Blood on the Water by Anne Perry Read Free Book Online Page B

I’ll sink your boat?’ You’d have caught wind of anyone doing that sort of thing, on that level. Revenge seems to be the most likely scenario.” Runcorn’s face was sad, the anger in him unmistakable. “God knows for what.”
    “But it’s puzzling,” Monk said. “If it was out of revenge, why would the person behind the bombing not claim the act? Is revenge satisfying if you can’t gloat?”
    “Don’t know,” Runcorn replied. “Never hated anyone that much.” Then a bright, sharp light came into his eyes and he half smiled. “Not lately, anyway …”
    Monk laughed. It was the first time he had done so since the boat went down. It was a mark of the peace between them that Runcorn could refer to it. There was no longer the need to step around their former enmity with unease, like it was a patch of thin ice on a pond, likely to crack at any moment.
    “Maybe it’s something to do with all the talk of shipping changes,” Runcorn went on. “Because of this new canal they’re building between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.”
    “That was de Lesseps’s idea, not ours,” Monk pointed out. “We’re latecomers to that whole game. Why take revenge on us for it?”
    Runcorn shrugged ruefully. “That’s true, but I’m not sure whoever did this was thinking logically. We’ve got a lot of men working over there.”
    “But what could that have to do with the people on a pleasure boat on a day trip along the Thames? I could see it making sense if it were a freighter of some kind, perhaps,” Monk said.
    “I don’t know,” Runcorn said unhappily. “But there were all sorts of toffs on the guest list. Investors with money to burn. At least that’s what Lord Ossett, the government adviser to the Home Office and the Foreign Office, told me. Not just British, but European, Middle Eastern, even American.”
    “Is that what it is about?” Monk began to see a much uglier and more complicated picture than he had initially imagined. He had assumed it was an isolated incident, but perhaps it wasn’t. Perhaps he should be grateful that Lydiate had been given the burden of solving it—and preventing any further attacks. If what Runcorn was suggesting was true, this wasn’t really a river crime. The fact that the first blow had taken place there might be incidental.
    As if reading his thoughts, Runcorn spoke again. “Have you seen the papers? They’re screaming so loudly they’re getting in the way. All kinds of people are coming forward telling us things that don’t matter, and the people that might know something relevant are so frightened they’re hiding, lying, telling us whatever they think we want to hear. You’ve no idea how many one-eyed black dwarfs there are in the London docks …”
    “What?” Monk was incredulous. Then he saw Runcorn’s face and understood. “Monsters—anyone but us,” he said, leaning back in his chair again. “Any real hope?”
    Runcorn sighed. “A bit. We’ve spoken to a lot of people up anddown the river. Could be getting closer to who actually planted the stuff—which incidentally we are certain was this new Swedish dynamite—but we still don’t know why, or, more important, who is truly behind it.”
    For the first time Monk heard the real strain in Runcorn’s voice. Monk knew what it was like to have those frightened demands for an answer ringing in your ears every day. You felt hounded. It was too easy to make mistakes, to tell your superiors anything just to make them go away. Every man would be doing his best, but there was just too little to grasp. It depended on luck, asking the right question at the right moment.
    “Call if I can help,” he said impulsively. “It doesn’t have to be official.”
    Runcorn nodded. “I will, if I think of anything. I don’t want to defy Ossett. He’s a decent enough chap, but he’s dead set on handling it his own way. I dare say a lot of people higher up are leaning on him.”
    H ESTER WALKED BRISKLY ALONG