Deadly Wake, page 28
'And Madeley told Richard Eames after I had left him at the yacht club what he'd done. Amos knew his days too might be numbered after I went to see him. He told me who five of the men were, but not the sixth, Gordon.'
'He probably didn't know him. Gordon wasn't a student there.'
'After I'd gone, Amos thought he'd leave a message for me with his solicitor, but it was just a set of numbers on the back of an envelope. By accident, while I was visiting Haslar Marina Gosport, in August, I discovered that, with a bit of manipulation, the numbers could be the marina's grid location. It hadn't been a marina in 1978 but it was in close proximity to MI5's communications and training centre and the hospital where Bernard had been a patient after being shot in Northern Ireland, so I thought Jennifer could have gone to meet someone there and been abducted.'
'You were on the right lines but the wrong location.'
Horton could see that now. If he took the numbers Amos had given him, 01.07.05 and 5.11.09 as degrees, minutes and seconds and made the five 50, then the numbers he got were 50deg 11min 9sec North, one deg. 7min 5sec West and in degrees this became 50.18583 deg. North and 1.11805 deg. West. Horton could pinpoint it on a map, but he didn't need to because he was convinced he knew what he would find; the place mentioned in that article he'd read in Walter's newspaper and which Ducale had told him was where William's yacht had been found abandoned. 'They're coordinates just south of the Portsmouth to Cherbourg ferry en route to Barfleur, France.'
'Yes.'
'Where he disposed of my mother?'
'I should imagine so.'
Horton drank from the water bottle. 'How would Amos know this?'
Ducale shrugged.
'You told him?' Ducale remained silent. Horton said, 'Did William Eames kill himself or was he killed?'
Again, Ducale shrugged.
'And releasing Ben's fingerprints from the intelligence files after his body had been discovered was down to you?'
'Yes. I thought that it might force Richard or Gordon's hand. Or both, which it did.'
'How did you know that Lomas or rather Gordon had given me that card?'
'Mike Danby is not the only one who has security and surveillance monitors at Richard's properties.'
'Which of them is dead? I heard a gun being fired.'
'Perhaps they both are. Whichever one of them is piloting the boat has disabled the automatic tracking system, but we'll pick it up somewhere. Whether there will be anyone on board…'
Horton exhaled and ran a hand over his face. He felt incredibly tired.
After a moment, Ducale said, 'Does knowing what happened make a difference?'
'I don't know,' Horton replied with weary exasperation.
'It doesn't change the person you are. And it doesn't change the person your mother was.'
'She was killed.'
'Yes, and you can't bring her murderer to justice. He's dead.'
'He should have been charged, tried and convicted.'
'You think that would have happened? There was no evidence and no witnesses.'
'Both Gordon and Richard knew their father had killed Jennifer. They should have come forward.'
'Seeing as Gordon was supposed to be dead, he didn't. It would have stirred up so much dirt that the authorities would have sat on it.'
'One law for the rich and one for the poor,' sneered Horton.
'There is no one to try for the murder of Rory Mortimer. And no one to bring to justice for the deaths of Timothy Wilson and James Royston, or of Roger Salcombe, all of whom were killed by Mortimer, not Dormand, and he too is dead. It's up to you to decide if you want anyone to know about your parents.'
And Horton knew that Ducale already had the answer to that. Even if Richard Eames was still alive, Horton would never be able to bring him to justice. And anything he said would mean exposing his mother's past. He shuddered at the horror of that. And Emma? What would she think of it? Would Catherine use it to somehow prevent him ever seeing Emma again?
'What will Gordon do now, if he's still alive? Will you pick him up off that boat?'
'I shouldn't think so. Gordon will do the same as he's always done. Disappear. He no longer has any responsibility for Zachary Benham or Michael Paignton.'
'But if Gordon is dead and Richard is still alive, he won't disappear. And I'll be around to remind him of his family's dirty secret. What's to stop him having me killed?'
'He won't.'
'You're so sure?'
'Yes.'
Horton understood. Ducale didn't need to spell it out. And perhaps Richard had already taken the same way out as his father. 'He'll always be there reminding me of how he left me to rot in those children's homes.'
'Then don't let him. You can't change the past, Andy.'
'Christ, don't I know that.'
'And Jennifer? What would she want?'
'Don't try that emotional crap on me.' Horton rounded on him, but the anger subsided as Ducale gave him a steady look.
'You discovered the truth, Andy, and it was never going to be a fairy tale ending. You of all people should know that rarely happens. The baddies don't always get banged up, the evil bastards live on to a ripe old age and get away with it, the good die young. There are no neat pink ribbons to tie up at the end. Life is often messy and shit and, at other times, it's OK. Getting revenge is not the way you're made, even if you think it is. You'll have a job finding Gordon or getting anything on Richard. And you'll never get a warrant to get that vault opened and the body of the man found on the Australian beach exhumed and examined.'
'Don't the man's relatives deserve something?'
'He has none.'
'How do you know?'
'We checked.'
'And the brooch, the Portsmouth Blue?'
'Oliver Vernon will be persuaded into thinking you were enquiring because it was stolen in the Trehams robbery.'
'Do the Eames family have it?'
'Why? Do you want it? William gave it to Jennifer.'
'I want nothing from them.'
Ducale rose. He stretched out his hand. Horton took the firm grip in his. He had a great deal to be thankful to this man for.
He watched Ducale leave. He knew he wouldn't sleep that night, even though he was tired beyond belief. His head was too full of the revelations of the last few hours. The mist was lifting, there was a light wind blowing, and it wouldn't be long before the sun rose to reveal a bright April day. He made the boat ready and set a course for France. There was one final journey he had to make.
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Pauline Rowson, Deadly Wake
