Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night by James Runcie Page A

about Montague?’
    ‘I imagine they will find out soon enough.’
    ‘He is a witness; and, of course, a suspect, Master. I must tell them.’
    ‘Yes,’ the Master answered drily, ‘I had imagined that you would.’
     
    Sidney felt distinctly uneasy as he made his way to his regular Thursday-night drinks session with Inspector Keating. He was now convinced that he was deliberately being kept in the dark. He was also being tailed by the dark green butcher’s van that had first cut across him before his lunch with Amanda. What could they possibly want with him? He turned off Silver Street into Queens’ Lane. The car followed as he walked past his college and entered the consoling confines of the Eagle.
    Once they had greeted each other, sat down in their favourite chairs, ordered their pints, and begun their game of backgammon, Sidney tried to get to the point as soon as he could.
    ‘This is what I think,’ he began. ‘Valentine Lyall was recruiting for the security services.’
    ‘I’m sure that is the case,’ Keating replied. ‘But which? Not that we should be talking about it in here.’
    ‘No one is listening.’
    ‘The room may be bugged.’
    ‘The Eagle? If it was, then you would know.’
    ‘Probably. Although you would be surprised by how often I don’t.’
    ‘There is no one else here,’ Sidney continued. ‘It might as well be a private room.’
    ‘Well keep your voice down; and don’t name any names if you are going to start making suggestions.’
    ‘I am not going to say anything indiscreet.’
    ‘I wouldn’t bet on it. Which side do you think our man was on?’
    ‘That is, of course, the crucial matter. Let us suppose that the victim, and since we are in such an ornithological location, let’s refer to him as the Falcon, was with our own intelligence services. The other two, let us call them the Buzzard and the Merlin . . .’
    ‘You think they were working together?’
    ‘I think so. It is clear that the Merlin is in love with the Buzzard.’
    ‘Is it?’
    ‘I think so. The Merlin is the keenest to impress, to belong, and therefore pretends to suffer from vertigo. The Falcon leans out from the pinnacle to give him more rope and, at the moment when he is most off balance, the Buzzard pushes him from the roof. He then heads off down the spiral staircase using a key he has obtained by making an impression on a previous visit.’
    ‘While the Merlin is left hanging to make it look like an accident?’
    ‘Not only that. He must then be interviewed and made the centre of all enquiries while his companion makes his escape. It is he who stole the Master’s papers and who, probably even now, is with the Buzzard. I don’t think they’re at home as the Master says. I think they’re in either Berlin or Moscow.’
    ‘So you think, as I do, that they might be KGB?’
    ‘Not entirely.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Why was I being followed? Who was trying to put me off? It wasn’t one of your men, was it?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘And why, of course, did they not succeed in killing me? A professional would have made short work of it. I am sure that it would be a simple matter to dispose of me.’
    ‘I’m afraid you are probably right about that.’
    ‘And so I think it was for show, Geordie. I had to be seen to be under threat. The people responsible wanted to make our investigation seem dangerous.’
    ‘And who would want to do that?’
    ‘Our own side, of course.’ Sidney hesitated. ‘I may be wrong but let us imagine that all this was meant to happen. Think of it as a deliberate plot in which the Falcon was meant to be sacrificed. He knew that he was dying. He might as well die for his country. It was his final mission.’
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘It is a trap, laid by the man at the heart of my college. The Master is playing a double game.’
    ‘So our men are double agents?’
    ‘The Russians think that the boys have killed one of the most successful recruitment officers the secret service