Death in the Cove, page 27
'With such an obvious disregard for human life it makes you wonder why he became a doctor.'
'I asked him that. He looked at me as though I was rather stupid. He said it was always the clinical challenge that excited him, the analysis of the condition, or rather the diagnosis, then the experimentation of the treatment, and then the outcome. It didn't seem to matter to him whether patients lived or died. He'd have been far more suited to pathology, cutting up dead bodies than treating live ones. He lacks compassion and, to his mind, even back in 1920 as a child, the prisoners were expendable. They were human guinea pigs.'
'Much like the Nazi's,' Eva muttered.
There was a brief silence between them before Ryga commenced. 'Wakefield knew the prisoners would be going on the work party because Leslie Burrows had heard about it from his father. Wakefield thought it was the ideal opportunity to try out his experiment.' Ryga recalled how he had shuddered inside when Wakefield had said this in the police station, evenly and in a matter-of-fact manner. The chief constable had sucked in his breath and his body had become rigid. 'The boys went to the bay and hid themselves behind the rocks.'
'How did they know Crawley would leave the prisoners?'
'They didn't. Wakefield said that one of them would have decoyed him away but he went anyway so they took their chance. When Burrows saw what happened he broke down and became a risk to Wakefield. He gave Burrows what money he had––' 'Enabling him to say Burrows had stolen it if he needed to.'
'Yes. But he never did because he also left shortly afterwards. Burrows told Wakefield on the shore in Church Ope Cove that he had stowed away on a boat in Weymouth and had managed to work his way to London where, as we said, he eventually ended up in Australia. But he told Wakefield no more than that.'
'Probably didn't get the chance.'
'No. The rest, as I believe we already worked out, is that Burrows ended up working in a diamond mine where he stole diamonds as a means of escaping poverty and hard labour. He took them to Amsterdam where he contacted Abramowski and discovered that Conrad had been a prisoner at the time of the typhoid outbreak. He probably asked him about Chris Wakefield and the two prisoners. Conrad probably wouldn't have known much, if anything, about them but the fact that Burrows had asked made Conrad curious and maybe he recognized or twigged who Burrows was. Burrows was certain to have adopted another name by then.'
'Not so slow or backward then.'
'He was never backward,' Ryga said. 'Just thoughtful. When he reached Weymouth in 1938 with Conrad, he learned that his parents were dead and that there was nothing for him on Portland, so he took off again for America with his diamonds.'
'And reinvented himself as Luke Bordon, a rich philanthropist, with a love of art.'
'Wakefield was surprised at that and irked. I took great pleasure in telling him that.'
Eva smiled.
'Wakefield thought Leslie Burrows was a poor fisherman or sailor, a man who had never got out of his class.'
'Which was what Burrows wanted him to think, hence the sailor's clothes. And Wakefield changed some of the clothes, the suit and shoes, after he'd killed Burrows and stole Burrows' identity to stop you tracing him.'
'Yes, but he missed the cufflinks.'
'And the tie? Surely he'd have thought a man of Burrows' supposed class wouldn't be wearing a silk tie designed and made by Van Heusen of Pennsylvania? And the shirt was of good quality cotton.'
'Wakefield thought Burrows had stolen the tie and got the shirt second hand. Seeing the vest and socks were silk must have made Wakefield wonder when the corpse was undressed in front of me and Daniels, but I didn't see any sign of surprise on Wakefield's face. He was very good at hiding his feelings, but then he doesn't seem to have any. He told me that he had been in a hurry to undress and redress the body in case anyone came, although it was the very early hours of Wednesday morning and there was little chance of them being disturbed. I think Burrows agreed to meet Wakefield in the cove, or even suggested it himself as their rendezvous point, because as I mentioned before it was his intention to have already relayed to you the truth about your aunt's death at your meeting at John Penn's Bath. But you hadn't shown up and two other people were there, so he went down into the cove to wait for Wakefield. Perhaps he thought he could get the better of Wakefield if he attempted anything. Burrows was strong and he'd learned how to handle himself in the intervening years. What he hadn't counted on was the insulin injection.
'The pinstriped suit and handmade shoes Wakefield got from a corpse in the mortuary, a man with no relatives. And he'd even pointed out the poor soul to me naked and on the slab!' Sadly he died on the operating table, cardiac arrest during surgery. It can happen. No relatives and no mystery surrounding him.
Eva sipped her coffee and sighed – not sorrowfully, thought Ryga, but at the evil mankind is capable of. But then she, like him, had seen a lot of it.
'He made sure there were no tailor's marks on the suit or the name of the shoemakers and both were second hand when the other corpse acquired them.'
'But––'
'How did he know they would fit? He didn't for certain, although he'd probably managed to extract a fair description of Burrows from your aunt. If the shoes hadn't fitted he'd probably have left Burrows barefoot but they did fit. He wasn't too worried, just as long as he left no identity on Burrows, and he wanted to confuse the picture as much as possible. He didn't count on Scotland Yard becoming involved. Or rather, he thought if they did they wouldn't get anywhere with the investigation.'
'He didn't bank on you then?'
Ryga smiled. Then continued more solemnly, 'I got the impression dressing the corpse in a dead man's clothes was rather a joke for Wakefield.'
'A damn sick one.'
'Yes. He took the duffle bag and rifled through it but there was nothing to indicate where Burrows had come from or what he had been doing in the intervening years. Not even his passport, which Burrows must have hidden or deposited somewhere.' 'At a bank in London, perhaps.'
