Perhaps they knew they were on the verge of being discovered. Disgraced. So Bernard took the gentleman’s way out. He would, you know. Death before dishonor.”
Uncle Hugh sank back in the chair and wearily ran his fingers through his gray hair. “I tried to keep the report as quiet as possible,” he said. “The search for Delphi was halted. I myself had a few sticky years in MI6. Brother of a traitor and all, can we trust him, that sort of thing. But then, it was forgotten. And I went on with my career. I think…I think it was because no one at MI6 could quite believe the report. That Bernard had gone to the other side.”
“I don’t believe it, either,” said Beryl.
Uncle Hugh looked at her. “Nevertheless—”
“I won’t believe it. It’s a fabrication. Someone at MI6, covering up the truth—”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Beryl.”
“Mum and Dad can’t defend themselves! Who else will speak up for them?”
“Your loyalty’s commendable, darling, but—”
“And where’s your loyalty?” she retorted. “He was your brother!”
“I didn’t want to believe it.”
“Then did you confirm that evidence? Did you discuss it with French Intelligence?”
“Yes, and I trusted Daumier’s report. He’s a thorough man.”
“Daumier?” queried Jordan. “Claude Daumier? Isn’t he chief of their Paris operations?”
“At the time, he was their liaison to MI6. I asked him to review the findings. He came to the same conclusions.”
“Then this Daumier fellow is an idiot,” said Beryl. She turned to the door. “And I’m going to tell him so myself.”
“Where are you going?” asked Jordan.
“To pack my things,” she said. “Are you coming, Jordan?”
“Pack?” said Hugh. “Where in blazes are you headed?”
Beryl threw a glance over her shoulder. “Where else,” she answered, “but Paris?”
RICHARD WOLF GOT THE CALL at six that morning. “They are booked on a noon flight to Paris,” said Claude Daumier. “It seems, my friend, that someone has pried open a rather nasty can of worms.”
Still groggy with sleep, Richard sat up in bed and gave his head a shake. “What are you talking about, Claude? Who’s flying to Paris?”
“Beryl and Jordan Tavistock. Hugh has just called me. I think this is not a good development.”
Richard collapsed back on his pillow. “They’re adults, Claude,” he said, yawning. “If they want to jet off to Paris—”
“They are coming to find out about Bernard and Madeline.”
Richard closed his eyes and groaned. “Oh, wonderful, just what we need.”
“My sentiments precisely.”
“Can’t Hugh talk them out of it?”
“He tried. But this niece of his…” Daumier sighed. “You have met her. So you would understand.”
Yes, Richard knew exactly how stubborn Miss Beryl Tavistock could be. Like mother, like daughter. He remembered that Madeline had been just as unswerving, just as unstoppable.
Just as enchanting.
He shook off those haunting memories of a long-dead woman and said, “How much do they know?”