Codename Eagle by Robert Rigby Read Free Book Online Page A

our enemies here. And that includes whoever killed Gaston Rouzard, and denied me the pleasure!”
    “That’s more like the Josette Mazet I know,” Paul said, smiling. “But it won’t be easy: we don’t have much to go on.”
    “But we do. We know Gaston and Yvette Bigou were working with the Andorrans who killed Jean-Pierre and almost killed us.”
    Paul nodded. “And we know they were doing it for money, not just because they wanted to destroy our Resistance group. And we know someone silenced Yvette because we’d discovered her involvement.”
    “Exactly,” Josette said, warming to the detective work. “But it wasn’t Gaston, because he was drunk in Chalabre that night. He didn’t get back to Lavelanet until the following morning, the day he was shot. Which means that someone else killed Yvette and then killed Gaston. But why?”
    “Because he was part of the operation, too, and was afraid that Gaston would give him away.”
    “Or her,” Josette said pointedly. “But the point is, we’re not just searching for a traitor, we’re after a murderer, a cold-blooded killer.” She thought for a moment, then peered through the gloom at Paul. “Or at least, I am.”
    They fell silent. Their feelings for each other had grown stronger in the months since Paul’s arrival but neither had ever quite managed to put those feelings into words. One kiss was as far as their romance had gone, and that had been way back when Paul was about to leave for the first time. Since then, the kiss had never been mentioned and never been repeated. While in every other way they were strong and courageous, when it came to each other their courage seemed to desert them both.
    The night had darkened, clouds moving across the sky to block the starlight. Paul edged closer, making sure Josette could see his face as he spoke. “When I’ve gone, you will be careful, won’t you?”
    Josette answered in little more than a whisper. “I’ll be careful. But I will get him. Or her.” She stood up. “Let’s go in. I have a feeling tomorrow will be a busy day for us both.”
    They went to the back door and as Paul started to open it, Josette stopped him. He turned to look at her and she kissed him lightly on the lips.
    “Come back one day, Paul,” she said, then pulled open the door and went quickly inside.

NINE
Day Three
    S omeone was knocking on the front door. Hammering, pounding, constant and heavy. A voice was shouting: “Open up! Open up!”
    For a few confused seconds, Paul thought he was dreaming, but then realized what was happening. They’d come for him. At the very last moment, just as he was about to escape to freedom, he was going to be arrested and taken in.
    It was too cruel: heartbreaking. In those agonizing seconds, he saw himself being dragged off and spirited away to Belgium or northern France to be interrogated, before suffering the same fate as his parents. But as his thoughts cleared, he swore to himself that he wouldn’t be taken without a fight. He leapt from his bed, dragged on his clothes and yanked open the bedroom door.
    The pounding on the front door grew even louder as Paul came face to face with a grim-faced Henri and a terrified-looking Hélène as they emerged from their bedroom. Then Josette came out of her room.
    “What’s happening?” Josette said, her eyes wide but defiant. “Who is it, what do we do?”
    “It must be the police,” Paul answered. “They’ve come for me. I’ll try to make a run for it out the back way.”
    “No, Paul,” Henri said, “they’ll be armed and they’ll have put someone at the back too.”
    “Should we open the shutters, see how many there are?”
    As always, the shutters on the house had been closed the previous night. Paul himself had locked the one on the back door before going up to bed. Closed shutters meant security, and no one outside seeing into the house. But it also meant that no one on the inside could see exactly who was hammering at the door. Or