HONOR MISPLACED

Arthur Browne

Chapter Four

    Charlie led Kat down to the basement which was now being used as a bomb shelter. They shuffled down the stairwell along with all the secretaries, police personnel and even a small group of freshly arrested men who had been waiting for their arrest reports to be written up. Some people joked and made light of the situation. The bombings had been going on long enough for people to get rather used to the whole thing.

Charlie found a corner of the lowest basement stacked with boxes of old paperwork from closed cases for them to make themselves comfortable in. And oddly enough they did become comfortable in more ways than one. Sitting on cardboard cartons in the dimly lit corner, they talked as though they were old friends. They were so engrossed in getting to know one another that when bombs did begin falling in the not so near distance they scarcely noticed them at all. And it took a moment for them to realize that they had been joined by someone else.

Charlie looked up to find Billy Dawes standing over them. He blushed just a little, and wondered how long his friend had been standing there.

Billy cleared his throat and looked decidedly uncomfortable at the interruption. “Sorry, Sir, but you asked me to set up a meeting with…” he paused and looked at the young woman briefly before venturing on. “Uh, that is to say, you wanted to talk to the Flight Lieutenant’s crew, and it turned out to be a bit more difficult that I imagined it would be.”

Kat chose this moment to interject. “Oh yes, my brother was involved in something quite out of the ordinary. He couldn’t even tell me about it. Top secret, hush hush and all that. But I’ve met his crew. They’re all splendid fellows. I can’t imagine you’ll find anything useful there.” Then she paused, looking thoughtful. “Unless of course the work itself put him in even more danger than the flying. You don’t suppose this could be the work of the Germans, do you?” She looked positively horrified.

“Well, it is a little early to tell, and I will certainly look into it,” he assured her.

But Billy wasn’t finished yet.  “Well it must be something secret, because I couldn’t find out anything about where the Lieutenant was stationed or about his crew. I had to pass it on to the Chief Inspector, who had to pass it even further on up. They’ve arranged a meeting with the crew on their base for later on this afternoon. Wouldn’t even let them come in to London to meet with you. The Chief set you up with a car and said I could drive you out. The base is in Central Bedfordshire, 50 miles or so as the crow flies, and we are to be there by five, so I hope this raid doesn’t last too much longer.”

Charlie favored his friend with a smile. “Yes, it is incredible how those German fellows in their airplanes are wreaking such havoc with our schedule.”

They all three got a little chuckle out of the joke, and Billy wisely decided to leave them to their conversation. Charlie was still enough of a policeman to remember to ask her a few questions about her brother’s personal life. It turned out that there was a woman in his life, but it was a rather new development and Kat didn’t know much about her.

“I only know she exists at all because he mentioned her in a brief phone call the other day. He mentioned that she was French, and her name was Marie Korlette. I remember the name because I thought it was funny. It sounds like Corvette, those new fast little ships we are building to escort convoys and fight the German submarines. I asked her if Marie was small and fast and we had a good laugh.” This memory brought her to tears once more. “I can’t believe he is gone,” she whispered with a sorrow that pierced Charlie’s heart.

He struggled to make her forget, but he just had to ask a few more questions. She struggled valiantly through the answers. Her brother was a wonderful soul and couldn’t possibly have an enemy in the world. He had no dark secrets in his past, no jilted lovers or jealous husbands to avoid. No shady business dealings.

At last the all clear sounded and they joined the file of people returning to the world above the ground. They returned to his office and she paused by the door. “I really should be going. I must help my mother. There are arrangements to make, and she isn’t strong like Father. She is simply devastated. But I was wondering.” She paused and glanced down at the floor looking entirely too sweet and demure for Charlie not to feel some vague sense of hope stirring inside him. She looked back up and into his eyes searchingly, and seemed to nerve herself to go on. “Perhaps we could have lunch together tomorrow, you know, to discuss things further.” This last bit sounded rushed and cobbled together to Charlie. Evidentially it did to her too, because she gave him a slightly off kilter smile and shook her head. “No, that isn’t right. I don’t want to talk about this whole mess at all. I just want to talk about anything else and forget all about it. This must seem very forward of me, but I have been assured by the other girls in my unit that this is how things are being done now, and we should just blame our actions on the war. Is that terribly wicked?”

Charlie was thinking that this was the least wicked thing he had ever heard in his entire life. He almost found himself grateful that there was a war on. This made him smile without meaning to, and upon seeing this, she playfully smacked him on the arm.

“Are you laughing at me?” she asked him half seriously.

Charlie hastened to explain to her the reasoning that had led to the smile and she burst out laughing. “Now we know which of us is the wicked one,” she admonished him with a convincingly stern voice.

But now Charlie had a less amusing thought. The daughter of a Baron was surely used to eating at only the finest dining establishments in London. How was he supposed to reconcile that with his meager salary? But he need not have worried.

“I know, why don’t we meet at Selfridges Department Store,” she said suddenly. “They have the food hall. Have you ever been? The store was built by an American, and he has changed the way the world shops.” She seemed to realize she was going off on a bit of a tangent, and blushed becomingly. “Or would you prefer fish and chips at your favorite pub?”

Charlie was more than a little relieved, but he couldn’t help but turn the tables on the girl. “Now you are making fun of me, aren’t you?” he asked in a downcast tone.

She looked so sorrowful at this accusation that he hurried to let her know he had been joking, even though he wasn’t entirely convinced that he had been.

She decided to call the exchange a draw and leveled with him. “Look, I am just trying to tell you that I don’t expect you to take a girl you just met out to the nicest restaurant in the city. I will have you know that I have grown quite accustomed to the food in the canteen on my base, and there can’t be a place on earth that serves food worse than army food. And to be quite honest, I never really cared for caviar. It tastes too fishy.”

They both broke out into laughter together, and Charlie was rapidly coming to the realization that this was one of the finest and most forthright women he had ever met in his life. They agreed to meet at Selfridges the following noon, and with a last smile she turned and walked away down the hall. This time Charlie did not fight the temptation to lower his eyes to enjoy the view as a beautiful woman strode away from him, but he did have the decency to feel a little bit guilty about it.

When his eyes returned to a more appropriate level, he was amused to see Billy Dawes looking at him. Billy gave him a finger waggle to let him know that he knew what Charlie’s eyes had been up to. Charlie returned the gesture with a shrug that any Frenchman would have not only understood, but have commiserated with wholeheartedly. Billy smiled, then glanced his watch and came over to stand in front of Charlie. He kept his expression neutral.

“We should be going soon, Sir.” He said noncommittally.

“Very well, I just need to grab my coat and hat.” Charlie replied.

“Very nice girl,” Billy hazarded.

“She is indeed,” Charlie agreed.

“They insisted that a staff officer from the base be present when you question the crew,” Billy explained.

This surprised Charlie. “Did they now?” he asked bemusedly. “That seems not only unnecessary but perhaps a bit cheeky. This is a murder investigation after all. We wont be asking them about their work. Well, no help for it, Billy my lad. Do you have a map ready?”

“Wouldn’t do any good, Sir.” Billy seemed to be enjoying this back and forth.

“And why is that, Inspector Dawes?” Charlie asked in all seriousness, not knowing what the joke was.

It tuned out not to be any kind of a joke at all.

“The Tempsford RAF base isn’t on any map,” Billy stated, just a little more quietly than seemed necessary.

“Is that so?” Charlie asked, although he had absolutely no reason to doubt it.

“Yes, Sir,” Billy answered him seriously, “but not to worry, the Chief managed to get us directions somehow, and I took the liberty of committing it to memory.”

Charlie sighed heavily, and went in to his office to get his coat and hat.