'Possibly. Burrows was clever but sadly not clever enough to avoid being killed. Wakefield says he weighed down the duffle bag with rocks and ditched it in the sea.'
'And he thought he was safe until Conrad tracked him down. Did Conrad make the cufflinks for Burrows?'
'He must have done, and he recognized them when I showed them to him. He knew then that the dead man was definitely Leslie Burrows and he knew who Burrows' friend had been all those years ago. Either Burrows had told him or he remembered the name of the boy staying with the governor's wife. He had made jewellery for her, according to Crawley. It wasn't until he read the article by Sandy Mountfort in the newspaper that the man carrying out the post-mortem was Captain Surgeon Kit Wakefield that he suspected that Wakefield had killed Burrows. Conrad had the newspaper in the shop when Daniels and I first arrived but there was no sign of it when we returned to search the place. And it wasn't with the rubbish. Conrad got in touch with Wakefield via the hospital and said he had some information for him on the man found in Church Ope Cove that the police might be very interested in hearing.'
'What an idiot!' Eva scoffed. 'Did he really think Wakefield would let him live with that knowledge?'
Ryga shrugged. 'People can be very stupid and very greedy. Crawley was about to make the same mistake.'
Eva poured Ryga another coffee and herself one. She said, 'Burrows, on seeing that sketch in the exhibition, should have left well alone.'
'Maybe he would have done but for the fact that your aunt recognized him after all those years.'
'And Burrows saw in that sketch Wakefield's expression as Pru had interpreted it – gloating – and suddenly he saw how he had been used and deceived. Pru must have contacted Leslie Burrows on her return to England and told him where Wakefield was. She'd have got Wakefield's name from Burrows and she had contacts at the admiralty – she simply asked one of them to find out where Christopher Wakefield was. But how did she know he was in the navy?'
'She contacted the Prison Commission and asked for the names of the prison governor and his wife in 1920. She got their address – she probably told the commission she had a painting she'd like to give them – and visited them. A constable will call on Wilfred and Lillian Faye today. They live in Bookham, a village in Surrey, and they'll confirm what Wakefield told us. He said your aunt told him she'd traced him via them. They told her that his father had put him into the navy and that he had trained as a doctor and had become a very good one. He'd earned himself a distinguished career during the war. All she had to do then was contact someone in the admiralty to ask where he was based. Your aunt also passed this information on to Leslie Burrows by telephone but then rather foolishly contacted Wakefield and told him she had something he might like to see from 1920.'
Eva shook her head sadly.
'When Wakefield visited your aunt earlier in the day on which he killed her he spun her a yarn about becoming a doctor so that he could atone for what he and Burrows had done all those years ago. By doing so he had saved many lives, which is fact. He acted as though he was consumed with remorse and said he would make it up to Burrows if he knew how to get in touch with him.'
Eva raised her eyebrows. 'Don't tell me Pru told him?'
'No. She said she would contact Burrows and pass on his name and contact details, which she obviously did. Wakefield had hoped to get the information from her but he couldn't physically hurt her for fear her death would look suspicious and be investigated. But he had seen the sketch and he knew where to find it after killing her. Your aunt told him nothing about Burrows' background but Burrows, having got the details from Pru, then read about her death and knew what must have happened. He came to England and made contact with Wakefield.'
Eva ran her hand through her hair. 'So when and how did Crawley track down Wakefield if he couldn't remember the boy's name?'
Ryga sat back and rubbed his temple. It had taken a while to get the truth out of Crawley but at last, through threats that he'd be charged as an accomplice to murder, he had coughed up. 'Oh, he remembered, but only after I showed him the enlarged photograph. He'd also read the same newspaper article as Conrad, where Mountfort had mentioned Wakefield. He did much the same as Conrad. He called the hospital and asked to speak to Wakefield about something that had happened in 1920 that had always troubled him. He didn't know for certain he had the right man. Wakefield came on the line and said he didn't know what he was talking about.'
'So Crawley enlightened him.'
'With a brief version of events.'
'And Wakefield suggested they meet.'
'Yes. So he knew he was right. You know the rest. Crawley should have come to the police. He withheld information and almost got himself killed in the process.'
'Poor Aunt Pru.' Eva shook her head sadly.
'I'm sorry.'
'She'd liked to have known the outcome. Thank you for catching her killer, Ryga. At least that is some kind of justice, which is more than many people get.'
'Yes,' Ryga answered solemnly. Wakefield had left a trail of deaths behind him and he had shown no remorse. He didn't seem to know how to feel it and was surprised it was expected of him. Ryga broke the short silence between them. 'Are you still going to Korea?'
'It's what I do, Ryga. I'm a war photographer.'
He nodded slowly.
'And you? Are you returning to London?'
'As soon as I've collected my things from the pub.'
'I'll drive you there.'
'No, I'll walk. The fresh air will help keep me awake.' He could sleep on the train. He rose. She followed suit.
'Will the police still look for Sam Shepherd?' she asked.
'They have to.'
'Poor Sonia.' At the door, she said, 'Will you come back here?'
He knew what she meant by that. Would he continue to see Sonia?
'Perhaps. I don't know.' He held out his hand. She smiled and took it.
'Well, you know where to find me.'
My God, had he misjudged her last remark? Had she meant would he return to see her?
'I'll either be here, in London or Korea, although that is a long way to come so I won't expect you. Good luck to you, Ryga.'
'And to you, Eva.'
She smiled. And her smile and parting words stayed with him all the way to London.
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PAULINE ROWSON, Death in the Cove
