Chapter 55 - The Kraken Gate
‘Oh-oh, I must be in trouble,’ said Banks when I tracked him down to the withdrawing room in the mansion house. The grand furniture with its yellow silk upholstery was stacked in a pile at the far end to make space for a dormitory. I scanned the camp beds, nine on either side.They were immaculately presented. Sheets folded to precision so crisp that it almost hurt your eyes. The soldiers were cleaning their equipment. Some sat on the floor polishing shoes, several had stripped down their rifles to clean and oil them. One, barely visible behind piles of shirts and trousers, was filling an iron with coals from the fireplace. The low, easy banter dried up when they noticed me, then, as if on a hidden signal, the all stood to attention. I checked behind me to see if Lieutenant Scott or another, even higher ranking official, had arrived. It was just me.
‘Not at all, Captain Banks. I’m trying to get to the bottom of yesterday’s events. I just have a couple of questions… that’s all.’ I gestured at the marines. ‘Why are they doing that? I’m not in the forces anymore.’
‘Benjamin told them that you’re a decorated war hero.’
‘Did he also tell them that he had me kicked out?’
‘At ease,’ Banks called out. The men returned to their chores with an earnestness that only eavesdroppers can manage.
‘Come on, Ms. Derringer, won’t you give him a second chance? He really has a thing for you.’
I drew myself up to full height so I could glower down at the man. ‘Captain Banks, I’d be grateful if you didn’t try to provide relationship counselling. You and I will get on a lot better if we keep things professional.’
Banks held his hands up. ‘I’m just trying to do you both a favour, but alright, and since we’re keeping things at a professional level, please refer to me as Second Lieutenant while I’m on this mission.’
‘Sorry. Force of habit.’ The army places you into a strict hierarchy and gods forbid you ever get it wrong! I’d mistaken a corporal for a sergeant once and spent the next hour doing press-ups on the parade ground, or trying to!
‘Ha! Yes, it’s confusing for the men too, so please…it’s Second Lieutenant Banks, or as you’re a civilian, I’d be content with you calling me Andrew.’
‘Thank you, Second Lieutenant Banks. I suggest we go somewhere a little more private.’
‘That won’t be necessary, Ms. Derringer. I’ve nothing to hide from you or from these good fellows.’
‘All the same,’ I said, firmly.
Banks tilted his head in acquiescence and steered me out of the dormitory and a short way down the corridor.
‘Rigsby cleared this room out for us. It’s a storeroom, but it doubles-up as an office,’ he explained. ‘Apologies…it’s a mess, but I don’t imagine this will take long.’ The sight of the jumbled boxes and piles of clothing was too much for Banks. His restless energy wouldn’t let him stand by in the face of so much disorder, so he began to move things around, trying to wrestle some order from the chaos.
I glanced around the narrow room. It was stacked, floor-to-ceiling with blankets, packs, boots and crates or varying sizes. A shelf on one side had been turned into a makeshift writing desk. On it were sheaves of paper that looked like forms, a well-thumbed manual entitled ‘Military Logistics’ and a pamphlet emblazoned with a nautical logo in blue, an ink pot, two pens and some blotting paper.
‘Administration,’ explained Banks glancing at me over his shoulder. ‘Benjamin doesn’t enjoy it, so I offered to help.’
‘I see.’ The logo tugged at my memory, but I couldn’t place it. Something from my time in the marines, I decided. ‘Lieutenant, I’m sorry, but I need to know where you were last night between eight and ten bells of the evening.’
Banks nodded, but picked up another box that was labeled “Thermal Vests: M-L”. He said, ‘I heard about your scheme. Clever.’ He stood on a wooden crate and posted the carton onto a tall stack of boxes that partially obscured the only window. He stepped down and turned to face me.
‘Have you spoken about this with Ms. Tremain?’
‘Spoken with her about what?’ I asked.
‘About coming to ask me if I have an alibi.’
‘Well, she knows I’ve come to see you.’
‘And what did she say?’
‘Nothing.’ I gave Banks a puzzled look, to which he sighed.
