The Riverboat Mystery (Jenny Starling #3)(62)

‘Graves,’ Rycroft positively growled now.

Which in itself was some feat, Jenny thought in startled appreciation, given the fact that the inspector’s natural voice was practically falsetto.

‘Sorry, sir,’ Graves said yet again, obviously wondering what had happened to put his superior in such a bad mood. ‘The upshot is,’ he carried on, pretending not to notice Rycroft roll his eyes in relief, ‘that Gabriel Olney was in the Falklands conflict, and in charge of a group of men which included Arnold Leigh. It seems that Gabriel sent Leigh off on a suicide mission. He later told his superior officers that he needed to get a written message through the lines as he believed the usual channels had been compromised, but no message was found on Leigh’s body when he was picked up by the medical team. He died in the ambulance before he could be got to the military field hospital by the way. Anyway, nothing was done about it immediately. Olney was not the only colonel by a long shot to make a mistake and get one of his people killed.’

Rycroft had begun to look interested now, as had Jenny. ‘You say that David Leigh uncovered all this?’

‘Gimsole says that he did. Oh, he started off chasing down proof of the general’s daring deeds, but when he came across the reports on Arnold Leigh, his own father, he abandoned his client’s interests to satisfy his own curiosity. Apparently, the official version of his father’s death had differed somewhat from what the family had been told,’ he added dryly.

‘Understandable,’ Rycroft said shortly. ‘But I have a feeling there’s more to this than meets the eye.’

Graves nodded. ‘There is,’ he confirmed, his voice going a tone harder now.

Jenny shifted uncomfortably on her seat, already sensing that something very nasty was about to rear its ugly head.

‘A sergeant . . . one . . .’ Graves quickly checked the report. ‘Watt Gingridge, who was a friend of Arnold Leigh’s, wrote to a friend back home saying that Gabriel Olney had deliberately sent Leigh off on the mission, knowing that he’d get killed, and that he lied when he said he’d given Leigh important papers to carry. He further wrote that Arnold Leigh had told him that he’d seen Olney desert the platoon earlier that day, when the firing was most intense.’

Rycroft scowled. ‘There were some nasty skirmishes in the Falklands,’ he recalled, his voice grim.

Graves ignored the interruption. ‘He also told Gingridge that he believed that Olney knew that Leigh had seen him run away, and was afraid that Leigh would report his cowardice to the general. This Watt Gingridge alleged that Arnold Leigh had come to him after Olney had given him the orders to try and get through enemy lines, and told Gingridge that Olney was deliberately sending him to his death to keep him quiet. He wanted Gingridge to give a sort of “goodbye” letter to his wife. Apparently, though, he never told her of his suspicions in the letter. Perhaps he was scared that if he did, and she went after Olney in the courts, they’d give her a hard time. You know how the army likes to keep their disgraces strictly on the Q.T. Anyway, Gingridge took the letter and duly sent it to Leigh’s widow when Arnold had been confirmed missing and then killed in action.’

Rycroft swallowed hard. ‘What a bastard,’ he said quietly. But there was such a wealth of feeling behind the simple sentence that it made a cold shiver sneak across Jenny’s spine.

Graves nodded. ‘But it didn’t end there. The friend that Gingridge wrote to had another friend in the War Office and he passed the letter on. Unfortunately, by that time Gingridge himself was reported killed, and although the MPs had Olney in and questioned him, they could prove nothing. Besides, the powers that be had troop morale to think of, not to mention the kind of bad reaction that would follow in the press if it ever came out. And it seemed that once Olney had been given the requisite short sharp shock, he apparently knuckled down and acquitted himself reasonably well until the fighting was over.’

‘Unless he fled under fire again, and this time there was no poor sod to see him do it,’ Rycroft grunted. ‘Once a coward, always a coward, I say.’

Graves nodded. ‘Anyway, David Leigh uncovered the original Gingridge letter, and the notes of the interview between the tribunal and Olney. Like I said, the old general who’d hired him to help with the memoirs had clout, and since it was his lads and his regiment in the first place, Leigh got access to stuff they normally keep under very close lock and key. Of course the general whose memoirs Leigh was helping to research knew nothing about what Leigh was up to, or he’d have put a stop to it. And I daresay Leigh wouldn’t have been in any hurry to bring it to the general’s attention either. I reckon he didn’t want it to get official or become public any more than the army did. He obviously decided he was going to go about things very differently,’ Graves concluded flatly.

It was impossible to tell from either his face or his tone of voice whether he approved of David Leigh’s desire for personal revenge or not.

‘So David Leigh knew that Olney was a coward who’d deliberately killed his father?’ Rycroft sighed. ‘No wonder he wanted to take matters into his own hands.’

‘Just think of it,’ Jenny said softly, her voice thick with compassion. ‘David Leigh would have spent years thinking that his father was a war hero. That he’d willingly sacrificed his life for his country and comrades. That his death had been tragic but heroic, and most of all, accidental. Other men died in the Falklands, after all, and his father had just happened to be one of the unlucky ones. But then to suddenly find out that it had not been fate, an accident or bad luck after all, but a deliberate act by his commanding officer . . .’ She let her voice trail off.