‘How disappointing that she’s forgotten me so quickly, but that’s often how it goes between a pretty woman and an ordinary chap like me.’ Banks hunched his shoulders in an exaggerated show of dejection. I smiled, in spite of the situation, and Banks reciprocated, his boyish grin back again.
‘So you were with Ellen?’ Ellen should have been with us in the caverns beneath the hunting lodge from eight bells of the evening, but since the reason for us being there had been trumped up, I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to who was there. I’d spent a while listening to James explain to Ankush and Mahkran why Emberland was so much more civilised than their homeland. The brothers had played up to the stereotype, trying to keep straight faces as they described the human sacrifices that their religion demanded. It was only towards the end that James realised they were teasing him. He had stormed off in disgust, the Gulreimian brothers shaking hands in celebratory style. Ellen, I now remembered, hadn’t appeared until later, shortly before Inigo and I had set off for the observatory.
‘Yes. Well…’ Banks’ smooth features coloured. ‘She’s very attractive. I just wanted to…’ He shrugged. ‘You know, just talk with her.’
‘What did you talk about?’ I asked, without thinking.
‘This and that. Does it matter? You asked me where I was and I’ve told you.’
‘No, Lieutenant Banks. You’ve told me who you were with, not where, so why don’t you tell me where this conversation took place?’
Banks shook his head in astonishment. ‘Amazing! You should come and work at S.I.S. We could do with more interrogators like you. We were on the front lawn, here. There’s a bench overlooking the ha ha. It was dark, but we had a lantern. Satisfied?’
‘Almost. What did you do after that? Up until ten bells.’
‘Getting ready for my turn on patrol. I was with the rest of the squad in the room we just came from. You can ask Privates Wandle and Kerridge, the new guy, Private Coleman, and your old pal Benjamin.’
I promised Banks that I would follow up and looked him in the eyes. He held my gaze until I switched to look at the forms on the little writing desk. I couldn’t think of any more questions and suddenly began to worry about what the other marines would think, knowing that an unmarried woman was in a broom-cupboard sized room with one of their officers. I opened the door.
‘Thank you, Lieutenant. I’ll leave you to your housekeeping.’
‘Ellen! Why didn’t you say that you were with Banks last night?’ I asked. We were back in the hunting lodge’s sitting room, the nymphs in their bathing pools looking down on us. I thought briefly of Jenniver, but there were more pressing matters. I’d verified Banks’ story with a couple of the marines. If they were telling the truth, then he could only have had three or four turns between his conversation with Ellen and joining them. It was close, but I didn’t think he’d have had time to encode a message and signal it to the demolition squad outside.
‘I’m so sorry, Connie. I didn’t wan’t James to know. He and I have been…well, quite close of late and I was worried that he might get jealous. I was going to mention it earlier, but you left before I could get you alone.’
‘So Banks has taken a shine to you as well, has he?’ I was annoyed, but at what, I wasn’t sure.
‘No. Well, nothing like that,’ protested Ellen. ‘He was keen to talk. He wanted to know how I had come to work with you.’
‘And this little head-to-head lasted until about nine bells?’
Ellen nodded. ‘Banks said he had to go on patrol.’
‘In that case, his story checks out. How did you get on with Lieutenant Scott?’
‘As you know, he was with Banks from nine, preparing to do the rounds, but before that, he was in the kitchens writing a letter to Private Yates’ family.’ Ellen went on to explain that Benjamin enjoyed the informal environment of the manor’s kitchens where he could get a cup of tea and pork pie as he wrote. The background noise helped him to concentrate. It meant that he had plenty of witnesses as to his whereabouts.
James and Inigo both turned up while Ellen was explaining Benjamin’s alibi.
Overstrand was in the clear. He’d been on light duties between shifts and had gone to see one of the housemaids. Apparently, they’d struck up a relationship soon after the marines had arrived. James said he could have set alight to his trousers from the glow of the young woman’s cheeks when she’d been forced to corroborate her lover’s story.
Inigo had managed to quiz Lampton just before he and the chancellor took off for Emberly again. The two had been together all that evening with Rigsby in constant attendance.
We were no closer to the traitor which worried me a great deal. We’d managed to inflict a serious setback on whoever it was, but our defences would be lowered tomorrow, because Harman was forcing us to go back through the gate.
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